43
votes
Accepted
Why did Stalin and the Soviet leadership have Leon Trotsky assassinated?
Trotsky, as the leader of the Fourth International, was a direct competitor to Stalin as the Leader of the World Worker Movement. Stalin needed all the communists to be subservient to him, especially ...
- 26.9k
37
votes
How did the world react to Trotsky's assassination?
Short Answer
Despite the 'distraction' of World War II, Trotsky's assassination was widely reported and commented on, but the 'interest' did not last except among Trotskyists. Stalin's Soviet Union ...
- 108k
28
votes
Accepted
Was Heinrich Himmler's death a suicide?
The answer to your question "is there any historical documentation which could lend support to this theory?" would be no.
The entire story was based on forged documents planted at the UK National ...
- 77.4k
21
votes
Accepted
Why does the CIA report on the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich refer to it as "Operation Salmon" rather than "Operation Anthropoid"?
As the author of the CIA article, R. C. Jaggers, does not cite any sources, it is difficult to establish with certainty why he used the name 'Operation Salmon'.
The most likely reason may be that ...
- 108k
12
votes
Accepted
Why were (are) food tasters human?
The Wikipedia article on food tasters explains that human food tasters had multiple functions:
The safety of the food may be determined by observing whether or not the food taster subsequently ...
- 18.9k
12
votes
Why does the CIA report on the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich refer to it as "Operation Salmon" rather than "Operation Anthropoid"?
Curiously, after a bit of research I found this - a comment on the Amazon Kindle entry for the "book" The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich Kindle Edition
Make of it what you will, but possibly it ...
- 2,466
8
votes
Accepted
Why was Abane Ramdane killed?
Eyes to the South offers slightly more information. An internal power struggle between the military and political faction was resolved when the military faction killed Ramdane. (See page 30)
Another ...
MCW♦
- 32.4k
8
votes
Accepted
Has there ever been any assassination so that another assassination could happen during the first one's funeral?
This is quite difficult to really fulfill in all the specifics laid out. Those kind of plot devices must be much more common than a quick net-search coming up empty might lead you to believe. A ...
- 80.8k
6
votes
Accepted
Did Gavrilo Princip ever express regret for his actions during imprisonment?
The Serb conspirators did express regret at the deaths of what they considered "innocent" third parties, but basically felt that they did what they needed to do on behalf of their beloved Serbia.
...
- 104k
6
votes
Why did Stalin and the Soviet leadership have Leon Trotsky assassinated?
Stalin had Trotsky assassinated for personal reasons. These can be seen if you read The Revolution Betrayed and Stalin by Trotsky, and Stalin: A biography by Robert Service which sums up Trotsky's ...
- 65
6
votes
Why did Stalin and the Soviet leadership have Leon Trotsky assassinated?
First of all, Trotsky had contested the succession to Lenin with Stalin. If Lenin had been in better health in his last days, Trotsky might have won because Lenin preferred him. So Trotsky was an ...
- 104k
6
votes
Why did Stalin and the Soviet leadership have Leon Trotsky assassinated?
I think you need to reverse your question: why not kill him?
When the death sentence was passed on Bukharin, Stalin's long-neutralised and powerless former rival, Bukharin was allowed to write a ...
- 14.3k
5
votes
Why does the CIA report on the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich refer to it as "Operation Salmon" rather than "Operation Anthropoid"?
The "CIA's secret report" by R. C. Jaggers reads like a "as told by" version of some primary document originating outside the CIA. The CIA of course did not exist in 1942, and its predecessor, the OSS,...
- 5,829
4
votes
Was Martin Luther King's leadership conference Southern Christian or Southern Baptist?
According to the SCLC web site, it took about a year for the organization to form, in a series of meetings, changing name several times: in Jan 1957 it was the "Southern Leadership Conference on ...
- 5,829
4
votes
Is Oskar Potiorek considered a suspect in the Archduke Ferdinand assassination?
His role as a general in the war afterward was remarkably incompetent.
You answered your question yourself. The above description is very accurate of his entire career; remarkably incompetent. It ...
- 20.9k
4
votes
Accepted
What is the historic validity of "Nothing is real; everything is permitted" as the Assassins' motto?
AlexNGU1 responded to my question on another site and I think they explained it quite well:
As something the Ismailis said? Pretty well none. A version of it appeared in the works of Silvtre de Sacy; ...
- 151
4
votes
Why did Stalin and the Soviet leadership have Leon Trotsky assassinated?
Stalin was concerned about Stalin and the fate of the Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist world revolution. The success of a Marxist-Leninist-Trotskyist movement would have endangered both his physical ...
- 16.8k
4
votes
Accepted
Why was Oslo I Accord so harsh or controversial?
I think that Wikipedia article has an adequate description of the Oslo accord. The main point was the mutual recognition between Israel and PLA, a promise of PLA to stop violence against Israel, and ...
- 38.5k
3
votes
Why was Oslo I Accord so harsh or controversial?
Oslo was Israel recognising that Palestinians have some rights that the PLO were entitled to negotiate for them, agreeing for the Palestinian Authority to be set up and giving it some autonomy and ...
- 2,146
2
votes
Has a food taster ever thwarted an assassination attempt?
In general, awareness of the taster is likely to preclude the planning of an assassination in which a person would be poisoned through food.
One example of a food taster ‘doing his job’ may be seen in ...
- 29
2
votes
Was ever a poisoning prevented by the person accustoming themselves to poison beforehand (Mithridatism)?
It's hard to confirm the stories but there are several stories where Mithridatism actually saved an individual.
One of the famous stories of them is about the emperor Chandragupta Maurya. According ...
- 217
2
votes
Was there ever a queen or female ruler who killed her child to preserve her power?
Queen Athaliah of Judah allegedly killed several family members, possibly including children of hers.
Accounts of the life of Athaliah are to be found in 2 Kings 8:16-11:16 and 2 Chronicles 22:10-23:...
- 19.1k
2
votes
What documented criteria (if any) did the CIA use to determine targets for political assassination during the Cold War?
The CIA has long been happy to kill operatives and functionaries, but with the notable exception of Fidel Castro, it has refrained from performing political assassinations, in favor of allowing local ...
- 27.6k
2
votes
What did Zhang Zuolin say after his train blew up?
张作霖只说了一个“打”字，就昏死过去，再也没有醒来……。
"打" could be the verb in a sentence. That means 'make a phone/telegraph to call his fifth son back soon'. Because he was in a lethal condition and could not finish the ...
- 23
1
vote
Why does the CIA report on the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich refer to it as "Operation Salmon" rather than "Operation Anthropoid"?
I'm a little late to this party, but if anyone is still interested.... I'm sure the source was Moravec himself, but the melodramatic spin would certainly not have been his. As for the errors, they may ...
1
vote
What were the dates & details of assassinations in Vienna, Austria of Bulgarian defectors Veselin Stoyov, Peter Niezamov, and Ivan Kolev (circa 1974)?
Have you tried searching with different transliterations? Bulgarian is written with Cyrillic letters and German-speaking countries do not always use the same transcriptions as English-speaking ones. ...
- 8,382
1
vote
Why pretend Elser, Thalmann & other dissidents had been killed in air raids?
Earlier in the war, executing "dissidents" might have brought the Nazis some sympathy. Not so in the last year, when Germany was losing, and everyone knew who the "culprits" were. The war and the ...
- 104k
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