Mexico City – Museo Leon Trotsky

Close by the “Blue House”, is another museum which I found a lot more interesting – the Leon Trotsky museum. In case you don’t know, Trotsky was an old school Russian communist. After Lenin died, there was a power struggle in the Communist party. Stalin won and proceeded to murder all opposition. At the behest of Mexican intellectuals, including Diego Rivera, Trotsky was granted political asylum. He took up living with the trendy intellectuals in Coyoacán, just around the corner from Frida and Diego. His house is now a museum.

Unfortunately, it was not the peaceful retirement from revolutionary activity Trotsky had hoped for. Soon after moving in, there was an assassination attempt by a group of painters. Like the Blue House, the Trotsky house is restored look like when Trotsky lived here. You can visit his bedroom and see where the assassination attempt occurred. The bullet holes are still in the wall. Being artists, not military types, the attempt failed miserably. The only one injured was Trotsky’s grandson who hurt his foot.

As a result of this attempt, the house was turned into a fortress. All the external walls and windows were bricked up and sentry towers erected. These are all still there, so finding the entrance to the museum was a bit tricky as all the external doors are now bricked up. It does show how desperate the situation was for Trotsky and his family.

Another assassination attempt was successful a few months later. Trotsky had his brains smashed out with an ice pick. Not a pleasant way to go, but you can visit the room in which it happened!

The whole house can be visited, which is great. I’m not sure how interesting the exhibits are. You’d have to be filled with revolutionary vigour to get excited about seeing Trotsky’s toilet and Trotsky’s bath. Nonetheless, they’re all there. Slightly more interesting, is his office and library. They’re presented in a way that looks like Trotsky has just popped out for a bit of revolutionary activity, which is cool.

Not being a great student of Russian history, it was great to wander about the rooms of the Revolutionary and get a feel for what it was like at the time. The museum has all the text in English, so it was easy to follow. There’s also a proper museum attached, showing the history of Trotsky and the Revolution. Interesting stuff. Frida Kahlo allegedly had an affair with Trotsky, but that’s not mentioned anywhere. Tart.