Trotsky and reindeer

[Yuri Corrigan]

Dear Seelangers,
I'm writing on behalf of a colleague who is attempting to track down a
scene from one of Trotsky's biographies. Trotsky is riding through the
snow, drawn by a team of reindeer.  He overtaxes them, and they all keel
over dead at the same time as he reaches his destination.  Trotsky somehow
ends up lying in the snow, weeping, and making a vow to himself to start a
revolution at all costs.
Apparently Murakami tells this story in his most recent novel, and mentions
a monument to these reindeer in Red Square that apparently, according to
Murakami, even Stalin didn't dare take down.
Is any of this based on even the smallest grain of truth (apart from the
fact, that is, that Trotsky used reindeer to escape from Siberia to Finland
in 1907, as Robert Service describes in his recent biography)?
(please reply off-list to yuricorrigan at gmail.com.)
Many thanks in advance.
Best,
Yuri

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