How the GPU Murdered Trotsky

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1 October 2025(updated 22 October 2025, 9:55 PM)

Leon Trotsky, co-leader of the October 1917 Revolution, was assassinated in Mexico on August 20, 1940. Security and the Fourth International, launched by the International Committee of the Fourth International launched in May 1975, was the first major investigation into the circumstances of his murder.

This volume, published in 1981, presents documents from the investigation’s first year, which uncovered abundant and long-concealed evidence of GPU penetration of the Trotskyist movement. These revelations exposed how Stalin’s agents orchestrated the murders of Trotsky, his son Leon Sedov, and comrades including Rudolf Klement, Erwin Wolf, and Ignace Reiss, as part of the broader counterrevolution that followed the Moscow Trials.

The World Socialist Web Site will be publishing sections from this volume over the coming weeks, to accompany Lecture 5-7 of the Socialist Equality Party (US) 2025 Summer School, held between August 2-9, 2025. An epub version of the text is available for purchase through Mehring Books here.

Part 1: An Open Letter to All Workers Organizations

Part 2: Introduction to the 1981 Volume

Part 3: Statement of the Workers League

Part 4: Statement of the Workers Revolutionary Party

Part 5: Correspondence of the International Committee

Part 6: How the GPU Murdered Trotsky