The Great Terror

Although the defendants mostly confessed in general terms, only Primakov, who had been in prison for almost a year, admitted everything, and said that he had personally told the investigation of the names of more than seventy conspirators. Uborevich denied the charges, upon which the court had an hour’s break and then went on to the other accused. The rest admitted that they (and Gamarnik) had had conversations about replacing Voroshilov, though denying that these had any criminal intent. Putna admitted that he had had personal relations with I. I. Smirnov, and Feldman that he had had them with Pyatakov; but they seem to have denied that these connections were criminal.¹¹³

They were also charged with various military errors. Budenny, from the bench, attacked them for overemphasizing the role of the tanks at the expense of the cavalry.¹¹⁴

As to complicity with the Nazis, the court relied on the fact that several of the officers had had connections with Germany: Kork had been Military Attaché in Berlin; Yakir had lectured at the German General Staff Academy; and Tukhachevsky had negotiated on the Soviet assistance in rearming Germany—but, as he said, this was before Hitler’s coming to power.¹¹⁵

Yakir confessed in a general sense, but when asked to confirm certain points said he could not add to his written evidence. Harangued by Ulrikh to the effect that the German officer attached to him on his last visit to Berlin had recruited him for Hitler, Yakir denied direct implication in espionage. Tukhachevsky denied connections with Polish espionage agencies, and more generally said merely that perhaps some contacts “might be considered espionage.” Kork remained silent when the espionage charge was put to him. Uborevich said that he had not committed espionage.¹¹⁶

Another Soviet report says: “The court-martial was held behind closed doors…. Some witnesses’ statements, which coincide, say that Tukhachevsky, speaking to one of the accused, who was talking about his connections with Trotsky, said, ‘Have you been dreaming about all this?’”¹¹⁷

As usual, promises had been made to the accused that confession in court would save their lives.¹¹⁸

All were condemned to death.

The military “judges” clearly had no real say, and it is plausible that (as one account, based on a conversation with the Assistant Head of the NKVD Foreign Department, has it) their signatures were attached to the verdict after the executions at a conference with Yezhov.¹¹⁹ In any case, Stalin asked Yezhov how the members of the court had conducted themselves. Yezhov replied that apart from Ulrikh, only Budenny had cooperated enthusiastically, with the others almost silent. This angered Stalin.¹²⁰

Rumors of the manner of the generals’ end were many and various: it is reported that they were shot, not in the cellars, but in the courtyard of the NKVD building at 11 Dzerzhinsky Street, during the daytime, with NKVD trucks being revved up to cover the sound of the shots.

Khrushchev tells us that “when Yakir was shot he exclaimed: ‘Long live the Party, long live Stalin!’ … When Stalin was told how Yakir had behaved before his death, he cursed Yakir.”¹²¹

Khrushchev reports this “long live Stalin!” as if it were a simple case of political devotion. But the generals were not really naive enough to believe that Stalin had no responsibility for their fate. Yakir was an old Communist, perfectly able to carry out political activity at the moment of death. And the program of support for Stalin, combined with condemnation of the NKVD, was already in existence. It was the line on which the maximum support for a program opposed to the Purge could be mobilized. It seems plausible to think that Yalcir may have been trying, in fact, to establish an anti-Yezhov “platform.”

But, at least equally compelling, we know he had thought of his family, and it was clearly not in their interests for him to utter words of defiance or abuse. He had made a last appeal for them. Two days before he was shot, he sent Voroshilov this letter:

To K. Ye. Voroshilov. I ask you, in memory of my many years of honest service in the Red Army in the past, to give instructions that my family, helpless and quite innocent, shall be looked after and given assistance. I have addressed the same plea to N. I. Yezhov.

Yakir, 9 June 1937.

On his copy, Voroshilov minuted, “In general I doubt the honesty of a dishonest person. K. Voroshilov. 10 June 1937.”¹²²

Yakir’s attempt to save his family was unsuccessful. His wife, his “close companion for twenty years,” was at once exiled to Astrakhan with her son Peter, and their passports were confiscated. In the Volga town, they met the families of Tukhachevsky, Uborevich, Gamarnik, and others. The boy’s grandfather had hidden the paper containing the charge against Yakir from the mother, and she only saw it when Uborevich’s wife showed it to her.