Esteban Volkov, grandson of the Russian revolutionary leader, Leon Trotsky, was recently able to go to Turkey and return to the places where his grandfather had lived after his expulsion from the Soviet Union. In particular, Esteban was able to see, for the first time since 1931-1932, the house in Prinkipo — the Ile of Princes — where he had lived with Trotsky. On our way across France towards Grenoble in August 2003, Esteban spoke of his journey to Turkey. 

Eighty years ago, on 21st January 1924, Vladimir Illyich Ulyanov, the leader of the Russian Soviet state and Communist International died after a prolonged illness. He was fifty-three years of age. His life covers years of profound upheaval, crisis and transformation - the last quarter of the nineteenth century and the first quarter of the twentieth century - crowned by the First World War and the Russian Revolution of 1917. He was without doubt the greatest revolutionary of his time, a giant of a man, whose actions changed the course of history in the 20th Century. [This article was originally written in 2004]