Natalia Ivanovna Sedova (russian: Ната́лья Ива́новна Седо́ва; 5 April 1882

Romny Romny ( uk, Ромни́, ) is a city in northern Ukrainian Sumy Oblast. It is located on the Romen River. Romny serves as the administrative centre of Romny Raion. It is administratively incorporated as a city of oblast significance and does ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War ...

– 23 January 1962,

Corbeil-Essonnes Corbeil-Essonnes () on the River Seine is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. Although neighboring Évry is the official seat of the Arrondissement of Évry, the sub-prefecture building ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

) is best known as the second wife of

Leon Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian ...

, the

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

revolutionary. She was also an active revolutionary and wrote on cultural matters pertaining to

Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

Life

She was born in to the family of a wealthy merchant. Her father was of

Cossack The Cossacks , es, cosaco , et, Kasakad, cazacii , fi, Kasakat, cazacii , french: cosaques , hu, kozákok, cazacii , it, cosacchi , orv, коза́ки, pl, Kozacy , pt, cossacos , ro, cazaci , russian: казаки́ or ...

origins and her mother was from the Polish nobility. Sedova studied at the Kharkov Institute for Noble Maidens, from where she was expelled for participating in the revolutionary movement. Natalia met Leon Trotsky in late 1902, after his escape from Siberia. His first wife Aleksandra Sokolovskaya had remained behind, with their two daughters, and they were divorced soon thereafter. Natalia and Trotsky married in 1903. They had two children together,

Lev Sedov Lev Lvovich Sedov (russian: Лев Львович Седов, also known as Leon Sedov; 24 February 1906 – 16 February 1938) was the first son of the Russian communist leader Leon Trotsky and his second wife Natalia Sedova. He was born when his ...

(24 February 1906 – 16 February 1938) and

Sergei Sedov Sergei L. Sedov (1937) was a Soviet engineer and scientist killed in the Great Purge for being the son of Leon Trotsky. Personal life The son of Leon Trotsky by his second wife, and younger brother of Lev Sedov, Sergei L. Sedov was born in . ...

(21 March 1908 – 29 October 1937), both of whom would predecease their parents. Trotsky later explained that after the 1917 revolution: However he never used the name "Sedov" either privately or publicly. Natalia Sedova sometimes signed her name "Sedova-Trotskaya." Trotsky and his first wife Aleksandra maintained a friendly relationship after their divorce. She disappeared in 1935 during the

Great Purge The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secreta ...

s and was murdered by Stalinist forces three years later. Lev Sedov was an active and leading member of the Bolshevik-Leninist movement that his father led and was almost certainly assassinated as a result of that. Her other son,

, who was not politically active and remained in Russia, was almost certainly murdered by agents of

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet Union, Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as Ge ...

. After her husband's assassination in 1940, Natalia Sedova remained in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

and maintained contact with many exiled revolutionaries. Her best-known work in these last years was a biography of Trotsky, which she co-authored with fellow Russian revolutionary

Victor Serge Victor Serge (; 1890–1947), born Victor Lvovich Kibalchich (russian: Ви́ктор Льво́вич Киба́льчич), was a Russian revolutionary Marxist, novelist, poet and historian. Originally an anarchist, he joined the Bolsheviks fi ...

. She was also close to the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

revolutionary

Grandizo Munis Grandizo Munis (Torreón, Mexico, 18 April 1912Paris, 4 February 1989) was a Spanish Trotskyist politician. He is considered to have become a left communist following his break with the Fourth International. Biography Grandizo first entered ...

who had led the tiny Spanish Sección Bolchevique-Leninista during the revolutionary events in the 1930s. Under his influence, she came to adopt the position that the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nati ...

was a

state capitalist State capitalism is an economic system in which the state undertakes business and commercial (i.e. for-profit) economic activity and where the means of production are nationalized as state-owned enterprises (including the processes of capital ac ...

society and that the

Fourth International The Fourth International (FI) is a revolutionary socialist international organization consisting of followers of Leon Trotsky, also known as Trotskyists, whose declared goal is the overthrowing of global capitalism and the establishment of ...

founded by Trotsky no longer held to the revolutionary programme of Communism. Therefore, she broke from the FI in 1951.

References

External links

Natalia Sedova Trotsky Archive
in the

Marxists Internet Archive Marxists Internet Archive (also known as MIA or Marxists.org) is a non-profit online encyclopedia that hosts a multilingual library (created in 1990) of the works of communist, anarchist, and socialist writers, such as Karl Marx, Friedrich En ...

Photo of Natalia Trotsky, Mexico, 1932
Image #31997 at the Reuther Library, Wayne State University. {{DEFAULTSORT:Sedova, Natalia 1882 births 1962 deaths People from Romny People from Poltava Governorate Russian communists Russian Trotskyists Spouses of Russian and Soviet national leaders Soviet expellees Leon Trotsky Naturalized citizens of Mexico Mexican people of Russian descent Soviet Trotskyists Soviet emigrants to Mexico Soviet emigrants to Norway Soviet emigrants to Turkey Soviet emigrants to France Women Marxists