who believed he was a left-leaning son of a wealthy Belgian diplomat — a cover designed by the NKVD. After moving to Mexico City, over time Mercader could enter and leave the compound without being ...

Just 20 years before, known to the world as Leon Trotsky, he had been the second most powerful man in Soviet Russia and Lenin's obvious successor. At the age of 26 Trotsky had been the undisputed ...