Chernov confessed in court that he and his cohorts had “deliberately planned sowing areas haphazardly, tried to reduce the amount of arable land in the country, fomented discontent among farmers …… destroyed tractors and combines, and allowed disease-causing bacilli to contaminate large grain depots and granaries ……”
Sharonovich also confessed, in the same vein, that in 1936 he and his cohorts “deliberately caused a widespread Epidemic of anaemia, which resulted in the death of 30,000 horses”.
In other areas, such as heavy industry, light industry, internal and external trade, and state finances, the defendants were also subjected to numerous sabotage activities that did not actually exist. In short, the outcome of the trial would show that all the achievements of the industrialization of the country were due to Stalin’s wise leadership, while all the mistakes and disorders were blamed on the rampant sabotage of the opposition; that Stalin was wholeheartedly working for the welfare of the people, while his enemies were deliberately creating obstacles and disorders, with the aim, of course, of inciting discontent against Stalin, and that in order to achieve this criminal aim The opposition saboteurs even went so far as to blow up the mines, killing a large number of miners …… The defendants also agreed with the Prosecutor General’s accusation that the former opposition leaders had always believed that “the dead could cause discontent, and the more the better”.
The alleged crime of sabotage of railroad traffic by members of the opposition was even more “exciting” when the defendants were presented in court. In fact, not only in poor and backward countries, but also in countries with highly developed economies, where the technology and equipment of railroad traffic is quite well developed, traffic tragedies occur from Time to time, and often cause a lot of deaths and injuries. In the Soviet Union, the railroads were mostly built in the Tsarist era, with extremely old equipment, but had to be overloaded. As a result, traffic jams were commonplace, and train overturns were commonplace, becoming a social disaster. In the past, after each accident, the Ministry of Internal Affairs conducted an investigation, uncovering and shooting many real criminals and people who had nothing to do with it. Now Stalin ordered the Ministry of Internal Affairs to go through the cupboards and find the materials of those past traffic accidents and select the most serious and horrible ones to be thrown out at the first Moscow trial as a result of sabotage by members of the opposition.
However, the person who stood up and confessed to the state about the crimes of creating traffic tragedies was not the real criminal who created these terrible events, but the old Bolshevik Dzerensky. With the implication and encouragement of the prosecutor Vyshinsky through questions, Dzerensky also confessed to the court how he, together with his accomplices, had sabotaged Soviet commerce and destroyed Food and supplies necessary for the Life of the people. Stalin realized that the people had been complaining about the chronic starvation, so he decided to make a fuss about the crucial issue of the chronic lack of necessities and to put the responsibility for it on the opposition.
Dzerensky confessed in court that during his term as the head of the Central Federation of Soviet Consumer Cooperatives he repeatedly caused trouble and interrupted the supply of goods to the population. As a result of his sabotage, sugar, salt and tobacco, which the people desperately needed, could hardly be seen on the counters of the country’s consumer cooperatives. In addition, he said he had introduced an unequal system of distribution of goods in the commercial system, which resulted in some stores running out of even the minimum necessities, while other stores had piles of goods that had become moldy and rotten. Finally, he repeated the old tune that all this was done to incite the people to resentment against Stalin.
But Vyshinsky was not satisfied with these lies; he knew that Stalin wanted to hear even more sensational revelations.
“What evil has your sabotage caused to the cooking oil supply?” Vyshinsky pursued with the impudence characteristic of professional blackmailers.
The generation of children born in 1927 hardly knew what butter tasted like. From 1928 to 1935, ordinary people in the Soviet Union saw butter only in stores reserved for foreign guests, where only Gold or foreign currency was used.
In 1935, when the six-year-long ticket system was finally abolished, butter finally appeared on store counters, but at prices that were far beyond the reach of the common man.
Therefore, Wisinski is now going to ask Dzerenski to admit that it is no one else but the leaders of the opposition who should be responsible for the absence of butter on the tables of the common people.
“I want to know about the availability of butter!” Vyshinsky said impassionedly. “You just said something about the availability of salt and sugar, admitting that you engaged in sabotage that caused shortages of these foodstuffs in stores. What about butter?”
“We do not sell butter to the countryside,” replied Terensky.
“I did not ask what you sell,” interrupted Vyshinsky brusquely. “I know that you sell, first of all, the fatherland …… Tell me, what do you know about the sale of butter?”
Apparently, Vyshinsky did not air with the defendants on this issue in advance, so Terensky could not figure out how the prosecutor needed him to answer, so he had to repeat again.
“I have already told you that consumer cooperatives do not sell butter to the countryside ……”
“I’m not asking what you have sold,” Wisinski interrupted again. “You are not a businessman, but a member of a conspiracy! I ask again, what do you know about butter?”
“Nothing,” said Terensky, still not understanding the Prosecutor General’s intentions.
At this point, the presiding judge, Ulrich, intervened, asking Terensky to answer the substantive questions and not to contradict the prosecutor again. Thereafter, Dzerensky did not contradict the prosecutor again, but admitted, in a disciplined manner, that the responsibility for the shortage of butter should also be borne by the opposition leader, and even nodded his head in the affirmative when Wisinski asked him whether the conspirators had thrown nails or glass crumbs into the butter.
“Do you dare to take responsibility for all the crimes committed by your group?” Wisinski asked.
“I dare. I dare to take responsibility for the entire crime.”
“Do you also dare to take responsibility for deliberately throwing nails and glass crumbs into the butter in order to cut the throats and intestines of our people?” Vyshinsky emphasized again.
“Dare to be responsible,” answered Terensky obediently.
A whole host of such myths had to be invented in order for Vyshinsky to adequately prove in his prosecution speech a point concocted by Stalin.
“Such a situation of food shortage as once existed does not and cannot occur in our country, which is rich in goods. Now it is clear why a certain region of our country is malfunctioning in terms of supplies, why our vast country is suddenly short of food. The culprits responsible for all this turned out to be these traitors!”
The accused who acted as scapegoats were sentenced to death. But the standard of living of the working people of the Soviet Union did not improve as a result, but declined.
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