Published in the UK's Guardian newspaper. [1]
Transcript of the interview.
Guardian:
After being
deported from the Soviet Union in 1929, Leon Trotsky, the founder of the Red
Army, sought exile in Mexico in 1937.
His was a
very complete life.
He
dedicated it to his ideas and putting them into practice.
On 24 May
1940, an attempt is made to assassinate Trotsky.
His
grandson Estaban Volkov was there.
Esteban
Volkov:
I was
sleeping in the neighbouring bedroom when someone came in from the garden.
They pushed
the door and it scraped the floor and made a noise, waking me up.
I saw a
silhouette and someone came in.
I thought
it was someone from the house. I didn’t imagine it was a stranger.
Then
shortly afterwards the shots started.
Guardian:
Estaban
Volkov, Leon
Trotsky’s grandson.
Esteban Volkov:
There was
the smell of powder.
I threw
myself to the floor and covered myself with a blanket in the corner.
They shot
up my bed too, six or seven bullets in the middle of it.
Fortunately
I was covered and only got a scratch.
They fired
from three angles. From the garden window, my bedroom and the office.
With a
Thompson machine gun.
Well we
knew, grandfather knew, that it would happen again soon.
Each
morning he would say to [his wife] Natalia, ‘They’ve given us one more day of
life.’
The problem
is the fight against imperialism. The attempt to dominate all these countries.
To take
away their natural resources.
We’re
seeing that now in Iraq, the second biggest oil producer in the world.
Where’s all
that going?
Trotsky was
a key player in these historical events.
He
documented every detail of his experience leaving an immense political arsenal.
He
dedicated 40 years of his life to the cause of socialism.
He first
prepared the revolution with Lenin and then he made it happen.
In the
aftermath of the revolution and Stalin’s bureaucracy he fought the reaction
against it and brought the movement back to life.
And it was
in that struggle that he died.
Stalin hadn’t
lost his obsession for annihilating and killing.
Guardian:
On 20
August 1940 Trotsky was in his study when he was attacked with an ice pick.
His
assassin was a Stalinst agent who had infiltrated Trotsky’s inner circle.
Trotsky
died in hospital the next day.
Esteban Volkov:
I went
through the door and saw the young bodyguard Harold Robbins.
He was very
upset and had his pistol in his hand.
I walked
towards the house and saw a man who was bleeding, being restrained by the
police.
I didn’t
recognise him then.
And later
when I walked into the library I saw my grandfather injured on the ground.
He managed
to say to the secretaries who were around him that they should keep me far away
that I shouldn’t see the scene. And he also
said when the guard was beating up the man who attacked him not to kill him.
That he should talk.
The belief
he had in himself was so impressive.
His
confidence was contagious.
Marxism
remains the most precise theory for understanding historical processes.
I hope
something better comes along, but it hasn’t yet.
We’re seeing
that capitalism is a complete disaster.
It is
unable to solve humanity’s problems. Quite the contrary.
Every day
there is more chaos, more misery. No, it’s really an obsolete system.
[1] http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/19/trotsky-last-day-by-grandson?intcmp=239
[1] http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/19/trotsky-last-day-by-grandson?intcmp=239
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