Home / South America / Frida Kahlo: Saint of the Lefty Pilgrimage, Stalin’s Fan Girl, and the Mediocre Icon

Frida Kahlo: Saint of the Lefty Pilgrimage, Stalin’s Fan Girl, and the Mediocre Icon

Table of Contents

1. Frida Kahlo: A Controversial Icon

Frida Kahlo is often celebrated as a feminist icon and revolutionary artist, but the truth is more complicated. She was one of those mediocre artists remembered for personal life rather than artistic skill, openly bisexual before it was common, and had a turbulent marriage with Diego Rivera, whom she financially relied upon. She repeatedly cheated on him, using his support to pay her debts, challenging the popular narrative of her as a feminist hero. Kahlo did not live the life of an ideal communist, contrary to the image promoted by loud, pseudo-leftist advocates.

2. Frida Kahlo’s Stalinist Allegiance

Kahlo was not merely a Marxist dreamer. She was a committed Stalinist, displaying portraits of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Zedong above her bed.Death Toll Estimates of Influential Figures* Engels & Marx – political theorists; not directly responsible for mass killings but influential on regimes that were.

* Lenin – thought of by many as the “good grandfather” of communism, but responsible for 100,000–300,000 deaths through executions, famine, and repression.

* Stalin – responsible for 6–9 million deaths via purges, gulags, famine, and political terror.

* Mao Zedong – responsible for 40–70 million deaths.

3. The Trotsky Episode

Urban legend has it that Frida Kahlo had an affair with Leon Trotsky, founding member of the Bolshevik Central Committee under Lenin, head of the Red Army, and widely seen as Lenin’s potential successor — as well as Stalin’s most dangerous rival.

After losing the internal power struggle, Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party and exiled from the Soviet Union. He traveled through Turkey, France, and Norway before arriving in Mexico in 1937, thanks to advocacy by Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo to President Lázaro Cárdenas.Trotsky and his wife, Natalia Sedova, initially stayed with Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera at the Casa Azul. Whether Kahlo and Trotsky had an affair is debated. Unlike most communist leaders, Trotsky actually lived a rather communist ideal life, which, of course, is why he never came to power.

4. Stalin’s Global Manhunt and Kahlo’s Final Tribute

Stalin viewed Trotsky as a mortal threat, an intellectually superior competitor. Stalin pursued him relentlessly across continents, sending assassins and launching multiple attempts on his life, ultimately succeeding in 1940 when an agent murdered Trotsky in Mexico!Frida Kahlo’s final self-portrait was dedicated to Stalin, the man who had him killed.

5. Casa Azul vs. Trotsky’s Empty House

Today, Casa Azul in Mexico City is a leftist pilgrimage site: endless lines, tickets booked weeks in advance, and — in perfect communist irony — a thriving black market for entry, cash only. Meanwhile, Trotsky’s house? Empty. No lines. No crowds. Shame on the education system that fosters such historical ignorance.

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