Leon Trotsky: Exile Papers, 1929-1940

Call Number: Houghton bMS 13.1. Microfilm reels held at Houghton Reading Room

Finding Aid: There is a printed finding aid in the reference collection in the Houghton Reading Room.

Contents: (copied from Hollis catalogue entry) Exile papers, 1929-1940, contain correspondence, compositions, a small amount of Dewey Commission (Commission of inquiry into the charges made against Leon Trotsky in the Moscow trials) exhibit papers, and related ephemera. Correspondence includes letters to and from Trotsky, his wife Natalia, his son Lev Sedov, and his secretaries. Other correspondence is chiefly between members of the Fourth International Secretariat, other groups, and Soviet deportees. Writings include Trotsky's articles, reviews, statements, minutes of meetings, memoranda and notes, and printer's copy of the diary he kept in France and Norway in 1935; and similar writings of members of the Fourth International.

Household papers contain secretarial notes, records of correspondence, photographs, and other items pertaining to the Trotsky household, particularly in Coyoacàn, Mexico. Travel and legal documents, contracts, royalty reports and miscellaneous receipts are also included in the collection.

Contact: Leslie A. Morris, Curator of Manuscripts, Department of Manuscripts, Houghton Library, telephone: 617.495.2449; email: Houghton_Manuscripts@harvard.edu. You could also try going directly to the Houghton Reading Room and requesting the microfilm and finding aid.

Size of Archive: 197 boxes, 38 reels of microfilm