Those who were sent into the hall to act as listeners were archivists, secretaries, typists, translators, etc. of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. They were given passes that were only valid for half a day, that is, the “audience” was a half-day batch of people. These people knew their seat numbers in advance and had to wear civilian clothes when they went to the audience, and only the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs could appear in the hall in uniform.
In the past, members of the Central Committee or government officials who wished to attend congresses, military parades, or other events could obtain passes from the Ministry of the Interior, but this time, although many of them called the Ministry of the Interior to request passes to attend the trial, they were refused for the simple reason that seats in the hall were limited and all passes had been distributed.
Although the defendants promised to fulfill their “obligations”, Stalin was still worried that some old Bolshevik would suddenly retract his confession in court and reveal the whole truth. Therefore, Stalin did not allow conscientious Communists to attend the court. He thought that typists, translators, and other employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were the most suitable candidates for the audience, because these people not only did not care about politics, but also had learned to keep their mouths shut after years of “institutional” work.
None of the defendant’s friends or relatives were allowed to appear in court. Stalin did not have the warmth of a bourgeois court, and in his eyes the friends and relatives of the accused were only hostages.
Fearing that the defendants would suddenly rise up and expose the farce of the trial, the trial organizers, in addition to strictly selecting the audience, devised some remedial measures so that if anyone was found to be “rebellious,” they would immediately gag that person.
In all corners of the trial hall, there were specially trained internal affairs staff. As soon as the danger signs appeared, they would jump up and shout at the signal from the prosecutor to silence the defendant. The presiding judge, in turn, would use this mood of the “public” as an excuse to interrupt the trial in order to “restore order and quiet in the courtroom. Needless to say, when the trial resumed, the “rebels” would no longer be present in the hall.
The last procedure that signaled the end of the pre-trial was a “pep talk” conducted by Yagoda and Yezhov. The talk was given to the main defendants: Zinoviev, Kamenev, Yevdokimov, Bakayev, Murachkovsky, and Par Vaganian. In the name of Stalin, Yerev reassured them that if they fulfilled their “obligations” in court, all the conditions promised to them would be fulfilled in full. At the same time, he reminded his “talking partners” not to propagate their political ideas in court, not even by implication. Yerev concluded by warning that the Politburo considered all the defendants to be a whole united by common responsibility, and that no matter who they were, if one of them dared to “renege”, all of them would be held responsible for premeditated denial of guilt and disobedience to the law.
On August 19, 1936, the first public trial in Moscow began, presided over by Vassily Mallikh, a former member of the Cheka counterintelligence service, with the judges and clerks sitting at the end of the hall, facing the audience. Lawyers were absent: the “world’s most democratic” Stalinist regime did not dare to include representatives of the people in the trial.
To the right of the audience, on the wall, sat the defendants. They were divided into four rows, sitting on chairs, in front of a low wooden fence. Three soldiers of the NKVD, armed with bayonet guns, were guarding one side. Opposite the defendants, behind a small table on the left wall, was the state prosecutor Vyshinsky. Behind the defendant, in the farthest corner of the hall, could be seen a side door. On one side of the door was a narrow corridor with several huts, in one of which a small dining table was set up with delicious cold dishes and refreshing drinks. This is Yagoda’s “studio”. He and a few assistants sat behind the table. Through specially placed speakers, he listens to the defendants’ confessions in the courtroom. Several other cabins are reserved for the defendants and the guards. It is here that the public prosecutor is supposed to meet the defendants during the morning and afternoon recesses to give them additional instructions. To reiterate the rules of procedure, this is also the place where the defendants take breaks and eat.
Compared to the pretrial, the defendants looked more or less refreshed. In the last two weeks, they had been sleeping better and had gained a little weight. But the muddy faces and blue circles under their eyes were still a clear indication of what they had been through.
However, this was not the case for every defendant. In the dock, there were a few who looked particularly eye-catching: red-faced and casual in demeanor. Compared with them, the other defendants were either listless, depressed, or at the other extreme: arrogant, reckless, like a psychopath. Therefore, experienced people can tell at a glance who is the real defendant and who is the spy impersonating the defendant.
Among the impostor defendants, Ilonk Reinhold is the most eye-catching, a healthy complexion, well-maintained fat face, a fine quality, Bijou shiny suit. Make him look like an actor, and a star actor. He sat on the edge of the second row, next to the fence, the posture, the expression, as if a passenger who happened to squeeze onto the bus. He stared intently at the prosecutor, as if at the slightest hint, he would pop up to assist. Not far from him sat Valentin Oliberg, a spy of the NKVD. He did not expect to be sitting next to Zinoviev and Kamenev, so he did not look so proud. From time to time, he glanced at the two “big shots” with a mixture of fear and awe. The two “defendants”, Fritz Davide and Berman Yurin, who had been sent by the Ministry of Internal Affairs to serve as secret representatives of the German Communist Party, were always looking at their notebooks, apparently ready to rise when called by the prosecutor to fulfill their “party duty.” Of the five impostor defendants, only Pickerer alone looked dejected and worried.
Zinoviev appeared the most frail and exhausted. His face was pale and puffy, and two swollen, blistering, heavy masses of flesh hung under his eyes in a sickly manner. He was suffering from asthma, and from time to time opened his mouth wide to swallow air. On his first day in court, he hurriedly undid his shirt and removed his tie as soon as he took his seat. He continued to wear the same clothes throughout the subsequent trial. The first day of the trial, he hurriedly undressed and removed his tie as soon as he was seated. Really, not a single one, because most of these people he knew. And Kamenev was probably even more astonished by this. Having been the chairman of the Moscow City Soviet for many years, he knew almost all the famous people in Moscow. No doubt both of them understood the composition of the audience and must have realized that they were not so much being committed to court as being escorted from one part of the NKVD to another. In this hall, it was impossible for any protest to get out, much less to the outside world.
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