Ramón Mercader

Jaime Ramón Mercader del Río Hernández (February 7, 1914 - October 18, 1978) was a Spanish Communist who served as a foreign agent of the NKVD during Joseph Stalin's time as ruler of the USSR. In that role, he became famous as the murderer of Stalin's great rival, Leon Trotsky. February 7 is the 38th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1914 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... October 18 is the 291st day of the year (292nd in Leap years). ... Events January January 1 - The Copyright Act of 1976 takes effect, making sweeping changes to United States copyright law. ... The Kingdom of Spain or Spain (Spanish and Galician: Reino de España or España; Catalan: Regne dEspanya; Basque: Espainiako Erresuma) is a country located in the southwest of Europe. ... Communism - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ... Black Ravens by Boris Vladimirski, a depiction of the cars used by NKVD agents. ... Soviet Union - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ... Murder is both a legal and a moral term, that are not always coincident. ... 1915 passport photo of Trotsky Leon Davidovich Trotsky ( Russian: Лев Давидович Троцкий; also transliterated Leo, Lev, Trotskii, Trotski, Trotskij and Trotzky ) (October 26 ( O.S.) = November 7 ( N.S.), 1879 - August 21, 1940), born Lev Davidovich Bronstein (Лев Давидович Бронштейн), was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist intellectual. ...

Mercader was born in 1914 in Barcelona, but spent much of his youth in France with his mother, Eustacia María Caridad del Río Hernández, after his parents separated. As a young man, he embraced Communism, helping leftist organizations in Spain during the mid-1930s. He was briefly imprisoned for his activities, but was released when a left-wing government took control of the country in 1936. Barcelona within Barcelonès Population ( 2003) 1,582,738 Area 1004 Km2 Population density ( 2001) 15,764/Km2 Barcelona is the capital of Catalonia, an autonomous region in northeastern Spain (41º 23 N, 2º 11 E). ... The French Republic or France (French: République française or France) is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in western Europe, and which is further made up of a collection of overseas islands and territories located in other continents. ... Communism is a term that can refer to one of several things: a social and economic system, an ideology which supports that system, or a political movement that wishes to implement that system. ... 1936 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

By this time, his mother had become a Soviet agent herself, and Ramón followed in her footsteps, traveling to Moscow shortly before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War to train in the arts of sabotage, guerrilla warfare and assassination. He was given the codename "GNOME" by his superiors. Saint Basils Cathedral Moscow  listen? ( Russian/Cyrillic: Москва́, pronunciation: Moskva), capital of Russia, located on the river Moskva, and encompassing 1097. ... Alternative meaning: Spanish Civil War, 1820-1823 A republican soldier seeks cover on the Plaza de Toros in Teruel, east of Madrid. ... This article is about Sabotage sabotage can also refer to: an early Black Sabbath album (Sabotage), the Alfred Hitchcock films (Sabotage or Saboteur), a Beastie Boys song, or a type of shock site. ... Guerrilla (also called a partisan) is a term borrowed from Spanish (from guerra meaning war) used to describe small combat groups. ... Jack Ruby murdered the assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, in a very public manner. ...

His bosses at the NKVD selected him to assassinate Trotsky, who had left the USSR many years earlier after losing a power struggle to Stalin, but who had continued to antagonize the Soviet leader with his writings from exile. In October 1939, Mercader slipped into Mexico with a fake passport identifying himself as "Jacques Mornard ", a businessman. 1939 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... The United Mexican States or Mexico (Spanish: Estados Unidos Mexicanos or México; regarding the use of the variant spelling Méjico, see section The name below) is a country located in North America, bordered to the north by the United States of America, to the southeast by Guatemala and Belize, to...

An elaborate trap set by Mercader and other NKVD operatives in Mexico failed on May 24, 1940, and a second attempt was planned. This time, "Jacques Mornard", who had avoided raising suspicion during the first attempt on Trotsky's life, befriended an unmarried secretary of Trotsky's. Through her, he began to meet with Trotsky personally, in the guise of a Canadian supporter of Trotsky's ideas. On August 20, Mercader fatally wounded Trotsky with an ice pick in his study at his home in Coyoacán (a neighborhood in Mexico City). Trotsky's guards burst in and nearly killed Mercader, but their leader ordered them to spare his life, yelling "Do not kill him! This man has a story to tell." May 24 is the 144th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (145th in leap years). ... 1940 was a leap year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... August 20 is the 232nd day of the year (233rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Plaza Hidalgo Coyoacán (Place of the coyotes in Nahuatl) is one of the 16 delegaciones (boroughs) into which Mexicos Federal District is divided. ... Mexico City (Spanish: Ciudad de México) is the federal capital of and largest city in Mexico. ...

He was turned over to the Mexican authorities, to whom he refused to give up his real identity. Nevertheless, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison. It was not until August 1953 that his true identity was discovered, and his NKVD connections were never revealed until after the fall of the Soviet Union. Murder is both a legal and a moral term, that are not always coincident. ... A prison is a place in which people are confined and deprived of a range of liberties. ... 1953 is a common year starting on Thursday. ...

After the first few years in prison, requested release on parole, which was denied by Dr. Jesus Siordia and criminologist Q. Cuaron. He was released from Mexico City's Lecumberri prison on May 6, 1960 and moved to Havana, where Fidel Castro's Communist government welcomed him. In 1961, he moved to the USSR and was awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union medal, one of the country's highest decorations. He split time between Cuba and the USSR for the rest of his life, revered by the KGB (the successor to the NKVD), and died in Havana in 1978. May 6 is the 126th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (127th in leap years). ... This article is about the Cuban city. ... Cuban President Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (born August 13, 1926) has ruled Cuba since 1959, when, leading the 26th of July Movement, he helped overthrow the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista and turn Cuba into the first socialist state in the Western Hemisphere. ... 1961 (As MAD Magazine pointed out on its first cover for the year) was the first upside-down year - i. ... Hero of the Soviet Union (Геро́й Сове́тского Сою́за) was the highest honorary title and the superior degree of distinction of the former USSR. It included the Order of Lenin (the highest Soviet award) and, as the sign of excellence, the Gold Star medal with the certificate of the heroic deed... For other meanings, see KGB (disambiguation). ...

He is buried (under the name of Ramon Ivanovich Lopez) in Moscow's Kuntsevo Cemetery and has a place of honor in the KGB's museum in the Russian capital.