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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,
00:10:34and the first leader of the Red army,
00:10:37and the first leader of the Red army,
00:10:40and the first leader of the Red army,
00:10:43and the first leader of the Red army,
00:10:46and the first leader of the Red army,
00:10:49and the first leader of the Red army,
00:10:52and the first leader of the Red army,
00:10:55and the first leader of the Red army,
00:10:58The first angry one was to the Central Committee
00:11:01of the Soviet Communist Party in Moscow.
00:11:04Stalin, the GPU, and the nationalist Turkish regime
00:11:07were conspiring against him, he wrote.
00:11:10And if he were to be killed during his Istanbul exile,
00:11:13the responsibility would lie with the Central Committee
00:11:16and, of course, Stalin.
00:11:28This is an agreement with the Turkish government.
00:11:31This is an agreement with the Turkish government.
00:11:34If Stalin wanted, we could be killed here,
00:11:37because there is no one on the ship except the GPU agents.
00:11:40No.
00:11:43I know his style.
00:11:46He will wait,
00:11:49watch over us,
00:11:52and only when he decides that we have all been forgotten,
00:11:56will he liquidate us somewhere in the Third Country.
00:11:59will he liquidate us somewhere in the Third Country.
00:12:25It is not by my own free will
00:12:28that I have arrived at the frontier of Turkey.
00:12:31I am crossing this frontier
00:12:34only because I must submit to force.
00:12:37only because I must submit to force.
00:12:40I would have preferred to go to a country I know
00:12:43and whose language I speak.
00:12:46But those who exile
00:12:49seldom consider the wishes of the exiled.
00:12:52Please, Mr. President, accept my appropriate sentiments.
00:12:55Leon Trotsky, February 12th, 1929.
00:12:58Leon Trotsky, February 12th, 1929.
00:13:09Trotsky's harrowing journey into foreign exile
00:13:12had begun in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan,
00:13:1522 days before the Ilyich moored at Istanbul.
00:13:1822 days before the Ilyich moored at Istanbul.
00:13:22Right at the gates of Istanbul,
00:13:25he received one final communication from Stalin's Central Committee,
00:13:28an envelope containing $1,500.
00:13:31an envelope containing $1,500.
00:13:47World War I had shattered Europe,
00:13:50tearing down most of the continent's empires
00:13:53and replacing them with nation-states.
00:13:58With Trotsky's arrival,
00:14:01two revolutions crossed paths at the gates of Istanbul.
00:14:04Trotsky had helped to destroy Tsarist Russia.
00:14:10Ataturk had formed a new republic
00:14:13from the rubble of the Ottoman Empire.
00:14:16It had taken a costly four-year war of independence to achieve
00:14:19It had taken a costly four-year war of independence to achieve
00:14:22and marked not only popular rejection of a map imposed by foreign powers
00:14:25and marked not only popular rejection of a map imposed by foreign powers
00:14:28but also a determination to change into a modern, westernized society.
00:14:31but also a determination to change into a modern, westernized society.
00:14:34When Trotsky arrived in Istanbul,
00:14:37the republic was only six years old.
00:14:40No longer the sick man of Europe,
00:14:43hats and suits ousted the fez and the kaftan.
00:14:50Latin characters replaced the Arabic alphabet.
00:14:55Women who had been slaves in harems now had the right to vote.
00:14:58Women who had been slaves in harems now had the right to vote.
00:15:13The films of the time told the importance of the day
00:15:16and the dynamism of the country.
00:15:43At four p.m.,
00:15:46Trotsky entered the arrival hall of the port of Istanbul.
00:15:49At four p.m.,
00:15:52Trotsky entered the arrival hall of the port of Istanbul.
00:15:55At four p.m.,
00:15:58Trotsky entered the arrival hall of the port of Istanbul.
00:16:01Along with the Turkish security officials to greet him
00:16:04was Suslov, the Soviet Consul.
00:16:07the Soviet Consul. It was more like the arrival of a foreign dignitary than a common exile.
00:16:37On the instructions of Turkish Interior Minister Şükrü Kaya to the Governor of Istanbul,
00:17:07the security was tight. There were no journalists.
00:17:15Welcome, Comrade Leptovich. For your safety, we would like to put you in the General Consulate for a while.
00:17:29I hope only as a guest.
00:17:34While the paperwork was being completed and pleasantries exchanged, young Sidov stood guard over twelve chests,
00:17:41everything that Trotsky owned.
00:17:46They contained no money or jewellery, only the books and documents the exile would use to direct the opposition against Stalin.
00:17:59Officials told Trotsky on his arrival that they had not been told he was being exiled, only that he was arriving for health reasons.
00:18:08Ataturk knew he had to be careful. Any 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.
00:18:33It would be advisable for you to inform the officers in charge of your security of 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, and where the Turks could not protect him.
00:18:56But no one believed Stalin would be 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, which meant he had to inform the police beforehand of his every move.
00:19:12The authorities were particularly uneasy with the white Russian population of Istanbul, victims of Trotsky's Red Army.
00:19:21Police headquarters were flooded with informants' reports of hitmen flocking to Istanbul, ready to empty their guns on Trotsky when the moment came.
00:19:41The list of suspects grew by the hour.
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, were an almost daily occurrence.
00:20:04With Trotsky's arrival, communist sympathizers joined demonstrations, posters mushroomed everywhere, calling for a people's uprising.
00:20:24Ataturk was confident, however, and 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, the consulate staff treated him cordially and were diplomatically correct.
00:21:03Their personal belongings were never searched, no questions were asked, and they were free in their movements.
00:21:10Trotsky chose to remain mostly indoors, while his wife and son stepped into the lively streets of the city to run their errands.
00:21:27The consulate was near Beyoglu.
00:21:34By the turn of the century, Pera, as it was then known, with its diplomatic missions, theaters, hotels, casinos, cafes, music halls, foreigners, had been the symbol of Western civilization for the Ottoman Empire.
00:22:04Dinner at the Tocatlian Hotel would be followed by drinks, and a game of billiards at the Luxembourg, and a late stop at the Concordiae to dance what was left of the night away.
00:22:21In 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 to 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 had brought with them a style of entertainment the city had never known before.
00:23:11They performed in cabarets and ran restaurants, introducing exotic Russian fare such as Chicken Kiev, Lamb Karski, and Beef Stroganoff, which were to become staples on Turkish menus.
00:23:35Proud generals who once guarded the borders of the Russian Empire now stood guard for small tips at nightclub toilets, and pale-skinned countesses struggled to eke out an existence as prostitutes.
00:23:58Mercifully for the Turkish police, Trotsky's days at the Soviet consulate were numbered.
00:24:06Less than a month after he first walked through its gates, all pretense of courtesy disappeared.
00:24:16Trotsky decided to leave, and the doors of the consulate closed behind him.
00:24:23The glamorous Tocatlyan Hotel stood just a few hundred yards from the consulate.
00:24:31Trotsky and his family made a discreet entrance at midnight through the service door.
00:24:37They took over rooms 67, 68, and 70.
00:24:44In the dying days of the Ottoman Empire, guests would have consisted of French, Italian, British officers, and fallen Russian aristocrats who had to sell their jewelry to afford the Tocatlyan.
00:25:00In the early days of the Republic, well-off Turks from out of town and visiting foreign businessmen made up most of the clientele.
00:25:21The businessmen spent much of their time lounging around the lobby, the restaurant, and bar.
00:25:52Their number was to increase considerably after Trotsky arrived.
00:25:57The hotel was full of Turkish, Soviet, German, and British agents keeping an eye on the illustrious new guest.
00:26:06Trotsky's followers from all over Europe came to visit him in his new quarters.
00:26:12One particularly welcome guest was Maurice Paz and his wife, Madeleine, who came from Paris bearing a gift of 20,000 francs.
00:26:22Trotsky had very little money. He was waiting for $10,000 in royalties for his books that never seemed to arrive from the United States.
00:26:31He needed the money not only for his family's survival, but also to publish a newsletter for the opposition in Russia.
00:26:40Trotsky and Maurice Paz worked for five days discussing future strategy under an ever-watchful and mounting Turkish police presence.
00:26:52The Turkish police were not concerned about the discussions between Trotsky and Paz, but they did care about Stalin's secret service.
00:27:00They did not want a political assassination on their territory.
00:27:05The need to find a really safe place for Trotsky to live was becoming more and more urgent.
00:27:14As Trotsky searched for a new home from the safety of his suite, his son, Lvova, kept track of political developments from the newspapers.
00:27:24The German press interested Trotsky the most, firstly because of the political situation there, also because he had applied for a visa and had many supporters there.
00:27:40About a month after his arrival, Trotsky began to give interviews and to write for newspapers around the world,
00:27:47the Paris Journal, the New York Times, the English Daily Express.
00:27:52And he revealed his feelings about his host country in his first interview with a Turkish newspaper, Miliyet, considered at the time to be a mouthpiece of the Turkish government.
00:28:06The Turkish government showed me great hospitality. Before I came, I did not know how I was going to be received here.
00:28:14I wrote a letter to the president. I got a reply from the governor immediately.
00:28:24The Turkish government never limited my movements.
00:28:29Ataturk, in response to Trotsky's safety concerns, in the letter from the boat, the Ilyich, had replied through Governor Ustundag.
00:28:38The violence that you mention in your letter cannot take place in Turkey. You are free to go to any country you like.
00:28:45If you wish to extend your stay in Turkey, you will benefit from Turkish hospitality.
00:28:52You will fully enjoy all the rights extended to all foreigners living in Turkey.
00:29:05Why did Trotsky first settle in the Soviet consulate? And why did he leave? He explained to the newspapers.
00:29:12I had applied to go to Germany. I didn't move to a hotel because I thought a reply would come quickly.
00:29:26Trotsky had made clear in his letter to Ataturk that Turkey was not his first choice.
00:29:32You may ask why I want to leave Turkey, but I do not want to leave Turkey.
00:29:39You may ask why I want to leave Turkey, but I do not speak the language.
00:29:45I am old now and I cannot learn a new language.
00:29:48There is no other reason why I should not stay in your country, which 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 and followed the War of Independence closely.
00:30:08He admired Ataturk.
00:30:12He told Milliyet,
00:30:14You owe your independence to the will of your great leader.
00:30:18Ataturk's greatness has been acknowledged by the entire world.
00:30:22It is a pleasure for me to repeat this fact here.
00:30:33Trotsky's growing visibility in the media was an added safety risk.
00:30:39Turkish security reports were tense.
00:30:42Istanbul was full of agents and most of them were after Trotsky.
00:30:50One informant said white Russians were planning to kill Trotsky
00:30:54for allegedly having ordered the deaths of 60,000 people in the Crimea after it was evacuated.
00:31:02Trotsky had been evacuated by General Wrangel's army.
00:31:16For days on end, police picked up and questioned former Tsarist officers and soldiers.
00:31:23Many were summarily expelled from Turkey.
00:31:26Trotsky had driven them from their homes 12 years before.
00:31:30Because of him, they were being forced from their chosen land of exile.
00:32:30All Trotsky wanted was a safe place where he could devote himself to his writing.
00:33:00A red-cliffed island set in deep blue,
00:33:04Buyu-Kadah crouches in the sea like a prehistoric animal drinking.
00:33:11Trotsky wrote these words in his unpublished memoirs.
00:33:15The village cemetery seemed more alive than the village itself.
00:33:21Around 1930, Buyu-Kadah was still as deserted as it probably was
00:33:26when the disgraced brothers and cousins of the Byzantine emperors
00:33:30lingered away their lives on its shores.
00:33:35Nature itself seemed to have designed a new life for Trotsky.
00:33:41In his memoirs, Trotsky wrote that
00:33:46Nature itself seemed to have designed the spot to be a regal penitentiary.
00:33:54The islanders, a few fishermen and shepherds,
00:33:57lived as their forefathers did a thousand years earlier.
00:34:01The horn of a motor car never disturbed the stillness.
00:34:04Only 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.
00:34:21In the summer, multitudes of holidaymakers, families of Istanbul merchants
00:34:26crowded the beaches and the huts.
00:34:32Then calm returned, and only the braying of the ass
00:34:36greeted the still and splendid onset of the autumn.
00:34:58Trotsky had finally found a safe home.
00:35:07Buyukadar was relatively difficult to access,
00:35:11and comings and goings were easy to control,
00:35:14and the Turkish security was happy.
00:35:17Trotsky 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.
00:36:03Trotsky liked the new house,
00:36:06a spacious, dilapidated villa rented from a bankrupt pasha.
00:36:11He immediately got to work.
00:36:13The authorities allowed friends to visit,
00:36:16and one of the first to join him was his secretary.
00:36:32The fate of not only Germany, but the whole world,
00:36:36will depend on who will come to power in this country.
00:36:44The construction of socialism in the Soviet Union,
00:36:48the revolution in Spain,
00:36:50the pre-revolutionary situation in England,
00:36:54the crisis of French colonialism,
00:36:57the national liberation movement in China and India,
00:37:02all these problems depend only on one question.
00:37:06Who will come to power?
00:37:11The fascists or the communists?
00:37:16Who should I give this to?
00:37:18Give it to Sedov.
00:37:20Let him send it by mail to the New York Times.
00:37:24You'll make Stalin angry again.
00:37:26You know that the world does not listen to his voice,
00:37:29and your speech is printed in all American newspapers.
00:37:33You are flattering me.
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 Boyukata.
00:38:13Was Trotsky the source?
00:38:15Nothing came out of the investigation.
00:38:19The Turkish security forces were becoming apprehensive.
00:38:23More and more people showed up on Prinkipol.
00:38:26The police were certain that some of them were communists.
00:38:31When a policeman came to the house
00:38:33and asked for a list of the people inside,
00:38:35Trotsky was furious.
00:38:37He immediately wrote to the Istanbul police chief and complained.
00:38:42Today a policeman came to my house
00:38:44and asked for a list of the people staying and working with us.
00:38:47I'm sure you were not informed of this incident,
00:38:50but I find it unacceptable.
00:38:52This is a violation of my personal rights.
00:38:55However, if you like,
00:38:57I am prepared to come to your office
00:38:59and answer all your questions.
00:39:03Still, Trotsky was not always correct
00:39:05in his judgments about the growing number of visitors on Boyukata.
00:39:11Among those who came to the island
00:39:13was Sobolevikos,
00:39:15a Lithuanian who appeared to be a militant oppositionist.
00:39:19He settled in the house
00:39:21after Trotsky personally asked for him to be granted a visa.
00:39:25He and his brother stayed on Boyukata for three years
00:39:29and they also worked as bodyguards
00:39:31and were always armed.
00:39:34Thirty years later, in 1960,
00:39:36Sobolevikos was arrested in the United States for spying,
00:39:40carrying papers that identified him as Jack Sobol.
00:39:46He told FBI agents during interrogation
00:39:49that he had been in the employment of the GPU,
00:39:52reporting on the activities of the Boyukata household
00:39:56directly to Stalin.
00:39:58Jacob Blumkin had been recruited by Trotsky
00:40:01into the Communist Party.
00:40:03He was an officer of the GPU.
00:40:08He asked for a meeting with Trotsky,
00:40:11which was arranged by Trotsky's son, Leon Sidov,
00:40:14who said that he'd met Blumkin in the street by chance.
00:40:19Jacob Blumkin offered to smuggle Trotsky's writings
00:40:22into the Soviet Union using Turkish fishermen.
00:40:26Trotsky declined,
00:40:28but the two men had a long talk
00:40:30and Trotsky gave Blumkin a carefully worded message
00:40:34to the oppositionists back home.
00:40:36A few months later,
00:40:38news came that Stalin had executed Blumkin
00:40:41for being a Trotskyist.
00:40:43The informant was said to be Blumkin's lover,
00:40:46Liza Gorskaya, herself a GPU agent,
00:40:49who Blumkin had confided in
00:40:51and told about his meetings with Trotsky.
00:40:56Trotsky, shocked,
00:40:58called on his supporters around the world
00:41:00to raise a storm of protest
00:41:02over the execution of Blumkin.
00:41:06The circle around Trotsky
00:41:08became wider with every passing day and week.
00:41:14They came from all over Europe
00:41:16and they spent most of their time in Trotsky's study.
00:41:20Some were no strangers to the Turkish police.
00:41:35Before the revolution,
00:41:37the small bourgeoisie should have been inclined
00:41:40towards the working class.
00:41:42This did not happen.
00:41:44The opposite happened.
00:41:46The small bourgeoisie joined Hitler.
00:41:49This threatens the death of the entire working class.
00:41:54We must immediately change tactics.
00:42:00They must switch to defense.
00:42:03If Hitler confronts the working class,
00:42:06he will expose himself
00:42:08and this will be the end of him.
00:42:11If this does not happen,
00:42:13he can be supported by the Social Democrats,
00:42:16who are part of the working class.
00:42:19They must tell them,
00:42:21Comrades, if you are attacked,
00:42:24we will defend you.
00:42:27Will you do the same to us?
00:42:34We must address the millions of workers in Europe.
00:42:38Your future is in your hands.
00:42:41If fascism comes to power,
00:42:44the Nazis will crush the proletariat of Europe with tanks.
00:42:48Only the consolidation of the entire working class,
00:42:52only a single front can stop fascism.
00:42:56There is no time left.
00:43:00The Russian Revolution and Trotsky
00:43:03had many sympathizers in Turkey.
00:43:06Although early during the War of Independence,
00:43:10Mustafa Kemal, reflecting on the revolution, wrote,
00:43:14Our friendship with the Russians
00:43:17is the most important thing in the history of the world.
00:43:21It is the most important thing
00:43:24in the history of the world.
00:43:28Our friendship with Russia continues.
00:43:32However, the state of our country,
00:43:35the domestic situation of the nation,
00:43:38and the vigor of our national traditions
00:43:41make it clear that communism cannot be an option for Turkey.
00:43:46TURKEY
00:43:55Trotsky continued to search for a visa.
00:43:58He applied to Germany, to England, and to France.
00:44:02All of the applications were rejected.
00:44:05No government would accept him.
00:44:08He applied for an American visa
00:44:11and wrote to the U.S. consulate in Istanbul.
00:44:14Leaving aside the question of medical consultation
00:44:17necessary for my wife and for myself,
00:44:20the aim of my voyage is of a purely scientific nature.
00:44:24I recently published in the United States
00:44:27a work in three volumes on the history of the Russian Revolution,
00:44:31which I noted with satisfaction,
00:44:34met with a favorable reception
00:44:37on the part of almost the entire American press.
00:44:40The fourth volume will be devoted
00:44:43to the history of the Red Army and the Civil War.
00:44:46While studying in connection with this theme
00:44:49the history of the wars of Cromwell in England
00:44:52and the war between the northern and southern states in America,
00:44:55I was struck by the extraordinary resemblance
00:44:58in point of form and method
00:45:01between the Civil War in the United States
00:45:04and the Civil War in Russia.
00:45:07The first official U.S. communication he received
00:45:10was from the Internal Revenue Service.
00:45:13The records of this office disclose
00:45:16that you have received income
00:45:19from sources within the United States.
00:45:22It is requested that you advise
00:45:25whether you filed returns with any collector of internal revenue
00:45:28in the United States for the year 1932.
00:45:38While Trotsky pursued his quest for a visa,
00:45:41Turkey organized its first beauty pageant
00:45:44with all Turkish contestants.
00:45:49Hundreds of young women applied.
00:45:52Trotsky and other problems were forgotten for a few months
00:45:55as the secluded, veiled women of a decade earlier
00:45:58appeared before the world clad in bathing suits.
00:46:01Feriha Tevfik became the first Miss Turkey.
00:46:07Her successor two years later, Keriman Halis,
00:46:10was crowned the most beautiful woman in the world.
00:46:37Trotsky had arrived on Boyukadar
00:46:40with only his wife, his son and a secretary.
00:46:43By 1931, he was surrounded
00:46:46by a large group of supporters.
00:46:49When they took the strategy,
00:46:52they went outdoors for a picnic.
00:46:55They had a lot of fun.
00:46:58They had a lot of fun.
00:47:01They had a lot of fun.
00:47:04When they took the strategy,
00:47:07they went outdoors for a picnic.
00:47:10But Turkish security was always close by.
00:47:13Nothing was left for chance.
00:47:24Among them were the French banker Raymond Molinier
00:47:27and his young and attractive wife, Jeanne.
00:47:30Raymond had plans to transform Trotskyism
00:47:33into a major movement
00:47:36backed by mass-circulation newspapers that would have wide appeal.
00:48:04But their goal...
00:48:08Their goal was not to train leaders.
00:48:11Their goal was to raise a new generation of revolutionaries.
00:48:24I've been waiting for a permission
00:48:27to go to one of the countries
00:48:30where I applied for a visa.
00:48:33But they know very well
00:48:36that my opportunities here are very limited.
00:48:39That's why they don't give me a visa.
00:48:42I'm counting on you.
00:48:45Ask anyone who can help.
00:48:48Turkey and Moscow have a good relationship.
00:48:51The Turkish government has not yet caused me any obstacles.
00:48:54But I don't know what will happen next.
00:48:58So the question of a visa is out of the question.
00:49:03I hope you understand that...
00:49:06Molinier practically took over the Bayukada house,
00:49:09bought new furniture
00:49:12and hired secretaries and writers from Europe.
00:49:15In the meantime, his wife, Jeanne,
00:49:18fell in love with Lvova, Trotsky's son.
00:49:21Their love affair grew.
00:49:25While Trotsky and Raymond worked on their projects,
00:49:28Lvova and Jeanne took long walks in the garden.
00:49:32When Raymond decided to return to Paris,
00:49:35Jeanne was on the pier, waving goodbye.
00:49:54It's difficult to think of death here, close to you.
00:49:57I don't want it to end.
00:50:00Come with me to France. I don't want to leave you.
00:50:03I have to stay here to help him.
00:50:06In fact, I don't want to do anything.
00:50:09We are surrounded from all sides.
00:50:12I don't want to go home.
00:50:15I made you stay here. Go put my father in a dump.
00:50:18I don't know how I'll be able to explain all this to him.
00:50:21Trotsky decided to send his son to Germany
00:50:24to organize the Bureau of the Left Opposition there.
00:50:29Lvova was his right hand,
00:50:32the only person he really trusted.
00:50:35He wrote to the German and Turkish governments
00:50:38saying his son had to go to Germany for health reasons.
00:50:41Visas arrived quickly,
00:50:44and Lvova and Jeanne left Turkey together.
00:50:47Trotsky had to go back to France
00:50:50to find a job,
00:50:53and Jeanne had to go back to France
00:50:56to find a job,
00:50:59and Lvova had to go back to France
00:51:02Lvova and Jeanne left Turkey together.
00:51:32After Lvova left Buryukhada,
00:51:35Trotsky's daughter, Zina, arrived.
00:52:02Zina, Zina!
00:52:05Serechka, Serechka, Papa, Zina, Zina!
00:52:36You look at me like you did in 1917, when I gave a speech in Petrograd.
00:52:42You haven't changed a bit. I'm very glad.
00:52:51I can't forget Nina.
00:52:54I was so lonely in Moscow.
00:52:56I want to be with you.
00:52:58I don't want to part.
00:53:05Zina was one of two daughters Trotsky had from his first marriage with Alexandra Sokolovskaya,
00:53:15a revolutionary comrade from the 1900s.
00:53:28Trotsky had left her when he fled his first Siberian exile for Europe in 1902.
00:53:34When he returned to Russia in 1905, it was with Natalia, whom he had met in Paris.
00:53:45Zina was not well.
00:53:48The death at a young age of tuberculosis of her sister Nina had depressed her,
00:53:54and she suffered from depression in addition to serious respiratory problems.
00:54:00Trotsky wanted her to come to Turkey first and immediately travel on to Germany for treatment.
00:54:06Again, Trotsky faced a visa problem.
00:54:09In a telegram he sent to Tevfik Rustu Aras, the foreign minister,
00:54:14he indicated that Zina was waiting sick in Odessa,
00:54:18and he asked for an urgent visa to have her brought to Turkey.
00:54:22Trotsky also said he was ready to pay all telegraph and visa fees.
00:54:29The next day the foreign minister sent him a telegraph.
00:54:33Order given to our Odessa consulate to issue visa for Miss Zina Volkova. Stop.
00:54:41No need for a telegraph fee. Stop. Tevfik 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.
00:55:26He's the only one who makes us happy.
00:55:29However, when the fire broke out,
00:55:33we all decided it was the GPU's doing.
00:55:37They had been hunting for my manuscripts for a long time.
00:55:41The Turkish police couldn't determine the cause of the fire for a long time,
00:55:47and finally determined that it was Seva who was playing with matches and started the fire.
00:55:54Since then we call him Little GPU.
00:56:00We'd like them to stay with us,
00:56:04but it's better for them to go to Germany.
00:56:13Zina!
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,
00:57:07for she was Jewish.
00:57:09Lvova wrote to his father on January 5th, 1933,
00:57:14informing 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.
00:57:32I don't think I can take care of my child.
00:57:35He doesn't speak a word of German.
00:57:37Call 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.
00:58:00Pierre Frank, his secretary,
00:58:03recounted that Trotsky locked himself up in his room
00:58:06and would not talk to anyone for five days.
00:58:11When he emerged, his hair had grown whiter than before.
00:58:16When he emerged, his hair had grown whiter than before.
00:58:47To escape the sorrow and the agony of Zina's death,
00:58:51Trotsky returned to fishing.
00:58:54He could be seen every day with his fisherman friend Haralambos,
00:58:58who only spoke Turkish and Greek.
00:59:00They communicated only with gestures,
00:59:03but Trotsky soon became expert at handling the hooks,
00:59:06the lines and the nets.
00:59:08News of his prowess as a fisherman was heard even in Russia.
00:59:39What does Trotsky's brother ask Trotsky?
00:59:43If Lenin were alive, would you be in the Kremlin now?
00:59:48Trotsky replies,
00:59:51if Lenin were alive,
00:59:54in this regime,
00:59:56he would be fishing with me in Turkey now.
01:00:08Trotsky's brother, Leonid Trotsky,
01:00:13was a member of the Kremlin.
01:00:21Take a toad,
01:00:24put it on the hook and let it go.
01:00:27It will spit well.
01:00:30We catch toads in Odessa.
01:00:34Yes.
01:00:39Ah.
01:00:48Do you have jokes about toads?
01:00:52No? I don't understand.
01:00:56Yes.
01:01:03In 1933,
01:01:05Turkey prepared to celebrate its 10th anniversary as a republic.
01:01:10Ataturk wanted to show the world
01:01:13how far Turkey had gone in one short decade.
01:01:16Countrywide gala events, balls and ceremonies
01:01:19lasted 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 nonstop exchange of delegations
01:01:50between the two countries,
01:01:52and when the Turkish Prime Minister,
01:01:54Ismet İnönü, returned from a visit to Moscow
01:01:57with a credit line of $8 million,
01:02:00the Istanbul newspapers were full of Stalin's praise.
01:02:07Trotsky was anxious.
01:02:09He 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,
01:02:24Trotsky 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.
01:02:45He pressed his friends in France in particular into action,
01:02:49but weeks passed and there was no reply.
01:02:52His hopes were raised
01:02:54when he was allowed to Denmark to deliver a lecture,
01:02:57but the Communist parties protested his trip through Europe
01:03:01and he returned to Prinkipo.
01:03:05His finances were dwindling
01:03:07and money started to become a serious problem
01:03:10for the first time since his arrival in Turkey.
01:03:13He wrote to Henri Moliniere on June the 7th,
01:03:16I could even live in Corsica if only France would open its doors.
01:03:22Finally, 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
01:03:35and would have to live in a southern suburb
01:03:38under constant police supervision
01:03:40and the threat of immediate expulsion
01:03:42if he failed to obey any of the conditions
01:03:45put forth by the French government.
01:03:48Trotsky accepted and started packing.
01:03:51Isaac Deutscher wrote,
01:03:54It was not without a tug of emotion
01:03:56that 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.
01:04:23Trotsky and Natalia left Buryukhida on June the 25th, 1933
01:04:29to board the ship Bulgaria bound for France.
01:04:45He wrote one final letter to the government in Ankara,
01:04:48a letter of thanks for the hospitality
01:04:51and the security they provided during the past four and a half years.
01:05:16But there was also emotion.
01:05:19In his memoirs, he wrote of his last moments
01:05:22in the villa in Buryukhida.
01:05:25The house is already empty.
01:05:28The wooden cases are already downstairs.
01:05:31Young hands are driving in the nails.
01:05:34The floor of our old and dilapidated villa
01:05:37was painted with such queer paint in the spring
01:05:40that even now, four months later,
01:05:43tables, chairs, and our feet keep sticking to it.
01:05:46Oddly, I feel as if my feet
01:05:49had gotten somewhat rooted in the soil of Prinkipur.
01:06:10Trotsky's French visa expired in 1935.
01:06:16He 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
01:06:27of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo.
01:06:32There, he would suffer another blow.
01:06:36His son, Lvova, whom he'd sent to Germany in 1931,
01:06:41had fled to France after Hitler came to power in 1933
01:06:45and was leading a happy life there with Jeanne,
01:06:48now his wife, and continuing his father's work.
01:06:53With a new but trusted French supporter, Etienne,
01:06:56Lvova was organizing the left opposition in Paris.
01:07:00Etienne had access to Lvova's private letters
01:07:04and read all the instructions Trotsky sent his son.
01:07:08Lvova died mysteriously in 1938.
01:07:11According to the official hospital report,
01:07:14he fell from his bed and died in the hospital
01:07:17where he had just undergone an operation for appendicitis.
01:07:22In 1958, Etienne was arrested
01:07:26under his true identity of Mark Sporovsky,
01:07:30GPU agent.
01:07:32Mark Sporovsky said that the accident in the Paris clinic
01:07:36was arranged on Stalin's orders.
01:07:42All of Trotsky's children were now dead.
01:07:46Trotsky devoted himself full-time to writing,
01:07:49producing a flood of books, including My Life,
01:07:53a matchless autobiographical history
01:07:56of the Russian Revolution.
01:08:03He survived at least one assassination attempt,
01:08:07but on August the 20th, 1940,
01:08:11seven years after he left Boyukheda,
01:08:14Stalin's GPU finally caught up with Trotsky.
01:08:21Ramon Mercader, a Stalinist agent
01:08:24who'd made his way into Trotsky's household in Mexico,
01:08:28fatally 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.
01:09:28TROTSKY'S RETURN
01:09:58TROTSKY'S RETURN
01:10:28TROTSKY'S RETURN
01:10:58TROTSKY'S RETURN
01:11:28TROTSKY'S RETURN