Exiled Russian leader Leon Trotsky was assassinated in Mexico in 1940. He had been living in exile in Mexico since 1937 after being expelled from the Soviet Union. On August 20, 1940, Trotsky was attacked in his residence in Coyoacán, Mexico City, by Ramón Mercader, a Spanish communist and Soviet agent. Trotsky was struck on the head with an ice axe and later died from his injuries on August 21, 1940.