The Revolutionary at Home

A man without a country, a man without a home.

Exiled by Stalin and increasingly unwelcome in Europe, Leon Trotsky found refuge in Mexico in 1937, after Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo helped persuade the Mexican government to grant him asylum.

Here, the revolutionary became a man in exile—writing and publishing from a modest house in Mexico City while living with the knowledge that Stalin wanted him dead.

Today, his rooms remain remarkably intact. There is the small office with its green linoleum-topped desk and typewriter; a simple kitchen and dining room; and two small bedrooms with colorful woven rugs and textiles. The domesticity of it all makes what happened here feel even more chilling.

In the bedroom, bullet holes remain from a 1940 assassination attempt led by Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros. Trotsky and his wife, Natalia, survived by taking cover as gunmen sprayed the room with bullets.

Months later, a second attempt succeeded. Soviet agent Ramón Mercader gained access to the house and fatally attacked Trotsky in his study.