[ca] La present tesi doctoral versa sobre la figura del comunista català Ramon Mercader. Nascut en el si d'una família burgesa vinguda a menys, per una sèrie de conflictes personals sa mare, Caritat del Río, se l'endugué juntament amb els seus germans al sud de França, on es quedà per estudiar hosteleria quan el pare anà a cercar-los per un intent de suïcidi de la mare. Retornà a Catalunya el 1929 ja molt polititzat, de manera que ingressà al Partit Comunista de Catalunya participant de les activitats clandestines promogudes pels joves. Detingut el 1935 i empresonat, amb l'amnistia de 1936 fou alliberat i s'implicà decididament en l'organització de les Olimpíades Populars, que s'havien d'inaugurar aquell juliol a Barcelona. L'esclat de la Guerra Civil marcà un punt d'inflexió en la seva existència. Combatent des del primer moment contra els revoltats a la ciutat comtal, aviat participà en els combats a l'Aragó i al front de Madrid, d'on en desapareixeria l'hivern de 1937-1938 quan fou reclutat, per la seva pròpia mare, per a una missió dels serveis secrets soviètics. Així, el retrobarem mesos més tard a París, on amb la identitat falsa de Jacques Mornard, cercava infiltrar-se dins els cercles trotskistes que s'hi movien. Havent seguit a la seva amant, la trotskista nord-americana Sylvia Ageloff, a Nova York, viatjà a Ciutat de Mèxic amb l'excusa d'uns afers comercials, però amb la intenció d'acostar-se sigil·losament a la casa del barri de Coyoacán on vivia exiliat Lleó Trotski. Havent fracassat un primer atemptat, resultà ser la persona més ben posicionada per intentar eliminar el vell revolucionari: així, el 20 d'agost de 1940 acompliria el seu objectiu amb un duríssim cop de piolet al cap. Empresonat durant vint anys a Mèxic, en sortiria el 1960 per establir-se a la Unió Soviètica, on fou condecorat. Allà adoptà tres criatures amb la seva dona, la mexicana Roquelia Mendoza, i participà de les activitats dels comunistes espanyols, liderats per Dolores Ibárruri i Santiago Carrillo. Però les condicions a la URSS se li feien complicades, especialment a la seva família, de manera que finalment obtingué el permís per dirigir-se a Cuba, on el govern castrista l'havia acceptat. D'aquesta manera passà els darrers anys de la seva existència, marcada per una greu malaltia, a l'illa caribenya, on acabà morint. El seu cos fou incinerat i traslladat a Moscou, per ser enterrat al cementiri de Kuntzevo, a l'espai destinat als herois de la Unió Soviètica. En aquest treball, doncs, hem intentat no només resseguir la seva trajectòria vital, sinó també posar les bases per comprendre el seu context històric, polític i social, i poder emmarcar a Ramon Mercader dins dels grans conflictes ideològics que marcaren tantes generacions del segle XX a escala mundial.

[en] This doctoral thesis deals with the figure of the Catalan communist Ramon Mercader. Born in the bosom of a decayed bourgeois family, due to a succession of personal conflicts his mother, Caritat del Río, kept him and his brothers with her to south France, where he remained to study hostelry when his father went to fetch them after a suicide attempt of the mother. He came back to Catalonia in 1929 already very politicised, so that he joined the Communist Party of Catalonia taking part in the underground activities promoted by the young members. Arrested and jailed in 1935, attending to the 1936's amnesty he was freed and got decidedly involved in the organization of the Popular Olympiads, which had to be opened those July in Barcelona. The beginning of the Spanish Civil War marked off an inflexion point on his existence. Becoming an early fighter against the revolted in the City of the Counts, soon he took part in the struggles in Aragon and in Madrid's firing line, from where he disappeared in 1937-1938's winter, when he was recruited by his own mother for a mission of the soviet's secret services. Thereby, we meet him again after some months in Paris, where with the false identity of Jacques Mornard, he was finding the way to get infiltrated in the Trotskyists circles which had activity there. Following his lover, the American Trotskyist Sylvia Ageloff, to New York, he travelled to Mexico City with the excuse of some business affairs, but with the real intention of getting close stealthily to Coyoacán quarter's house where the exiled León Trotsky lived. After the failure of a first assault, he became the best positioned person for trying to eliminate the old revolutionary: this way, the 20th August 1940 he accomplished his objective with a very hard ice axe blow on his head. Jailed for twenty years in Mexico, he went out in 1960 and established in the Soviet Union, where he got decorated. There he adopted three children with his woman, the Mexican Roquelia Mendoza, and took part in the activities carried on by the Spanish communists, leaded by Dolores Ibárruri and Santiago Carrillo. But the conditions in USSR got complicated to him and especially to his family, so he finally got the permission to fly to Cuba, since Fidel Castro's government had accepted him. Thus, he spend the last years of his existence, marked off by a severe illness, in the Caribbean island, where he finally dead. His body was cremated and moved to Moscow, in order to get it buried in Kuntzevo's cemetery, in the space destined to Soviet Union's Heroes. So in this work we tried not only to go over his life trajectory, but to lay the basis to understand his historical, political and social context too, so we can provide the setting for Ramon Mercader inside the big ideological struggles that marked off so many generations in the XXth Century on a world-wide scale.