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0120090706Nigel Anthony reads from Bertrand M Patenaude's account of the exile and subsequent assassination of Leon Trotsky, who was outmanoeuvred for the leadership of the Soviet Communist Party by Josef Stalin before being exiled, eventually going into hiding in Mexico in the home of the famous artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo.

At the time of the Moscow trials, Leon Trotsky, the charismatic intellectual at the heart of the Russian Revolution, had been exiled from the Soviet Union and was unwelcome in almost every country in Europe. So, as 1937 dawned, he found himself on a Norwegian oil tanker bound for Mexico.

A Jane Marshall production for BBC Radio 4.

As 1937 dawned, Trotsky boarded a Norwegian tanker bound for Mexico.

0220090707Nigel Anthony reads from Bertrand M Patenaude's account of the exile and subsequent assassination of Leon Trotsky.

Leon Trotsky, exiled from the Soviet Union and in fear of his life, settles into the Blue House, home of artist Diego Rivera and his wife Frida Kahlo, in a Mexican village. Now he faces the hearings which he hopes will clear his name.

A Jane Marshall production for BBC Radio 4.

Leon Trotsky settles into the home of artist Diego Rivera and his wife Frida Kahlo.

0320090708Nigel Anthony reads from Bertrand M Patenaude's account of the exile and subsequent assassination of Leon Trotsky.

Trotsky has fallen out with Diego Rivera and has to move to a new house in Mexico City. His staff locate a run-down house in the Avenue Viena and begin to turn it into a fortress.

A Jane Marshall production for BBC Radio 4.

0420090709On the morning of May 24th 1940, Trotsky wakes to the sound of gunfire inside his fortress
05 LAST20090710Nigel Anthony reads from Bertrand M Patenaude's account of the exile and subsequent assassination of Leon Trotsky.

On August 17th 1940 at 4.35pm, the iron doors of Trotsky's safe haven gave way and a man known to Trotsky as Frank Jacson, a Canadian businessman, was admitted to the patio.

A Jane Marshall production for BBC Radio 4.

On August 17th 1940, a man known to Trotsky as Frank Jacson was admitted to his safe haven