Esteban Volkov passed away on June 16. Leon Trotsky’s grandson and lifelong revolutionary was 97 years old.
Esteban or “Sieva,,” as his relatives called him was the son of Platnn Volkov and Zinaida, daughter of Trotsky from his first marriage. Both of his parents were militants of the Left Opposition that confronted the Stalinist bureaucracy’s counterrevolution.
His father was deported to Siberia in 1928 and executed. His mother managed to escape and visit Trotsky in Prinkipo, but was then unable to return to the Soviet Union. She exiled herself in Germany ans ended her commiting suicide after Hitler’s rise to power.
Esteban doged Stalin’s persecution against Trotsky’s entire family and was taken to Mexico to live with his grandfather in his Coyoacán exile. At the age of 14, he witnessed the attack that ended up killing Trotsky and would often shar his memory of his grandfather, wounded, commanding his assistants to “keep the child away, he must not see this.”
As an adult, he founded and directed for the rest of his life the Museo Casa León Trotsky and the Institute for the Right to Asylum. He collaborated with Trotskyist currents from all over the world without sectarianism and played a fundamental role in preserving the historical memory of the global revolutionary movement.
With sadness, we bid farewell to comrade Esteban Volkov. To socialism, always!