TROTSKI (LEV DAVIDOVITCH BRONSTEIN, DIT LEV) (1879-1940)
Lot 799
3 5005 000
Letter signed «L. Trotsky», in French, addressed to Gérard
Rosenthal. Constantinople, October 26, 1929.
1/2 p. in-folio typed.
Rare in French.
Léon Trotski had signed a contract with the publisher
Frédéric Rieder for the publication of French translations of
three of his books, La Révolution défigurée, L’Internationale
communiste, and Ma Vie. Difficulties arose, particularly over
his autobiography, as Trotsky was dissatisfied with the first
translation and protested against the choice of title Memoirs,
which the publisher wanted to impose.
“Dear Comrade Gerard, I am sending you herewith an
«official» letter about my - indeed unhappy - relationship with
Rieder. […] I believe that Rieder is either bankrupt or is simply
stealing from me, without even having this excuse […]. I would
be very grateful if you could intervene, it has become quite
necessary and urgent. […]”
One of Trotsky’s main supporters and his legal representative
in France, Gérard Rosenthal (1903-1992) was initially close
to the Surrealists, with whom he met Pierre Naville. He joined
the newspaper Clarté with Pierre Naville in 1926 and joined
the Communist Party in 1927, while criticising some of his
political positions.
He was admitted to the Paris Bar in 1928. He approached the
Russian opposition, belonged for a time to Boris Souvarine’s
circle and was expelled from the CP in May 1928. Elected to
the executive commission of the Communist League in April
1930, he was also a member of the central committee of the
Internationalist Workers’ Party (1936-1939). During the war,
he took part in the Resistance in the maquis.
It was in 1928, during the ceremonies in Moscow celebrating
the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution, that he met
Trotsky who had just been expelled from the Bolshevik Party.
When Trotsky moved to Turkey in 1929, he visited him and
established political, professional and friendly ties with him.
He took part in the activities of the group gathered around
the newspaper La Vérité, supported Trotsky as a lawyer in
the conflict that arose around the publication in France of his
autobiographical «Ma vie», accompanied him to Copenhagen
in 1932 and lodged him at his father’s home in 1935, on the
eve of his forced departure for Norway. Finally, he dealt with
the suspicious death of Trotsky’s son Leon Sedov and was
given the task of searching for his grandson, Sieva Volkov,
and entrusting him to Alfred Rosmer, which was done in May
1939.