Chapter VIII Duties of a Party Member
In mid-May 1936 an important meeting was held in the Kremlin. The participants were Stalin, Yerov, Yakoda and their assistants Agranov, Molchanov and Mironov. Only one question was discussed: how to fabricate a charge against Trotsky. Molchanov knew that Stalin attached great importance to all Trotsky material, so he had prepared a map that showed directly when and through whom Trotsky had joined the “terror plot.” The map was a web of colorful lines showing Trotsky’s connections to conspiracy leaders in the Soviet Union, as well as the veteran party members who had been required to make false accusations against Togotsky. Which ones haven’t been spoken yet. The picture looks convincing. It ties Trotsky firmly to the head of the conspiracy in the Soviet Union.
After listening to the interrogators, Stalin called their attention to the fact that there was still one defendant who could confess to having been sent by Trotsky to commit terrorist acts in the Soviet Union. Molchanov told Stalin that Oliberge had signed the confession. But Stalin (who did have reason to pride himself on his impressive memory) countered that Oliberge had received his assignment not from Trotsky himself, but from his son, Shetov. At this point, Argoda indicated that it would not be at all difficult to rewrite Oliberge’s confession. Let Him confess, he said, that before leaving for the Soviet Union he had met With Trotsky and personally received orders from him about terrorist activities. Stalin was not satisfied with Yakoda’s proposal. He said that rewriting O ‘Leberge’s confession would “not solve the problem” and that it would be better to add two or three more men as reliable as O ‘Leberge. These people should prove that they were sent to the Soviet Union by Trotsky. And Trotsky himself directed them to commit terrorist acts.
To ingratiate himself with Stalin, Molchanov claimed that he had two secret agents far more capable than Oliberge and capable of playing the role perfectly in court, but they were not ordinary agents. It was an underground representative of the secret political bureau that had been installed in the German Communist Party. What they are doing now is gathering information on the central organs of the Comintern; They are Fritz Davi and Bermann – Jurin. Molchanov regarded the two men as loyal and disciplined party members and suggested that they be added to the list of defendants. Stalin agreed.
But Argoda was very unhappy with Molchanov’s proposal. How could Molchanov have dared to speak the names of Fritz Davide and Bermann – Jurin without his permission? Moreover, Molchanov’s suggestion was unwise, for these two men had been sent to the Comintern by the Ministry of the Interior, and had done an excellent job as spies. Because of them, Argoda was able to keep track of everything that was going on in the Comintern. With the help of both men, It was possible for Yakoda to constantly alert Stalin to the dangerous factions of the foreign Communist Party and the bad intentions of the foreign representatives of the Communist International, and to show Stalin and the Politburo that his interior ministry was a good intelligence agent. Moreover, there was no immediate possibility of finding a replacement for Fritz Davide and Bermann – Jurin. The two men knew the ins and outs of the Comintern, and they had many friends among the foreign Communist leadership. In addition, they have a wealth of secret work experience.
There is another downside to having Fritz Davide and Bermann jurin the future trials. They were serious men, not of the sort to be pushed about, who could hardly be called to the theatre of a trial, and, moreover, to play the part of the accused! Both were members of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and although working informally for the “agency”, they had traditionally been seen as highly responsible interior ministry staff. Molchanov’s sacrifice of both of them was a violation of basic comradely morality: it was the first time an interior ministry official had asked a colleague to play the role of a defendant in a criminal case.
However, Argoda’s dissatisfaction is purely Platonic and does nothing to reverse the course of events. Molchanov’s proposal was well received by Stalin, so it could not be undone. Less than a month later, Fritz Davide and Bermann – Jurin were arrested. It was announced to them that the Central Committee trusted them enough to choose them as false defendants to show the party’s will in the upcoming trial. They had no choice but to accept with enthusiasm the responsibilities of the Party and the Ministry of the Interior. I don’t know if the enthusiasm is genuine. But you can’t do it without showing enthusiasm.
At the direction of their superior, Molchanov, the two men made the following confession: at the end of November 1932, they visited Trotsky in Copenhagen respectively, and received from him an assignment to carry out terrorist activities in the Soviet Union against Stalin.
At the trial, Fritz Davide and Bermann jurin went to great lengths to assist the prosecutor in finishing the well-rehearsed drama. However, the fact that they had been brought to court as false defendants did not prevent the court from imposing death sentences on them, nor did it prevent the “authorities” from firing them along with other real defendants.
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