Executions in Moscow The thirteen men condemned to death in
the State trial at Moscow were duly executed on Monday, their appeals for mercy having been refused. Sokolnikoff and Radek escaped the death sentence, though, on the evidence offered, their guilt was as great as that of the others, while their services to the Revolution were no greater than those of such men as Pyatikoff and Muraloff ; the very clemency shown to Radek seems to emphasise the arbitrariness of Soviet justice. Radek may, however, only have escaped this time to be shot another day, as he may be included among the prisoners in the trial which is said to be impending of Rykoff, Bukharin and 105 others accused by Vishinsky last week. When these have been disposed of the Revolution will have devoured all except Stalin of those who fought and suffered for it ; the one crime of which they were most certainly guilty is to have wished to continue the Revolution beyond the limits set to it by Stalin. Among the most repellent features of last week's trial were the public demand for the death sentence in the course of the proceedings, the assumption and assertion by the State-controlled Press, before any verdict had been reached, that the accused were guilty, and the declarations by children, scholars, and artists that death was the only just penalty ; in such circumstances " justice " becomes a form of State lynching. To liberal friends of the Soviet Union the trial has been a bitter disillusion, and has revealed an opposition to Stalin of a strength hitherto unsuspected.
Previous page
