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Starobin: The Trial: It’s Meaning and Importance [April 1938] 1

The Moscow Trial: Its Meaning and Importance. by Joseph Starobin

Published in Young Communist Review [New York], v. 3, no. 2 (April 1938), pp. 16-19.

The fourth of the since the assassina- tion of in December 1934 is now concluded. Eighteen of the defendants were executed, the three remaining received sentences of .† The editors of the capitalist press chewed many a pencil to find new arguments against the Soviet Re- public. proved very helpful with his me- lange of fantasy and falsehood. Not to be outdone, Eugene Lyons contributed his own twopence of “as- signments in myopia.” The press attempted to dismiss the trial as proof of the “moral and intellectual collapse of Com- munism,” but Richard Whitney spoiled the pie by filing his own petition of collapse the next morning, proving, no doubt, the unquestionable “moral and intellectual stability of .” But Hitler, no less scru- pulous than Whitney, shoved the headlines on the trial to the back page by his invasion of . That is where we found correspondent’s [’s] dispatch of the 14th of March, in which he confesses, †- Reference is to the so-called “Case of the Anti-Soviet ‘Bloc of Rights and Trotskyites’” held in Moscow from March 2-13, 1938. Defendants included , , Genrikh Iagoda, Nikolai Krestinsky, Khristian Rakovsky, Grigorii Grinko, and others. The group was, according to the widely disseminated (edited) transcript of the trial, charged with “ to the country, , committing acts of diversion, , , undermining the military power of the USSR, and of provoking a military attack of foreign states upon the USSR.” The case was prosecuted by Andrei Vyshinsky with V.V. Ulrich presiding. Rakovsky and two lesser defendants were sent to the ; none survived. 1 2 Starobin: The Moscow Trial: It’s Meaning and Importance [April 1938]

“after witnessing two of the three public trials and reading can hire a smart lawyer to bamboozle the judges and [and] studying the testimony of the other, this writer is now the jury, and in utter disregard of the testimony, free well convinced that in the main outline, the cases were well founded even though established in ways strange to our his client. ideas of justice.” Especially in treason cases, the procedure of the Russian court is established by continental law. As Once and for all, this trial has shattered the elabo- Joshua Kunitz points out in his article in The New rate baloney about torture of the defendants. All the Masses for March 22, 1938, Article III, Section 3, of fantastic speculations about some enormous super- the American Constitution “deems open confession show, in which the defendants were elaborately in court sufficient to convict a man on charge of trea- coached, compelled to uniform confessions by some son.” The law says exactly: “No person shall be con- drug of obscure molecular composition, are now gone victed of treason unless on the testimony of two wit- with the wind. nesses as to the same overt act, or on confession in Anyone who reads the trial testimony will ob- open court.” serve that the witnesses did not testify willingly. They wrangled, fought, made fine distinctions, argued, • • • • • pleaded, and cast reflections on one another, because even rats will fight when they are concerned. The Daily Worker and its affiliated newspapers Some seemed to be telling the truth, eager to in Chicago and San Francisco gave full trail reports. have the ugly story vomited; Together with Joshua Kunitz’s others were sullen, bitter, excellent articles in The New treacherous to the end. Masses, and Earl Browder’s The integrity of the trial profound speech at the New procedure emerges beyond York Hippodrome, reprinted question. The defendants in The Daily Worker of March confessed because they 19th [1938], very few consid- were guilty; because they erations on the trial have been were at the end of their rope; left unexplored. because the facts marshaled Nevertheless, there are against them by the preliminary many people who do not yet investigation were indisputable. understand even the el- But the problem of trial ementary facts about procedure is secondary matter. the trials. There is nothing peculiar Some of these about Soviet judicial are liberals, who try processes. The Bukhar- hard to find new ways in-Trotsky conspirators to maintain their persistent had the full right to de- misunderstanding of the nature fend themselves in their own right, and by official le- of the . And numbers of people, with gal defense. They did defend themselves. They made whom we cooperate on many domestic issues, are still long speeches, attempting to find some hairbreadth troubled. on which to plead for mercy. They engaged in lengthy The trials should therefore serve as an educa- philosophical orations, between cups of tea, enjoying tional opportunity to hammer home certain funda- the complete freedom of the court. There is nothing mental facts about Russian history, as well as to pre- peculiarly Russian about this except maybe for the tea. pare ourselves for problems that are bound to arise in On the other hand, the Soviet Union does not the stormy years ahead. permit the hypocrisy which is prevalent in bourgeois First of all, it should be stressed again and again courts, whereby a defendant who is obviously guilty that the Soviet Union is the first and only socialist coun- Starobin: The Moscow Trial: It’s Meaning and Importance [April 1938] 3

try, the harbinger of a new day for humanity. It is en- Men like Iagoda, the former head of the OGPU, whose circled by the capitalist world, which is in the throes skillful treachery accounts for the fact that the plot of a final crisis. We live in a period when one system was uncovered so slowly, and piecemeal. But it is the of life is giving way, in fierce and uncompromising fact that they occupied such high places which makes battle, to a higher and more equitable form of human their so onerous, and accounts for the swift and organization. We live in a perpetual war, in which capi- unremitting character of Soviet justice. talism uses all methods, fair or foul, to maintain itself. This is such a simple truth that many people, • • • • • especially in our American democracy, sometimes for- get it, particularly in our progressive atmosphere. Sta- We cannot discuss the issues here, nor go into lin pointed out in his Mastering that even the pros and cons of the debate which the Russian the Russian comrades seem to have developed illusions masses decided against the plotters. Nor can we pause in this respect.† on the psychological aspects of their decay and treach- ery, though this may be interesting and even help to • • • • • make the whole affair intelligible to many people who do not think politically. The second problem, which we can hardly dis- Personal vanity, individual corruption, ambition, cuss at length, is the fact that all the defendants had self-delusion, all played a part in motivating the con- long histories of theoretical and practical disagreement spiracy. But the cardinal fact is that their political pro- with the Russian Party and the Russian masses. Ku- gram reduced itself to one thing: opposition to the nitz calls them the “Old Non-.” Despite doz- construction of , efforts to restore capital- ens of instances of theoretical or personal instability, ism, even at the cost of dismembering the Soviet Re- before and during the Revolution, Lenin forgave them public and destroying its achievements. Although these time and again because, as he put it, they committed men came to their positions from different paths, with separate self-justification and make-believes to conceal mistakes which we now recall with reluctance. Why with the true meaning of their action, it all boiled down to reluctance? Because without special need it is wrong to recall such mistakes as have been fully rectified. simple counterrevolution, in cahoots with foreign na- tions. But if Lenin was lenient with them, the party Many newspapers weep crocodile tears over the under Stalin’s leadership was more so. When the dis- “weakening” which the Soviet Union has undergone cussion of the fundamental issues between as a result of the exposure of this network of conspira- and really emerged after Lenin’s death, it cies. This is poppycock. It is true that for our move- continued not for weeks, not for months, but for years. ment these trials may create educational problems, but After Trotskyism was discredited, the Trotskyists as these problems are overcome, our movement will crawled back into the Party, and were accepted, by be strengthened and clarified. Central Committee under Stalin’s leadership. They But it is unrealistic to imagine that Hitler or were all given high posts of journalistic and diplomatic Chamberlain are now guiding their course of action responsibility. They were completely trusted. because they think reveals “internal weakness.” Whereupon the conspirators reformed their The wise and calculating diplomats of the reactionary ranks, maneuvering their own men into high places. and fascist wing think in terms of brass tacks. The †- Reference is to Stalin’s speech to the Feb.-March 1937 joint plenum of the Central Committee and the Central Control Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), an event which marked a move of the state and its to ultra-violent interlude known as the Ezhovshchina. The original title of the pamphlet edition of Stalin’s speech better captures the flavor of his remarks: Defects in Party Work and Measures for Liquidating Trotskyite and Other Double-Dealers. The tract was hastily retitled Mastering Bolshevism. Second in command V.M. Molotov also addressed the joint plenum of the CC/CCC along similar lines, his speech released under the title Lessons of the Wrecking, Diversionist and Espionage Activities of the Japanese-German-Trotskyite Agents. Although published in an edition of 1.65 million copies in the USSR, (along with a small edition of perhaps 5,000 copies in English tran slation), this Molotov speech was never published in Britain or the in pamphlet form. 4 Starobin: The Moscow Trial: It’s Meaning and Importance [April 1938]

Soviet Union has crushed the fascist agents from ments that remain sealed until 1947. within, and thus strengthened itself politically and practically in its fight against fascism, without. • • • • • Chamberlain and Hitler know that because they are practical men. They realize that no hope remains With respect to the history of the United States of smashing Socialism from within. While the pros- particularly when our Revolution was in its early years, pect of attacking it from without is thereby more dis- the story of treason offers an illuminating parallel to advantageous for the fascists and their British friends. what has transpired in the Soviet Union. In the first It is in this sense that the trials have struck a great bourgeois revolution of the 18th Century there blow for world peace. They have eliminated agents of were also “great” men, distinguished in action, clever, corruption and treachery capable, etc., who conspired within the Soviet Union, on against the greatest achieve- whom the fascists counted ments of their day much in heavily. the same way as the Trotsky- Perhaps an even more Bukharin outfit in the first complete understanding of great Socialist revolution of this whole phenomenon of the . It will Trotskyism and its allies can serve the Americanization be gained from a reading of of our movement to explore American history. That is, I the points of similarity in think, one of Comrade this comparison. Just as in Browder’s great contribu- the Judas legend, just as in tions to our education on this the case of Burr and Arnold, question.† the names of Trotsky and Recall the cases of Bukharin go down in his- treachery and espionage in tory as men who betrayed our own history. Begin with their countrymen. Benedict Arnold, who, de- Finally, it should be spite his personal bravery, remembered that we are turned out to be a British approaching decisive events agent. Then General Charles in the world struggle against Lee, subsequently proven a Fascism. Until the balance conscious tool of the British. between Socialism and capi- Aaron Burr, Vice President of talism is decided against the the new republic under Jef- latter, until Socialism has ferson, whose plots for dis- Joe Starobin, 1938 put capitalism on the defen- memberment of the western territory of America are sive in every way, and even then for some time, the well known, involving high figures in the government problem of internal enemies will always be with us. and the Supreme Court. And in the War of 1812, only If there were 40,000 industrial spies hired by the 23 years after Washington’s inauguration, the gover- American capitalists to defeat unionism, as the LaFol- nors of several states openly conspired against eh lette Committee showed, imagine what efforts are be- American cause, preparing the way for invasion and ing and will be made to hinder and corrupt the work destruction of the White House as well as the city of of the Communist movement that stands for Social- Washington itself. The story of the treachery of a mem- ism. ber of Lincoln’s cabinet is yet to be told in secret docu- †- Browder’s chief apologetic of the Ezhovshchina was a pamphlet entitled Traitors in American History: Lessons of the Moscow Trials. (New York: Workers Library Publishers, April 1938). Starobin: The Moscow Trial: It’s Meaning and Importance [April 1938] 5

• • • • • solute intolerance to personal vanities, ambitions, and conceits, which are the advance symptoms of alien ideas It is precisely this lesson from the trials in Mos- and philosophies, and prepare the way for political cow and the experiences of the Soviet Union that is corruption. invaluable. Even those of us who are immersed in the work In this country there are still many Trotskyists, of the revolutionary movement are nevertheless en- Lovestoneites, and other elements at work, whose po- circled by our capitalist environment. Moreover, the sition on such questions as trade unions, the People’s thousands who come into our movement come “out Front, etc., we have exposed as dangerous and destruc- of the whole cloth,” often with prejudices and bour- tive to the best interests of the working class and the geois faults. American people. Of course, we are not idealists, and are working But the guarantee against Trotskyism and other for Socialism, with and through, the human material pernicious theories in our ranks in the critical days at our disposal. ahead involves: 1. a conscious and iron discipline In the struggle against actual and potential cor- within our ranks; 2. respect for the great traditions of ruption within our own ranks, it is necessary to pay the working class movement and humble devotion to attention to personal habits and morals throughout its aims and principles; 3. higher political clarity and the movement. We should begin today to build that understanding of every single member of our move- new morality, that generous, intelligent, modest, new ment from top to bottom, equipping him with Marx- human being, that new humanity which we know will ist-Leninist methods, enabling him to grapple emerge with the destruction of capitalism and the birth scientifically with new and difficult problems; 4. ab- of a Socialist world.

Edited with footnotes by Tim Davenport. Drawing by Fred Ellis, Cartoon by “R.J.” from the same issue of Young Communist Review. Published by 1000 Flowers Publishing, Corvallis, OR, 2006. • Non-commercial reproduction permitted.

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