Soviet Justice And The Trial Of Radek And Others

The trial of Piatakov, Radek, Sokolnikov and others accused of treason against the country, espionage, acts of diversion, wrecking activities and the preparation of terrorist acts, held before the Military collegium of the Supreme court of the U. S. S. R., Moscow, January 23-30, 1937, Judge Ulrich presiding.

Witnessing Stalin's Justice brings together contemporary American reactions to the Moscow show trials and analyses them to understand their impact on US-Soviet relations. Held between 1936 and 1938, the show trials made false charges such as espionage, sabotage and counter-revolutionary plotting at the behest of the exiled Leon Trotsky to condemn the veteran Party leaders who had founded the Communist Party and led the Russian Revolution. Using eyewitness accounts by American diplomats and foreign correspondents for the American press as well as official US government sources, this book highlights the wildly different reactions seen from liberals, radicals, intellectuals and mainstream media. Evans and Welch show how fractures of opinion ran through every level of US society and divided political groups, especially between the American Communist party and other left-wing organisations. Covering the closed trials of the Soviet military, the Soviet anti-foreigner campaign and the Dewey Commission as well as the show trials themselves, Witnessing Stalin's Justice uncovers and brings together American reactions to the Soviet Union's Great Purge.

From the 'show' trials of the 1920s and 1930s to the London Conference, this book examines the Soviet role in the Nuremberg IMT trial through the prism of the ideas and practices of earlier Soviet legal history, detailing the evolution of Stalin's ideas about the trail of Nazi war criminals. Stalin believed that an international trial for Nazi war criminals was the best way to show the world the sacrifices his country had made to defeat Hitler, and he, together with his legal mouthpiece Andrei Vyshinsky, maintained tight control over Soviet representatives during talks leading up to the creation of the Nuremberg IMT trial in 1945, and the trial itself. But Soviet prosecutors at Nuremberg were unable to deal comfortably with the complexities of an open, western-style legal proceeding, which undercut their effectiveness throughout the trial. However, they were able to present a significant body of evidence that underscored the brutal nature of Hitler's racial war in Russia from 1941-45, a theme which became central to Stalin's efforts to redefine international criminal law after the war. Stalin's Soviet Justice provides a nuanced analysis of the Soviet justice system at a crucial turning point in European history and it will be vital reading for scholars and advanced students of the legal history of the Soviet Union, the history of war crimes and the aftermath of the Second World War.

A young American's first-hand report on Soviet courts, from the lowest Worker's Tribunal to the Supreme Court of the land. The reader is taken into the courthouse to watch trials in progress- judges, lawyers, officials functioning under Socialism, and the men and women who have come to them to confront the law- and the state.

A look at legal practice in Moscow, particularly the practicing Soviet attorneys--called advokaty, or advocates--who advise citizens of their legal rights and defend their interests in court. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

"The definitive work on Stalin's purges, the author's The Great Terror was universally acclaimed when it first appeared in 1968. Provides accounts of on everything form the three great 'Moscow Trials' to methods of obtaining confessions, the purge of writers and other members of the intelligentsia, on life in the labor camps, and many other key matters. On the fortieth anniversary of thew first edition, it is remarkable how many of the most disturbing conclusions have born up under the light of fresh evidence." --

G. Zinoviev, L. Kamenev, I. N. Smirnov, G. Yevdokimov and twelve others were arraigned on August 15, 1936, by the Russian state prosecutor, A. Y. Vishinsky, on charges of conspiring to assassinate the soviet leaders, Comrades Stalin, Voroshilov, Shdanov, Kaganovich, Kossior, Orjonikidze and Postyshev and of having murdered S. M. Kirov. On August 19 the trial opened before the Military collegium of the Supreme court of the U. S. S. R., Moscow and on August 24 the defendants were found guilty. The evening of August 24, the following official statement was issued and was printed in the soviet press the next day: "The Præsidium of the Central executive committee of the U. S. S. R. has rejected the appeal for mercy of those condemned by the Military collegium of the Supreme court of the U. S. S. R. on August 24 of this year in the trial of the united Trotskyist-Zinovievist terrorist center. The verdict has been executed." cf. p. 7, 9, 15-17 and 63.

Red Britain sets out a provocative rethinking of the cultural politics of mid-century Britain by drawing attention to the extent, diversity, and longevity of the cultural effects of the Russian Revolution. Drawing on new archival research and historical scholarship, this book explores the conceptual, discursive, and formal reverberations of the Bolshevik Revolution in British literature and culture. It provides new insight into canonical writers including Doris Lessing, George Orwell, Dorothy Richardson, H.G Wells, and Raymond Williams, as well bringing to attention a cast of less-studied writers, intellectuals, journalists, and visitors to the Soviet Union. Red Britain shows that the cultural resonances of the Russian Revolution are more far-reaching and various than has previously been acknowledged. Each of the five chapters takes as its subject one particular problem or debate, and investigates the ways in which it was politicised as a result of the Russian Revolution and the subsequent development of the Soviet state. The chapters focus on the idea of the future; numbers and arithmetic; law and justice; debates around agriculture and landowning; and finally orality, literacy, and religion. In all of these spheres, Red Britain shows how the medievalist, romantic, oral, pastoral, anarchic, and ethical emphases of English socialism clashed with, and were sometimes overwritten by, futurist, utilitarian, literate, urban, statist, and economistic ideas associated with the Bolshevik Revolution.