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Title: Leon Trotsky collection
Date (inclusive): 1917-1995
Collection Number: 92032
Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Language of Material: Mainly in Russian and English
Physical Description:
47 manuscript boxes, 4 envelopes, 2 phonorecords, 1 framed painting
(20.2 Linear Feet)
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and writings of Nataliia Sedova Trotskaia and of Lev Sedov; and published and unpublished material relating to Trotsky.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. Boxes 1-45 also available on microfilm (50 reels). Phonotape
cassette dub of sound recordings also available.
Creator:
Trotsky, Leon, 1879-1940
Creator:
Lenin, Vladimir Ilʹich, 1870-1924
Creator:
Socialist Workers Party
Creator:
Wright, John G., 1902-1956
Creator:
Trot͡skai͡a, Natalii͡a Ivanovna, 1882-1962
Creator:
Sedov, Lev, 1906-1938
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual
or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
The Hoover Institution Library & Archives acquired the Leon Trotsky Collection from the Anchor Foundation in 1992. A register
to the collection was prepared that year and remains the principal overall description of and finding aid to the collection.
Material subsequently received from the Anchor Foundation was described in the Addendum in 2016.
[Identification of item], Leon Trotsky collection, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Boxes 1-45 available on microfilm (50 reels). Phonotape cassette dub of sound recordings also available.
The Leon 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 Library & 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.
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.
Boxes 1-45 also available on microfilm (50 reels). Phonotape cassette dub of sound recordings also available.
The Addendum includes United States government documents detailing surveillance of Leon Trotsky in exile (photocopies obtained
from government archives); bibliographies of writings by Trotsky and of internal bulletins of the Fourth International movement
during his lifetime; and a subject file of assorted correspondence, memoranda and printed matter relating to Trotsky and Trotskyism.
Also included is a portrait painting of Natalia Sedova Trotsky.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Audiotapes
Sound recordings
Soviet Union -- History -- Revolution, 1917-1921
Soviet Union -- Politics and government -- 1917-1936
Moscow Trials, Moscow, Russia, 1936-1937
Fourth International
Commission of Inquiry into the Charges Made Against Leon Trotsky in the Moscow Trials, New York, 1937
American Committee for the Defense of Leon Trotsky