Seven years with Trotsky

An interview with Jean van Heijenoort

Part 1 | Part 2

This interview with Jean van Heijenoort was first published in the 3 April 1978 issue of the French newspaper Rouge. Conducted by Rodolphe Prager, it was translated into English by Intercontinental Press/Inprecor, which at the time served as the international publication of the Fourth International – United Secretariat (USFI).

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Jean van Heijenoort (1912–1986) served as Leon Trotsky’s secretary and guard from 1932 to 1939. During this time, he accompanied Trotsky throughout his exile in Turkey, France, Norway, and Mexico, developing a close working relationship with him. After Trotsky’s assassination in 1940, van Heijenoort settled in the United States, gradually distancing himself from both Marxism and active politics, and later made significant contributions to the fields of mathematics and logic. His seminal work, From Frege to Gödel: A Source Book in Mathematical Logic, is widely regarded as a foundational text in the history of logic.

In 1978, Jean van Heijenoort published his memoirs in French about his years as Leon Trotsky’s secretary and guard. The book was translated into English later that year under the title, With Trotsky in Exile: From Prinkipo to Coyoacán, presenting an account of Trotsky’s life in exile and the events of that period from van Heijenoort’s perspective. The Turkish translation of the book was published in 1999 by Özne Yayınları. (Jean van Heijenoort; Büyükada’dan Meksika’ya Troçki’yle Sürgünde, trans. Cengiz Alğan, Özne Yayınları, Istanbul, February 1999.)

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When I first arrived in Prinkipo I felt like a person without a country, a little bit bewildered, plunked down in a totally new environment with responsibilities I had never had before.

My work was very intense in those days. Besides the secretarial work and the translations, it involved dealing with the local authorities, taking care of domestic chores, and paying constant attention to security. Organizing the day-watch took a lot of time, and the night-watch even more.

Trotsky's stays in France (1933-35) and Norway (1935-36) were quite eventful. There was a lot of coming and going, there was the risk involved, and there were delicate relations with authorities subjected to hysterical campaigns by both the Stalinists and the ultraright.

But daily life in Mexico was very different. We had many contacts with Mexicans from the most varied walks of life. Diego Rivera put us in contact with a number of artists and poets, and others introduced us to high officials, journalists, and so forth. In addition, there were frequent visits from American revolutionists. From the leaders of the Socialist Workers Party, of course, but also from ordinary members and Trotskyist sympathizers. In cars jammed full they would come from Chicago, Los Angeles or elsewhere, armed with a letter of introduction from the SWP Political Committee. The atmosphere was entirely different from Prinkipo where the three or four of us lived in isolation.

In Mexico a new relationship developed between Trotsky and myself. During those long rainy Mexican nights at Coyoacdn I was alone with him and Natalia. This led to a certain intimacy. Actually in my book I don't spend enough time on the Coyoacán period. I ought to expand upon this in a later edition.

The great trials of Trotsky's life

 Zinaida Volkov (Zina) in Prinkipo (1931)

Changes occurred in Trotsky's personal life that did not affect his personality but that were noticeable to those of us who were close to him. During the first months of 1933 he suffered a series of heavy blows that affected him deeply, although they did not cause him to deviate from his political beliefs.

First there was the terrible shock of his daughter Zina's suicide in Berlin. He shut himself in his room with Natalia for several days. When he came out his face was ravaged with sorrow, with deep furrows in his cheeks.

Two weeks later Hitler came to power in Germany. Around the same time, we lost contact with the Soviet oppositionists Trotsky knew personally who had been deported to Siberia. We had been able to maintain correspondence with them through the years 1930-32. The sudden break in communications affected Trotsky deeply.

But things seemed to be going a bit better when Trotsky first arrived in Royan at the end of July 1933. During August he was visited by many Trotskyists from Paris whom he had not known before. He began discussions with the British Independent Labour Party and the German Socialist Workers Party (SAP), two centrist parties. He was full of energy. He seemed to be happy.

But a letter from Trotsky to Natalia in September indicates a certain disappointment; in it Trotsky said that perhaps they made a mistake in leaving Turkey.

In Mexico Trotsky received the horrible news of the murder in Paris of his son and collaborator Leon Sedov. There was a replay of the scene that had followed the death of Zina. I was the only one who was with them during both tragedies. Trotsky shut himself away for four or five days.

To be continued