Ramón Mercader, a Spanish-born agent working for Stalin's secret police, gained Leon Trotsky's trust and then attacked him with a mountaineering ice axe in his study in Coyoacán. Despite the wound, Trotsky fought back and survived nearly 24 hours before dying on August 21, 1940, closing out Stalin's decade-long campaign to eliminate his exiled rival.
Trotsky had already survived one assassination attempt months earlier, a machine-gun raid on his villa that riddled the walls with bullets but somehow left him and his family unharmed. He knew Stalin wanted him dead and had built his Mexican compound like a small fortress, with guard towers and steel shutters, yet he let Ramón Mercader in because the young man had spent months cultivating a relationship through Trotsky's secretary.
On August 20, Mercader asked Trotsky to review an article in his study, then pulled an ice axe from under his coat and drove it into Trotsky's skull. Trotsky, astonishingly, did not immediately collapse. He screamed, grabbed Mercader, and fought him to the ground, allowing guards to rush in and beat the assassin nearly to death before pulling him off.
Trotsky was rushed to a hospital and remained lucid enough to dictate final instructions, reportedly telling his wife he loved her before losing consciousness. He died the following afternoon. Mercader served nearly 20 years in a Mexican prison, was later revealed to be a Soviet agent, and was awarded the Order of Lenin in absentia, an honor bestowed by the man who ordered the killing.