European branch of the Dewey Commission: Polizzotti, 435–36; Gérard Roche, “La rencontre de l’aigle et du lion: Trotsky, Breton et le manifeste de México,” Cahiers Léon Trotsky, No. 25, March 1986, 25 [hereafter: Roche].
Van arranged…Meyer Schapiro: Roche, 26; Van, 121.
He wrote extensively about literary fiction: Knei-Paz, 454–75; Deutscher I, 39–46; Deutscher, II, 150–168; Howe, 94–102.
“The novel is our daily bread”: Dugrand, 34.
“miracle of reincarnation”: Knei-Paz, 460.
a group called Proletcult: Edward J. Brown, Russian Literature Since the Revolution (Collier Books, 1969), 136–40; Knei-Paz, 289–96; Deutscher II, 139–42, 150–51.
“We Marxists have always lived in tradition”: Leon Trotsky, Literature and Revolution (Haymarket Books, 2005), 115; for this particular quotation I have used the translation in Deutscher III, 154.
“What the worker will take from Shakespeare”: Trotsky, Literature and Revolution, 184–85.
“Art must make its own way”: Trotsky, Literature and Revolution, 178.
Symbolist poet Andrei Bely: Trotsky, Literature and Revolution, 54–60.
“fellow travelers”: Trotsky, Literature and Revolution, 62.
the champions of proletarian culture had their day: Brown, Russian Literature Since the Revolution, 27–34.
idealized depictions of Soviet life: Brown, 31; Max Eastman, Artists in Uniform: A Study of Literature and Bureaucratism (Columbia University Press, 1953).
“It is impossible to read Soviet verse and prose”…Alexis Tolstoy…“manufacturer of ‘myths’ to order!”: Trotsky, “Art and Politics in Our Epoch,” Partisan Review, August–September 1938.
“New York intellectuals”: Wald, The New York Intellectuals; Terry Cooney, The Rise of the New York Intellectuals: Partisan Review and Its Circle, 1934–1945 (The University of Wisconsin Press, 1986); Alexander Bloom, Prodigal Sons: The New York Intellectuals & Their World (Oxford University Press, 1986).
William Phillips and Philip Rahv: Wald, 76–77; Cooney, 39–41.
“vulgarizers of Marxism”: Cooney, 90.
“continuum of sensibility”: Cooney, 62.
“There is now a line of blood”: Cooney, 99–100.
the Partisan Review circle: Cooney, 107–9.
City College in upper Manhattan: Wald, 277, 313, 350; Web site for the 1997 PBS documentary film Arguing the World, http://www.pbs.org/arguing/ny intellectuals_geneology.html.
Farrell moved there from Chicago…the road toward open anti-Stalinism: Cooney, 102–3; Wald, 82–85; Alan Wald, “Farrell and Trotskyism,” Twentieth-Century Literature, Vol. 22, No. 1, February 1976.
“started out more or less as Trotskyism”: Wald, 5.
Farrell…developed sinus trouble: Wald, 136.
“he read French novels”: Bloom, 112; on Macdonald, see Michael Wreszin, A Rebel in Defense of Tradition: The Life and Politics of Dwight Macdonald (Basic Books, 1994).
children of immigrants: Wald, 76–77; Cooney, 6.
Macdonald…wrote to invite Trotsky: Macdonald to Trotsky, July 7, 1937, TEP 2836.
“very happy to collaborate”: Trotsky to Macdonald, July 15, 1937, TEP 8951; also Trotsky to Rahv, March 21, 1938, TEP 9765.
Trotsky found it too vague: Trotsky to Macdonald, September 11, 1937, TEP 8952.
“What is Living and What is Dead in Marxism?”: Partisan Review editors to Trotsky, January 14, 1938, TEP 3714.
“extremely pretentious and at the same time confused”: Trotsky to Macdonald, January 20, 1937, TEP 8953.
His defection was total: Max Eastman, “The End of Socialism in Russia,” Harper’s, February 1937.
“retreat of the intellectuals”: James Burnham and Max Shachtman, “Intellectuals in Retreat,” New International, Vol. 5, No. 1 (January 1939).
Rahv…fired a respectful blast: Rahv to Trotsky, March 1, 1938, TEP 4211.
Desperate for money: André Breton, “Visite à Léon Trotsky,” Cahiers Léon Trotsky, No. 12 (December 1982), 105–6 [hereafter: Breton, “Visite”]; Polizzotti, 446.
Surrealism preached the virtues of poetry…“pure psychic automatism”…“convulsive beauty”…autobiographical adventure journals: Polizzotti, 209–12, 264–73, 432–33; Roger Shattuck, “The Dada-Surrealist Expedition,” The New York Review of Books, Vol. 18, No. 9 (May 18, 1972), and No. 10 (June 1, 1972).
he confided to Stefan Zweig: Polizzotti, 466–67.
leonine and noble in appearance: Herrera, 226.
“the pope of Surrealism”: Polizzotti, 215.
Jacqueline—blond, lithe, and birdlike: Polizzotti, 403.
Breton, who was moved to tears: Breton, “Visite,” 110.
“blossomed forth…into pure surreality”: Herrera, 228.
Breton later described his state of excitement…“something electrifying”: Breton, “Visite,” 110–11.
no major topics were discussed…Trotsky asked Van: Van, 121–24.
Their next meeting…was more memorable: Van, 122.
“experiments with the inner life”: Shattuck, “The Dada-Surrealist Expedition,” The New York Review of Books, Vol. 18, No. 9 (May 18, 1972).
“Degenerate Art”: Wolfgang Benz, A Concise History of the Third Reich, Thomas Dunlap, trans. (University of California Press, 2006), 67–68.
“line of demarcation between art and the GPU”: Trotsky, “Art and Politics in Our Epoch,” Partisan Review, August-September 1938.
agreed to draft the founding manifesto: Van, 122.
the excursions and the road trips: Breton, “Visite,” 112.
“land of convulsive beauty”: Roche, 24.
pre-Columbian sculptures from Chupicuaro: Van, 127.
“Cette séduction est extrême”: Breton, “Visite,” 112.
“skirmishes” between them: Breton, “Visite,” 115–16.
“keep open a little window”: Breton, “Visite,” 116.
stopped to visit a church: Van, 124–25.
“Have you something to show me?”…Van wisely declined: Van, 125.
headed for Guadalajara: Van, 124–25.
José Clemente Orozco: Van, 126; Rochfort, 99–119, 137–45; Brenner, 268–76; Wolfe, 159–61.
“the Mexican Goya”: Brenner, 268; Wolfe, 161.
bulwark mustache…perfunctory smile: Brenner, 269.
“He is a Dostoevsky!”: Van, 126.
Creative Man…The Rebellion of Man: Rochfort, 139–41.
Orozco assured Trotsky: “Joe’s notes on Trotsky,” Hansen papers, 40:7.
like schoolkids playing hooky: Polizzotti, 461.
a trip to Pátzcuaro: Van, 127–28; Herrera, 227.
“an Aristotle, a Goethe, or a Marx”: Trotsky, Literature and Revolution, 207.
“a small square of canvas?”…an attack of aphasia: Van, 128.
giving Trotsky a couple of pages of text…Trotsky decided to bow out: Van, 128–29; “Manifesto: Toward a Free Revolutionary Art,” in Paul N. Siegel, ed., Leon Trotsky on Literature and Art (Pathfinder Press, 1970), 115–21.
International Federation of Independent Revolutionary Artists: Polizzotti, 468–71.
“a resounding flop”: Cooney, 142.
Trotsky and Breton parted: Van, 129; Polizzotti, 464.
“boundless admiration”…“Cordelia complex”: Breton to Trotsky, August 9, 1938TEP 369.
“I am sincerely touched”: Trotsky to Breton, August 31, 1938, TEP 7428.
this was the start of the trouble: Van, 134–37; Broué, 903–7.
seemed to disorient Diego: Herrera, 247; Van, 136.
Julien Levy Gallery: Herrera, 230–33.
The Paris show, called “Mexique”: Herrera, 250–51.
“all that junk”: Herrera, 250.
Rivera’s fame, money, and force of personality: Van, 132–33.
“incomparable political intuition and insight”: Hansen to Reba, November 16, 1937, Hansen papers, 18:5.
“passion, courage, and i
magination”: Trotsky to Frida Kahlo, January 12, 1939, TC 11:37.
“You are a painter. You have your work”: Herrera, 473, n. 247.
Trotsky later lamented this choice of language: Trotsky to Cannon, October 30, 1938, TEP 7536.
“gift for alienating people”: Eastman, Companions, 119.
“The idea of my wanting to be rid of Diego”: Trotsky to Frida Kahlo, January 12, 1939, TC 11:37.
the O’Gorman affair: Trotsky to Jan Frankel, March 27, 1939, TEP 8178; Broué, 903–7.
Cárdenas had nationalized Mexico’s petroleum reserves: Cambridge History, 44.
“vandalism”: Broué, Trotsky, 904.
“reactionary bootlicker of Hitler and Mussolini”…“Mexico is an oppressed country”: Trotsky to Jan Frankel, March 27, 1939, TEP 8178.
a letter to Breton in Paris: Van, 136–37; Natalia’s declaration, TEP 17313.
launching a number of initiatives: Trotsky to Curtiss, February 15, 1939, TC 23:7; Van, 137.
“purely personal adventures”: Trotsky, “A Necessary Statement,” January 4, 1939, Writings, 11:269–74.
“very, very good hour”: Trotsky to Frida Kahlo, January 12, 1939, TC 11:37.
Rivera sent a letter of resignation: Rivera to Pan-American Bureau, March 19, 1939, TEP 15303.
“Now, dear Frida, you know the situation here”: Trotsky to Frida Kahlo, January 12, 1939, TC 11:37.
“Diego is completely right”: Herrera, 246–47.
she and Diego divorced: Herrera, 272–73.
Mexico’s presidential politics: Van, 138; Charles Curtiss memoir, in Buchman papers, box 3, folder: “Mexico, 1987.”
“series of incredible zigzags”: Trotsky to Pan-American Committee, March 22, 1939, Writings, 11:283–90.
he had to separate himself from the painter: Trotsky to Curtiss, February 15, 1939, TEP 7636.
Breton’s initial draft: Breton, “Visite,” 116; Roche, 39.
“morally and politically impossible”: Trotsky to Curtiss, February 14, 1939, TEP 7635.
about 1,500 former foreign volunteers in Spain: Trotsky to Goldman, January 7, 1939, TEP 8303; Cambridge History, 46.
“He wishes to impose his generosity on me”…donated to the local comrades: Trotsky to Curtiss, February 14, 1939, TEP 7635.
Diego made public his break with Trotsky: Trotsky to Jan Frankel, April 12, 1939, TC 10:56; The New York Times, April 15, 1939.
the methods of the GPU: report of Curtiss meeting with Rivera, March 11, 1939, TC 23:7.
Diego’s promiscuous application…“A tremendous impulsiveness”: Trotsky to Pan-American Committee, March 22, 1939, Writings, 11:283–90.
“You warned us many times”: Trotsky to Jan Frankel, March 27, 1939, TEP 8178.
“the Painter’s Case Is A Part Of The Retreat Of The Intellectuals”: Trotsky to Breton, January 11, 1939, TEP 11027.
fantastic political U-turn: Wolfe, 385–86; Herrera, 341–42, 435.
for the purpose of having him assassinated: Herrera, 297.
At the moment of his departure: Van, 138.
Chapter Eight: The Great Dictator
an important meeting in the Kremlin: Sudoplatov, 65–69; Andrew & Mitrokhin, 41, 69, 76, 85–86; Montefiore, 4–5, 115–16.
let the “chatterbox” out of his grasp: Montefiore, 33.
“Stalin would now give a great deal”: Diary, 26–27.
“treacherous infiltrations”: Sudoplatov, 67.
“The greatest delight is to mark one’s enemy”: Diary, 63–64.
“operetta commander”: Montefiore, 33.
“outstanding mediocrity”…“gravedigger” of the Revolution: My Life, 512; Volkogonov, 322; Diary, 69; Writings; 10:202.
“He is thinking of how to destroy you”: Diary, 23–24.
“His craving for revenge on me is completely unsatisfied”…“Stalin would not hesitate a moment”: Diary, 63–64.
“If Trotsky is finished”: Sudolatov 67
Sudoplatov, an experienced killer: Sudoplatov, 25–27.
“Trotsky should be eliminated within a year”: Sudoplatov, 67.
“But they cannot tear me away from history!”: Volkogonov, 299.
When Stalin found out, he was incredulous: Volkogonov, 315–16.
listed him as a writer: Van, “Lev Davidovich,” in Leon Trotsky, 44–47.
he dreamed of becoming a writer: My Life, 339; Bertram D. Wolfe, “Leon Trotsky as Historian,” Slavic Review, Vol. 20, No. 3 (October 1961), 495–502.
took a toll on his nerves and his health: Natalia, “Father and Son,” in Leon Trotsky, 44.
“How could you lose power?”: Van, 58; My Life, xiv, 504–5.
library books that were shuttled back and forth: Glotzer, 38.
a demonstration of 2,500 Petrograd workers: L. D. Trotskii, Istoriia russkoi revoliutsii (two volumes in three, Respublika, 1997), Vol. 1, 124.
George Bernard Shaw once remarked: Wolfe, “Leon Trotsky as Historian,” 496.
he did not pretend to be impartial: Knei-Paz, 497; Howe, 155.
deliberately places himself in Lenin’s shadow: Deutscher III, 185, 203, Knei-Paz, 499.
lifting himself onto the pedestal: Volkogonov, 433.
“gray blur” in 1917: the famous phrase is that of Nikolai Sukhanov; see Tucker, Stalin as Revolutionary, 178–79.
a writer’s paradise: Volkogonov, 429.
Time magazine gave its readers the impression: Time, January 25, 1937.
his financial situation was extremely precarious: Christiania Bank og Kreditkasse to Trotsky, January 20, 1937, TEP 568; Trotsky to Jan Frankel, December 19, 1937, TEP 8154; Holm og Rode to Trotsky, January 21, 1938, TEP 1990.
Max Lieber…was behaving like a “counter-agent”: Trotsky to Sara Weber, February 3 and February 12, 1937, TEP 10812, 10813.
“What is the matter with Lieber?”: Trotsky to Shachtman, Novack, and Weber, Januar 31, 1937, TEP 10323; Trotsky to Sara Weber, February 12, 1937, TEP 5883.
a front for Soviet espionage activity: Chambers, Witness, 44, 355, 365–66, 376–77, 394–95, 397, 408–10; Albert Halper, Good-bye, Union Square: A Writer’s Memoir of the Thirties (Quadrangle Books, 1970).
Doubleday was insisting: H. E. Maule to Trotsky, January 28, 1937, TEP 3007; Trotsky to Maule, February 2, 1937, TEP 9030.
a book on the Moscow trials could be the best-seller: Trotsky to Sara Weber, January 15, 1937, TEP 12499.
a counterindictment he called “Stalin’s Crimes”: Trotsky to Harper & Brothers, February 20, 1937, TC 11:1.
Trotsky felt compelled to abandon his project: Jan Frankel to Charles Walker, June 9, 1937, TC 23:2.
“the average man on the New York street”: Trotsky to Walker, November 5, 1937, TEP 10763.
updating My Life: Trotsky to Walker, August 25, 1937, TEP 10755.
departure of his Russian typist: Trotsky to Walker, September 30, 1937, TEP 10761; Hansen to Sara and Jack Weber, October 21, 1937, TEP 12490; Trotsky to Walker, November 5, 1937, TEP 10763.
his financial position was “extremely acute”: Trotsky to Walker, December 19, 1937, TEP 10765.
a breakthrough occurred in New York…worked out an arrangement: Walker to Trotsky, February 16, 1938, TEP 5811; Harper & Brothers to Curtis Brown Ltd, April 12, 1938, TEP 636.
Natalia was borrowing funds: Hansen to Rose Karsner, March 2, 1938, TEP 11763.
an anxious letter to Van: Jan Frankel to Van, February 22, 1938, TC 23:4.
“totally acceptable”: Trotsky to Walker, February 26, 1938, TEP 10769.
“à contre-coeur”: Van to Jan Frankel, February 27, 1938, TC 23:4.
warned by the Doubleday editors: Walker to Trotsky, March 10, 1938, TEP 5813; Trotsky to Walker, March 15, 1938, TEP 10771; Walker to Trotsky, March 30, 1938, TEP 5814; Walker to Trotsky, April 9, 1938, TEP 5817.
a hardheaded arrangement: Walker to Trotsky, April 9, 1938, TEP 5817.
first advance check arri
ved: Curtis Brown to Trotsky, April 27, 1938, TEP 637.
“I have waged the fight chiefly with a pen in my hand”: My Life, xvi.
he was nicknamed Pero: My Life, 135.
Listening to Trotsky’s resonant voice: Van, 13–14; Van, “Lev Davidovich,” in Leon Trotsky, 42; Glotzer, 38.
pace the floor of his study…lose his train of thought and his patience: Sara Weber, “Recollections of Trotsky,” Modern Occasions, Spring 1972, 182; Hansen to Reba Hansen, November 1, 1937, Hansen papers, 18:5; Hansen, “With Trotsky in Coyoacan,” xxiii.
“At least one-third of my working time”: Trotsky to Canfield, September 25, 1938, TEP 7483; Trotsky to Malamuth, October 12, 1938, TEP 8971.
freedom afforded by Russian syntax: Van, “Lev Davidovich,” in Leon Trotsky, 45.
He complained that Max Eastman’s translation: Trotsky to Jan Frankel, February 3, 1938, TEP 8160.
a scholar of Russian literature: Charles Malamuth.
a comrade in New York would serve as his researcher: Joseph Vanzler, pseudonyms John G. Wright and Usick.
he had lost the habit of writing by hand: Trotsky to Kopp, June 1, 1938, TEP 8711; Trotsky to Jan Frankel, March 27, 1939, TEP 8179; Marie, Trotsky, 498, 550.
Trotsky chafed at the slow pace: Trotsky to Sara Weber, October 4, 1937, TEP 10829.
Sara Weber…family illness: Rae Spiegel to Jan Frankel, April 9, 1938, TC 23:5.
“Let her come! We shall win her over!” Van, 101.
“She is a quite young girl”: Trotsky to Jan Frankel, May 14 and May 31, 1938, TEP 8167, 8168.
“A girl of eighteen cannot make conspiracies”: Trotsky to Jan Frankel, June 18, 1938, TEP 8171.
Trotsky discovered the Dictaphone: Sara Weber to Rose Karsner, August 8 and August 23, 1938, TC 23:6.
“like a peasant shying away from an optician”…his enthusiasm for his recording machine: Hansen to Rose Karsner, December 7, 1938, TC 23:6.
Russian émigré living in Mexico: Sara Weber to Rose Karsner, August 17, 1938, TC 23:6.
a fresh supply of wax cylinders: Hansen to Rose Karsner, December 7, 1938, TC 23:6.
“guerrilla polemics”: Trotsky to Martin Abern, August 4, 1938, TEP 7254.
The man who became Stalin: Tucker, Stalin as Revolutionary, 64–114; Montefiore, 26–32.
Lenin’s promotion of Stalin…“wonderful Georgian”: Tucker, Stalin as Revolutionary, 152.