La Jornada: Trotsky’s challenge to totalitarianism and his defense of the imagination in the works of Vlady

On the anniversary of the death of León Trotsky, visiting Vlady’s murals in the Miguel Lerdo de Tejada Library of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (Republic of El Salvador 49, Historical Center of Mexico City) constitutes an opportunity to reflect on the memory of dissidence and criticism of absolute power. Made between 1973 and 1981, these works offer a visual reading of the revolutions of the 20th century and dialogue with one of the most influential legacies of modern political theory: the denunciation of totalitarianism.

86 years after his assassination, Trotsky’s reflections remain valid. It is worth remembering that, as a protagonist of the Russian revolution of 1917, he warned about the danger of replacing popular participation with the dominance of a bureaucratic elite. In 1929, after the death of Lenin and the consolidation of Stalin’s control over the Communist Party, Trotsky was expelled from the Soviet Union and forced into exile until he found asylum in Mexico, thanks to the government of Lázaro Cárdenas.

Upon arriving in Tampico on January 9, 1937, Trotsky announced the publication of The revolution betrayeda book written during his exile and revised during the journey to Mexico. The work would become a fundamental text for understanding the nature of the Stalinist regime and the mechanisms through which the concentration of power can destroy democracy. Furthermore, these analyzes would provide central concepts for the criticism of totalitarianism in the 20th century.

Decades later, many of these reflections would find visual resonance in Vlady’s murals. In Revolutions and elementsthe figures function as a warning against the charismatic concentration of power. These are not direct illustrations of a political doctrine, but rather historical and symbolic affinities that allow establishing a dialogue between thought and image.

Although Vlady never presented himself as a manifesto artist or made explicit references to Trotsky, it is difficult not to relate certain figures to processes described by the Russian revolutionary. The transformation of the leader into an omnipotent presence evokes the erosion of democracy and the rise of totalitarian forms of power. Likewise, scenes of persecution suggest purges and exclusion campaigns, while images of destroyed archives and oppressive bureaucracies denounce the manipulation of memory and mechanisms of ideological control.

The visual dialectic of the murals reaches one of its most powerful moments in the central nave of the old Oratory of San Felipe Neri. There, two facing panels represent, on the one hand, the emancipatory hope of the October Revolution of 1917 and, on the other, the defeat of the left-wing opposition, the persecution of dissidents and the consolidation of a privileged bureaucracy. It is a symbolic allusion to the betrayed revolution.

However, the presence of this historical memory in Vlady’s work cannot be explained solely by the influence of Trotsky. A decisive link comes from his father, Victor Serge, with whom he shared the experience of exile and Stalinist persecution. From this inheritance arose a critical and independent attitude that deeply marked the painter’s artistic vision.

His defense of creative freedom can also be understood from this anti-dogmatic tradition. Various studies have related his proposal to the spirit of Manifesto for an independent revolutionary art (1938), signed by André Breton, Diego Rivera and León Trotsky, in which they defended the autonomy of artistic work against the ideological pressures of their time: National Socialist art in Germany and socialist realism in the Soviet Union.

For this reason, Vlady’s murals reject heroic and simplifying visions of history. Its open and contradictory images remind us that emancipatory ideals can be degraded when a bureaucracy replaces democratic participation and when truth is subordinated to power. 86 years after Trotsky’s assassination, these paintings retain a disturbing validity because they keep alive the memory of those who opposed all forms of absolute domination.

* General Director of the Conservatorship of the National Palace and Cultural Heritage