“Zinoviev and Kamenev exchanged meaningful glances with each other,” Mironov continued. “Then Kamenev stood up and declared in both their names that if all the old Bolsheviks were not shot, their relatives not persecuted, and that in the future they would not be sentenced to death for the fact that these people had joined the opposition, then both of them would appear in court.”
“That is self-evident.” Stalin replied.
The physical persecution to which Zinoviev and Kamenev had been subjected ended. They were soon transferred to spacious and cool cells. They were showered, given a set of clean clothes, and allowed to read (but not to see the newspaper). The doctor, who had been sent especially for Zinoviev, began to treat him seriously. Yagoda ordered to give them both a nutritious diet. In short, every effort was made not to make them look sickly in court. The prison guards were also instructed to be polite and attentive to them both. The dreadful cell seemed to have been turned into a sanatorium for Zinoviev and Kamenev at once.
Since their visit to the Kremlin, Yerev began to ask them to draw up several secret orders for their followers by hand and to fill in the dates backwards, because the Prosecutor General needed physical evidence of the existence of the conspiracy at the opening of the trial. But Zinoviev and Kamenev adamantly refused to provide these false testimonies, which were so desperately needed for Stalin and the forgery experts under his command. They declared. They confined themselves to fulfilling the obligations they had undertaken in the Kremlin.
In fact, not only the defendants, but also Yagoda and his assistants, felt much relieved after hearing the words spoken by Stalin. They understood from those words that no old Bolshevik would ever be shot. When preparations for the trial began, the heads of the NKVD did not think that Stalin would physically eliminate Lenin’s close comrades. It was thought that his only aim was to crush them politically and force them to testify falsely against Trotsky. However, as the interrogation developed, suspicions about Stalin’s true intentions emerged and became increasingly frightening.
When the leaders of the NKVD saw the anger that Stalin showed when he was briefed about the refusal of certain old party members to surrender, and the bitter hatred that he vented when he talked about Zinoviev, Kamenev and Smirnov, they naturally came to the conclusion that Stalin had secretly decided to destroy Lenin’s old guard physically and completely. Although the heads of the NKVD had long since given their fate to Stalin, tied to his policy, the names of Zinoviev, Kamenev, Smirnov and especially Trotsky still held magic for them. It was one thing to threaten the old Bolsheviks with the death penalty on Stalin’s orders, for they knew that it would be a mere threat and would not be honored; but it was quite another thing altogether to fear that Stalin, driven by an uncontrollable desire for revenge, would actually kill the original leaders of the party.
Now, at last, this fear disappeared, for Stalin himself had promised the lie that their lives would be saved.
Chapter 10: I don’t want to be a member of the Party anymore
We have already met a variety of interrogators under Stalin’s command: the tyrannical Chertok, the unprincipled Molchanov and Slutsky, and Mironov and Berman, who endured inner pain, suppressed the cry of conscience for the sake of the so-called party interests, and carried out Stalin’s evil orders against their will.
The interrogators of the Ministry of Internal Affairs had a lot of power over the prisoners. But when it came to the General Secretary’s questioning, their power was greatly diminished, and they did not even have the right to express doubts about the charges against the person on trial.
Some of the investigators, even though they sympathized with Lenin’s close comrades, could not give any help. Everything related to the forthcoming trial was decided behind the back of the investigating authorities, and it was only afterwards that the person on trial was asked to make a “confession” and to testify to what they had already decided.
The victims of the forthcoming trial were chosen by Stalin. The charges against the victims were thought out by him in advance; he dictated the conditions to be forced on the interrogated; and finally, even the verdict of the court was decided by him.
The relationship established between Deputy Director of the Foreign Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Berman and the defendant Par I Vaganian can serve as a stark example of the interrogator’s real sympathy for the person on trial.
Tir I. Vaganian is an old friend of mine. I met him as early as the spring of 1917 at the Moscow cadet school. It was only after the February Revolution that people like us, who had no right to be officers under the Tsarist system, entered this school. Parvaganian, who had been a Bolshevik for many years at that time, often propagated communist ideas among the cadets. However, his main work was to go to the Moscow factories and to the soldiers of the Moscow garrison to propagate. He intended to gradually select some soldiers in the garrison to form combat groups and prepare them for the future uprising. Parvaganian was not a great orator. But his strong belief in the victory of the party and his enthusiasm for the cause overwhelmed the audience of workers and soldiers. There were few people who were not infected by his personal appeal. His dark, handsome face was full of friendliness and sincerity, and his pleasant, low voice sounded confident. It came from the heart.
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