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Case X Study: Stalin’s Show Trials, 1936–1938
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This chapter examines Stalin's show trials,
also known as the Moscow trials. Their aim
was to instill fear, and hence, loyalty, in the
people of Russia. We look at Stalin's motives
of
for staging these trials and their significance. The format of the trials is examined and how
om pa ny
evidence against defendants was gathered. We also explore why the defendants willingly confessed to crimes of which they could not have possibly been guilty.
? KEY QUESTION What role did the show trials play in Stalin’s Russia?
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Stalin promoted a cult of personality through Caption propaganda in the Soviet Union. The caption reads 'Long live Stalin, leader of the Soviet People!'
What was the purpose of the show trials?
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The centrepiece of the Great Terror that we read about in the last chapter was three show trials of former high-ranking Communists, or ‘Old Bolsheviks’, as they were known. Also named the Moscow Trials, they were propaganda trials designed to portray the accused men as enemies of the people. Show trials were not new in the Soviet Union under Stalin. A series of trials had also been staged against Soviet and foreign industrial experts between 1928 and 1933. The defendants had been accused of sabotage, treason and spying for foreign powers. In reality they were scapegoats for the failures of industrialisation.
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Stalin’s aim in organising the new trials was to establish complete control over the new Communist Party and to eliminate any potential threats. Many of the accused were members of the party prior to the revolution. They had been appointed by Lenin and most had been opponents of Stalin in the 1920s. Many had been allied to Stalin’s fiercest rival in the party, Leon Trotsky. As Martin Sixsmith points out, the main aim of the trials was: the elimination of all those who had played key roles in the events of 1917, leaving Stalin as the sole link and successor to Lenin. All remaining party members would owe their positions and their careers to him alone.
Source: Martin Sixsmith, Russia: A Thousand Year Chronicle of the Wild East, BBC Books, 2011, page 307
28 ❘ CASE STUDIES FOR TOPIC 3: DICTATORSHIP & DEMOCRACY
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