THE VERDICT

Report of Court Proceedings

The Case of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite Terrorist Centre

Heard Before the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R.

August 19-24, 1936 (Moscow)

On August 24, at 2:30 p. m., the president, Comrade Ulrich, reads the verdict.

THE VERDICT

In the name of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R., consisting of:

President: the President of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R., Army Military Jurist, Comrade V. V. Ulrich; 

Members: the Vice-Presidents of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R., Army Corps Military Jurist, Comrade I. L. Matulevich, and Divisional Military Jurist, Comrade I. T. Nikitchenko; 

Secretary: Military Jurist of First Rank, Comrade Kostyushko;

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ESPIONAGE AGAINST THE SOVIET STATE AND TREASON TO THE COUNTRY

Report of Court Proceedings
Heard Before the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R.
August 19-24, 1936 (Moscow)

The investigation has established that the majority of the leaders of the "bloc of Rights and Trotskyites" accused in the present case carried on their criminal activities on the direct instructions of TROTSKY and in accordance with plans which were widely conceived and elaborated by the General Staffs of certain foreign states.

Agent of the German intelligence service, prominent Trotskyite, the accused KRESTINSKY, while under examination at the office of the Procurator of the U.S.S.R. on December 2, 1937, stated:

"I established espionage connections with the Germans on the direct instructions of TROTSKY, who instructed me to start negotiations on this matter with General SEECKT. . . ." (Vol. Ill, p. 102.)

As regards the circumstances under which connections between the Trotskyite organization and the German intelligence service were established, the accused KRESTINSKY testified that in the winter of 1921 he carried on negotiations with General SEECKT, Commander-in-Chief of the German Reichswehr, with a view to receiving from the Reichswehr funds for the purpose of carrying on Trotskyite underground work in exchange for espionage materials which the Trotskyites were to supply the German intelligence service.

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Plot against Lenin

From the Court Proceedings

 Previous Page

As has now been brought to light, neither in the case of the Trotskyites nor in the case of the Rights were these monstrous crimes fortuitous.

The investigation has established that as far back as 1918, directly after the October Revolution, at the time of the conclusion of the Peace of Brest-Litovsk, BUKHARIN and his group of socalled "Left Communists"; and TROTSKY and his group, together with the" Left" Socialist-Revolutionaries, hatched a plot against V. I. LENIN, the head of the Soviet government.

As the materials of the investigation show, BUKHARIN and other conspirators aimed at frustrating the Brest-Litovsk Peace,overthrowing the Soviet government, arresting and murdering V. I. LENIN, J. V. STALIN and J. M. SVERDLOV, and forming a new government consisting of Bukharinites who as a blind at that time called themselves "Left Communists"  of Trotskyites and of  "Left" Socialist-Revolutionaries.

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The Counter-Revolutionary Terroristic Activities of the Trotskyites-Zinovievites are Fully Proved

Report of Court Proceedings

The Case of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite Terrorist Centre

Heard Before the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R.

August 19-24, 1936 (Moscow)

The Counter-Revolutionary Terroristic Activities of the Trotskyites-Zinovievites are Fully Proved

I now pass to the second part of my speech for the prosecution, to the practical activities of the so-called united centre and to the characterization of the role of each of the accused in this criminal conspiracy against the Soviet government.

There is not the slightest doubt that the union of the Zinovievite and Trotskyite counter-revolutionary groups which took place in the autumn of 1932 arose and grew strong on the soil and on the basis of the mutual recognition of terror as the sole and decisive method in the struggle for power - a struggle which was then the fundamental and principal task of the Trotskyites and Zinovievites.

An organization existed. An underground, counter-revolutionary, terrorist group existed. Existed and functioned. However much Smirnov may try to deny this here, he will not succeed .The facts are too strong, the facts are too numerous. We, the prosecution, have every ground for asserting that an underground, counter-revolutionary, Trotskyite-Zinovievite group existed, that this terrorist organization was created, that it was created precisely as a terrorist organization, that it developed its activities precisely as terroristic activities, that it prepared for terroristic attempts at assassination and that, to our great misfortune and horror, one of these attempts was successful. The foul murder of Sergei Mironovich Kirov on December 1, 1934, was committed by this organization. This is the most horrible of the crimes which this organization succeeded in committing.

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The Trotskyite-Zinovievite Centre Killed Comrade Kirov

Report of Court Proceedings

The Case of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite Terrorist Centre

Heard Before the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R.

August 19-24, 1936 (Moscow)

The Trotskyite-Zinovievite Centre Killed Comrade Kirov

Above I asked: Was there an organization? Was there a Trotskyite-Zinovievite terrorist centre? I answer: Yes, there was. It arose in 1932. it consisted of Kamenev, Zinoviev, Evdokimov, Bakayev, Smirnov, Ter-Vaganyan and Mrachkovsky.

This centre existed, and, what is most importaut, it was formed on the direct instructions of Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev. It was formed on the direct instructions of Trotsky to adopt terror as the sole method of fighting against the leaders of the land of Soviets. It was formed on the basis of profound and strict secrecy. Yesterday we were able to observe one of the representatives of this Trotsky-Zinoviev-Kamenev school of conspiracy in the person of the accused Holtzman. In the dock we have another conspirator in the person of Smirnov. The centre existed and funktioned: it not only resorted to methods of downright perfidy, deceit and treachery but, as has now been definitely established, it organized and established secret communications with the German fascists, with whom it mated the German Trotskyites, using them in the fight against our leaders, using their connections with the German Gestapo in the persons of Tukalevsky, P. Olberg and their like.

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SPEECH FOR THE PROSECUTION

Report of Court Proceedings

The Case of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite Terrorist Centre

Heard Before the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R.

August 19-24, 1936 (Moscow)

SPEECH FOR THE PROSECUTION

Vyshinski: Comrades judges, comrades members of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union: For three days you have very carefully and with the greatest attention examined the evidence and proof submitted to you by the State Prosecution against the people sitting here in the dock charged with having committed the gravest crimes against the state. With the greatest possible care you have subjected to investigation and judicial scrutiny every one of these proofs, every fact, every event, every step taken by the accused, who in the course of many years added crime to crime in their struggle against the Soviet state, against the Soviet power, against our Party and against the whole of our Soviet people.

Horrible and monstrous is the chain of these crimes against our socialist fatherland; and each one of these crimes deserves the severest condemnation and severest punishment. Horrible and monstrous is the guilt of these criminals and murderers, who raised their hand against the leaders of our Party, against Comrades Stalin, Voroshilov, Zhdanov, Kaganovich, Orjonikidze, Kossior and Postyshev, against our leaders, the leaders of the Soviet state. Monstrous are the crimes perpetrated by this gang wich not only made preparations to commit terroristic acts, but actually murdered one of the best sons of the working class, one of the most devoted to the cause of socialism, one of the most beloved disciples of the great Stalin, the fiery tribune of the proletarian revolution, the unforgettable Sergel Mironovich Kirov.

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EXAMINATION OF ACCUSED ZINOVIEV

Report of Court Proceedings

The Case of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite Terrorist Centre

Heard Before the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R.

August 19-24, 1936 (Moscow)

EXAMINATION OF ACCUSED ZINOVIEV

Zinoviev begins his testimony by relating the history of the restoration of the united Trotskyite-Zinovievite centre in 1932. He emphasizes that there never were any material differences between the Trotskyites and the Zinovievites.

"Our differences with Trotsky after the Fifteenth Congress," says Zinoviev, "when Trotsky used the world 'treachery' in relation to me and Kamenev, were really slight zig-zags, petty disagreements. We committed no treachery whatever against Trotsky at that time, but committed one more act of treachery against the Bolshevik Party to which we belonged."

But it was precisely at that moment, says Zinoviev, continuing his testimony, that we were completely adopting, as our main line,double-dealing to which we had already resorted previously, which we had practised in 1926 and in 1927. In 1928, however, after the Fifteenth Congress of the C.P.S.U., we could not take a single step, we could not utter a single word without betraying the Party in one way or another, without resorting to double-dealing in one way or another. "From 1928 to 1932," Zinoviev says further, "there was not for one moment any real difference between ourselves and the Trotskyites. And so the logic of things carried us to terrorism.

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EXAMINATION OF THE ACCUSED KAMENEV

Report of Court Proceedings

The Case of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite Terrorist Centre

Heard Before the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R.

August 19-24, 1936 (Moscow)

EXAMINATION OF THE ACCUSED KAMENEV

The morning session of August 20 commences with the examination of the accused L. B. Kamenev.

Kamenev states: "The terrorist cospiracy was organized and guided by myself, Zinoviev and Trotsky. I became convinced that the policy of the Party, the policy of its leadership, had been victorious in the only sense in which the political victory in the land of socialism is possible, that this policy was recognized by the masses of the toilers. Our banking on the possibility of a split in the Party also proved groundless. We counted on the Rightist group of Rykov, Bukharin and Tomsky. The removal of this group from the leadership and the fact that it had become discredited in the eyes of the toiling masses deprived us of this trump card as well. It was no use counting on any kind of serious internal difficulties to secure the overthrow of the leadership which had guided the country through extremely difficult stages, through industrialization and collectivization. Two paths remained: either honestly and copletely to put a stop to the struggle against the Party, or to continue this struggle, but without any hope of obtaining any mass support whatsoever, without a political platform, without a banner, that is to say, by means of individual terror. We chose the second path. In this we were guided by our boundless hatred of the leaders of the Party and the country, and by a thirst for power with which we were once so closely associated and from which we were cast aside by the course of historical development."

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EXAMINATION OF THE ACCUSED DREITZER

Report of Court Proceedings

The Case of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite Terrorist Centre

Heard Before the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R.

August 19-24, 1936 (Moscow)

EXAMINATION OF THE ACCUSED DREITZER

The first to be examined at the evening session of August 19 is the accused Dreitzer. Dreitzer was one of the most prominent Trotskyites. He had been chief of Trotsky's bodyguard. Together with Trotsky, he had organized the counter-revolutionary demonstration on November 7, 1927. When Trotsky was in exile in Alma-Ata, Dreitzer organized the communications between Trotsky and the Moscow Trotskyite centre.

The accused Dreitzer states that the Trotskyite-Zinovievite underground organization was a stricly centralized and disciplined counter-revolutionary organization. Dreitzer categorically and emphatically denies that there could be any possibility of halfheartedness in the attitude of any one of the members of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite counter-revolutionary bloc towards terroristic activity.

"There could be no acting on one's own, no orchestra without a conductor among us," stated Dreitzer. "I am surprised at the assertions of Smirnov, who, according to his words, both knew and did not know, spoke and did not speak, acted and did not act. This is not true!"

Relating his terroristic activities in detail Dreitzer says that the Trotskyite section of the counter-revolutionary bloc had received instructions to resort to terrorism against the leaders of the Party and the government from abroad, from L. D. Trotsky, and here from I. N. Smirnov, Trotsky's deputy in the U.S.S.R.

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EXAMINATION OF THE ACCUSED EVDOKIMOV

Report of Court Proceedings

The Case of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite Terrorist Centre

Heard Before the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R.

August 19-24, 1936 (Moscow)

EXAMINATION OF THE ACCUSED EVDOKIMOV

Questioned by Comrade Ulrich, President of the Court, whether he confirms the testimony he gave at the preliminary examination, Evdokimov replies in the affirmative. After that Evdokimov answers a number of qestions put to him by Comrade Vyshinsky.

Vyshinsky: You were a member of the centre?

Evdokimov: Yes, I was.

Vyshinsky: Did you know that the centre was preparing assassinations of the leaders of the C.P.S.U. and the Soviet Government?

Evdokimov: Yes.

Vyshinsky: Did you personally approve of the preparation of these assassinations?

Evdokimov: I agreed to them.

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EXAMINATION OF THE ACCUSED MRACHKOVSKY

Report of Court Proceedings

The Case of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite Terrorist Centre

Heard Before the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R.

August 19-24, 1936 (Moscow)

EXAMINATION OF THE ACCUSED MRACHKOVSKY

The accused Mrachkovsky was the man most in the confidence of Trotsky and personally closest to him. In the past he had occupied an important position in the army. From 1923 onwards he had carried on, in conjunction with Trotsky, Trotskyite anti-Soviet work. He had been a member of the leading centre of the underground Trotskyite terrorist organization, had worked under the personal direction of Trotsky, from whom he was receiving instructions through I. N. Smirnov as well as directly to organize terroristic acts against the leaders of the Party and the Government. Being one of the leaders of the counter-revolutionary Trotskyite underground organization, he, in 1932, had joined the united Trotskyite-Zinovievite terrorist centre together with I. N. Smirnov and V. A. Ter-Vaganyan.

Mrachkovsky relates in detail the history of the formation of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite terrorist centre. He says that on returning from exile in 1929 he only on paper admitted the correctness of the general line of the Party; actually, however, together with other former members of the opposition, he returned from exile with the perfidious intention of continuing the struggle against the Party. Asked by Comrade Vyshinsky to say definitely to whom he was referring, Mrachkovsky said that he, Mrachkovsky, and also I. N. Smirnov and Ter-Vaganyan, had jointly taken the firm decision to organize a further struggle against the Party. Mrachkovsky at the same time admits that this counter-revolutionary group had no political platform, that "the platform drawn up in the preceding period of 1925-27 was upset by the fact of correctness of the general line of the Party."

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Terroristic Acts Against Comrades Voroshilov, Zhdanov, Kaganovich

Report of Court Proceedings

The Case of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite Terrorist Centre

Heard Before the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R.

August 19-24, 1936 (Moscow)

III. Organization by the United Trotskyite-Zinovievite Centre of Terroristic Acts Against Comrades Voroshilov, Zhdanov, Kaganovich, Kossior, Orjonikidze and Postyshev

The materials of the investigation have established that the united Trotskyite-Zinovievite terrorist centre, after it had killed Comrade Kirov, did not confine itself to organizing the assassination of Comrade Stalin alone. The terrorist Trotskyite-Zinovievite centre simultaneously carried on work to organize assassinations of other leaders of the Party, namely, Comrades Voroshilov, Zhdanov, Kaganovich, Kossior, Orjonikidze and Postyshev.

The accused Reingold testified that Zinoviev, while speaking of the necessity of assassinating Comrade Kirov as Comrade Stalin's closest assistant, added:

"It is not enough to fell the oak; all the young oaks growing around it must be felled too." (Vol. XXVII, p. 70.)

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Assassination of Comrade S. M. Kirov

Report of Court Proceedings

The Case of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite Terrorist Centre

Heard Before the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R.

August 19-24, 1936 (Moscow)

II. The United Trotskyite-Zinovievite Centre and the Assassination of Comrade S. M. Kirov

It was already established in the case of Nikolayev, Rumyantsev, Kotolynov and others shot by sentence of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R. on the charge of murdering Comrade S. M. Kirov on December 1, that direct connections existed between the group of Zinovievites in Leningrad who committed the murder, and the accused Zinoviev, Kamenev and Bakayev, already convicted in the case of the so-called "Moscow centre."

At the present time, the investigating authorities are in possession of facts establishing beyond doubt that the murder of S. M. Kirov was kommitted in accordance with the decision of the united Trotskyite-Zinovievite centre.

This was admitted at the preliminary investigation by the majority of active members of various terrorist Trotskyite-Zinovievite groups, including the accused Zinoviev, Kamenev, Evdokimov, Bakayev, Mrachkovsky and others.

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The Trotskyite-Zinovievite United Terrorist Centre

Report of Court Proceedings

The Case of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite Terrorist Centre

Heard Before the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R.

August 19-24, 1936 (Moscow)

I. The Trotskyite-Zinovievite United Terrorist Centre

The testimonies of Zinoviev, Kamenev, Evdokimov, Mrachkovsky, Bakayev and a number of other accused in the present case, have established beyond doubt that the only motive for organizing the Trotskyite-Zinovievite bloc was thier striving to seize power at all costs, and that the sole and decisive means chosen for this purpose was the organization of terroristic acts against the most prominent leaders of the Party and the Government.

Lacking all support in the working class and the toiling masses of the people of the U.S.S.R., having lost all their ideological possessions, having no political program and imbued with bitter hatred toward the Socialist victories of our country, the leaders of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite counter-revolutionary bloc, Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev, sank definitively into the swamp of whiteguardism, joined forces and merged with the most inverterate enemies of the Soviet Power, and became the organizing force of the last remnants of the exploiting classis which had been routed in the U.S.S.R. In their desperation and hatred they resorted to the most despicable means of fighting the Soviet Government and the leaders of the C.P.S.U., namely, political assassinations.

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VYSHlNSKY’S SPEECH: MARCH 11, 1938

Comrades Judges, members of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R. 

In proceeding to make my speech for the Prosecution in the present case, which constitutes an exceptional phenomenon of extraordinary public and political significance, I would like in the first place to direct your attention to certain distinguishing features of this case, to certain of its outstanding peculiarities. 

It is not for the first time that the Supreme Court of our country is examining a case involving gravest crimes directed against the well-being of our country, against our Socialist fatherland, the fatherland of the working people of the whole world. But I will hardly be mistaken if I say that this is the first time that our Court has had to examine a case like this, to examine a case of such crimes and such foul deeds as those that have passed at this trial before your eyes, before the eyes of the whole world, a case of such criminals as those you now see in the prisoners' dock. 

With every day and every hour that passed, as the Court investigation on the present case proceeded, it brought to light ever more of the horrors of the chain of shameful, unparalleled, monstrous crimes committed by the accused, the entire abominable chain of heinous deeds before which the base deeds of the most inveterate, vile, unbridled and despicable criminals fade and grow dim. · ·

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Murder of Kirov, Maxim Gorky, Menzhinsky, Kuibyshev and Plot against Lenin

From the Court Proceedings

Entertaining no hope of the overthrow of the Soviet system by means of espionage, wrecking, diversion, and kulak risings, the Right and Trotskyite conspirators, possessed with rage and hatred for the U.S.S.R., proceeded to make preparations for and to commit terrorist acts against leaders of the government and the C.P.S.U. The investigation has established the fact that by direct agreement with the Japanese and German intelligence services, and upon the instructions of enemy of the people L. TROTSKY, the "bloc of Rights and Trotskyites"; engineered and committed a number of terrorist acts against some of the finest people of our country.

The accused RYKOV explained the motives for the adoption of terrorist methods by the " bloc of Rights and Trotskyites" as follows:

"In view of the illegal and conspiratorial character of the counter-revolutionary organization of the Rights, -the absence of any kind of mass basis for its counter-revolutionary activities, and the absence of all hope of arriving at power in any other way, the adoption of terrorist methods and a palace coup detat, in the opinion of the Centre, held out some prospects" (Vol. I, p. 50.)

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Inside Job - -The Story Of Trotskyite Intrigue In The Labor Movement

A section and citations from the book "İnside Job -The Story Of Trotskyite Intrigue In The Labor Movement   " by Herb Tank

Download the book as PDF

"But you read Trotsky!"

"My dear fellow, Trotsky is the Nietzsche of espionage, the apostle of panic and provocation."  Conversation between two spies

CONTENTS

l. THE CASE OF THE STOLEN BALLOT BOX

""Five men walked into the union headquarters of Local 856 of the United Auto Workers Union in Akron. "

2. RACKETEERS, POLITICOS AND B-29 BOMBERS

"The Dodge-Chicago plant was just outside of Chicago....The Trotskyites were moving in. The Dodge-Chicago plant of the Chrysler Corporation was a key war plant. It was the largest airplane engine plant in the world. 

The Trotskyites worked fast. They quickly welded all the rotten elements into a bloc in order to capture the new UAW local's first election . 

First of all they grabbed hold of the job-seekers, the petty opportunists. These guys had ambitions to fill union posts, but they didn't have much ability. They were glad to stooge for the Trotskyites in exchange for a "line." The Trotskyites would teach them how to sound like trade union leaders. "

3. THE DEEP SIX

"That was on Thursday, May 16, 1946, one month  ' before the scheduled waterfront strike. 

Some of the seamen took leaflets without looking at them and walked into the hall. Other seamen refused to accept them. They recognized the girls as the same ones that some-times handed out the Trotskyite sheet, the Militant, before union meetings at Manhattan Center. "

"Inside the lobby of the N.M.U. building a group of seamen were looking over one of the leaflets. 

"This is the Kinkiest leaflet I've read in a long time," one sailor growled. "

The Trotskyite leaflet was against the strike. It said the strike was only a political strike and shouldn't be supported by the seamen. "

4· SOUTH OF THE BORDER

"Hard-hitting Vicente Lombardo Toledano, chief of the Latin-American labor movement, was sore. Trotsky was in Mexico. 

The Mexican labor movement was angry, too. Over four thousand delegates to the National Congress of the Mexican Confederation of Labor prepared to listen as Toledano rose to present his resolution on Trotsky."

5. GANGSTERISM UNPARALLELED

"The teamsters learned about Trotskyism the hard way. The Teamsters' Union had quite a reputation for corruptness and rackets anyway. There had always been a number of dishonest officials in that union, and nobody in the top leadership did anything about it."

6. "STOOLPIGEON WORK"

"He walked over to the nearest Trotskyite and knocked the Militant· out of his hand. Kelly was sore. 

"Listen, Bud," Kelly said, "if you want your picture taken with something in your hand, then pick up one of those picket signs with our demand for a 30 per cent wage increase on it. That's what the union people want to read, not your Militant."

7. "THE ENEMY IS CUNNING"

"All during the trial the State Prosecutor, Vishinsky, had spoken in a low soft voice. In a calm, almost detached manner, he drew from the accused the full story of their crimes. For the spectators, sitting in the October Room of the Moscow House of Trade Unions where the trial was being held, it was almost like seeing a crime movie backwards."

FROM SECTION 2 - THEY HELPED TO FASCISTS

Beneath the world's slick exterior of governments, and diplomats, and pious speeches is the vast network of machinery that runs the world. Right alongside the speech-makers, but not as visible to the naked eye, stands Big Business, the bankers and their buddies, the munitions men, the oil men, the big industrialists, whose interests determine the real aims of governments, if not always their outward appearance. But a slick exterior alone doesn't maintain their power. Their power rests on an underworld  of violence, crime and corruption. The underworld of capitalism is international. 

In the complicated structure of international Big Business there is always dirty work to be done. And there are people to do it. People who break strikes for a living; stool pigeons who spy on unions; characters who specialize in manipulating public opinion through incidents, race riots, rumors; some do it with their pens, and others have rougher techniques, but whatever the job is, capitalism has produced the men for it.

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The Trotsky-Zinoviev Assassins Before the Bar of the Working Class

P. LANG 

October 1936

THE trial of the Trotsky-Zinoviev terrorist center was conducted for five days by the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R. This center was accused of the gravest crime, namely the murder of Comrade Kirov and the preparation of a number of terrorist acts against the leaders of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Soviet government. At the open public sessions of the trial the accused were allowed every possibility for defense. They fully utilized the possi­bilities offered them with the skill of cunning politicians. If they refused the right to invite counsel and call witnesses it was for the simple reason that they knew that it was impossible to deny the facts of their crimes. At the same time every one of the accused in every way strove, both at the preliminary investigation and at the trial, to minimize, at the expense of the others, their role in the crimes they jointly committed. The chiefs of the center in particular tried in every way possible-in the words of the other accused-"to hide behind the backs of the others". 

But, with the existence of indisputable proofs incriminating all the criminals, the whole of this struggle led to the fact that not a single one of the terrorists was in a position to deny his guilt. All of the accused right up to Smirnov himself, who stubbornly not only def ended himself but was anxious to conceal the remaining frag­ments of his terrorist group, were obliged to admit the complete justice of the charges against them. 

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The Rising Revolutionary Wave and Trotsky Liquidation in China

R. DOONPING
1930

PROSPECTS OF REVOLUTION IN CHINA* 

THE inevitability of the coming of a new revolutionary wave in China was clearly pointed out by the Sixth Congress of the Communist Party of China which met in the summer of 1928. This epoch-making Congress, which first summarized the invaluable experiences of the Great Revolution of 1925-27, laid down, along Marxist-Leninist lines, the ideological foundation for the present stage of the Chinese revolutionary movement. The Congress clearly indicated that the bourgeois-democratic revolution was defeated, that imperialism still ruthlessly tramples China under its feet, and that the feudal classes have intensified their exploitation of the peasant masses. It further showed that the bourgeoisie, failing to get concessions from the imperialists and feudal forces, attack the workers more sharply than ever before. This gives the broad toiling masses no other alternative than a determined struggle. Hence, the Congress concluded that the coming of a revolutionary wave against imperialism, feudal forces, and the bourgeoisie, is inevitable.

Now, the revolutionary perspective is clearer every day. China has already entered the period of a profound general crisis. One of the unmistakable signs of this period is the outstanding fact that the position of the ruling classes has become extremely shaky. This does not only refer to the rapidly falling prestige and authority of the Nanking Government, but also to the increasingly unstable and precarious position of the semi-feudal landlords, gentry and native bourgeoisie as the governing classes in the country in general. This is not only shown by the rapid succession of one militarist war after another in recent months, but the rising wave of the labor movement, together with the rapid revival of the peasant movement,  particularly the guerrilla warfare, also point clearly to the coming of a new revolutionary upheaval that promises to uproot the Chinese semi-feudal bourgeois rulers from their present positions and establish the political power of the workers and peasants in the country.

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How One Should Not Write the History of October

Pravda

(Comrade Trotsky’s Book “1917”)

(The Fifth World Congress and the Thirteenth Party Conference of the Russian C.P. unanimously condemned the political line of the Russian Opposition, with Comrade Trotsky at the head, as petty bourgeois and opportunist. In spite of this, Comrade Trotsky is carrying on his struggle still further, but in a new form. Under the flag of Leninism, he aims at a revision of Leninism. His book on Lenin was the first attempt of this sort. Many comrades allowed themselves to be dazzled by the literary side of the book, but the scientific organs of the C.P. of Russia and of the C.P. of Germany immediately recognised its tendency and repudiated it with sharp criticisms.

There now follows the second attack. Comrade Trotsky has written a preface of about sixty pages; to the recently published third volume of his work “1917.” As in their time, those who came after Marx sought, under the flag of Marxism, to revise Marx, so Comrade Trotsky here attempts a revision of Bolshevism in the name of “Leninism.” The Pravda, the central organ of the C.P. of Russia, replied to this attempt with the following article which we reprint in full.—Ed.)

Comrade Trotsky’s recently published book, “1917,” which is devoted to the “Lessons of October,” will soon become the mode. This is not to be wondered at, as it aimed at becoming an inner Party sensation.

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