I never knew that Trotsky's assassination took place near the home of Frieda Kahlo and Diego Rivera.

I was surfing the internet to relax some insomnia and came across reviews of Dmitri Volkogonov's biography of Trotsky, Trotsky: The Eternal Revolutionary

Volkognovov is an interesting guy, a high ranking military officer who was charged with studying the history of the Soviet State in its secret archives before the Soviet Union disintegrated. A passionate communist, this work left him disillusioned, and caused him to write biographies of not only Trotsky, but also of Stalin and Lenin, all of which were critical apparently.

I haven't read these books, but as I'm interested, more than ever after recent events in this country, in authoritarianism and its psychology, I may put these on my future reading list.

I once read Trotsky's bitter biography of Stalin, (of course with a grain of salt) and frankly, I find the guy fascinating in a sordid kind of way.

According to one review, Trotsky, who was murdered in Mexico by Stalin's agents, with an axe to the brain - giving a new spin on "splitting headache" - was murdered near the home of the great artists Diego Rivera and his wife, the much suffering great artist Freida Kahlo. He'd actually lived for a while with the two great artists, and had a brief affair with Kahlo.

Kahlo was briefly arrested under suspicion of participating or conspiring in Trotsky's murder, but was released.

Who knew?