PROFESSORS OK TRIAL.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20096, 27 November 1930, Page 11

PROFESSORS OK TRIAL.

SCENES IN RUSSIAN COURT.

DEMONSTRATION BY WORKERS

(UJTITED IT.ESS ASUOCIATIO;: —BY BLECTKIO TELEGRAPH—COPYBIOHT.) (Received November 26th, 8 p.m.) MOSCOW, November 25. The Tass Agency, reporting the Supreme Court trial of Professors Hamzin, Kalinnikoff, Charnovsky, and Fedotov, and the engineers Larichev, Sitnin, and Kuprianoft", who are charged with the organisation of destructive activities in preparation for the intervention of foreign States against the Soviet, says:—

Under hissing arc lights illuminating a great, white-pillared hall, sometimes used as a ballroom for the proletariat, eight men stood on trial for their lives. Outside the glare of blue and white searchlights lit up the tossing scarlet banners of thousands of workers who were trampling the snow into slush as they marched towards the Court. They had read the morning papers containing Lenin's slogan printed in sledgehammer type: "Dictatorship is a grand word, a cruel, hard, bloody word expressing a merciless death struggle."

Over a thousand workers, many scientists, and litterateurs were present. The workers flooded the streets on the way to the trial, which took place in the Trades Union House. The demonstrators carried banners inscribed: "Down with the Accomplices of Intervention"; "We Demand a Firm Attitude from the Proletarian Court"; "Wo Will Reply to Intervention by Executing the Five Year Plan in Four Years." The accused were surrounded by all the accessories for a great boxing eontest—amplifiers, cameras, and movie operators, while overhead 52 gilt chandeliers added a redundant radiance to the firelights' cruel dazzle. The State Prosecutor, Kreylenko, attired in a shooting jacket and putties, as it' prepared for a day's sport, gulped sandwiches in the wings of the stage before hastening to his seat at a redcovered table. Near him were many officials who had hunted down counterrevolutionaries and wero taking a busman 's holiday, while highly-placed O.G.P.U. (secret police) functionaries ran their practised eye over the accused. j Fifteen thousand ticket-holders rose ' to their feet as the four Judges entered. Each prisoner rose and bowed as his name was called. The Court pasfeed from tense attention to something approaching apathy as, hour after hour, Kreylenko's assistant droned out the interminable indictment of the prosecution, dealing with sabotage, and the war plot, of which half a million copies had been distributed in pamphlet form. Many members of the Diplomatic Corps occupied a special box, undeterred by a current cartoon showing the whole front of the prisoners' dock as being reserved for M. Polncarfi and other foreign statesmen. The trial is likely to occupy a fortnight. Countless country resolutions demand the death of the accused. Among the slogans in circulation is one reading: "We shall throttle the counter-revolu-tionary snake." The accused pleaded guilty and con- j sented to confess. AN ACCUSED ADMITS GUILT HIS STATEMENT TO THE COURT. (Received November 26th, 11.50 p.m.) MOSCOW, November 25. Ramzin declared that it was impossible to dofend himself as his guilt was too manifest, but he hoped hie full and frank testimony would help the Soviet to protect itself against its enemies. He described an alleged promise by French agents to bring about intervention in Russia in 1028. His organisation received funds from French sources. He declared th&t Mr A. A. Simon, connected with the firm of Tickers, had been used to deliver messages relating to the conspiracy. Vickers know nothing of Mr Simon.

ALARMIST REPORTS REPUDIATED. LONDON, November 'J£>, The Soviet Embassy in London repudiates entirely the alarmist reports from Russia. The "Morning Post's" Biga correspondent now says that relative calm has returned to the Kremlin, and M. Stalin is again completely master or the situation. The correspondent adds: Nevertheless there has _ undoubtedly been a serious conspiracy against M. Stalin.