Stalin Purges Rivals: Moscow Show Trial of 17
Seventeen former Soviet officials took the stand in Moscow in January 1937 and confessed to an elaborate conspiracy to overthrow Stalin in league with exiled Leon Trotsky. The confessions were extracted through torture, threats against family members, and promises of leniency that were never honored. Thirteen of the seventeen were executed. The trials served Stalin's purpose precisely: they demonstrated that no one was safe, regardless of rank or revolutionary credentials. Several defendants had been founding members of the Bolshevik Party. The show trials were part of the Great Purge that killed an estimated 750,000 people between 1936 and 1938 and sent over a million more to the Gulag. Foreign observers, including journalists and diplomats, were invited to watch the proceedings, and many reported the confessions as genuine, not understanding the machinery of coercion behind them.
January 23, 1937
89 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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