1940 Unsuccessful assassination attempt on Trotsky

75 years ago, on May 24, 1940, the first attempt on the life of Leon Trotsky took place, which ended in failure. It was directed by Mexican communist artist David Siqueiros. At about four in the morning, 20 people in the form of the Mexican police and army, with the support of Robert Sheldon Hart, the guard of the Coyoacan villa recruited by the NKVD, broke into the courtyard of Trotsky's house. For 10-15 minutes they shot at Trotsky's bedroom. They also left a bomb at her door, which, however, did not work due to a technical malfunction.

Trotsky recalled: “I slept soundly, because after hard work I took sleeping pills. Waking up from the roar of shots with a heavy head, I imagined at first that a folk festival with rockets was taking place behind the fence. But the explosions were heard too close, right there, in the room, next to me and above me. The smell of gunpowder was getting stronger and stronger. It is clear that what we have always expected has happened: we have been attacked. Where are the police? Where are the guards? Tied up, captured or killed? My wife had already jumped out of bed. The shots continued uninterrupted. Later, my wife told me that she pushed me to the floor, into the space between the bed and the wall: that was exactly right. She herself stood over me for a few seconds against the wall, as if protecting me with her body, but with a whisper and movements I persuaded her to go down to the floor ... The impression was that there were about two hundred shots in total, of which about a hundred were right there, near us. Fragments of window frames and walls fell in different directions. Somewhat later, I felt that my right leg was slightly shell-shocked in two places.