The Great Terror

Zinoviev was now called on for his evidence-in-chief. He appeared cowed. The formerly eloquent orator was hardly able to speak. He looked puffy and gray, and gasped asthmatically. His confession was complete, involving him not only in the Zinovievite terrorist groups, but also with M. Lurye, allegedly sent by Trotsky. He invoked Tomsky’s name unambiguously, and also named Smilga, the veteran member of Lenin’s Central Committee who had led the Baltic Fleet in the seizure of power. He asserted that he was in constant communication with Smirnov,¹²⁵ adding:

… In this situation I had meetings with Smirnov who has accused me here of frequently telling untruths. Yes, I often told untruths. I started doing that from the moment I began fighting the Bolshevik Party. In so far as Smirnov took the road of fighting the Party, he too is telling untruths. But it seems, the difference between him and myself is that I have decided firmly and irrevocably to tell at this last moment the truth, whereas he, it seems, has adopted a different decision.’¹²⁶

Next came—as witness only—Smirnov’s former wife, Safonova. She said that Smirnov had transmitted Trotsky’s instructions on terrorism and strongly supported them. Smirnov firmly denied both assertions, but others of the accused backed her up. Vyshinsky then questioned Smimov:

Vyshinsky:

What were your relations with Safonova?

Smirnov:

Good.

Vyshinsky:

And more?

Smirnov:

We were intimately related.

Vyshinsky:

You were husband and wife?

Smirnov:

Yes.

Vyshinsky:

No personal grudges between you?

Smirnov:

No.

¹²⁷

At the afternoon session, Smirnov

was the first to be questioned. He continued with his partial confession. He had passed on Trotsky’s and Sedov’s ideas about terrorism; but he had not shared them, and he had done nothing else:

I admit that I belonged to the underground Trotskyite organization, joined the bloc, joined the centre of this bloc, met Sedov in Berlin in 1931, listened to his opinion on terrorism and passed this opinion on to Moscow. I admit that I received Trotsky’s instructions on terrorism from Gaven and, although not in agreement with them, I communicated them to the Zinovievites through Ter-Vaganyan.¹²⁸

Vyshinsky:

(ironically) When did you leave the Centre?

Smirnov:

I did not intend to resign; there was nothing to resign from.

Vyshinsky:

Did the Centre exist?

Smirnov:

What sort of Centre …?

Vyshinsky:

Mrachkovsky, did the Centre exist?

Mrachkovsky:

Yes.

Vyshinsky:

Zinoviev, did the Centre exist?

Zinoviev:

Yes.

Vyshinsky:

Evdokimov, did the Centre exist?

Evdokimov:

Yes.

Vyshinsky:

Bakayev, did the Centre exist?

Bakayev:

Yes.

Vyshinsky:

How, then, Smirnov, can you take the liberty to maintain that no centre existed?

¹²⁹

Smirnov again said that no meetings of such a Center had taken place, and again three of the other members of it were made to bear him down. After the evidence of the others that it was he who had been head of the Trotskyite side of the conspiracy, he turned to them sardonically and said, “You want a leader? Well, take me!”¹³⁰

Even Vyshinsky commented that this was said “in rather a jocular way.”¹³¹ Smirnov’s partial confession was a rather difficult position to maintain, but on the whole he succeeded in confusing the issue. When the contradictions in his stance became awkward, he simply did not answer the questions.