Trotsky, Natalia Ivanovna (1882–1962)

Russian revolutionary. Name variations: Natalia Ivanovna Sedova-Trotsky; Natalia Sedova; Natasha Trotsky. Born Natalia Ivanovna Sedova in Russia in 1882; died in 1962; became second wife of Lev Bronstein also known as Leon Trotsky (1879–1940, the Russian socialist and revolutionary), in 1903 (killed in Mexico City, August 21, 1940); children: Leon and Sergei.

For three years, Leon Trotsky was married to Marxist Alexandra Sokolovskaya . The couple founded the South Russia Workers' Union and distributed leaflets condemning terrible factory conditions. In 1898, the police closed in. Trotsky spent over a year in an Odessa prison and was sentenced to four years in Siberia. Because he and Alexandra married in jail in 1900, they were sent together beyond the Arctic Circle. Trotsky left his wife and risked escape with a fake passport. In late 1902, he reached London, where many socialist leaders lived. Trotsky's first duty was a fund-raising trip to émigré colonies around Europe for the newspaper Iskra. In Paris, he met Natalia Sedova, who became his second wife in 1903 and lifelong companion. Trotsky's first wife and their two daughters, Tina and Zina , suffered imprisonment or death at Stalin's hands. Natalia, who had two sons, Leon and Sergei, was in Mexico City with her husband when a Soviet agent buried an ice axe in his skull on August 21, 1940. Natalia Trotsky was portrayed by Valentina Cortese in Joseph Losey's 1972 The Assassination of Trotsky.