Rudolf Klement
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Rudolf Alois Klement (November 4, 1908, in Hamburg – 13 July 1938, in Paris) was a German member of the
Trotskyist Trotskyism (, ) is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Russian revolutionary and intellectual Leon Trotsky along with some other members of the Left Opposition and the Fourth International. Trotsky described himself as an ...
Left Opposition The Left Opposition () was a faction within the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) from 1923 to 1927 headed '' de facto'' by Leon Trotsky. It was formed by Trotsky to mount a struggle against the perceived bureaucratic degeneration within th ...
and
Fourth International The Fourth International (FI) was a political international established in France in 1938 by Leon Trotsky and his supporters, having been expelled from the Soviet Union and the Communist International (also known as Comintern or the Third Inte ...
. Fluent in five languages, he joined
Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky,; ; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky'' was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and political theorist. He was a key figure ...
as his secretary in Prinkipo, Turkey, in 1933, where he learned a sixth language, Russian. Klement accompanied Trotsky to France, where he remained after Trotsky was expelled and ultimately found a home in Mexico. Klement came to lead Trotsky's International Secretariat from France. He was assassinated by the
NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...
in Paris in 1938, while preparing a political report that included an investigation of NKVD agent
Mark Zborowski Mark Zborowski (27 January 1908 – 30 April 1990) (AKA "Marc" Zborowski or Etienne) was an anthropologist and an NKVD agent ( Venona codenames TULIP and KANT
, who had infiltrated the Trotskyist movement in France.


Early life

Klement was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1908, his father an architect in the city.Broué, 1979Lubitz and Lubitz, 2004 A student of philosophy at Hamburg, he spoke five languages. He joined the communist party in his youth, but after expressing interest in Trotskyist political positions, was expelled in 1932. In 1932–33, Klement was recruited by socialist Georg Jungclas (1902–1975) to join the left opposition, and quickly began to learn Russian. Belgian socialist Georges Vereeken described Klement as "Tall and pale, slightly stooped, an unexpressive face, impenetrable." Socialist Gérard Rosenthal wrote that Klement was a large man with sharp features who wore glasses and was short-sighted. Rosenthal described Klement as reserved, precise, tidy, and slow to speak.


Left Opposition

Klement joined Trotsky on the island of
Büyükada Büyükada (, rendered ''Prinkipos'' or ''Prinkipo''), meaning "Big Island" in Turkish, is the largest of the Princes' Islands in the Sea of Marmara, near Istanbul, with an area of about . It is made up of the Maden and Nizam neighbourhoods in ...
, a part of Istanbul in Turkey on the
Sea of Marmara The Sea of Marmara, also known as the Sea of Marmora or the Marmara Sea, is a small inland sea entirely within the borders of Turkey. It links the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea via the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits, separating Turkey's E ...
. Working for Trotsky, he produced German translations of Trotsky's political writings. Klement accompanied Trotsky to France, living with him in Saint-Palais and Ker-Monique, in
Barbizon Barbizon () is a commune (town) in the Seine-et-Marne department in north-central France. It is located near the Fontainebleau Forest. Demographics The inhabitants are called ''Barbizonais''. Art history The Barbizon school of painters is n ...
. He also organized political meetings and contacts in Paris. Under surveillance by French police, Klement was arrested in 1935, giving the French government the pretext to expel Trotsky from France in June. After a short stay in Brussels, Klement returned to France, where he came to direct Trotsky's international secretariat from Paris. Klement became a prolific political writer and translator for the international Left Opposition. As an immigrant and political refugee, Klement's personal safety was difficult to secure, and he used a host of pseudonyms including Frédéric, Ludwig, Walter Steen, Camille, Adolphe, and Roger Bertrand. After the death of Left Oppositionist Erwin Wolf in 1937 and Trotsky's son
Lev Sedov Lev Lvovich Sedov (, also known as Leon Sedov; 24 February 1906 – 16 February 1938) was a Russian writer and the first son of politician and revolutionary Leon Trotsky and his second wife, Natalia Sedova. Sedov was born when his father was in ...
in February 1938, Klement bore greater responsibility for the task of organizing the creation of the Fourth International. Klement served as the founding secretary for the International.North, 2018


Investigation into ''Etienne''

Prior to his murder, at Trotsky's direction, Klement began a report investigating the assassinations targeting the Trotskyist Left Opposition.Weissman, 2011Kern, 2013 A number of Trotskyists suspected Lev Sedov's close associate
Mark Zborowski Mark Zborowski (27 January 1908 – 30 April 1990) (AKA "Marc" Zborowski or Etienne) was an anthropologist and an NKVD agent ( Venona codenames TULIP and KANT
, known in France at that time as ''Etienne,'' and later confirmed to be working for the NKVD. Etienne was among the subjects assessed in Klement's report, which was stolen on the Paris metro in the days prior to Klement's death. A Stalinist defector Alexander Orlov subsequently warned Trotsky, anonymously, that a spy named "Mark" was an NKVD agent in Paris. Trotsky did not act on this information, fearing that the letter was written by the NKVD. Also in Paris at the time were NKVD spies Toman, from Lithuania, and
Ramón Mercader Jaime Ramón Mercader del Río (; ; 7 February 1913 – 18 October 1978)Photograph oMercader's Gravestone/ref> was a Spanish communist and NKVD secret agent who assassinated the revolutionary Leon Trotsky in Mexico City in August 1940. Mercad ...
, both of whom could have helped steal the documents. Mercader had been introduced to numerous members of Trotsky's circle by Sylvia Ageloff, and would later murder Trotsky in Mexico.London, 2021, part 2


Death

Klement was last seen by his French colleagues on 12 July 1938. According to a later FBI report marked "confidential," American Trotskyist James P. Cannon received a letter from European Trotskyists explaining that Klement had retrieved his mail and that of Etienne from the library at noon on 13 July. The letter further stated that Klement had a scheduled meeting with Etienne that evening at 6pm, but that Klement missed the meeting.FBI, 1958 A few days later Klement's colleagues visited his home at
Maisons-Alfort Maisons-Alfort () is a Communes of France, commune in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the Kilometre Zero, center of Paris. Maisons-Alfort is famous as the location of the National Veterinary School of Alfort. The Fo ...
, a suburb of Paris, and found a prepared dinner uneaten. Members of the Left Opposition began to receive letters ostensibly written by Klement beginning on 16 July, claiming that Klement had abandoned the Trotskyist movement. The letters were mailed from
Perpignan Perpignan (, , ; ; ) is the prefectures in France, prefecture of the Pyrénées-Orientales departments of France, department in Southern France, in the heart of the plain of Roussillon, at the foot of the Pyrenees a few kilometres from the Me ...
, near the French-Spanish border. On July 26 and 28, Klement's headless body was recovered from the
Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plat ...
at
Meulan-en-Yvelines Meulan-en-Yvelines (, before 2010: ''Meulan'') is a Communes of France, commune in the Yvelines Departments of France, department in the Île-de-France Regions of France, region in north-central France. It hosted part of the Sailing at the 1900 Su ...
outside Paris. His murderers, later revealed to be working for the NKVD,Bourrinet, 2017 were never found. Klement was the fourth prominent leader of the Left Opposition to be murdered in a period of two years by the NKVD. Others included Erwin Wolf,
Ignace Reiss Ignace Reiss (1899 – 4 September 1937) – also known as "Ignace Poretsky," "Ignatz Reiss," "Ludwig," "Ludwik", "Hans Eberhardt," "Steff Brandt," Nathan Poreckij, and "Walter Scott (an officer of the U.S. military intelligence)" ...
, and Sedov. Trotsky wrote that by assassinating Klement, the Stalinist USSR worked in the aid of imperialism:Trotsky, 1938–39International Committee of the Fourth International, 2011 Though Klement was known by his colleagues in the Left Opposition to have been preparing a lengthy political report for the Fourth International prior to his death, as recounted by
Pierre Naville Pierre Naville (; 1 February 1904 – 24 April 1993) was a French Surrealist writer and sociologist.Stubb, JeremyObituary: Pierre Naville ''The Independent'', 3 June 1993. He was a prominent member of the "Investigating Sex" group of Surreali ...
, his papers disappeared and were never found. Klement's murder would have been ordered by Stalin's Department of Special Tasks.


See also

*
Great Purge The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the Assassination of Sergei Kirov, assassination of ...
* List of Soviet and Russian assassinations (disambiguation)


References


Cited works

* Bourrinet, Philippe (2017) From the ‘Marx-Lenin-Luxemburg Front’ to the Communistenbond Spartacus (1940–42). Brill, Leiden, p. 442. * Broué, Pierre (1979) Cahiers Leon Trotsky, no. 1. Translated by Ted Crawford

* FBI (1958) Confidential FBI Record No. 124-90080-10051, Agency File No. CR 100-352386-2191

* International Committee of the Fourth International (2011) The story of Mark Zborowski: Stalin’s spy in the Fourth International. World Socialist Web Site

* Kern, Gary (2013) A Death in Washington: Walter G. Krivitsky and the Stalin Terror. Enigma Books, p. 154-155. * London, Eric (2021) Sylvia Ageloff and the assassination of Leon Trotsky, part 2. World Socialist Web Site

* Lubitz, Wolfgang and Lubitz, Petra (2004) Rudolf Klement. Trotsyana

* David North (socialist), North, David (2018) On the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Fourth International. World Socialist Web Site

* Trotsky, Leon (1938–1939) Writings of Leon Trotsky, 1938- 39. Pathfinder Press (NY); 2nd edition (January 1, 1974); pp. 76–77. * Weissman, Susan (2011) Mark ‘Etienne’ Zborowski: Portrait of Deception—Part 1. Critique, 39:4, 583-609

{{DEFAULTSORT:Klement, Rudolf 1908 births 1938 deaths German communists German socialists People killed in NKVD operations German Trotskyists People murdered in Paris Emigrants from Nazi Germany to France