Moscow Trials

The Moscow Trials were a series of trials of political opponents of Joseph Stalin during the Great Purge. They are widely considered to have been show trials in which the verdicts were predetermined. The defendants were accused of conspiring with the western powers to assassinate Stalin and other Soviet leaders, dismember the Soviet Union and restore capitalism, according to Article 58 (RSFSR Penal Code).

Rehabilitation

While Khrushchev's Secret Speech denounced Stalin's personality cult and purges as early as in 1956, rehabilitation of Old Bolsheviks proceeded at a slow pace.

Related Topics:
Secret Speech - Personality cult - 1956 - Old Bolsheviks

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Nikolai Bukharin and 19 other co-defendants were officially completely rehabilitated in February 1988. In May 1988, rehabilitation of Zinoviev, Kamenev, Radek, and co-defendants was announced.

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In January 1989, the official newspaper Pravda reported that 25,000 persons had been posthumously rehabilitated. The same year Khrushchev's secret speech was finally published in full (although it was reported to public already in 1956).

Related Topics:
1989 - Pravda

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