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Title: Trotsky Collection,
Date (inclusive): 1917-1980
Collection number: 92032
Collection Size: 45 manuscript boxes, 4 envelopes, 2 phonorecords (19.4 linear feet)
Repository:
Hoover Institution Archives
Stanford, California 94305-6010
Abstract: Writings and correspondence of the Russian revolutionary leader Leon Trotsky, including
drafts of articles and books, correspondence with John G. Wright and other leaders of the
Socialist Workers Party of the United States, and typed copies of correspondence with V.
I. Lenin; correspondence and reports of secretaries of Trotsky and leaders of the
Socialist Workers Party, relating especially to efforts to safeguard Trotsky and to his
assassination; records of the American Committee for the Defense of Leon Trotsky and of
the Commission of Inquiry into the Charges Made against Leon Trotsky in the Moscow
Trials; correspondence and writings of Nataliia Sedova Trotskaia and of Lev Sedov; and
published and unpublished material relating to Trotsky. Assembled from records of the
Socialist Workers Party and from papers of Wright and other party leaders. Also includes
detailed summaries of correspondence in the Trotsky Papers at Harvard University.
Language:
Russian and
English.
Collection open for research.
The Hoover Institution Archives only allows access to
copies of audiovisual items. To listen to sound recordings or to view videos or films during your visit, please contact the Archives
at least two working days before your arrival. We will then advise you of the accessibility of the material you wish to see
or hear. Please note that not all audiovisual material is immediately accessible.
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Archives.
[Identification of item], Trotsky collection, [Box no.], Hoover Institution Archives.
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Archives in 1992.
Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. To determine if this has occurred, find
the collection in Stanford University's online catalog at
http://searchworks.stanford.edu/ . Materials have been added to the collection if the number of boxes listed in the online catalog is larger than the number
of boxes listed in this finding aid.
Soviet Union--History--Revolution, 1917-1921.
Soviet Union--Politics and government--1917-1936.
Communism.
Fourth International.
Moscow Trials, Moscow, Russia, 1936-1937.
American Committee for the Defense of Leon Trotsky.
Commission of Inquiry into the Charges Made Against Leon Trotsky in the Moscow Trials.
Soviet Union.
Russia (Federation)
United States--Politics and government.
Mexico.
Phonorecords.
Phonotapes.
Trotsky, Leon, 1879-1940.
Wright, John G., 1902-1956.
Lenin, Vladimir Il'ich, 1870-1924.
Socialist Workers Party.
Trotskaia, Nataliia Ivanovna, 1882-1962.
Sedov, Lev, 1906-1938.
The Trotsky Collection of material by and about the Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky
(1879-1940) was assembled by the Socialist Workers Party and its affiliate, the Library
of Social History. Originating as the Communist League of America in 1928, the Socialist
Workers Party adopted its present name and form of existence in 1938. As the American
section of the Fourth International movement led by Trotsky, it maintained close contact
with him, especially during the period of his exile in Mexico, from January 1937 until
his assassination in August 1940. The collection was housed in the Library of Social
History in New York City until it was acquired by the Hoover Institution Archives in
1992.
The major sources of material in the collection are central files of the Socialist
Workers Party, and papers of individual leaders of the party, most notably John G.
Wright, but also James P. Cannon, Farrell Dobbs, Albert Goldman, Joseph Hansen, and
others. There are, in a few instances, photocopies of documents from the Harvard
University Library, the Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis, and other
archival repositories.
The collection includes original manuscripts of writings by Trotsky--notably portions of
Vie de Lenine: Jeunesse, Les Crimes de Staline, and
Stalin--as well as typed copies and rare printed copies. Original
manuscripts and many typed copies are from the papers of John G. Wright, the principal
translator during Trotsky's lifetime of English language editions of his works.
The collection also includes many original letters from Trotsky to leaders of the
Socialist Workers Party, as well as carbons of their replies, and originals, carbons and
typed copies of Trotsky's correspondence with others. Of particular note in the
collection is one of three existing sets of typed copies of correspondence between
Trotsky and V. I. Lenin, prepared from Soviet archival sources at Trotsky's direction.
Originals and copies of letters and writings of Trotsky's wife Nataliia Sedova Trotskaia,
and of his son Lev Sedov, are distinct parts of the collection.
Correspondence between Socialist Workers Party leaders in New York and secretaries and
guards of Trotsky in Mexico (many of them members of the party) form a significant part
of the collection, as do Socialist Workers Party records relating to the Dewey Commission
hearings of 1937 on the charges made against Trotsky in the Moscow Trials; the
investigation of Trotsky's assassination; the disposition of his archives; and posthumous
publication of his biography
Stalin.
The collection also contains selected published and unpublished materials about Trotsky
collected by the Socialist Workers Party and the Library of Social History up until 1980;
and survey sheets prepared by a Socialist Workers Party/Library of Social History team
inventorying correspondence in the Exile Papers section of the Trotsky Papers in the
Harvard University Library.
Audiovisual materials include photographs of the Coyoacan household from the papers of
Evelyn Reed and George Novack; and a sound recording of a speech by Trotsky.