Andrey Yanuaryevich Vyshinsky - Traitors Accused: Indictment of the Piatakov-Radek Trotskyite Group

The seventeen defendants named in this indictment went on trial in Moscow on January 23, 1937, before the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R. They were prosecuted by A. Y. Vyshinsky, chief prosecutor of the U.S.S.R. All defendants confessed fully in a trial which ended on January 30 with a verdict of guilty for all. Thirteen defendants were sentenced to be shot; four received prison sentences as follows: Radek, Sokolnikov and Arnold, ten years; Stroilov, eight years. The death sentences were carried out February 1, 1937.

Published by Workers Library Publishers, Inc.,

P.O. Box 148, Sta. D, New York City, March, 1937

in the case of Y.L. Piatakov, K.B. Radek, G.Y. Sokolnikov, L.P. Serebriakov, N.I. Muralov, J.A. Livshitz, J.N. Drobnis, M.S. Boguslavsky, I.A. Kniazev, S.A. Rataichak, B.O. Norkin, A.A. Shestov, M.S. Stroilov, J.D. Turok, I.J. Grashe, G.E. Pushin and V.V. Arnold, accused of treason against the country, espionage, acts of diversion, wrecking activities and the preparation of terroristic acts, i.e., of crimes covered by Articles 58-1a, 58-8, 58-9 and 58-11 of the Criminal Code of the R.S.F.S.R.

The investigation of the case of the united Trotskyite-Zinovievite terroristic center, members of which were convicted by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R. on August 24, 1936, established that in addition to the above mentioned center, there existed a so-called reserve center, established on the direct instructions of L.D. Trotsky, in case the criminal activities were discovered by the organs of the Soviet government. The convicted members of the united Trotskyite-Zinovievite center, Zinoviev, Kamenev and others, testified that the reserve center consisted of Y.L. Piatakov, K.B. Radek, G.Y. Sokolnikov and L.P. Serebriakov, all known for their past Trotskyite activities.

The preliminary investigation of the present case established that the s-called reserve center was indeed a parallel Trotskyite center, organized and operating under the direct instructions of L.D. Trotsky, living abroad.

The Trotskyite parallel center developed its criminal activities most strenuously after the dastardly murder of Sergei Mironovich Kirov, and the subsequent break-up of the united Trotskyite-Zinovievite center.

The main task which the parallel center set itself was the forcible overthrow of the Soviet government with the object of changing the social and state system existing in the U.S.S.R. L.D. Trotsky, and on his instructions the parallel Trotskyite center, aimed at seizing power with the aid of foreign states, with the object of restoring capitalist relations in the U.S.S.R.

These treasonable designs against the Soviet Union were expounded by L. Trotsky in their most finished form in his letter of instructions to the parallel Trotskyite center, received by the accused K.B. Radek in December, 1935.

The accused Radek, during the examination on December 22, 1936, testified on this point as follows:

"It must be understood, Trotsky wrote, that without a certain leveling of the social structure of the U.S.S.R. to that of the capitalist states, the government of the bloc will not be able to maintain itself in power and to preserve peace....

"The admission of German and Japanese capital for the exploitation of the U.S.S.R. will create important capitalist interests on Soviet territory. Those strata in the rural districts which have not outlived the capitalist psychology and are dissatisfied with the collective farms will gravitate toward them. The Germans and Japanese will demand that we relieve the tense atmosphere in the rural districts; we shall therefore have to make concessions and allow the dissolution of the collective farms or withdrawal from the collective farms." (Vol. V, pp. 142, 143.)

And further:

"Piatakov and I arrived at the conclusion that this instruction sums up the work of the bloc, dots all the i's and crosses all the t's by raising in the very sharpest manner the question that under all circumstances the power of the Trotskyite-Zinoviev bloc could only be the power of the restoration of capitalism." (Vol. V, p. 146.)

Accused Piatakov, in his turn, relating his conversation with L. Trotsky, near Oslo in December, 1935, testified that L. Trotsky, in demanding that the diversionist, wrecking and terroristic activities of the Trotskyite organization in the U.S.S.R. be activized, emphasized that as a result of an agreement with capitalist states, it was necessary, as he put it, to retreat to capitalism. According to the testimony of accused Piatakov, L. Trotsky said:

"This means it will be necessary to retreat. This must be firmly understood. Retreat to capitalism. How far and to what degree, it is difficult to say nowthis can be made concrete only after we come into power." (Vol. I, p. 269.)

That the program of the parallel Trotskyite center was a program of the restoration of capitalism in the U.S.S.R. was testified to by accused G.Y. Sokolnikov during examination on November 30, 1936:

"This program provided for the renunciation of the policy of industrialization and collectivization and, as a result of this renunciation, the revival in the rural districts, on the basis of small farming, of capitalism, which, combined with the capitalist elements in industry, would develop into capitalist restoration in the U.S.S.R.

"... All the members of the center were agreed in recognizing that in the existing circumstances there could be no other program, and that it was necessary to carry out precisely this program of the bloc." (Vol. VIII, p. 225.)

Proceeding from this program, L.D. Trotsky and his accomplices in the parallel center entered into negotiations with agents of foreign states with the object of overthrowing the Soviet government with the aid of armed intervention.

As a basis for these treasonable negotiations, L.D. Trotsky and the parallel center put forward: the permission in the U.S.S.R of the development of private capital, the dissolution of the collective farms, the liquidation of the state farms, the lease of a number of Soviet enterprises as concessions to foreign capitalists, and the granting to these foreign states of other economic and political advantages including the surrender of a part of Soviet territory. On this point, L.D. Trotsky, according to the statement of the accused K. Radek, wrote in his aforementioned letter to K. Radek:

"It would be absurd to think that we can come to power without securing the favorable attitude of the most important capitalist governments, particularly of the most aggressive ones, such as the present governments of Germany and Japan. It is absolutely necessary to have contacts and an understanding with these governments right now...." (Vol. V, p. 140.)

The investigation has established that L.D. Trotsky entered negotiations with one of the leaders of the German National-Socialist Party with a view to waging a joint struggle against the Soviet Union.

As testified by accused Piatakov, L. Trotsky, in his conversation with the accused in December, 1935, informed him that as a result of these negotiations he had concluded an agreement with the said leader of the National-Socialist Party on the following terms:

1. To guarantee a generally favorable attitude toward the German government and the necessary collaboration with it in the most important questions of an international character;
   
2. To agree to territorial concessions;
   
3. To permit German industrialists, in the form of concessions (or some other forms), to exploit enterprises in the U.S.S.R. which are essential auxiliaries to German economy (meaning iron ore, manganese, oil, gold, timber, etc.);
   
4. To create in the U.S.S.R. favorable conditions for the activities of German private enterprises;