Moscow Show Trials

In April 1928 Stalin claimed that “class enemies” were acting against the Soviet government. The “class enemies” that Stalin referred to in 1928, were engineers whom Stalin accused of sabotage and wrecking of machinery in an attempt to hinder the governments plans to improve industrial output. In 1931 some senior industrial planners were accused of sabotaging the first Five Year Plan. In reality they were prosecuted simply because of their Menshenk background.

    The Kulaks, better off farm families were also prosecuted. On December 1928 Stalin called for the liquidation of the Kulaks as a class. Those who resisted collectivisation were deported or murdered. The survivors were transported to remote regions, where many died from hunger and disease. Many were brought to Gulags, which were slave labour camps, these camps were a vital part of the Soviet economic system. The first famous novel depicting life in the labour camps was Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s, “One day in the Life of Ivan Denisovish”, published in 1962.

    The events surrounding the Show Trials portrayed Stalin as “one who had no idea of the meaning of conscience”. The secret trial began in 1935. Kamenev and Zinoviev were sentenced to ten years imprisonment. They were also forced to name all the participants in the anti party struggle. This lead to the first Show Trial in 1936. The Show Trials that followed were shown to the world at large. In August 1936, the first of the big show Trials began in the Trade Union House in Moscow. 150 carefully chosen attended while 30 equally carefully chosen foreign correspondents and diplomats. Andrei Vishinski acted as the prosecutor of all three Show Trials.

    When the first Show Trial commenced, amazingly Kamenev, Zinoviev and 14 other co accused pleaded guilty to all the charges. All defendants were sentenced to death and executed with 24hrs. Kamenev’s wife, his two sons, his brother and brothers wife all perished.

    The second Show Trial commenced on the 23rd of January 1937. The most prominent of the 17 defendants was Grigari Pyatakov. Karl Radek, a leading member of the Trotskyites and other old Bolsheviks were also tried. The main purpose of the second show Trial was to show that Trotsky had used the defendants to organise “wrecking”, and prepare for the restoration of Capitalism in the USSR. 13 of the 17 defendants were sentenced to death and shot the day after conviction. Radek and three others seemed to have been spared, as they implicated others, including Bukharin, Rykov, and Marshal Tukhachevsky. They were instead taken to labour camps in the north.

    The third, and final Show Trial was known as the Great Show Trial. The Trial began on the 7th of March 1938. Members of Lenin’s Portiburo were on charge. The most prominent of these was Nikolai Bukharin, while others such as Rykov, Kretinsky, and Yagoda. The Great Show Trial saw the completion of public brain washing. The accused were charged with spying and sabotage, preparing the country for defeat in war and attempts on the lives of Stalin and other top Soviet leaders. Neither Stalin nor Vyshinsky were satisfied until the full confessions were made by the accused. Torture and threats  finally worked. The accused were found guilty and were executed immediately.

    Only 54 people in total were brought before the court in the three Show Trials of Moscow. Yet the terror of the Trials spread throughout Russia. During the de-Stalinisation era under Khrushchev in 1956, it was estimated that at least seven million were executed or died in the Gulags. 10 million died of famine or forced collectivisation in  the early1930’s.