Accessed May 2, Nikolai Bukharin, member of the Soviet politburo and Central Commitee and editor-in-chief of Pravda newspaper was the central victim of the Moscow show trials. The following transcript involves Bukharin defending his allegiance to the Soviet cause and his condemnation of terror.
Let me relate to you how I explained this matter. Comrade Mikoian says the following: On the most basic question, he, Bukharin, has differences of opinion with the party: In essence, he stuck to his old positions.
This is untrue. In no way have I stuck to my previous positions — not on industrialization, not on collectivization, [and] not on village restructuring in general. But with regards to stimuli in agriculture, this question was not clear to me until the matter came round to the legislation on Soviet trade. I consider the entire problem, as a whole, was resolved after the introduction of laws on Soviet trade.
Prior to this, this problem, very important but not all-embracing, was not clear to me. When this matter became pertinent to product turnover in [illegible] and Soviet…. I would like to make one more remark. I do bear responsibility for this. But the question involves the degree of responsibility; it is a matter of the quality of this responsibility.
I bear responsibility for this fact. However, it is necessary to establish the degree and nature of this responsibility. I am not shifting responsibility from myself; more than anyone else, I accept the gravity of this responsibility. However, I would like to say that the measure of responsibility, the characterization of this responsibility, is absolutely specific in nature, and it should be expressed as I have expressed it here.
This is an obvious lie. How could Kulikov offer two versions in answer to this absolutely and exceptionally terrible question? Regarding the Riutinskii platform. Prominent Americans could even be found to defend Stalin show trials, a spectacle of political theater so transparent that it would have taken genuine effort not to see through it. In order to terrorize Communist Party members into absolute submission and at the same time eliminate potential rivals, Stalin put on a series of high-profile trials in which prominent Communists confessed to treachery against the Soviet Union.
In some cases, people were coaxed into making these confessions by threats against their families if they refused. Few of the thousands arrested during the Stalin purges ever saw a Soviet courtroom. Special secret police boards sentenced defendants without them even being present. Between and , however, Stalin conducted three "show trials" involving about 50 top Communist Party leaders and government officials.
Stalin wanted to convince the world's press that accused criminals were being treated fairly. Also, these scripted trials were intended to discredit the old generation of Communists who still posed a potential threat to Stalin's rule.
The most serious charge leveled at the defendants was that they conspired with Trotsky who lived in exile outside the USSR to assassinate Lenin, Stalin, and other Soviet leaders. In addition, the accused were charged with spying for foreign powers and sabotaging the economy.
The evidence consisted almost entirely of the confessions of the defendants themselves. State-appointed attorneys, when they were permitted, played little role in the proceedings. The most spectacular of the "show trials" was the last, held in March With Stalin looking on from a darkened viewing area, the script of the trial almost fell to pieces on the first day when defendant Nikolai Krestinsky refused to plead guilty.
After a night with his interrogators, he reversed himself. The most important defendant at this trial was Nikolai Bukharin, known as the "Heir of Lenin. A year later, Bukharin was arrested. After interrogations that went on for more than a year, Bukharin confessed to belonging to a 'Trotskyite Bloc" whose purpose was to restore capitalism to the USSR. While confessing to the general charges, Bukharin denied committing specific criminal acts such as plotting the deaths of Lenin and Stalin.
Andrei Vyshinsky, the chief prosecutor, summed up the case against the 21 defendants at the last "show trial. Over the road cleared of the last scum and filth of the past, we our people, with our beloved leader and teacher, the great Stalin, at our head will march as before onwards and onwards, towards Communism!
The judge found all the defendants guilty on all the charges there were no jury trials in the Soviet judicial system. All were subsequently shot. During the peak of the Stalin purges , over 7 million Soviet citizens were arrested. Of these, more than a million were executed. Millions more died in the gulags prison camps of Siberia.
Stalin's last major enemy, Leon Trotsky, was assassinated in Mexico in With Trotsky's death, Stalin had finally obliterated the old generation of Communists and replaced them with a new generation of party and government officials completely in the grasp of the "man of steel. Chronology of Russian History A timeline of events with links. Stalin Internet Library A collection of his written works and speeches.
Joseph Stalin Reference Archive Another collection of his works. Joseph Stalin: Biographical Chronicle A timeline of his life. Stalin From the BBC. Bibliography of works on Stalin. Leon Trotsky Internet Archive. Freedom of Information Act: Documents relating to the murder of Trotsky. My Life The complete text of his autobiography. Leon Trotsky A picture history of his life.
May download slowly if you don't have a fast connection. Trotsky, Leon From the Columbia Encyclopedia. August 11, issue of Art Bin magazine:. And they all confessed Story of the show trials. He may have been, in the mind of Stalin, a party functionary but he was his own independent thinker and not someone who agreed with Stalin simply because it was Stalin. Kirov was also a man who was not scared to voice his beliefs in public.
However, Leon Trotsky was another case. He needed an excuse to justify what was to happen. Kirov played a vital part in this — he was murdered on December 1 st by Leonid Nikolayev. Historians are divided as to the extent Stalin played in this.
The Politburo agreed with Stalin. Anyone associated with these men was also under suspicion. They were put on trial at heavily manipulated show trials where the verdict was never in doubt. The show trials had to prove their guilt preferably with a very public admission of betraying the revolution and therefore the people. The first people arrested were known supporters of Trotsky who at this time was living on an island off the coast of Turkey.
While he was safe for the time being, his supporters were not.
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