Esteban Volkov, Leon Trotsky’s grandson, has died

Esteban Volkov, the grandson of Leon Trotsky, has died in Mexico at the age of 97, reports Mexico newspaper La Jornada. 

Volkov was the last living witness to Trotsky’s assassination and the keeper of the historical memory of his grandfather. The cause of Volkov’s death has not been reported.

Volkov was born in Yalta in 1926 to Trotsky’s oldest daughter, Zinaida Bronstein. He was named Vsevolod at birth, but later changed his given name. Volkov spent the bulk of his childhood in exile. His mother committed suicide, and his father was imprisoned in Siberia.

At 13, Trotsky and his grandson settled in Mexico. In 1990, Volkov set up a museum dedicated to Trotsky in the house in Coyoacán, in Mexico City, in which Volkov, Trotsky, and Volkov’s grandmother had lived.

Leon Trotsky was assassinated in 1940 by NKVD agent Ramón Mercader, who struck him in the head with an ice ax. Trotsky died in the hospital the next day. Mercader was sentenced to 20 years in prison.