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Published material on the history of psychoanalysis in Russia has paid little attention to Lenin's attitude towards Freudian ideas. In this respect, Trotsky probably put the father of the Russian revolution in the shade; as far as the principal leaders of the Bolshevik revolution are concerned, only Trotsky's connection with psychoanalysis is well known. His opinion was clear and he expressed it on several occasions: he undoubtedly held psychoanalysis in some esteem.1 His ‘indulgence towards the Freudian school of thought’ (Deutscher 1959) about which he seems to have been ‘particularly well-informed’ (Asor 1972), and the ‘fascination’ (Rom 1982) he felt with respect to Freud are sufficiently exceptional among the principal Bolshevik leaders for us to pay close attention to these factors. Trotsky's daughter Zina had several months of analysis (Chemouni 2001) before committing suicide in Berlin in 1933.