Trotsky's grandson returns to Soviet Union after 57 years

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inonvmous/v since her release froi 8 8 SOCIALIST ACTION JANUARY 1989 The following interview with Esteban (Seva) Volkov, grandson of Leon Trotsky, was conducted by Alan Benjamin on Dec. 23.

Socialist Action: You just returned from a five-day trip to Moscow, your first trip back to the Soviet Union in 57 years. What was the purpose of your trip?

Esteban Volkov: In early December I got a phone call from Pierre Broué, who told me that he had just returned from Moscow and that he had found my sister, Sasha [Alexandra Sakharonovna, Volkov's half sister]. But he said that Sasha was deathly ill and would probably not live much longer. [See interview with Pierre Broué on opposite page.] The next day, my wife Palmira and I went to the Soviet Embassy to request a visa to the Soviet Union. Three days later we got a call that our visa had been cleared in Moscow.

S.A.: What made you think that your sister was still alive after all these years?

Volkov: About 12 years ago, Lola Galin, who was a close collaborator of Leova [Leon Sedov, Trotsky's son] and who lived in New York at the time, sent me some review clips of a book by Olga Ivinskaya, who was Boris Pasternak's companion.

In her memoirs, Olga Ivinskaya mentions my sister. She said that when she was first sent to prison, she was placed in the same cell as a young woman who bore a striking resemblance to Lev Davidovich [Trotsky]. So she asked her if she was related to the Old Man. The young woman said she was his granddaughter. The two women became good friends; it is a friendship that has remained to this day.

Over the past 10 years I repeatedly tried to find my sister, but to no avail. It was only about six weeks ago that Sasha decided to surface and declare publicly that she was Lev Davidovich's granddaughter.

S.A.: Tell us about your trip.

Volkov: When we arrived at the airport in Moscow, I was carrying some personal documents I had just picked up at a series of political events in Paris and Rome. When the customs authorities saw these materials, they took us aside, confiscated my documents, and summoned their superiors.

When the top authorities came over, they gave orders to return my confiscated belongings and they sent us on our way. Apparently glasnost has made some headway.

That same evening we went to my sister's place. You can imagine our joy to see each other. Even though her cancer is at advanced stage, she was always smiling and full of optimism.

S.A.: According to Pierre Broué, she % didn't know that you were alive either.

Volkov: That's right. She said that she had also tried to get information about me through the International Red Cross and other agencies. It seems hard to believe that she was never told about my whereabouts in Mexico. It is not as if I had been living anonymously.

S.A.: Tell us about your sister. According to Isaac Deutscher, she was imprisoned by Stalin in the mid-1930s with the other "children of the enemies of the people" eno Volkov: Actually this is not what happened. Stalin decided to spare her life and to keep as her as a sort of hostage.

[When Zina, Trotsky's oldest daughter, contracted tuberculosis in 1931, she left for Berlin to seek a cure. But Stalin allowed her to take only one of her two children with her. She took Seva, age 5, leaving Sasha, age 8, behind.] Sasha was not detained until 1949. Prior to that she had lived with her paternal grandmother; that is, the mother of Sakhar Mogline, Zina's first husband.

(Zina remarried a teacher named P.I Volkov two years after Sasha was born. With him she had one child, Seva.] After her detention, Sasha spent five months in jail. She was then sentenced to 10 years in exile in Khazakhstan Balchach. But with Stalin's death, that sentence was reduced to five years.

It is during her exile that she met her current husband, an engineer named Anatol, with whom she had a daughter, Olga, who is now 26. Olga has a boy who is 5 years old. Sasha herself is a chemical engineer.

S.A.: What is her view of her grandfather?

Volkov: I told her that one of my goals, one of my passions, is to see to it that the full truth about our grandfather be told, that his name be cleared, and that justice finally be done to the millions of innocent victims of this bloody Stalinist tyranny. She said she was fully in agreement with these views. She said she deeply admired Lev Davidovich.

S.A.: Did you meet any other people during your stay in Moscow?

Volkov: Yes. A film crew of the proGorbachev monthly magazine Ogonyok did a long interview with me about Lev DavidJANUARY 1989 organizers invited us to their office, the House of the People, where a large 6-ft.-by-9ft. photo of Lev Davidovich was prominently displayed in the entrance. Under the photo was a big sign urging people to sign a letter that demanded Trotsky's rehabilitation.

Once there, 1 was asked to say a few words to a meeting of the group that happened to be request, 1 gave a detailed account of my recollections of Lev Davidovich and answered many of their questions.

S.A.: How were your comments received?

Volkov: Very enthusiastically. I told them to continue their work and not to be sidetracked. They responded that ours was a common struggle.

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