Stalin - Trotsky, a battle to death

Mexico, 20 August 1940. Trotsky was murdered, an icepick to the head. With his death came the end of a 20-year duel at the very heart of the Communist movement. Stalin, at the head of the Kremlin, had finally eliminated his long-standing rival.

Both leading figures in the Revolution, Stalin and Trotsky stopped at nothing to get their hands on the levers of absolute power. Over three decades, Stalin had lifted Russia to the rank of the world's second-largest superpower. Trotsky, having formed the Red Army and led it to victory against the White Armies, was an equally strategic mind.

Stalin versus Trotsky, a duel between two radically different men. One was the son of a Georgian cobbler, the other a Jewish intellectual. One a methodical, calculating man; the other, a brilliant, enthusiastic mind. One a cynical schemer; the other, an idealist. This was an ideological duel between two visions of Communism; a political duel, a duel for power, and above all, a duel to the death. By eliminating Trotsky, Stalin rose to supreme office and cemented his place in history.