The leaders of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were convinced that the preparations for bringing Radek to court could not be delayed any longer. They forced another defendant, Grigory Sokolnikov, the former ambassador to the UK, to come forward and “probate” Radek. Sokolnikov succumbed early because he had a young wife and a twenty-three-year-old son left by his ex-wife, and he was responsible for their fate. He agreed to see Radek. The conversation took place in the presence of the interrogator and was later transcribed in the form of a confrontation between the two defendants. But the transcript says nothing about the real content of the conversation, the interrogator simply wrote that Sokolnikov answered his questions, confessed everything, and identified Radek as an accomplice.
Regardless of what they talked about, Sokolnikov’s attitude did play a decisive role in Radek’s subsequent surrender. As early as Lenin’s time, Sokolnikov became a member of the Party Central Committee. As a politician, he was known for his seriousness and steadiness, and he never made rash decisions in the critical moments of the revolution and in the civil war. So, when the weak and frivolous Radek was tormented and exhausted, Sokolnikov, who was steady and daring, became an easy example for Radek to follow.
Of course, Radek was no slouch, and his consent to appear in court required that he meet some of his demands, which could not be worse than those offered and met by Sokolnikov. He learned from Sokolnikov that the latter had sought an interview with Stalin and had received Stalin’s personal promise. Radek also made the same demand for the preservation of his life, but it was not enough that the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs agreed to it, but Stalin’s personal promise was required, and only after this demand was met did he agree to sign the “confession” and to appear in court.
But Stalin did not want to see Radek. Obviously, this would have been an extremely embarrassing scene, and Stalin would have been embarrassed, even if he was not ashamed, although he was rarely embarrassed. The “investigation” of Radek’s case had dragged on for more than two months, but he insisted on seeing his “master”. Finally, Yerev told Radek that if he thought it was necessary, he should first write a letter to Stalin and indicate in it which crimes he intended to confess. Radek did so, but somehow Yerev beat him back. He had to write it again, and this time under Yerev’s personal “guidance”. I still can’t figure out why the “authorities” attached such importance to this letter.
After a few more days, Stalin finally came to the NKVD building and had a long talk with Radek, accompanied by Yerev. As soon as the conversation was over, Radek was taken directly into Kedrov’s office, where he was greeted by a prepared transcript of the interrogation. Radek carefully read the confession prepared for him, then suddenly picked up a pen and scribbled on it, ignoring Kedrov’s interference. Later, apparently annoyed by this revision, he exclaimed: “These games are not acceptable, bring me paper, I’ll write it myself!”
So Radek himself put pen to paper, asked his own questions, answered them himself, and soon produced a transcript of the interrogation, and then tossed the pages with a flourish. The interrogators were overjoyed when they took a look at it. Even the head of the Interior Ministry did not make any changes to Radek’s “work” later.
A few days later, Radek, using his own creativity, wrote a supplement saying that while carrying out Trotsky’s instructions, he had also confirmed to a German diplomat at a banquet that the anti-Soviet underground “alliance” had indeed authorized Trotsky to negotiate with the German government and was indeed planning to cede to Germany the territory Trotsky had promised.
The so-called “anti-Soviet conspiracy” was already drawn up before Radek opened his mouth, and now he added to it, causing the confessions made by the main defendants to be almost completely rewritten. Since then, Radek has become Yerev’s personal advisor, specializing in refining the myth of the so-called anti-Soviet conspiracy. Indeed, as a result of his efforts, the myth sounded more dramatic and was worded more perfectly.
In order to please Stalin, Radek also invented a detail and offered it to Stalin as a supplement to Sokolnikov’s confession. According to this fabrication, a certain Japanese diplomat had been on an official visit to Sokolnikov. He asked the then Deputy People’s Commissar of the Foreign Ministry whether Trotsky’s proposal to Germany was reliable, and Sokolnikov confirmed to The Japanese diplomat that Trotsky had indeed been given the authority to conduct such negotiations. Stalin was very satisfied with this lie of Radek, and Sokolnikov had to put his name on it.
But Radek’s greatest contribution to the interrogation was also in assisting the interrogators to convince Nikolai Murailov. The latter had been a personal friend of Trotsky and a famous general in the civil war. Under Radek’s compulsion, he, too, had to make a false confession to falsely accuse Trotsky.
Qualitatively, Radek could never be a real conspirator, but he was best suited to play a conspirator in Stalin’s court. In order to play this role well, he really took a wide range of information and acquired an extremely rich material. As a gifted demagogue, he had always believed that truth and lies were indispensable means to an end. He used to play the illusion of a master magician, cleverly making white look black or black look white. Now, after he had promised Stalin to lie in court, ostensibly “for the good of the party” but essentially to save his own head, he was determined to perform his “duty” with the vigor of a good athlete. It was typical of him to be in the limelight on all occasions, and now he wanted to be in the limelight in court. Even playing the role of a pathetic defendant, an accused murderer and spy, was seen as a chance to make a name for himself, a chance to compete mentally with other defendants and even with the Attorney General.
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