MOSCOW TRIALS

Hokitika Guardian, 27 November 1930, Page 5

MOSCOW TRIALS

PLEAS OF GUILTY

(United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.)

MOSCOW, Nov. 25

The Tass (Russian) Press Agency, reporting the Supreme Court trial here of Professors Kam/.in, Ka iinn i toff, Charnovsky, and Fedotov, and Engineers Larichev, Sitoin and Kuprina off, states that they are charged withnthe organisation of destructive activities in preparation for the intervention by foreign .States against the Soviet. The Tass Agency says;—Over one thousand workers and many scientists and literateurs were present, while workers flooded the Moscow streets on. the way to the.trial in the Trades Union House. One million demonstrators carried banners inscribed ; “Down With the Accomplices of Intervention!” “We Demand a ' Firm Attitude from the Proletarian Court!” “We Will Reply to the Intervention by Executing the Five Year Plan in Four Years !”

Tlie report continues:—“The accused .pleaded guilty. They consented to confess.”

trial in great hall

MOSCOW, Nov. 25

The Tass Agehcy message continues: Under hissing ate lights illuminating the great white-pillared hall, which sometimes is used as a ballroom lor the proletariat, the eight men stood on trial for their lives. Outside, the glare of blue-white .searchlights lit up the tossing scarlet banners of thousands of workers who were trampling the snow into slitsh as they' marched towards the. Couit. They had read the morning papers containing Lenin’s slogan, printed in sledge-hammer type;—“Dictatorship is a grand word—a cruel, hard, bloody word—expressing a merciless death struggle!” The accused were surrounded by all of the accessories for a great boxing contestamplifiers. cameras, and movie opei/ntors—while overhead fifty-two gilt chandeliers added a redundant radiance to the arc-lights’ cruel dazzle. , The State Prosecutor, Kraylento, attired in a shooting jacket and putties, as if prepared for a day’s sport, gulped sandwiches in the wings of the stage before hastening to a seat at a red-covered table Near him were many officials, who had hunted down the counter-revolutionaries, taking a bus-man’s holiday, while highly-placed O.G.P.U. functionaries ran their practised eye ‘over the accused. Fifteen thousand ticket-holders rose to their feet as four Judges entered. Each prisoner roS9 .and bowed, as his name was called. The Court passed from tense attention to something approaching apathy as, hour after hour, Krayletiko’s assistant drolled out the interminable Indictment of-the Prosecutor dealing with -the sabotage war-plot, of which indictment half a million conies have tfean distributed in pamphlet form. Many members of the Diplomatic Corps occupied a special box, being undeterred by a current cartoon showing the whole front row of the prisoners’ dock as reserved for M. Poincare -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:—“We shall throttle the counterrevolutionary snake!”

Ramzin declared it was imposdhU (to defend himself. His- guilt was too manifest, but ho hoped his full, frank testimony would help the Soviet to protect itself against its enemies. He described an alleged promise bv French agents to bring about intervention in Russia in 1928. His oganisation received funds from French sources. He declared Mr A. A. Simon. connected with the firm of Vickers had been used to deliver messages relating to the conspiracy.

A CONFESSION

(Received this dav at 9.46 a.m.)

MOSCOW. Nov. 26

Dramatically winding up a seven hours confession from the dock, Professor Ramzin admitted that he had realised too late, his activities were distinctly anti-Soviet and would, ii successful, have irretrievably injured the Fatherland.

Ramzin referred to a mysterious Colonel Laurence, presumably of Arabian fame as a go between, establishing British agents in Moscow. It was agreed that intervention must not he later than 1931, otherwise the Soviet would be impregnably entrenched.

There was a sensation when Ramzin declared he was so convinced of French participation under M. Poincaire’s direction, that he gave a French agent, in Moscow, a secret report of the Soviet’s aviation organisation.

Larichev followed with a similar confession in great detail. The case was adjourned. One hundred thousand workers are demonstrating against the accused tonight under military guidance.

TROTSKY WORKING

FOR FOURTH INTERNATIONAL

(Received this dav at 11.30 a.m.) LONDON, Nov. 2.

The “Daily Express” Paris correspondent states that the lourth International to be beaded by TYotskj, for the purpose of [securing the downfall of iStalin and completely transform the present policy of tlie Third International, was 'Constituted at a secret meeting attended by • revolutionaries. representative of more than jthirtv different countries. Since bis expulsion from Russia, Trotsky Ims been working with all his tremendous revolutionary energy to build up a [world force under his leadership.