Bolshevik Grigori Zinoviev Asks Trotsky To Write An Article, 1920
Grigori Zinoviev was one of Lenin's closest collaborators in exile and returned with him to Russia after the 1917 Revolution. After he Bolshevik takeover he served as head of the Comintern and as a member of the Communist Party Politburo. On Lenin's death, Zinoviev, Kamenev and Joseph Stalin formed a ruling triumvirate. Zinoviev led the triumvirate's attack on Leon Trotsky, calling for his expulsion from the party. After an initial victory over Trotsky in 1924, Stalin, in an effort to consolidate his own power, turned against Zinoviev and Kamenev, defeating them and their so-called left opposition in 1925. Zinoviev was removed from his party posts and expelled from the party in 1927. Accused of conspiring to overthrow the government, he was executed by Stalin in 1936 along with Kamenev and 14 other old Bolsheviks. In this very rare handwritten note to Trotsky, dated November 3, 1920, and before their fallout, Zinoviev asks Trotsky to write an article for a revolutionary journal. The document is signed "Zinoviev" and Trotsky has initialed the telegram with his characteristic "M."
