Alex Buchman

Who was Alex Buchman?

Alexander Buchman was an American.

Alex Buchman was born May 16, 1911 in Cleveland, Ohio, a son in a wealthy family. After earning a degree in aeronautical engineering in 1933, he decided to travel in Asia. He first went to Japan, but the Japanese government labeled him a “Communist”, and refused to let him stay. Buchman then went to China and spent the following six years in Shanghai where he got in touch with a mixed group of Trotskyists from the U.S. and South Africa. He also got to know Wang Fanxi, a prominent Chinese Trotskyist and one of the leaders of the Chinese Left Opposition. In Shanghai, he also met Debby Bloomfield who became his wife.

When Alex Buchman left China in 1939, he went to Mexico to meet Leon Trotsky. Buchman spent five months, from autumn 1939 to April 1940, in Coyoacán and worked as one of Trotsky’s guards. As an amateur photographer, Buchman documented a lot of Trotsky’s last year in life, including in black-and-white motion pictures.

Alex Buchman died in Los Angeles on January 7, 2003.

Alex Buchman never officially joined any party. He was avowedly not a Communist, but supported the philosophies of socialism.