1940 Assassination attempt on Trotsky

75 years ago, on August 20, 1940, NKVD agent Ramon Mercader, posing as a Trotskyist, was alone with Trotsky in his office in a villa in Coyoacan (Mexico City), inflicted a fatal blow to his head with an ice pick. Mercader tried to escape, but was captured by the guards, who came running to the cry of Trotsky. The guards almost killed the assassin, but Trotsky demanded that he be left alive in order to find out who sent him. The next day he died. Mercader was sentenced to 20 years in prison (the highest penalty in Mexico), of which he served 19. For the murder of Trotsky, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.