Trotskyists On Trial

Militancy and fear : May 1934-June 1940 -- Dissent becomes a federal case : September 1940-June 1941 -- "Socialism on Trial" : July 1-November 18, 1941 -- "If that is treason, you can make the most of it" : November 18-December 8, 1941 -- Battling the "Gag" act in wartime : December 1941-December 1943 -- "A test of fire" : December 1943-November 1948 -- The ongoing struggle for civil liberties : June 1951-August 1986

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.

The first major study by a Russian Marxist Historian of the Stalinist purges which are often collectively reffered to by the year they reached their greatest intensity: 1937. Rogovin shows that the purges were aimed at the physical annihilation of the growing socialist opposition to Stalin's bureaucratic regime. Focused on Leon Trotsky and his thousands of supporters, the purges were a blow against the October Revolution, its leaders and its heritage.