Russian revolutionary, Leon Trotsky, called Bronx home
REPRINTED FROM 8-26-2010
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I’m always fascinated when
I think of all the famous, or
in some cases, infamous people
who once called the Bronx
home. Leon Trotsky is recalled
as one of the leaders of
the Russian Revolution of 1917
but when that uprising came,
he was very happily living in
his Bronx apartment on Vyse
Avenue. He loved New York
and in chapter XX of his biography,
“My Life,” he indicates his
fi rm desire to one day return to
New York. He writes “My only
consolation was the thought
that I might return. Even now
I have not given up that hope.”
He referred to New York City as
a “city of prose and fantasy.”
When he came to New York
after being exiled from Norway,
he easily managed to locate an
apartment through family connections
and even found a cosigner
to purchase $200 worth
of furniture on the installment
plan. He moved into apartment
5-D, a four-room apartment at
1522 Vyse Avenue, in January
of 1917. He started work the
very next day as an assistant
editor and writer at the Russian
Jewish newspaper “Novy
Mir,” which translates as New
World. The newspaper was at
the core of international revolutionary
propaganda. One of
his fi rst stories was a parody
about chewing gum on the New
York City subway. He was paid
$15.00 per week and his rent
was only $18.00 per month so he
got by quite well.
Trotsky described himself
as a revolutionary socialist
and said that his sole work
was writing articles, editing
a newspaper and speaking before
labor meetings. One of his
fi rst speeches began “It is a fact
of supreme importance that the
economic life of ‘Europe is being
blasted to its very foundations
whereas America is increasing
in wealth. As I look
enviously at New York – I who
still think of myself as a European
– I ask myself ‘Will Europe
be able to stand it? Will it
not sink into nothing but a cemetery”
And will the economic
and cultural centers of gravity
not shift to America?”
Since his command of the
English language was severely
lacking, all of his speeches were
in Russian or German. Although
his children spoke several
different languages due to
his constant moving, he always
had a problem with English.
He specifi cally mentions in
his biography that biographers
and anyone else who claims
that they heard him orating in
English are simply mistaken.
When not giving speeches, he
also wrote for a variety of socialist
newspapers.
He was only in New York
with his wife and two sons for
a couple of months when the
Russian Revolution broke out
and he rushed home to take
his part in it. He was close to
Lenin and held a variety of
posts including “People’s Commisar
for Foreign Affairs” and
“People’s Commissar for Army
and Navy Affairs.”
He was also president of the
Petrograd Soviet for a short
time in 1917. He fought against
the policies of Joseph Stalin
and when Stalin came into
power, Trotsky was once again
exiled and died in Mexico in
1940 at age 60.
He never did get to live
again in the New York that he
came to love but the building
he once occupied in the Bronx
is still standing and is occasionally
included in a tour of
our famous borough.
I took this photograph of Tom
Casey standing in front of the 1917
home of Leon Trotsky. It is located
at 1522 Vyse Avenue at the northeast
corner of East 172nd Street.
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