Zinaida Volkova - Children

Children

Zinaida's daughter Alexandra remained in the USSR and was raised by her father, Zakhar Moglin. After Moglin's exile in 1932, she was taken care of by her grandmother, Alexandra Sokolovskaya, who was in turn exiled in 1935 and perished in the labor camps. Finally, Alexandra herself was exiled to Kazakhstan, but survived and returned to Moscow after Stalin's death. She died of cancer in 1989.

Zinaida's son, Vsevolod, first stayed with Trotsky in Turkey, then with Trotsky's son Lev Sedov in Germany, Austria and finally Paris. After Lev Sedov's death in 1938, his girlfriend wanted to keep the child. Trotsky sued for custody and won the case, but Sedov's girlfriend went into hiding with the boy. Eventually, Trotsky's friends found Vsevolod and sent him to Mexico, where he re-joined Trotsky. After Trotsky was assassinated by Stalin's agent Ramon Mercader in 1940, Vsevolod remained in Mexico, adopted the name Esteban (the Spanish equivalent of his name), became an engineer and had four daughters. He is the current custodian of the Trotsky museum in Mexico City. Vsevolod's daughter, Nora Volkow, was educated as a physician in Mexico and is now the director of the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse.