Moscow Trials

Show trials were a cornerstone of Joseph Stalin's regime. The Moscow Trials of the Great Purge period in the Soviet Union give pre-eminent examples of the show trial. The authorities not only pre-determined the guilt of the defendants, but also orchestrated the whole trial processes. Massive campaigns in newspapers and at numerous meetings shaped the opinion of the public towards the cases. The authorities staged the actual trials meticulously. If defendants refused to "cooperate", i.e., to admit guilt for their alleged and mostly fab ...

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Show trial, Show trial - Moscow Trials, Show trial - Possible show trials, Show trial - Show-Prosecution

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Most Western observers who attended the trials said that they were fair and that the guilt of the accused had been established. They based this assessment on the confessions of the accused, which were freely given in open court, without any apparent evidence that they had been extracted by torture or drugging. The British lawyer and MP Denis Pritt, for example, wrote: "Once again the more faint-hearted socialists are beset with doubts and anxieties," but "once again we can feel confident that when the smoke has rolled away from the battlefield of controversy it will be realized that the charge was true, the conf ...

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Moscow Trials, Moscow Trials - Summary, Moscow Trials - Evaluation of trials, Moscow Trials - Dewey Commission, Moscow Trials - Opinions in defense of trials, Moscow Trials - Details, Moscow Trials - First Moscow Trial Trial of the Sixteen, Moscow Trials - Trial of Radek and Piatakov Trial of the Seventeen, Moscow Trials - Trial of Military, Moscow Trials - Trial of the Twenty One, Moscow Trials - Totals, Moscow Trials - Rehabilitation

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Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov (Russian: Вячесла́в Миха́йлович Мо́лотов) (February 25, 1890 (O.S.) (March 9, 1890 (N.S.))–November 8, 1986), Soviet politician and diplomat, was a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a protege of Joseph Stalin, to the 1950s, when he was dismissed from office by Nikita Khrushchev. He was the principal Soviet signatory of the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact of 1939. Vyacheslav Molotov - Origins and early life. Including:

• Vyacheslav Molotov - Origins and early life
• Vyacheslav Molotov - Early career
• Vyacheslav Molotov - Prime Minister
• Vyacheslav Molotov - Foreign Minister
• Vyacheslav Molotov - Postwar career

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Main article: Moscow Trials. Between 1936 and 1938 three Moscow Trials of former senior Communist Party leaders were held. The defendants were accused of conspiring with the western powers to assassinate Stalin and other Soviet leaders, dismember the Soviet Union and restore capitalism. The first trial was of 16 members of the so-called "Trotskyite-Zinovievite Terrorist Centre," held in August 1936, at which the chief defendants were Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev, two of the most prominent former party leaders. ...

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Great Purge, Great Purge - The Moscow Trials, Great Purge - Purge of the army, Great Purge - The wider purge, Great Purge - Ex-kulaks, Great Purge - National operations of NKVD, Great Purge - End of Yezhovshchina, Great Purge - Western reactions, Great Purge - Rehabilitation, Great Purge - Victim toll, Great Purge - Soviet investigation commissions, Great Purge - Skepticism and denial, Great Purge - Notes, Great Purge - Further reading and references

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Joseph Stalin - Industrialization. Main article: Industrialization of the USSR. The Russian Civil War and War communism had a devastating effect on the country's economy. Industrial output in 1922 was 13% of that in 1914. A recovery followed under the New Economic Policy, which allowed a degree of market flexibility within the context of socialism. Under Stalin's direction, this was replaced by a system of centrally ordained Five-Year Plans in the late 1920s. These called for a highly ambitious program of state-g ...

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Joseph Stalin, Joseph Stalin - Childhood and early years, Joseph Stalin - Marriages and family, Joseph Stalin - Rise to power, Joseph Stalin - Campaign against the Left and Right Opposition, Joseph Stalin - Stalin and changes in Soviet society, Joseph Stalin - Industrialization, Joseph Stalin - Collectivization, Joseph Stalin - Science, Joseph Stalin - Social services, Joseph Stalin - Culture and religion, Joseph Stalin - Purges and deportations, Joseph Stalin - World War II, Joseph Stalin - Post-war era, Joseph Stalin - Stalin as theorist, Joseph Stalin - Death, Joseph Stalin - Cult of personality, Joseph Stalin - Policies and accomplishments, Joseph Stalin - Other names, Joseph Stalin - Stalin in arts, Joseph Stalin - Notes

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The issue of mass repressions was recognized before the speech. In fact, the speech was prepared based on the results of a special party commission (Pospelov, Komarov, Aristov, Shvernik (chairman)), known as the Shvernik Commission, arranged at the session of the Presidium of the Party central committee on January 31, 1955. A direct goal of the commission was to investigate the repressions of the delegates of the XVII Party Congress. This commission presented evidence that during 1937–1938 (the peak of the period known as the Great Purge) ...

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On the Personality Cult and its Consequences, On the Personality Cult and its Consequences - History, On the Personality Cult and its Consequences - Summary, On the Personality Cult and its Consequences - External link

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History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Soviet hegemony over Eastern Europe. In the aftermath of World War II, the Soviet Union extended its political and military influence over Eastern Europe, in a move that was seen by some as a continuation of the older policies of the Russian Empire. Some territories that had been lost by Soviet Russia in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918) were annexed by the Soviet Union after WWII: the Baltic States and eastern portions of interwar Poland. The Russian SFSR also gained the ...

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History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Stalinist development, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Planning, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Industrialization in practice, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Collectivization, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Changes in Soviet society, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - The Great Purges, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - The Great Patriotic War, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - War and Stalinist development, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Wartime developments, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - The Cold War, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Soviet hegemony over Eastern Europe, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - The tenor of Soviet-U.S. relations, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - The breakdown of postwar peace, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Two visions of the world, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - The beginning of the Cold War, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Containment and the Marshall Plan, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Korean War, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Notes, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - External link

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Main article: Moscow Trials. Between 1936 and 1938 three Moscow Trials of former senior Communist Party leaders were held. The defendants were accused of conspiring with the western powers to assassinate Stalin and other Soviet leaders, dismember the Soviet Union and restore capitalism. The first trial was of 16 members of the so-called "Trotskyite-Zinovievite Terrorist Centre," held in August 1936, at which the chief defendants were Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev, two of the most prominent former party leaders. ...

See also:

Great Purge, Great Purge - Introduction, Great Purge - Background, Great Purge - The Moscow Trials, Great Purge - Purge of the army, Great Purge - The wider purge, Great Purge - Ex-kulaks, Great Purge - National operations of NKVD, Great Purge - End of Yezhovshchina, Great Purge - Western reactions, Great Purge - Rehabilitation, Great Purge - Victim toll, Great Purge - Soviet investigation commissions, Great Purge - Skepticism and denial, Great Purge - Notes, Great Purge - Further reading and references

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In the postwar period Molotov's position began to decline. In 1949 he was replaced as Foreign Minister by Andrei Vishinsky, retaining his position as Deputy Prime Minister and membership of the Politburo. Following the death of Andrei Zhdanov, who had come to be seen as Stalin's most likely successor, Stalin and Beria began to plan a new purge, which would have removed most of the older party leaders, such as Molotov and Voroshilov, from their positions. New leaders, such as Georgii Malenk ...

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Vyacheslav Molotov, Vyacheslav Molotov - Origins and early life, Vyacheslav Molotov - Early career, Vyacheslav Molotov - Prime Minister, Vyacheslav Molotov - Foreign Minister, Vyacheslav Molotov - Postwar career

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Eventually almost all of the Bolsheviks who had played prominent roles during the Russian Revolution of 1917, or in Lenin's Soviet government afterwards, were executed. Out of six members of the original Politburo during the 1917 October Revolution who lived until the Great Purge, Stalin himself was the only one who survived. Four of the other five were executed. The fifth, Leon Trotsky, went into exile in Mexico after being expelled from the Party but was murdered by a Soviet agent in 1940. Of the seven members elected to the Politburo betw ...

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Great Purge, Great Purge - The Moscow Trials, Great Purge - Purge of the army, Great Purge - The wider purge, Great Purge - Ex-kulaks, Great Purge - National operations of NKVD, Great Purge - End of Yezhovshchina, Great Purge - Western reactions, Great Purge - Rehabilitation, Great Purge - Victim toll, Great Purge - Soviet investigation commissions, Great Purge - Skepticism and denial, Great Purge - Notes, Great Purge - Further reading and references

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The purge of the Red Army was claimed to be supported by Nazi-forged documents (said to have been created by Nazi spymaster Reinhard Heydrich) which were introduced through an intermediary, President Beneš of Czechoslovakia. It was claimed that this forged evidence purported to show correspondence between Marshal Tukhachevsky and members of the German high command. The claim is however unsupported by facts, since by the time the documents were supposedly created, two people from the eight in the Tukhachevsky group were already impris ...

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Great Purge, Great Purge - The Moscow Trials, Great Purge - Purge of the army, Great Purge - The wider purge, Great Purge - Ex-kulaks, Great Purge - National operations of NKVD, Great Purge - End of Yezhovshchina, Great Purge - Western reactions, Great Purge - Rehabilitation, Great Purge - Victim toll, Great Purge - Soviet investigation commissions, Great Purge - Skepticism and denial, Great Purge - Notes, Great Purge - Further reading and references

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In 1939, following the Munich agreement of 1938 by which Britain and France surrendered Czechoslovakia to Hitler, Stalin decided that it would not be possible to form an effective system of collective security against Germany through alliances with the western powers, which remained committed to appeasement, or with Poland, which would not countenance the idea of Soviet troops on its soil. He therefore decided that a treaty with Hitler was necessary, to divert Hitler's attention to Poland and the west and to buy time before the inevitable wa ...

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Vyacheslav Molotov, Vyacheslav Molotov - Origins and early life, Vyacheslav Molotov - Early career, Vyacheslav Molotov - Prime Minister, Vyacheslav Molotov - Foreign Minister, Vyacheslav Molotov - Postwar career

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Stalin was born in Gori, Georgia, to a cobbler named Vissarion Jughashvili. His mother, Ekaterina Geladze, was born a serf. Their other three children died young; Joseph, nicknamed "Soso" (the Georgian pet name for Joseph), was effectively the only child. Vissarion Ivanovich Djugashvili was a former serf who, when freed, became a cobbler. He opened his own shop, but quickly went bankrupt, forcing him to work in a shoe factory in Tiflis (Archer 11). Rarely seeing his family and drinking heavily, Vissarion often beat his wife and small son. On ...

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Joseph Stalin, Joseph Stalin - Childhood and early years, Joseph Stalin - Marriages and family, Joseph Stalin - Rise to power, Joseph Stalin - Campaign against the Left and Right Opposition, Joseph Stalin - Stalin and changes in Soviet society, Joseph Stalin - Industrialization, Joseph Stalin - Collectivization, Joseph Stalin - Science, Joseph Stalin - Social services, Joseph Stalin - Culture and religion, Joseph Stalin - Purges and deportations, Joseph Stalin - World War II, Joseph Stalin - Post-war era, Joseph Stalin - Stalin as theorist, Joseph Stalin - Death, Joseph Stalin - Cult of personality, Joseph Stalin - Policies and accomplishments, Joseph Stalin - Other names, Joseph Stalin - Stalin in arts, Joseph Stalin - Notes

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By the summer of 1938, Stalin and his circle realized that the purges had gone too far, and Yezhov was relieved from his head of NKVD post (remaining People's Commissar of Water Transport) and eventually purged. Lavrenty Beria, a fellow Georgian and Stalin confidante, succeeded him as head of the NKVD. On November 17, 1938 a joint decree of Sovnarkom USSR and Central Committee of VKP(b) (Decree about Arrests, Prosecutor Supervision and Course of Investigation) and the subsequent order of NKVD undersigned by Beria cancelled most of the NKVD orders of systematic repression and suspended implementation of death sentences. T ...

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Great Purge, Great Purge - The Moscow Trials, Great Purge - Purge of the army, Great Purge - The wider purge, Great Purge - Ex-kulaks, Great Purge - National operations of NKVD, Great Purge - End of Yezhovshchina, Great Purge - Western reactions, Great Purge - Rehabilitation, Great Purge - Victim toll, Great Purge - Soviet investigation commissions, Great Purge - Skepticism and denial, Great Purge - Notes, Great Purge - Further reading and references

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According to MVD estimates carried out by order of a special commission of the Communist Party in preparation to the 20th Party Congress, at least 681,692 people were executed during 1937–38 alone, and only accounting for the execution lists signed personally by Stalin from archives of NKVD. The exact total of persons affected remains uncertain and depends on how the count is made, especially depending on the time period considered and whether deaths related to the Gulag and transportation losses are included. Following Kirov's exploited d ...

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Great Purge, Great Purge - The Moscow Trials, Great Purge - Purge of the army, Great Purge - The wider purge, Great Purge - Ex-kulaks, Great Purge - National operations of NKVD, Great Purge - End of Yezhovshchina, Great Purge - Western reactions, Great Purge - Rehabilitation, Great Purge - Victim toll, Great Purge - Soviet investigation commissions, Great Purge - Skepticism and denial, Great Purge - Notes, Great Purge - Further reading and references

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Main article: Eastern Front (World War II) History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - War and Stalinist development. Heavy-industrialization contributed to the Soviet Union's wartime victory over Nazi Germany in the Second World War (known throughout the former USSR as the Great Patriotic War). The Red Army overturned the Nazi eastern expansion single-handedly (although relying heavily on lend-lease aid from the United States and United Kingdom), with the tide of war on the Eastern Front turning at the ...

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History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Stalinist development, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Planning, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Industrialization in practice, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Collectivization, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Changes in Soviet society, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - The Great Purges, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - The Great Patriotic War, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - War and Stalinist development, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Wartime developments, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - The Cold War, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Soviet hegemony over Eastern Europe, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - The tenor of Soviet-U.S. relations, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - The breakdown of postwar peace, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Two visions of the world, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - The beginning of the Cold War, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Containment and the Marshall Plan, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Korean War, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Notes, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - External link

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Stalin's first wife who was called Ekaterina Svanidze, he married for just three years until her death in 1907. At her funeral, Stalin said that any warm feelings he had for people died with her, for only she could mend his heart. With her he had a son, Yakov Dzhugashvili, with whom he did not get along in later years. His son tried to kill himself, unsucessfully, resulting in serious injuries. Stalin was quoted to have laughed at the boy, saying, "Ha! He could not even shoot straight!" Yakov served in the Red Army and was captured by ...

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Joseph Stalin, Joseph Stalin - Childhood and early years, Joseph Stalin - Marriages and family, Joseph Stalin - Rise to power, Joseph Stalin - Campaign against the Left and Right Opposition, Joseph Stalin - Stalin and changes in Soviet society, Joseph Stalin - Industrialization, Joseph Stalin - Collectivization, Joseph Stalin - Science, Joseph Stalin - Social services, Joseph Stalin - Culture and religion, Joseph Stalin - Purges and deportations, Joseph Stalin - World War II, Joseph Stalin - Post-war era, Joseph Stalin - Stalin as theorist, Joseph Stalin - Death, Joseph Stalin - Cult of personality, Joseph Stalin - Policies and accomplishments, Joseph Stalin - Other names, Joseph Stalin - Stalin in arts, Joseph Stalin - Notes

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Overall, under Stalin's rule the Soviet Union was transformed from an agricultural nation to a global superpower. The USSR's industrialisation was successful in that the country was able to defend against and eventually defeat the Axis invasion in World War II, though at an enormous cost of human lives. However, historian Robert Conquest and other Westerners claim that the USSR was bound for industrialisation which was not necessarily enhanced by Bolshevik influence. It has also been argued that Stalin was partially responsible for the initi ...

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Joseph Stalin, Joseph Stalin - Childhood and early years, Joseph Stalin - Marriages and family, Joseph Stalin - Rise to power, Joseph Stalin - Campaign against the Left and Right Opposition, Joseph Stalin - Stalin and changes in Soviet society, Joseph Stalin - Industrialization, Joseph Stalin - Collectivization, Joseph Stalin - Science, Joseph Stalin - Social services, Joseph Stalin - Culture and religion, Joseph Stalin - Purges and deportations, Joseph Stalin - World War II, Joseph Stalin - Post-war era, Joseph Stalin - Stalin as theorist, Joseph Stalin - Death, Joseph Stalin - Cult of personality, Joseph Stalin - Policies and accomplishments, Joseph Stalin - Other names, Joseph Stalin - Stalin in arts, Joseph Stalin - Notes

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Main article: Great Purge. As this process unfolded, Stalin consolidated near-absolute power using the 1934 assassination of Sergei Kirov (which many suspect Stalin of having planned) as a pretext to launch the Great Purges against his suspected political and ideological opponents, most notably the old cadres and the rank and file of the Bolshevik Party. Trotsky had already been expelled from the party in 1927, exiled to Kazakhstan in 1928 and then expelled from the USSR entirely in 1929. Stalin used the purges to politically a ...

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History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Stalinist development, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Planning, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Industrialization in practice, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Collectivization, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Changes in Soviet society, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - The Great Purges, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - The Great Patriotic War, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - War and Stalinist development, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Wartime developments, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - The Cold War, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Soviet hegemony over Eastern Europe, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - The tenor of Soviet-U.S. relations, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - The breakdown of postwar peace, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Two visions of the world, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - The beginning of the Cold War, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Containment and the Marshall Plan, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Korean War, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Notes, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - External link

Read more here: » History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953: Encyclopedia II - History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - The Great Purges

History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Planning. At the fourteenth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in December 1927, Stalin attacked the left by expelling Trotsky and his supporters from the party and then moving against the right by abandoning Lenin's New Economic Policy which had been championed by Nikolai Bukharin and Alexei Ivanovich Rykov. Warning delegates of an impending capitalist encirclement, he stressed that survival and development could only occur by pursuing the rapid developmen ...

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History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Stalinist development, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Planning, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Industrialization in practice, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Collectivization, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Changes in Soviet society, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - The Great Purges, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - The Great Patriotic War, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - War and Stalinist development, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Wartime developments, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - The Cold War, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Soviet hegemony over Eastern Europe, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - The tenor of Soviet-U.S. relations, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - The breakdown of postwar peace, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Two visions of the world, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - The beginning of the Cold War, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Containment and the Marshall Plan, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Korean War, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Notes, History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - External link

Read more here: » History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953: Encyclopedia II - History of the Soviet Union 1927-1953 - Stalinist development