[TROTSKY LEON]: (1879-1940) Bolshevik Revolutionary, one of the leaders of the Russian October Revolution, founder and first leader of the Red Army. A good and unusual 7 x 9 photograph, unsigned, the contemporary Planet News Ltd image, from London, dated 6th June 1940 to the verso, shows Leon Trotsky standing outdoors in a three quarter length pose, alongside Mexican General Manuel Nuñez after the assassination attempt he suffered. To the verso a contemporary typed 12mo page affixed explains the image context, stating "Trotsky after assassination attempt. Twenty man armed with machine guns attempted to assassinate Leon Trotsky, the exiled Russian Communist leader, and his wife, in the bedroom of their home in a suburb of Mexico City, Mexico. Trotsky and his wife escaped unhurt by lying on the floor during the machine-gunning, but Trotsky´s grandson, Sergei Sedoff, who was sleeping in an adjoining room, was wounded in the right foot. Photo shows Leon Trotsky (left) relating the details of his attempted assassination to General Jose Manuel Nuñez, Chief of Police, 5th June 1940". Small overall age wear, otherwise G

Only two months after this photograph was taken, on 20 August 1940, Trotsky was attacked in his study by the Spanish-born NKVD agent Ramon Mercader, who used an ice axe fracturing his parietal bone penetrating into his brain. The operation was codenamed "Utka" (Duck) within the NKVD. Trotsky was taken to a hospital and operated on but died the day after on 21 August 1940.