Sergei Sedov
Sergei L. Sedov (1907/1908 – 1937) was a Soviet engineer and scientist killed in the Great Purge for being the son of Leon Trotsky.
Sergei L. Sedov | |
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Sedov on the Kremlin grounds (21 Sep 1920) | |
Born | 1907/1908 |
Died | 1937 |
Cause of death | Disputed |
Occupation |
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Criminal penalty | Sentenced to forced labor in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia |
Criminal status | Rehabilitated (1988) |
Family |
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Personal life
The son of Leon Trotsky by his second wife,[1] and younger brother of Lev Sedov,[2] Sergei L. Sedov was born in 1907 or 1908.[3] He was an apolitical engineer[4] and scientist[5] whose daughter, Yulia, was born three months after his 1935 exile.[6]
Arrest and death
Despite having taken his mother's surname to avoid political affiliation with his father, in 1935[6] Sedov "was arrested on trumped-up charges [and] refused to betray [Trotsky]".[5] That year, the Gulag banished Sedov from Moscow to the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. Sedov died in 1937, though accounts differ the specifics: some records claim he was killed in a prison uprising, others allege he was shot in Krasnoyarsk after being accused of a poisoning plot,[1] while The New York Times in 1988 asserted that he was returned to Moscow and shot for Trotsky's allegedly plotting to kill Joseph Stalin.[4]
After Sedov's daughter Yulia Akselrod petitioned Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, Sedov was rehabilitated in late 1988 by the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union.[6]
References
- Bauer, Brad (2005). "The Gulag: Life Inside". Hoover Digest. No. 1. Hoover Institution. Archived from the original on 20 November 2005. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
- Sewell, Rob (15 February 2008). "Leon Sedov – 70 years since his murder". Socialist Appeal. International Marxist Tendency. Archived from the original on 6 November 2017. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
- Sheridan, Clare (1921). "The Kremlin, showing Entrance to the Kameneffs' Apartments". Russian Portraits. London: Jonathan Cape. pp. 67–70.
- "Soviets Exonerate a Son of Trotsky". The New York Times. Moscow. Reuters. 23 November 1988. ISSN 0362-4331. OCLC 1645522.
Sergei L. Sedov, an Engineer, Was Shot in the 1930's During Stalin's Purges
- Sewell, Rob (21 August 2007). "Leon Trotsky - revolutionary martyr". Socialist Appeal. International Marxist Tendency. Archived from the original on 29 August 2008. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
- "Trotsky's Son Posthumously Rehabilitated". Moscow. Associated Press. 23 November 1988. Archived from the original on 13 November 2020. Retrieved 13 November 2020.