Letting “Mad Dogs” Lie: Anglo-American Journalism and the First Moscow Trial, 1936 Ryan Gentry Department of History Presen
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Letting “Mad Dogs” Lie: Anglo-American Journalism and the First Moscow Trial, 1936 Ryan Gentry Department of History Presented for the Partial Requirements Necessary for a Master of Arts Degree (History) at Concordia University Montreal, Quebec March 2018 © Ryan Gentry, 2018 CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY School of Graduate Studies This is to certify that the thesis prepared By: Ryan Gentry Entitled: Letting “Mad Dogs” Lie: Anglo-American Journalism and the First Moscow Trial, 1936 and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, History complies with the regulations of the University and meets the accepted standards with respect to originality and quality. Signed by the final examining committee: Chair Dr. Barbara Lorenzkowski Examiner Dr. Norman Ingram Examiner Dr. Eric H. Reiter Thesis Supervisor Dr. Alison Rowley Approved by Dr. Peter Gossage Chair of Department or Graduate Program Director André Roy Dean, Faculty of Arts and Science Date Gentry iii Abstract Letting “Mad Dogs” Lie: Anglo-American Journalism and the First Moscow Trial, 1936 Ryan Gentry There have been many scholarly efforts covering the period in the Soviet Union known as the Great Terror; most often these writings tried to contextualize and understand the inner working of the regime or its people. The present work shifts this lens, since it seeks to uncover how Anglo-American audiences grappled with one significant event from that era: the 1936 Trial of the Sixteen, the first of Stalin’s major show trials. As the Old Bolsheviks were led to the slaughter, people in the West received a myriad of information concerning this very public spectacle. A lack of functional newspaper scrutiny as the event took place, combined with the charged rhetoric of politicized post-trial publications, ultimately ensured that no outlet offered information about the trial beyond the apparent legitimacy that it gave to their specific causes. The trial itself therefore became more than the prosecution of sixteen individuals, as the entire affair allowed interested parties to manipulate the overall meaning to suit causes or ideologies that were either in favor of or completely against the current Soviet regime. Such an undertaking necessarily includes close readings of both works on the Terror and journalistic approaches to the period in order to demonstrate the conclusions of this thesis. In focusing on a single event, there is hope that some light can be shed on the larger problems associated with the spread of information across the globe during this significant period. Gentry iv Acknowledgements It almost feels as if writing these acknowledgements is more difficult than the academic work to follow. I am trying to figure out how to put into words the gratitude I feel for those who have helped me along this path. Countless family members, friends, colleagues, and professors were involved in molding me into the individual I am today, and for that they all have my thanks. I only regret I do not have the space to express proper appreciation for each one of them. Special thanks go to Dr. Alison Rowley, whose guidance and words of wisdom kept me focused and well-prepared. It was truly an honour to work with her on this project. Finally, I need to thank my mother, Patrice Mitchell, for being a constant and unmovable pillar of support, even if she does not always understand exactly what I am working on, or why. Without her, none of this would be possible, and it is to her that I dedicate my thesis. Gentry v Table of Contents A Note on Terminology................................................................................................................. vi Introduction: The Importance of the News..................................................................................... 1 1 – Historiography: Understanding the Landscape of Historical Writing on the Soviet 1930s..... 6 2 – Reporting Practices in the Early Soviet Union, and the Rise of the Show Trial.................... 23 3 – Covering the First Moscow Trial............................................................................................ 43 4 – The Aftermath, or: How the West Was (Left) Wondering..................................................... 70 Conclusion: The Meaning Behind Ascribing Meaning................................................................ 94 Bibliography............................................................................................................................... 100 Appendix 1.................................................................................................................................. 109 Appendix 2.................................................................................................................................. 111 Gentry vi A Note on Terminology In the transliteration from Russian to English, many of the studies utilized in this thesis opt for different styles. In order to maintain a sense of consistency, the names and locations will follow a similar Library of Congress (LOC) system to that featured in J. Arch Getty and Oleg V. Naumov’s The Road to Terror: Stalin and the Self-Destruction of the Bolsheviks, 1932-1939. As such, the following section was lifted from that publication: In final position: ii in the LOC system becomes y (Trotsky, not Trotskii) iia = ia (Izvestia, not Izvestiia) nyi= ny (Nagorny, not Nagornyi) In initial position: E = Ye (Yezhov, not Ezhov) Ia = Ya (Yaroslavsky, not Iaroslavsky) Iu = Yu (Yudin, not Iudin)* Similarly, several names have been anglicized for easier reading, most notably Joseph Stalin, as opposed to Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin. However, any newspaper articles with different spellings have been left as they were originally published. * J. Arch Getty and Oleg V. Naumov, The Road to Terror: Stalin and the Self-Destruction of the Bolsheviks, 1932- 1939 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999), xix. Gentry 1 Introduction: The Importance of the News The lightning fast speed at which information spreads is taken for granted in the modern world. Thanks to technological advances in recent years, the world appears smaller than ever, readily accessible with the click of a button or the touch of a screen. As a result, there is easy access to news information of practically any conceivable variety, as it literally exists at our fingertips. A realistic problem then falls to choosing from among the countless available sources in order to stay informed. These modern conveniences are not inherently negative, and any debates concerning such matters can be left to those willing to undertake them. Leaving aside moralistic judgments surrounding the idea of information overload allows for an examination of the mechanisms and sources that offer forth the quick and ready access to the news itself. In contemporary times, that field is open to nearly anyone able to publish, post, or stream their stories. Even private citizens can now co-exist with massive media empires, offering their take on the news via a myriad of available options: television, radio, social media sites, online news sources, blogs, podcasts, live streams, and even print media, which continues to labour on despite the competition from these modern means of communication. But it was not always this easy to obtain information about disparate parts of the world. Before the Internet, before 24-hour news stations, even before the rise of radio, the world invariably seemed like a much larger place. While foreign correspondents had to work differently than they do today, these eras do share a commonality: speed – something that cannot be separated from the spread of information. Whoever got the news the fastest could sell it before the rest, so speed became crucial as journalism evolved into a profitable industry. To quote John Maxwell Hamilton, “the market value of news – and newspapers – was increasingly Gentry 2 tied to how new the news was.”1 Spending too much time writing or researching a story meant that you could lose out to rivals who printed the information faster than you, all of which related to the business model that informed journalism as soon as the first foreign correspondents appeared in earnest during the mid-19th century.2 Such a statement holds true to this day, as modern technology allows for constant updates, which in turn helps explain why instances of misinformation are relayed to audiences, either purposefully or accidentally. This brief foray into the potential uncertainties and dangers associated with contemporary news coverage might seem odd in a work that will focus on the volatile and violent years of the interwar Soviet Union. However, it is the very instability of that time which requires an appreciation of the many converging avenues that surround the topic. One major news event covered by Anglo-American journalists was the infamous 1936 “Case of the Trotskyite- Zinovievite Terrorist Centre.”3 The first of the Soviet Moscow Trials, also known as the Trial of the Sixteen and the First Moscow Trial, occurred when sixteen individuals were tried and executed for murder, treason, and assassination attempts. Some of these defendants were longstanding members of the Bolshevik party; in other words, men with ties to the party’s origins, the 1917 Revolution, and the establishment of the Soviet regime. The accused included Grigory Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev, Ivan Smirnov, Grigory Yevdokimov, Ivan Bakayev, and others.4 Perhaps most importantly, the charges against them were also completely fabricated,