Exile In Buyukada Full Movie
Exile In Buyukada Full Movie
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00:00Istanbul, as Constantinople, capital city of the Byzantine Empire, as Istanbul, capital
00:00:20of the Ottoman Empire, more than 2,000 years of history steeped in great culture and international
00:00:28power struggles. In the Sea of Marmara, south of the Bosphorus that slices through the city,
00:00:39lies the island of Buyukada, the biggest of the prince's islands, a haven of peace and
00:00:45tranquility 12 miles from the urban chaos of the city. No roar of engines, no blaring
00:00:57horns, no exhaust fumes to mar the tranquility of its luxurious mansions, just the clip-clop
00:01:04of horse carriages, the only means of transport on Buyukada. When Istanbul was called Constantinople,
00:01:14this island was known as Principle. Buyukada can be best described in the words of the
00:01:40German author Gustav Schlumberger, written 100 years ago. A ferry runs alongside a long
00:01:47picturesque quay, which is always filled by people. Here, coffee houses are never empty.
00:01:57Various flowers and trees, cascades of ivies, white-flowered acacias, Judas trees, jasmine.
00:02:10All of which provide a colorful background for this cheerful town.
00:02:18Its name came from its function, a place of exile for the princes of the city.
00:02:41In 1929, just six years after the new Republic of Turkey replaced the Ottoman Empire,
00:02:49it served again as a place of exile, this time for the co-leader of the Russian Revolution, Leon Trotsky.
00:04:10The seagulls meant that land was close by. For Leon Trotsky, who had been traveling since
00:04:30the beginning of January, it was an unknown country with a language he could not speak.
00:04:41It would be home for the immediate future, or perhaps, as he feared,
00:04:45the place of his death at the hands of an assassin.
00:04:56It was February the 12th, 1929, and it was very cold.
00:05:01The Ilyich had left the Soviet port of Odessa on the Black Sea six days earlier.
00:05:12Leon Trotsky had led the opposition to Stalin since Lenin's death in 1924.
00:05:19Now 2,000 oppositionists were in Soviet prisons, but Trotsky was being deported to the Republic of Turkey.
00:05:28Trotsky was accompanied by his wife, Natalia Sedova, their youngest son, Leon Sedov,
00:05:36whom they called Lvova, and agents of Stalin's secret police.
00:05:41Leon Trotsky had been expelled from the Soviet Union by the GPU, Stalin's secret.
00:05:59The GPU agents were there to escort Trotsky.
00:06:08They were agents of Stalin's regime, which wanted to silence Trotsky.
00:06:28The leaders of the victorious revolution were tearing each other apart with their teeth.
00:06:41I'm afraid of them. They are watching us from Almaty.
00:06:45How long will this nightmare last? Will we never get rid of them?
00:06:49It's their job.
00:06:51In time, they will understand that they are on the wrong path.
00:07:00Stalin will not be able to destroy all our followers.
00:07:07Well, we'll have to wait and hope.
00:07:12Yes, we have to wait.
00:07:14Let's go. It's actually very cold.
00:07:44Stalin's secret police were not the only threat Trotsky faced in his new land of exile.
00:07:49There were the remnants of the White Russian armies,
00:07:52which had fought a long, bitter four-year war against the Soviet Union.
00:07:58The last commander of the White army, General Wrangel, had died the previous year,
00:08:04but many of the 150,000 men who had fled with him to Istanbul in 1920
00:08:11were still there.
00:08:16Two leaders and two tendencies opposed each other when Lenin died in 1924.
00:08:26Leon Trotsky, born Lev Bronstein, a brilliant orator and writer,
00:08:31co-leader of the October revolution and leader of the Red army.
00:08:41And Joseph Stalin, born Yosef Dzhugashvili,
00:08:46General Secretary of the Communist Party,
00:08:50who Lenin opposed and tried to remove in December 1922,
00:08:55making his views known in his political testaments
00:09:00and in his own writings.
00:09:11Trotsky was the first leader of the Communist Party,
00:09:16and the first leader of the Red army,
00:09:19and the first leader of the Red army,
00:09:22and the first leader of the Red army,
00:09:25and the first leader of the Red army,
00:09:28and the first leader of the Red army,
00:09:31and the first leader of the Red army,
00:09:34and the first leader of the Red army,
00:09:37and the first leader of the Red army,
00:09:40and the first leader of the Red army,
00:09:43and the first leader of the Red army,
00:09:46and the first leader of the Red army,
00:09:49and the first leader of the Red army,
00:09:52and the first leader of the Red army,
00:09:55and the first leader of the Red army,
00:09:58and the first leader of the Red army,
00:10:01and the first leader of the Red army,
00:10:04and the first leader of the Red army,
00:10:07and the first leader of the Red army,
00:10:10and the first leader of the Red army,
00:10:13and the first leader of the Red army,
00:10:16and the first leader of the Red army,
00:10:19and the first leader of the Red army,
00:10:22and the first leader of the Red army,
00:10:25and the first leader of the Red army,
00:10:28and the first leader of the Red army,
00:10:31and the first leader of the Red army.
00:11:01Communist Party in Moscow. Stalin, the GPU and the nationalist Turkish regime were conspiring
00:11:08against him, he wrote. And if he were to be killed during his Istanbul exile, the responsibility
00:11:14would lie with the Central Committee and, of course, Stalin.
00:11:48The second letter, polite but ironic, was addressed to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the President
00:12:10of the new Turkish Republic.
00:12:17Dear Mr. President, at the gates of Constantinople, I have the honour to inform you that it is
00:12:25not by my own free will that I have arrived at the frontier of Turkey. I am crossing this
00:12:31frontier only because I must submit to force. I would have preferred to go to a country
00:12:42I know and whose language I speak. But those who exile seldom consider the wishes of the
00:12:51exiled. Please, Mr. President, accept my appropriate sentiments. Leon Trotsky, February 12th, 1929.
00:13:00Trotsky's harrowing journey into foreign exile had begun in Almaty, Kazakhstan, 22 days before
00:13:17the Ilyich mourned at Istanbul. At the end of the voyage, right at the gates of Istanbul,
00:13:24he received one final communication from Stalin's Central Committee, an envelope containing
00:13:30$1,500. World War I had shattered Europe, bringing down most of the continent's empires
00:13:52and replacing them with nation-states. With Trotsky's arrival, two revolutions crossed
00:14:00paths at the gates of Istanbul. Trotsky had helped to destroy Tsarist Russia. Ataturk
00:14:10had formed a new republic from the rubble of the Ottoman Empire. It had taken a costly
00:14:18four-year war of independence to achieve, and marked not only popular rejection of a
00:14:25map imposed by foreign powers, but also a determination to change into a modern,
00:14:30westernized society. When Trotsky arrived in Istanbul, the republic was only six years old.
00:14:37No longer the sick man of Europe, Turkey was young and healthy. Hats and suits ousted the
00:14:45fez and the kaftan. Latin characters replaced the Arabic alphabet. Women who had been slaves
00:14:56in harems now had the right to vote. The films of the time told the importance of the day and
00:15:22the dynamism of the country.
00:15:52At 4 p.m. Trotsky entered the arrival hall of the port of Istanbul. Along with the Turkish
00:16:04security officials to greet him was Suzlov, the Soviet consul. It was more like the arrival of
00:16:11a foreign dignitary than a common exile.
00:16:41On the instructions of Turkish interior minister Şükrü Kaya to the governor of Istanbul, security
00:17:07was tight. There were no journalists.
00:17:09While the paperwork was being completed and pleasantries
00:17:37exchanged, young Sidov stood guard over 12 chests, everything that Trotsky owned.
00:17:46They contained no money or jewelry, only the books and documents the exile would use
00:17:52to direct the opposition against Stalin.
00:18:00Officials told Trotsky on his arrival that they'd not been told he was being exiled,
00:18:05only that he was arriving for health reasons. Ataturk knew he had to be careful.
00:18:10Any mishap that might befall Trotsky in Turkey could have major international implications.
00:18:21He instructed Muhyiddin Ustundag, the governor of Istanbul, to reply to Trotsky's letter.
00:18:27Our police have taken all the necessary security measures regarding your safety.
00:18:32It would be advisable for you to inform the officers in charge of your security
00:18:37of any suspicious movement or activity you may perceive.
00:18:42But implementing that security was another question.
00:18:48Trotsky would first reside at the Soviet consulate, which was Soviet territory,
00:18:53and where the Turks could not protect him. But no one believed Stalin would
00:18:57be foolish enough to make an attempt on his rival's life inside the compound.
00:19:02The Turkish authorities could only help once Trotsky stepped outside the consulate,
00:19:08which meant he had to inform the police beforehand of his every move.
00:19:13The authorities were particularly uneasy with the white Russian population of Istanbul,
00:19:18victims of Trotsky's Red Army.
00:19:20Police headquarters were flooded with informants' reports of hitmen
00:19:25flocking to Istanbul, ready to empty their guns on Trotsky when the moment came.
00:19:33The list of suspects grew by the hour.
00:19:37But Trotsky was not Turkey's only security problem.
00:19:41The Turkish authorities were not the only ones who were concerned about Trotsky's safety.
00:19:47But Trotsky was not Turkey's only security problem.
00:19:51There was considerable opposition to Ataturk's reforms.
00:19:55Anti-Western riots throughout the country, some of them foreign-inspired,
00:19:59were an almost daily occurrence.
00:20:04With Trotsky's arrival, communist sympathizers joined demonstrations,
00:20:09posters mushroomed everywhere, calling for a people's uprising.
00:20:16Ataturk was confident, however,
00:20:19and did not see the communist movement as a threat to Turkey or its way of life.
00:20:46Trotsky's first home in Istanbul still stands today as the Russian consulate.
00:20:56During the first days of Trotsky's stay,
00:20:59the consulate staff treated him cordially and were diplomatically correct.
00:21:04Their personal belongings were never searched,
00:21:06no questions were asked, and they were free in their movements.
00:21:10Trotsky chose to remain mostly indoors,
00:21:13while his wife and son stepped into the lively streets of the city to run their errands.
00:21:27The consulate was near Beyoglu.
00:21:34At the turn of the century, Pera, as it was then known,
00:21:37with its diplomatic missions, theaters, hotels, casinos, cafes, music halls,
00:21:44foreigners, had been the symbol of Western civilization for the Ottoman Empire.
00:21:49Dinner at the Tocatlian Hotel would be followed by drinks,
00:22:09and a game of billiards at the Luxembourg,
00:22:11and a late stop at the Concordiae to dance what was left of the night away.
00:22:20In one corner were women who avoided gazing eyes with extremely polite but ignoring eyes.
00:22:29On the other hand, there were men who tried equally hard
00:22:33to steal the women's hearts and draw their attention.
00:22:41A major contribution to the nightlife came from Trotsky's sworn enemies,
00:22:46the bankrupt generals and aristocrats of Tsarist Russia
00:22:49had brought with them a style of entertainment the city had never known before.
00:23:16They performed in cabarets and ran restaurants,
00:23:19introducing exotic Russian fare such as Chicken Kiev,
00:23:24Lamb Karski and Beef Stroganoff, which were to become staples on Turkish menus.
00:23:39Proud generals who once guarded the borders of the Russian Empire
00:23:43now stood guard for small tips at nightclub toilets,
00:23:47and pale-skinned countesses struggled to eke out an existence as prostitutes.
00:24:01Mercifully for the Turkish police, Trotsky's days at the Soviet consulate were numbered.
00:24:10Less than a month after he first walked through its gates,
00:24:13all pretense of courtesy disappeared.
00:24:17Trotsky decided to leave, and the doors of the consulate closed behind him.
00:24:26The glamorous Tocatlyan Hotel stood just a few hundred yards from the consulate.
00:24:32Trotsky and his family made a discreet entrance at midnight through the service door.
00:24:38They took over rooms 67, 68 and 70.
00:24:45In the dying days of the Ottoman Empire,
00:24:48guests would have consisted of French, Italian, British officers
00:24:53and fallen Russian aristocrats who had to sell their jewelry to afford the Tocatlyan.
00:25:08In the early days of the republic, well-off Turks from out of town
00:25:12and visiting foreign businessmen made up most of the clientele.
00:25:22The businessmen spent much of their time lounging around the lobby, the restaurant and bar.
00:25:37Their number was to increase considerably after Trotsky arrived.
00:25:57The hotel was full of Turkish, Soviet, German and British agents
00:26:02keeping an eye on the illustrious new guest.
00:26:05Trotsky's followers from all over Europe came to visit him in his new quarters.
00:26:11One particularly welcome guest was Maurice Paz and his wife, Madeleine,
00:26:16who came from Paris bearing a gift of 20,000 francs.
00:26:21Trotsky had very little money.
00:26:23He was waiting for 10,000 dollars in royalties for his books
00:26:27that never seemed to arrive from the United States.
00:26:30He needed the money not only for his family's survival,
00:26:34but also to publish a newsletter for the opposition in Russia.
00:26:38Trotsky and Maurice Paz worked for five days discussing future strategy
00:26:44under an ever-watchful and mounting Turkish police presence.
00:26:50The Turkish police were not concerned about the discussions between Trotsky and Paz,
00:26:56but they did care about Stalin's secret service.
00:26:59They did not want a political assassination on their territory.
00:27:04The need to find a really safe place for Trotsky to live
00:27:07was becoming more and more urgent.
00:27:13As Trotsky searched for a new home from the safety of his suite,
00:27:17his son, Lvova, kept track of political developments from the newspapers.
00:27:24The German press interested Trotsky the most.
00:27:27Firstly, because of the political situation there.
00:27:30Also, because he had applied for a visa and had many supporters there.
00:27:38About a month after his arrival, Trotsky began to give interviews
00:27:43and to write for newspapers around the world.
00:27:46The Paris Journal, the New York Times, the English Daily Express.
00:27:51And he revealed his feelings about his host country
00:27:54in his first interview with a Turkish newspaper, Milliyet,
00:27:58considered at the time to be a mouthpiece of the Turkish government.
00:28:06The Turkish government showed me great hospitality.
00:28:10Before I came, I did not know how I was going to be received here.
00:28:16I wrote a letter to the president.
00:28:18I got a reply from the governor immediately.
00:28:22The Turkish government never limited my movements.
00:28:32Ataturk, in response to Trotsky's safety concerns,
00:28:35in the letter from the boat, the Ilyich,
00:28:38had replied through Governor Ustundag.
00:28:41The violence that you mention in your letter cannot take place in Turkey.
00:28:45You are free to go to any country you want.
00:28:48If you wish to extend your stay in Turkey,
00:28:51you will benefit from Turkish hospitality.
00:28:54You will fully enjoy all the rights extended to all foreigners living in Turkey.
00:29:06Why did Trotsky first settle in the Soviet consulate?
00:29:09And why did he leave?
00:29:11He explained to the newspapers.
00:29:13I had applied to go to Germany.
00:29:17I didn't move to a hotel because I thought a reply would come quickly.
00:29:28Trotsky had made clear in his letter to Ataturk
00:29:31that Turkey was not his first choice.
00:29:35You may ask why I want to leave Turkey.
00:29:37It's because I want to live in Turkey.
00:29:40You may ask why I want to leave Turkey.
00:29:42It's because I do not speak the language.
00:29:45I'm old now and I cannot learn a new language.
00:29:48There's no other reason why I should not stay in your country,
00:29:50which I love and where I am shown great hospitality.
00:29:58Trotsky knew Turkey and the Turkish people fairly well.
00:30:02He had written of Turkey's experiences in its search for freedom
00:30:05and followed the War of Independence closely.
00:30:08He admired Ataturk.
00:30:12He told Milliyet,
00:30:15You owe your independence to the will of your great leader.
00:30:19Ataturk's greatness has been acknowledged by the entire world.
00:30:23It is a pleasure for me to repeat this fact here.
00:30:27Trotsky's growing visibility in the media was an added safety risk.
00:30:33Turkish security reports were tense.
00:30:36Istanbul was full of agents and most of them were after Trotsky.
00:30:43One informant said white Russians were planning to kill Trotsky
00:30:47and that they were going to kill him.
00:30:49The other said they were going to kill Ataturk.
00:30:52One informant said white Russians were planning to kill Trotsky
00:30:56for allegedly having ordered the deaths of 60,000 people in the Crimea
00:31:01after it was evacuated by General Wrangel's army.
00:31:15For days on end, police picked up and questioned
00:31:18former czarist officers and soldiers.
00:31:22Many were summarily expelled from Turkey.
00:31:25Trotsky had driven them from their homes 12 years before.
00:31:29Now, because of him, they were being forced from their chosen land of exile.
00:31:52TROTSKY'S GREATNESS HAS BEEN ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE ENTIRE WORLD
00:31:57God is the Greatest, God is the Greatest
00:32:05God is the Greatest, God is the Greatest
00:32:22God is the Greatest, God is the Greatest
00:32:29TROTSKY'S GREATNESS HAS BEEN ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE ENTIRE WORLD
00:32:49All Trotsky wanted was a safe place where he could devote himself to his writing.
00:32:59TROTSKY'S GREATNESS HAS BEEN ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE ENTIRE WORLD
00:33:09A red-cliffed island set in deep blue,
00:33:13Buryukhada crouches in the sea like a prehistoric animal drinking.
00:33:20Trotsky wrote these words in his unpublished memoirs.
00:33:24The village cemetery seemed more alive than the village itself.
00:33:30TROTSKY'S GREATNESS HAS BEEN ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE ENTIRE WORLD
00:33:34Around 1930, Buryukhada was still as deserted as it probably was when the
00:33:39disgraced brothers and cousins of the Byzantine emperors lingered away their lives on its shores.
00:33:47Nature itself seemed to have designed the spot to be a regal penitentiary.
00:33:53The islanders, a few fishermen and shepherds, lived as their forefathers did a thousand years earlier.
00:33:59The horn of a motor car never disturbed the stillness.
00:34:03Only the braying of an ass came down from the outlying cliffs and fields into the main street.
00:34:11For a few weeks in the year, noisy vulgarity intruded.
00:34:23In the summer, multitudes of holidaymakers,
00:34:26families of Istanbul merchants crowded the beaches and the huts.
00:34:34Then calm returned, and only the braying of the ass
00:34:38greeted the still and splendid onset of the autumn.
00:34:52TROTSKY'S GREATNESS HAS BEEN ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE ENTIRE WORLD
00:35:00Trotsky had finally found a safe home.
00:35:09Buryukhada was relatively difficult to access,
00:35:12and comings and goings were easy to control, and the Turkish security was happy.
00:35:18Trotsky changed addresses several times before he found his final home.
00:35:23In some places, he was simply uncomfortable.
00:35:26In others, mysterious fires broke out, blamed on the GPU but never proven.
00:35:47TROTSKY'S GREATNESS HAS BEEN ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE ENTIRE WORLD
00:36:04Trotsky liked the new house, a spacious, dilapidated villa,
00:36:08rented from a bankrupt pasha.
00:36:11He immediately got to work.
00:36:13The authorities allowed friends to visit,
00:36:15and one of the first to join him was his secretary.
00:36:45TROTSKY'S GREATNESS HAS BEEN ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE ENTIRE WORLD
00:37:15TROTSKY'S GREATNESS HAS BEEN ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE ENTIRE WORLD
00:37:39TROTSKY'S GREATNESS HAS BEEN ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE ENTIRE WORLD
00:37:41With Trotsky's arrival, the Turkish communists became more visible.
00:37:46Posters and leaflets mushroomed.
00:37:48TROTSKY'S GREATNESS HAS BEEN ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE ENTIRE WORLD
00:37:52May Day demonstrations rocked Istanbul and Izmir.
00:37:55Many were arrested.
00:37:57TROTSKY'S GREATNESS HAS BEEN ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE ENTIRE WORLD
00:37:59All eyes turned to Trotsky when one of those arrested
00:38:02said the communist pamphlets he'd been caught distributing
00:38:05were given to him by the owner of a club on Buryukhada.
00:38:08TROTSKY'S GREATNESS HAS BEEN ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE ENTIRE WORLD
00:38:13Was Trotsky the source?
00:38:14TROTSKY'S GREATNESS HAS BEEN ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE ENTIRE WORLD
00:38:15Nothing came out of the investigation.
00:38:18TROTSKY'S GREATNESS HAS BEEN ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE ENTIRE WORLD
00:38:19The Turkish security forces were becoming apprehensive.
00:38:23More and more people showed up on Prinkipur.
00:38:26The police were certain that some of them were communists.
00:38:29TROTSKY'S GREATNESS HAS BEEN ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE ENTIRE WORLD
00:38:32When a policeman came to the house and asked for a list of the people inside,
00:38:36Trotsky was furious.
00:38:37TROTSKY'S GREATNESS HAS BEEN ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE ENTIRE WORLD
00:38:38He immediately wrote to the Istanbul police chief and complained.
00:38:41TROTSKY'S GREATNESS HAS BEEN ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE ENTIRE WORLD
00:38:42Today, a policeman came to my house and asked for a list of the people staying and working with us.
00:38:47TROTSKY'S GREATNESS HAS BEEN ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE ENTIRE WORLD
00:38:48I'm sure you were not informed of this incident, but I find it unacceptable.
00:38:52TROTSKY'S GREATNESS HAS BEEN ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE ENTIRE WORLD
00:38:53This is a violation of my personal rights.
00:38:55TROTSKY'S GREATNESS HAS BEEN ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE ENTIRE WORLD
00:38:56However, if you like, I am prepared to come to your office and answer all your questions.
00:39:01TROTSKY'S GREATNESS HAS BEEN ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE ENTIRE WORLD
00:39:03Still, Trotsky was not always correct in his judgments about the growing number of visitors on Boyukada.
00:39:10TROTSKY'S GREATNESS HAS BEEN ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE ENTIRE WORLD
00:39:11Among those who came to the island was Sobolevikos,
00:39:15a Lithuanian who appeared to be a militant oppositionist.
00:39:19TROTSKY'S GREATNESS HAS BEEN ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE ENTIRE WORLD
00:39:19He settled in the house after Trotsky personally asked for him to be granted a visa.
00:39:24TROTSKY'S GREATNESS HAS BEEN ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE ENTIRE WORLD
00:39:25He and his brother stayed on Boyukada for three years,
00:39:29and they also worked as bodyguards and were always armed.
00:39:32TROTSKY'S GREATNESS HAS BEEN ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE ENTIRE WORLD
00:39:34Thirty years later, in 1960, Sobolevikos was arrested in the United States for spying,
00:39:41carrying papers that identified him as Jack Sobol.
00:39:44TROTSKY'S GREATNESS HAS BEEN ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE ENTIRE WORLD
00:39:46He told FBI agents during interrogation that he had been in the employment of the GPU,
00:39:52TROTSKY'S GREATNESS HAS BEEN ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE ENTIRE WORLD
00:39:53reporting on the activities of the Boyukada household directly to Stalin.
00:39:57TROTSKY'S GREATNESS HAS BEEN ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE ENTIRE WORLD
00:39:58Jacob Blumkin had been recruited by Trotsky into the Communist Party.
00:40:03TROTSKY'S GREATNESS HAS BEEN ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE ENTIRE WORLD
00:40:04He was an officer of the GPU.
00:40:06TROTSKY'S GREATNESS HAS BEEN ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE ENTIRE WORLD
00:40:08He asked for a meeting with Trotsky, which was arranged by Trotsky's son,
00:40:13Leon Sidov, who said that he'd met Blumkin in the street by chance.
00:40:18TROTSKY'S GREATNESS HAS BEEN ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE ENTIRE WORLD
00:40:19Jacob Blumkin offered to smuggle Trotsky's writings into the Soviet Union
00:40:24using Turkish fishermen.
00:40:26Trotsky declined, but the two men had a long talk,
00:40:30and Trotsky gave Blumkin a carefully worded message to the oppositionists back home.
00:40:37A few months later, news came that Stalin had executed Blumkin for being a Trotskyist.
00:40:44The informant was said to be Blumkin's lover, Lisa Gorskaya,
00:40:47herself a GPU agent, who Blumkin had confided in
00:40:52and told about his meetings with Trotsky.
00:40:57Trotsky, shocked, called on his supporters around the world
00:41:01to raise a storm of protest over the execution of Blumkin.
00:41:13The circle around Trotsky became wider with every passing day and week.
00:41:21They came from all over Europe, and they spent most of their time in Trotsky's study.
00:41:28Some were no strangers to the Turkish police.
00:41:43The opposite has happened.
00:41:46A small bourgeoisie has joined Hitler.
00:41:49This threatens the death of the entire working class.
00:41:54We must change our tactics immediately.
00:41:57They must switch to defense.
00:42:04If Hitler goes to a direct confrontation with the working class,
00:42:08he will expose himself, and that will be the end of him.
00:42:12If that doesn't happen, he can be supported by social democrats,
00:42:17who are supported by a part of the working class.
00:42:20They must tell them,
00:42:22Comrades, if you are attacked, we will defend you.
00:42:28Will you do the same to us?
00:42:38We must address the millions of workers in Europe.
00:42:42Your future is in your hands.
00:42:45If fascism comes to power, the Nazis will crush the proletariat of Europe with tanks.
00:42:53Only the consolidation of the entire working class,
00:42:56only a single front can stop fascism.
00:43:01There is no time left.
00:43:03We must not lose a minute.
00:43:31However, the state of our country, the domestic situation of the nation,
00:43:37and the vigor of our national traditions,
00:43:39make it clear that communism cannot be an option for Turkey.
00:43:55Trotsky continued to search for a visa.
00:43:57He applied to Germany, to England, and to France.
00:44:01All of the applications were rejected.
00:44:03No government would accept him.
00:44:05He applied for an American visa,
00:44:07and wrote to the U.S. consulate in Istanbul.
00:44:11Leaving aside the question of medical consultation,
00:44:15necessary for my wife and for myself,
00:44:19the aim of my voyage is of a purely scientific nature.
00:44:23I recently published in the United States
00:44:25a work in three volumes on the history of the Russian Revolution,
00:44:29which I noted with satisfaction,
00:44:31met with a favorable reception on the part of almost the entire American press.
00:44:37The fourth volume will be devoted to the history of the Red Army and the Civil War.
00:44:43While studying in connection with this theme,
00:44:45the history of the wars of Cromwell in England,
00:44:49and the war between the northern and southern states in America,
00:44:53I was struck by the extraordinary resemblance in point of form and method
00:44:59between the Civil War in the United States and the Civil War in Russia.
00:45:03The consul never replied.
00:45:07The first official U.S. communication he received was from the Internal Revenue Service.
00:45:13The records of this office disclose
00:45:17that you have received income from sources within the United States.
00:45:21It is requested that you advise whether you filed returns
00:45:25with any collector of internal revenue in the United States for the year 1932.
00:45:39While Trotsky pursued his quest for a visa,
00:45:43Turkey organized its first beauty pageant with all Turkish contestants.
00:45:49Hundreds of young women applied.
00:45:53Trotsky and other problems were forgotten for a few months
00:45:57as the secluded, veiled women of a decade earlier
00:46:01appeared before the world clad in bathing suits.
00:46:05Feriha Tevfik became the first Miss Turkey.
00:46:09Her successor two years later, Keriman Halis,
00:46:13was crowned the most beautiful woman in the world.
00:46:19TURKEY
00:46:49Trotsky had arrived on Boyukadar with only his wife, his son, and a secretary.
00:46:57By 1931, he was surrounded by a large group of supporters.
00:47:03When they took the strategy, they went outdoors for a picnic.
00:47:07But Turkish security was always close by.
00:47:11Nothing was left for chance.
00:47:19Among them were the French banker Raymond Molinier
00:47:23and his young and attractive wife, Jeanne.
00:47:27Raymond had plans to transform Trotskyism into a major movement
00:47:31backed by mass-circulation newspapers that would have wide appeal.
00:47:49A 14-15-year-old girl is the main thing now.
00:47:53The fate of the revolution depends on it.
00:47:55To prepare for the world revolution,
00:47:57it is necessary to select people useful for the cause in different countries.
00:48:01I will try to take this task upon myself.
00:48:03But their task...
00:48:07Their task is not to prepare leaders.
00:48:11Their task is to raise a new generation of revolutionaries.
00:48:15It is inefficient to lead the opposition movement from Turkey.
00:48:19In any case, you must be transported to France.
00:48:23For months I have been waiting for permission to go to one of the countries
00:48:29where I applied.
00:48:31But they know as well as I do that my possibilities here are extremely limited.
00:48:37That is why they do not give me a visa.
00:48:41I have great hopes for you.
00:48:43Contact everyone who can help.
00:48:45Turkey and Moscow have good relations.
00:48:49So far, the Turkish government has not caused me any obstacles.
00:48:53But I do not know what will happen in the future.
00:48:57So the question of a visa cannot wait to be debunked.
00:49:03I hope you understand that...
00:49:07Trotsky practically took over the Bujukada house,
00:49:11bought new furniture and hired secretaries and writers from Europe.
00:49:15In the meantime, his wife Jeanne fell in love with Lvova, Trotsky's son.
00:49:21Their love affair grew.
00:49:25While Trotsky and Raymond worked on their projects,
00:49:29Lvova and Jeanne took long walks in the garden.
00:49:33When he decided to return to Paris, Jeanne was on the pier waving goodbye.
00:50:03I do not want to help you. In fact, I do not want to do anything.
00:50:07We are surrounded from all sides.
00:50:09I do not want to go back.
00:50:11I made you stay here to put my father in a cage.
00:50:15I do not know how I will be able to explain all this to him.
00:50:19I am ready for anything.
00:50:23Trotsky decided to send his son to Germany,
00:50:27to organize the bureau of the left opposition there.
00:50:31Lvova was his right hand, the only person he really trusted.
00:50:53He wrote to the German and Turkish governments saying his son had to go to Germany for health reasons.
00:50:59Visas arrived quickly and Lvova and Jeanne left Turkey together.
00:51:23After Lvova left Buryukhada, Trotsky's daughter, Zina, arrived.
00:51:53Lvova and Jeanne left for Germany.
00:52:23Zina! Zina!
00:52:27Dad!
00:52:29Zina! Zina!
00:52:37You look at me as you did in 1917, when I gave a speech in Petrograd.
00:52:41You have not changed at all.
00:52:45I am very glad.
00:52:49I cannot forget Nina.
00:52:53I was so lonely in Moscow.
00:52:57I want to be with you. I do not want to part.
00:53:07Zina was one of two daughters Trotsky had from his first marriage with Alexandra Sokolovskaya,
00:53:15a revolutionary comrade from the 1900s.
00:53:27Trotsky had left her when he fled his first Siberian exile for Europe in 1902.
00:53:33When he returned to Russia in 1905, it was with Natalia, whom he had met in Paris.
00:53:45Zina was not well. The death at a young age of tuberculosis of her sister Nina had depressed her,
00:53:53and she suffered from depression in addition to serious respiratory problems.
00:53:59Trotsky wanted her to come to Turkey first and immediately travel on to Germany for treatment.
00:54:05Again, Trotsky faced a visa problem.
00:54:09In a telegram he sent to Tefik Rustu Aras, the foreign minister, he indicated that Zina was waiting sick in Odessa,
00:54:17and he asked for an urgent visa to have her brought to Turkey.
00:54:23Trotsky also said he was ready to pay all telegraph and visa fees.
00:54:29The next day, the foreign minister sent him a telegraph.
00:54:33We are given to our Odessa consulate to issue visa for Miss Zina Volkova. Stop.
00:54:41No need for a telegraph fee. Stop. Tefik Rustu.
00:54:49But Zina was happy on Buryukhada.
00:54:53She didn't want to leave her father's side.
00:54:56The pine-rich air of the island was good for her lungs,
00:54:59and being with Trotsky and Natalia and helping around the house was good for her soul.
00:55:05Trotsky was convinced she needed treatment in Germany.
00:55:29When the fire broke out, we all thought it was the GPU's doing.
00:55:36They had been hunting for my manuscripts for a long time.
00:55:40The Turkish police couldn't determine the cause of the fire for a long time,
00:55:46and finally determined that it was Seva who was playing with matches and made the fire.
00:55:54Since then, we call him Little GPU.
00:56:00We would like them to stay with us, but it's better for them to go to Germany.
00:56:14Zina felt unwanted and went into a severe depression.
00:56:19She wrote to her mother, complaining of her father's aloofness.
00:56:23She felt that he did not want her around.
00:56:44Zina finally accepted her father's wishes and went to Germany in 1932,
00:56:50where the Nazis were growing in strength.
00:56:56Zina had intensive treatment for pneumonia and depression,
00:57:00but her health was not improving,
00:57:03and the situation in Germany with the Nazis frightened her, for she was Jewish.
00:57:09Lvova wrote to his father on January 5th, 1933, informing him that Zina had killed herself.
00:57:18The final words on her suicide note were thoughts for her little son,
00:57:23who had joined her in Germany from Buryukheda just before she took her own life.
00:57:29I feel my end approaching. I don't think I can take care of my child.
00:57:34He doesn't speak a word of German. Call my brother.
00:57:41She then locked herself in the kitchen and turned on the gas.
00:57:49Trotsky was shocked and riddled with feelings of guilt.
00:58:01Pierre Frank, his secretary, recounted that Trotsky locked himself up in his room
00:58:07and would not talk to anyone for five days.
00:58:11When he emerged, his hair had grown whiter than before.
00:58:15When he emerged, his hair had grown whiter than before.
00:58:46To escape the sorrow and the agony of Zina's death, Trotsky returned to fishing.
00:58:53He could be seen every day with his fisherman friend Haralambos,
00:58:57who only spoke Turkish and Greek.
00:59:00They communicated only with gestures,
00:59:02but Trotsky soon became expert at handling the hooks, the lines and the nets.
00:59:15News of his prowess as a fisherman was heard even in Russia.
00:59:45If I were in the Kremlin now, Trotsky would answer,
00:59:51if Lenin were alive, under this regime, he would be fishing with me in Turkey.
01:00:15Trotsky was a man of his word.
01:00:20Take a toad and put it on the hook and let it go.
01:00:26It will spit well.
01:00:29We catch toads in Odessa.
01:00:46Do you have jokes about Ataturk?
01:00:51No? I don't understand.
01:01:02In 1933, Turkey prepared to celebrate its 10th anniversary as a republic.
01:01:08Ataturk wanted to show the world
01:01:12how far Turkey had gone in one short decade.
01:01:16Countrywide gala events, balls and ceremonies lasted throughout the year.
01:01:36Stalin, aware of Turkey's growing role in the Balkans,
01:01:40began keeping a close watch on Turkey
01:01:43and started to develop relations from 1932 onwards.
01:01:47There was a non-stop exchange of delegations between the two countries
01:01:51and when the Turkish Prime Minister, Ismet İnönü,
01:01:55returned from a visit to Moscow with a credit line of 8 million dollars,
01:01:59the Istanbul newspapers were full of Stalin's praise.
01:02:06Trotsky was anxious.
01:02:08He was convinced Stalin was putting pressure on Turkey to expel him.
01:02:13Once again, it was time to leave.
01:02:22By early summer 1933, Trotsky knew his days on Buryukhada were numbered.
01:02:28He contacted a number of European countries,
01:02:31asking them to urgently reactivate his earlier visa applications.
01:02:39He pressed his friends in France in particular into action,
01:02:43but weeks passed and there was no reply.
01:02:46His hopes were raised when he was allowed to Denmark to deliver a lecture,
01:02:51but the communist parties protested his trip through Europe
01:02:55and he returned to Prinkipo.
01:02:59His finances were dwindling and money started to become scarce.
01:03:05His finances were dwindling and money started to become a serious problem
01:03:09for the first time since his arrival in Turkey.
01:03:12He wrote to Henri Moliniere on June the 7th,
01:03:16I could even live in Corsica if only France would open its doors.
01:03:23Finally, four and a half years after his initial request,
01:03:27the French government granted him a visa,
01:03:30but there were strict conditions.
01:03:33Trotsky would not be allowed into Paris and would have to live in a southern suburb
01:03:38under constant police supervision and the threat of immediate expulsion
01:03:42if he failed to obey any of the conditions put forth by the French government.
01:03:47Trotsky accepted and started packing.
01:03:51Isaac Deutscher wrote,
01:03:54It was not without a tug of emotion that he took leave of the splendor of the Sea of Marmara
01:03:59and the fishing expeditions,
01:04:01and that he thought of his faithful fishermen,
01:04:04some of whom their bones saturated through with the salt of the sea,
01:04:08had recently found their rest in the village cemetery,
01:04:12while others had, in these years of depression,
01:04:15to struggle harder and harder to sell their catch.
01:04:20Trotsky and Natalia left Buryukhada on June the 25th, 1933
01:04:26to board the ship Bulgaria bound for France.
01:04:50He wrote one final letter to the government in Ankara,
01:04:54a letter of thanks for the hospitality and the security they provided
01:04:58during the past four and a half years.
01:05:20But there was also emotion.
01:05:24In his memoirs, he wrote of his last moments in the villa in Buryukhada.
01:05:29The house is already empty.
01:05:32The wooden cases are already downstairs.
01:05:36Young hands are driving in the nails.
01:05:39The floor of our old and dilapidated villa
01:05:42was painted with such queer paint in the spring
01:05:45that even now, four months later,
01:05:48tables, chairs, and our feet keep sticking to it.
01:05:52Oddly, I feel as if my feet had gotten somewhat rooted in the soil of Prinkipo.
01:06:10Trotsky's French visa expired in 1935.
01:06:15He was forced to leave Norway, where the government was under pressure,
01:06:19and finally traveled to his last place of exile, Mexico,
01:06:24where he had been invited by the artist couple of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo.
01:06:32There, he would suffer another blow.
01:06:35His son, Lvovo, whom he'd sent to Germany in 1931,
01:06:40had fled to France after Hitler came to power in 1933
01:06:45and was leading a happy life there with Jeanne, now his wife,
01:06:49and continuing his father's work.
01:06:52With a new but trusted French supporter, Etienne,
01:06:56Lvovo was organizing the left opposition in Paris.
01:07:00Etienne had access to Lvovo's private letters
01:07:03and read all the instructions Trotsky sent his son.
01:07:07Lvovo died mysteriously in 1938.
01:07:10According to the official hospital report,
01:07:13he fell from his bed and died in the hospital
01:07:16where he had just undergone an operation for appendicitis.
01:07:21In 1958, Etienne was arrested
01:07:25under his true identity of Mark Sporowski, GPU agent.
01:07:31Mark Sporowski said that the accident in the Paris clinic
01:07:35was arranged on Stalin's orders.
01:07:42All of Trotsky's children were now dead.
01:07:45Trotsky devoted himself full-time to writing,
01:07:49producing a flood of books, including My Life,
01:07:52a matchless autobiographical history of the Russian Revolution.
01:08:06He survived at least one assassination attempt,
01:08:10but on August the 20th, 1940,
01:08:13seven years after he left Boyukheda,
01:08:16Stalin's GPU finally caught up with Trotsky.
01:08:23Ramon Mercader, a Stalinist agent
01:08:26who'd made his way into Trotsky's household in Mexico,
01:08:29fatally wounded him with an ice axe.
01:08:36Trotsky died the following day.
01:08:39He was 61 years old.
01:08:59Years later, Isaac Deutscher wrote,
01:09:03Despite all the adversities,
01:09:06the years Trotsky had spent on Prinkipo
01:09:09were the calmest, the most creative
01:09:12and the least unhappy time of his exile.
01:10:03Trotsky died at the age of 64.
01:10:06He was the first Russian to die.
01:10:09He was the first Russian to die.
01:10:12He was the first Russian to die.
01:10:15He was the first Russian to die.
01:10:18He was the first Russian to die.
01:10:21He was the first Russian to die.
01:10:24He was the first Russian to die.
01:10:27He was the first Russian to die.
01:10:30He was the first Russian to die.
01:10:33He was the first Russian to die.
01:10:36He was the first Russian to die.
01:10:39He was the first Russian to die.
01:10:42He was the first Russian to die.
01:10:45He was the first Russian to die.
01:10:48He was the first Russian to die.
01:10:51He was the first Russian to die.
01:10:54He was the first Russian to die.
01:10:57He was the first Russian to die.
01:11:00He was the first Russian to die.
01:11:03He was the first Russian to die.
01:11:06He was the first Russian to die.
01:11:09He was the first Russian to die.
01:11:12He was the first Russian to die.
01:11:15He was the first Russian to die.
01:11:18He was the first Russian to die.
01:11:21He was the first Russian to die.
01:11:24He was the first Russian to die.
01:11:27He was the first Russian to die.
01:11:30He was the first Russian to die.
01:11:33He was the first Russian to die.
01:11:36He was the first Russian to die.
01:11:39He was the first Russian to die.
01:11:42He was the first Russian to die.
01:11:45He was the first Russian to die.
01:11:48He was the first Russian to die.
01:11:51.