The Show Trials “I have seen faces consumed, glimpsed horror under lowered eyelids, cheeks etched by pain.” --Anna Akhmatova, poet The Public Part of the Purges

The Show Trials--Intro The Show Trials were the public trials that accused many prominent upper-level Communist Party members of various “crimes against the state.” The two main accusations were that Party members A.had played a role in the assassination of Sergei Kirov B.were “Trotskyites” and “were enemies of the people.” Sergei Kirov Leon Trotsky …clearly an evil man—just look at him!

The First Show Trial (a.k.a. The Trial of Sixteen) Took place in August 1936 Lev Kamenev & Grigory Zinoviev Both had to admit to ridiculous crimes, such as meeting with Trotsky to overthrow Stalin at a hotel in Denmark that had been demolished twenty years before the supposed meeting had occurred. Both were executed at the trial’s conclusion.

Revisionist History After Kamenev was convicted (and Trotsky exiled), Stalin saw to it that history was changed to eliminate any tie between the enemies of the people and Lenin. Photo from a 1920 rally with Trotsky & Kamenev was edited.

The Second Show Trial (a.k.a. The Trial of Seventeen) January 1937 Piatakov, Radek & Sokolnikov were all accused of conspiring with Trotsky and the Germans. Admitting his “guilt”, Piatakov said “I stand before you in filth, crushed by my own crimes.” Karl Radek

The Third Show Trial March 1938 Nikolai Bukharin, Rykov and Yagoda (former NKVD head)—among other crimes, they “admitted” to poisoning over 30,000 horses. Bukharin’s statement of guilt is beyond ridiculous: “I plead guilty to being one of the outstanding leaders of this 'Bloc of Rights and Trotskyites.' Consequently, I plead guilty to what directly follows from this, the sum total of crimes committed by this counter- revolutionary organization, irrespective of whether or not I knew of, whether or not I took direct part, in any particular act.”

An example of what the public heard There was only one person who refused to confess to the crimes related to Kirov’s death and the exile of Trotsky: Nicholai Krestinsky. The President of the hearings, V. Ulrich, questioned Krestinsky on two successive days. The transcripts show his statements; what’s in between the lines is a lot more….

Krestinsky had been Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party under Lenin, so he was a prominent member of the Party elite. The transcript from the first day reads: The President: Accused Krestinsky, do you plead guilty to the charges brought agalnst you? Krestinsky: I plead not guilty. I am not a Trotskyite. I was never a member of the bloc of Rights and Trotskyites, of whose existence I was not aware. Nor have I commltted any of the crimes with which I personally am charged, in particular I plead not guilty to the charge of having had connections wlth the German intelligence service. The President: Do you corrobarate the confession you made at the preliminary investigation? Krestinsky: Yes, at the preliminary investigation I confessed, but I have never been a Trotskyite. The President: I repeat the question, do you plead guilty? Krestinsky: Before my arrest I was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks) and I remain one now. The President: Do you plead guilty to the charge of participating in espionage activities and of participating in terrorist activities? Krestinsky: I have never been a Trotskyite, I have never belonged to the bloc of Rights and Trotskyites and have not committed a single crime.

The following day, something had obviously changed: Krestinsky: Yesterday, under the influence of a momentary keen feeling of false shame, evoked by the atmosphere of the dock and the painful impression created by the public reading of the indictment, which was aggravated by my poor health, I could not bring myself to tell the truth, I could not bring myself to say that I was guilty. And instead of saying, "Yes, I am guilty," I almost mechanically answered, "No, I am not guilty.“ Vyshinsky: Mechanically? Krestinsky: In the face of world public opinion, I had not the strength to admit the truth that I had been conducting a Trotskyite struggle all along. I request the Court to register my statement that I fully and completely admit that I am guilty of all the gravest charges brought against me personally, and that I admit my complete responsibility for the treason and treachery I have committed. Krestinsky was executed but he was cleared of wrongdoing in 1965 (almost 30 years after his death).