Trotsky - The Case of Leon Trotsky (Report of Dewey Commission - 1937)

On May 12th, 1937, upon my return from the hearings of the Preliminary Commission ofInquiry in Coyoacan, Mexico, I received the following letter from Mr. Albert Goldman, the attorneyfor Leon Trotsky, and copies of two additional letters dealing with the question of entering intothe record additional exhibits which arrived from Europe after the close of the hearings. Followingis an exact copy of the letter of Mr. Goldman. and his enclosures:

ALBERT GOLDMAN
Attorney-at-Law
105 W. Madison Street
Chicago
May 12, 1937
Albert Glotzer, 155 N. Clark St., Chicago, Illinois

Dear Sir:
I am enclosing a copy of a letter which I addressed to the sub-commission that took Mr.Trotskys testimony at Coyoacan, Mexico, asking permission to introduce as a supplementaryexhibit a certain document which we received after the hearings were closed. I am also sending youa copy of a letter which I received from Miss Suzanne LaFollette granting my request, on behalf ofthe sub-commission.

If you have not as yet completed the typing of the record will you kindly insertthe material I am now sending you and show the introduction into the evidence of a document writtenby Windfeld-Hansen and having reference to the testimony of alleged sabotage introduced at theRadek-Pyatakov trial by Hrasche, one of the defendants?

Sincerely yours,
[Signed] ALBERT GOLDMAN

May 5, 1937

To the Members of the Commission and to John Finerty, Attorney for theCommission:

We have received a deposition from Windfeld-Hansen, a Danish engineer who wasmentioned by one of the defendants in the Radek-Pyatakov trial as one who was implicated in acts ofsabotage. During the hearings I mentioned that such a deposition was on the way from Denmark, andsince it deals with an exceedingly important aspect of the whole case I would like to have yourpermission to introduce it as a supplementary exhibit. This will enable you to include it among theprinted exhibits in case you decided to publish the exhibits together with the testimony andspeeches.

I would appreciate your acting on the matter at your earliest convenience. You caneither sign this letter indicating your consent or grant it in a more formal manner if you deem itbest. I am assuming that there will be no objection to my request. I have taken steps to get theconsent of Otto Ruehle.

Sincerely,
[Signed] ALBERT GOLDMAN

222 West 23rd York
10 May, 1937
Mr. Albert Goldman
Attorney-at-Law,
105 West Madison St.,
Chicago; Illinois

Dear Mr. Goldman:

With reference to the deposition from Windfeld-Hansen which you have askedpermission to introduce as a supplementary exhibit in Mr. Trotskys case, I am authorized bythe sub-commission to say that we are willing to have it so introduced.

Yours sincerely,
[Signed] SUZANNE LAFOLLETTE
Secretary.
[By order of the sub-commission the deposition of Windfeld-Hansen was added to the evidence asExhibit No. }{D.]

Londres 127.
Coyoacan, D.F.
Mexico.
May 29, 1937.
To The Commission of Inquiry:
(Copy to Attorney Goldman)

I am enclosing a document of exceptional importance, a letter from me to my son,written December 3, 1932, in the cabin of the boat en route from Denmark to France. Thisletter alone suffices to overthrow Holtzmans deposition about his alleged visit to me inCopenhagen. I present here the first part of the letter which bears directly on the question ofshowing whether Leon Sedov was or was not in Copenhagen at the end of November, 1932:

Liovoussiatka, so it seems that we shall not succeed in meeting: between thearrival of the boat at Dunquerke and the departure of the boat from Marseilles, there is just timeto cross France. To wait for the next boat (a whole week!) will not, of course, be permitted us ...Mother is very, very dejected that the meeting did not take place, and I also ... Nothing to bedone ...

Then follows advice of a political nature, which, through the intermediacy of myson, I transmitted to third persons. The letter ended thus:

Let us hope that Jeanne returned home safely.
I clasp you in my arms and embrace you. Yours. 1/12/1932. Cabin on board ship. Mother embraces you(she is still asleep; it is seven oclock in the morning) She will probably write youtoday.

This letter requires some explanations.

1. Unlike the whelming majority of the other letters, it is not written by machine but by hand, ontwo pages torn from a notebook. This is explained by the fact that on the boat I had neither aRussian collaborator with me, nor a Russian typewriter.
2. It is precisely because the letter was written by hand that no copy was preserved in myarchives; consequently I could not present the letter to the Commission at a more timely moment. Asfar as the papers of my son are concerned, they are not kept by him in a classified and orderlyform as mine are; furthermore not in his apartment because he is constantly in fear of a raid bythe agents of the GPU This explains how my son happened upon this exceptionally precious documentonly recently, while going through old papers.
3. From the text of the letter it is absolutely clear that my son was not In Copenhagen, and thathis wife, Jeanne, was.
4. Since the question might be raised whether the letter might have been written recently, in theinterests of the defense, I ask that the letter be subjected to a chemical analysis which willestablish with certainty that it was written several years ago.

LEON TROTSKY

222 West 23rd St.,
New York,
June 9, 1937
Mr. Leon Trotsky,
127 Avenida de Londres,
Coyoacan, D.F.
Mexico.

Mr. Trotsky:
This is to acknowledge your letter of May 29, enclosing and commenting upon a letter written by youto Leon Sedov, dated 3/12/1932. I am authorized by the Commission to accept in evidence the letterto Leon Sedov, and to include both that and your explanatory letter in the exhibit labeledCopenhagen.

Yours sincerely,
SUZANNE LAFOLLETTE
Secretary of the Commission.

Avenida Londres 127,
Coyoacan, D.F.
Mexico
June 30, 1937

To the Commission Or Inquiry

I am sending you, directly and simultaneously with this letter, some very importantdocuments, consisting of two notebooks and one separate exercise-sheet. These belonged to LeonSedov during his studies at the Technische Hochshule in Berlin. Student attendance at theHochshule noted by the professors with stamps on the exercises submitted. You will seethat there are three stamps from the 25th, 26th, and the 27th of November 1932, that is, just thetime of my sojourn in Copenhagen. In the coming days you will receive a new official document (astudent three stamps confirming Leon Sedovs presence at the Hochshule November 29.That all these documents belong to that period can be established by chemical analysis. Now, Ibelieve, the Commission has at its disposal a whole documentation confirming that in the last weekof November, 1932, Sedov was in Berlin and not in Copenhagen. Permit me to express the opinion thatan alibi of such fullness and incontestability has perhaps never been established.

LEON TROTSKY

222 West 23rd St.,
New York,
July 13, 1937
Mr. Leon Trotsky
127 Avenida de Londres,
Coyoacan, D.F.,
Mexico

Dear Mr. Trotsky:
The notebooks and separate exercise sheet of Leon Sedov. To which you referred in your letter ofJune 30, arrived several days ago, and I am authorized by the Commission to accept them inevidence. They will be included in the exhibit labelled Copenhagen.