NEHRU-ON-MOSCOW TRIALS

" in spite of this general progress and development, the Soviet Union passed through a severe internal crisis during this period.

I have already told you of the conflict between Stalin and Trotsky. Various people, dissatisfied with the existing regime, gradually drew together and it is said that some of them even conspired with the fascist powers. Even Yagoda, the chief of the Soviet Intelligence ( the G.P.U) , is stated to have been associated with these people.

In December 1934 , Kirov, a leading member of the Soviet Government, was murdered. The government took stern action against its opponents and from 1937 , there were a series of trials which provoked great controversy all over the world, as many famous and prominent individuals were involved in them.

Among those tried were those who were called Trotskyites and rightists ( Rykov, Tomsky, Bukharin) and some high army officers, the chief of whom was Marshal

Tuchachevesky.

It is difficult for me to express a definite opinion about these trials or the events that led upto them , as the facts are complicated and not clear. But it is undoubted that the trials disturbed large numbers of people , including friends of Russia and added to the prejudice against Soviet Union.

Close observers are of the opinion that there was a big conspiracy against the Stalinist regime and that the trials were bona fide.( 'genuine'). It also seems to be established that there was no mass support behind the conspiracy and that the reaction of the people was definitely against the opponents of Stalin.

Nevertheless, the extent of the repression, which may have hit many innocent persons also, was a sign of ill-health and injured the Soviet position , internationally.

It will be of considerable interest to quote the opinion of Mr. Churchill. In his Memoirs Churchill records a conversation with President Benes, which is of great historical importance and deserves to be given in full. He writes:

"

When President Benes visited me at Marrakesh in January 1944, he told me this story. In 1935 he had received an offer from Hitler to respect in all circumstances the integrity of Czechoslovakia in return for a guarantee that she would remain neutral in the event of a Franco-German war.. . . In the autumn of 1936 a message from a high military source in Germany was conveyed to President Benes to the effect that if he wanted to take advantage of the Fuehrer’s offer he had better be quick, because events would shortly take place in Russia rendering any help he could give to Germany insignificant.

"

While Benes was pondering over this disturbing hint, he became aware that communications were passing through the Soviet Embassy in Prague between important personages in Russia and the German Government. This was a part of the so-called military and old-guard Communist conspiracy to overthrow Stalin and introduce a new régime based on a pro-German policy. President Benes lost no time in communicating all he could find out to Stalin. Thereafter there followed the merciless, but perhaps not needless, military and political purge in Soviet Russia, and the series of trials in January 1937, in which Vyshinsky, the Public Prosecutor, played so masterful a part." (Churchill, The Gathering Storm, pp. 224-225.)

This very authoritative statement should dispose of lies and slanders about the Moscow trials.

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