Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Intelligence

as a link between Comintern apparatus and the security and intelli-

gence services. In 1937 he was directed to weed traitors and Trot-

skyitesout of the organization. As Moskvin, he ruthlessly purged

the Comintern of suspected foreign spies and Trotsyites, but he

never met Joseph Stalin’s expectations of vigilance. He was ar-

rested and executed in 1938. He was rehabilitated posthumously

during the Nikita Khrushchevyears.

Trilisser was one of the creators of Soviet foreign intelligence.

Given his long years in the Bolshevik underground, he understood

the value of illegal agents. During his years as head of foreign intel-

ligence, the service nurtured a corps of officers—for the most part

non-Russians—who recruited important sources in Europe and North

America. Soviet penetration of foreign governments owes much to

Trilisser’s management of the foreign intelligence component.

TROTSKY, LEON (1879–1940).Born Lev Davidovich Bronstein,

Trotsky adopted the name of one of his prison guards and had a dis-

tinguished career as a revolutionary before the 1917 Revolution. As

a Menshevik, he took part in the Revolution of 1905in St. Peters-

burg. Following arrest and trial, he escaped and went into exile. Trot-

sky often argued with Vladimir Lenin, but behind the infighting

there was mutual respect and admiration. Trotsky joined the Bolshe-

viksin 1917 and became first commissar of foreign affairs and later

commissar of war in the Bolshevik government. His repeated suc-

cesses on the battlefield in the civil warguaranteed the survival of

the Bolshevik state.

Following Lenin’s death, Joseph Stalinbuilt a series of alliances

in the Communist Partyto isolate Trotsky from his base in the party

and the armed forces. Stalin also used his contacts with Chekalead-

ers Feliks Dzerzhinskyand Vyacheslav Menzhinskyto harass and

detain Trotsky’s followers. After Trotsky’s deportation, the security

service continued to keep him under constant surveillancein his for-

eign sanctuaries, while arresting his supporters in the Soviet Union.

By the mid-1930s Stalin identified Trotsky as his most implacable

and dangerous enemy, despite Trotsky’s woefully weak support in the

Soviet Union and abroad. The Moscow Trialssought to identify Trot-

sky as an ally of Adolf Hitler, a charge that was widely accepted by

communists in the Soviet Union and abroad. In 1936–1938, his few

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