August 20, 1940: Soviet revolutionary Leon Trotsky is assassinated in Mexico City, 23 years after helping bring about the Bolshevik Revolution, and 13 years after being expelled from the country.
He was born on November 7, 1879, in Yanovska, the Russian Empire, what is now Berslavka, Ukraine, under the name Lev Davidovich Bronstein. He began actively fighting the Czarist regime in 1896, and joined the Bolshevik Party in the fateful year of 1917. The Bolshevik Revolution was completed on November 7, his birthday -- not that he cared, because Russian was still using the Julian Calendar, which placed his birthday on October 26 and the revolution's completion on October 25, hence it is also called the October Revolution.
New dictator, and old friend, Vladimir Lenin appointed him Commissar for Foreign Affairs, and he negotiated the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk that pulled Russia out of World War I. He was then appointed the leader of the Red Army, and won the Russian Civil War.
But when Lenin died in early 1924, his replacement, Josef Stalin, forced Trotsky out of power, expelling him from the country in 1927. Trotsky fled to Mexico, and, paranoid that he might lead a revolution against him, Stalin chose to have him assassinated.
Two attempts, in 1939 and earlier in 1940, failed, before August 20, when NKVD agent Ramón Mercader took an ice axe and hit Trotsky in the head. Not only did he not die immediately, but he had enough strength left to subdue Mercader himself before the authorities could take him. Trotsky died the next day, at age 60.
Mercader confessed, and served 20 years in a Mexican prison. Stalin awarded him the Order of Lenin. Upon his release, Mercader went to nearby and Soviet-friendly Cuba, and died there in 1978. He was buried in Moscow, as no later Soviet regime "rehabilitated" Trotsky's legacy.
To this day, though, some Communists call themselves "Trotskyites" to differentiate themselves from "Stalinists." The murder of Trotsky, every bit as much as the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact of the year before, split American Communists, and many who still identified with Trotsky turned against the Stalin regime. While Communism is minimal in America today, those who believe in it tend to be more Trotskyist than Stalinist.
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August 20, 1940 was a Tuesday. These baseball games were played that day:
* The New York Yankees swept a doubleheader from the Detroit Tigers at Yankee Stadium, 4-3 and 4-2. Over the 2 games, Joe DiMaggio went 4-for-8 with an RBI, and Hank Greenberg went 3-for-8.
* The New York Giants lost to the Cincinnati Reds, 3-2 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Mel Ott went 3-for-3 with a walk.
* The Brooklyn Dodgers were swept in a doubleheader by the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-0 and 4-3 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Clyde Shoun pitched a 6-hit shutout in the 1st game.
* The Cleveland Indians beat the Boston Red Sox, 11-6 at Fenway Park in Boston. Bob Feller was the inning pitcher. Jimmie Foxx went 1-for-5 with an RBI, and Ted Williams went 1-for-2 with 2 walks and an RBI.
* A doubleheader was split at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. The Chicago White Sox won the opener, 6-1. The Philadelphia Athletics won the nightcap, 4-3. Benny McCoy stole home plate in the bottom of the 10th inning.
* The St. Louis Browns beat the Washington Senators, 6-3 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.
* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Boston Bees, 6-3 at National League Park in Boston. This was the last of 5 seasons before the Bees went back to calling themselves the Braves, and their ballpark Braves Field.
* And the Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Claude Passeau pitched a 3-hit shutout.
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