The exiled communist theorist and revolutionary Leon Trotsky was attacked by a Soviet agent in Coyoacán, Mexico, on August 20, 1940, and died of his injuries the following day.
Trotsky, one of the chief architects of the Russian Revolution, had at one time been regarded as the most likely successor to Lenin as the leader of the U.S.S.R. After Lenin’s death in 1924, however, Trotsky was forced from power by his rival Joseph Stalin. He went into exile in 1928, moving from country to country and ultimately settling in Mexico in 1936. He continued to write and to criticize Stalin.
In May 1940 Trotsky survived an assassination attempt when men with machine guns fired into his home. Three months later he was assassinated by Ramón Mercader, a Spanish communist and suspected agent of Stalin. The Soviet government denied responsibility for Trotsky’s death.