Mexico City. Ramon Mercader, an agent of Stalin’s Red Aid, kills Leon Trotsky. After associating with him and pretending to share his views, he manages to meet him alone, then strikes him repeatedly in the head with a steel axe. Trotsky, though seriously injured, manages to turn and grab his attacker; the commotion draws people out the door. Trotsky dies the next day in the hospital from severe brain injuries. This is Stalin’s second attempt to kill Trotsky: in the first, he attempted to do so through Carlos Contreras (Vittorio Vidali) and his lover Tina Modotti, again in Mexico City, again involving Modotti and Vidali.
