More Trials in Moscow The Soviet Press is already clamouring
for the death sentence on the 21 men now on trial in Moscow ; no doubt its lust for more executions will be satisfied. Whether the accused are guilty or not is a different matter ; with the suspicions inspired by previous trials still unallayed, it is difficult to accept the guilt of three men charged with the astonishing crime of murdering Maxim Gorki. Politic- ally, however, they are the least important of the prisoners, of whom the most .prominent are Rykoff, Bukharin, and Yagoda, each of whom, in his own way, has rendered signal services to the State. Whether they are innocent or guilty, the trial, like the previous trials, throws the darkest light on the working and the stability of the Soviet regime, and it is likely to have the most unfortunate reaction on its foreign policy. M. Stalin has only recently called on the " international proletariat " to rally to the defence of the Soviet Union. He has chosen this moment to explain that what he desires is a Popular Front of the democracies and the Soviet Union against Fascism. The effectiveness of his gesture is much diminished by the latest events in the Soviet Union. The present trial gives one more shock to public opinion abroad ; it destroys the hope that the purge had come to an end ; and the purge itself, which is reported to have been especially severe in the army, arouses the gravest doubts of Russia's efficiency as an ally, or her suitability as a friend, for the democracies.
