Letter

Ramón Mercader

Dear Editor

As the current issue of Revolutionary History is devoted to Cuba, readers may be interested in this extract from Special Tasks, the autobiography of the Soviet espionage agent Pavel Sudoplatov:

‘In 1978, Ramón Mercader died in Cuba, where he was working as a counsellor in the Ministry of Internal Affairs at the invitation of Fidel Castro. His body was secretly shipped to Moscow. I was in a health sanatorium with Emma [Kaganov, Sudoplatov’s wife], and [Leonid] Eitingon could not reach me. The KGB, in a cowardly manner, tried to bury him secretly without informing Eitingon, but Mercader’s widow, Raquelia, staged a row and telephoned Leonid, who attended the funeral without me.’

Fraternally

Ernie Rogers