The Great Terror

Zinoviev made a satisfactory definition of the whole inadmissibility of opposition to Stalin: “My defective Bolshevism became transformed into anti-Bolshevism, and through Trotskyism I arrived at Fascism. Trotskyism is a variety of Fascism, and Zinovievism is a variety of Trotskyism….”¹⁵⁴ But he ended that worse than any punishment was the idea that “my name will be associated with the names of those who stood beside me. On my right hand Olberg, on my left-Nathan Lurye….”¹⁵⁵ And this remark is, in an important sense, incompatible with the idea of the trial: for on the face of the evidence, how was Zinoviev better than the two he named?

Smirnov again denied any direct implication in any terrorist activity. However, he denounced Trotsky, though in comparatively mild terms, as an enemy “on the other side of the barricade.”

When Fritz David had finished, the court withdrew to consider the verdict. Yagoda had it ready for them in the Council Chamber. But a decent interval was allowed to pass, and at 2:30 the following morning the court reassembled and found all concerned guilty on all counts. They were all sentenced to death.

As Ulrikh finished reading the verdict, one of the Luryes shrieked hysterically, “Long live the cause of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin!” Then the prisoners were taken out, to the police wagons that were to return them to the Lubyanka.

TO THE EXECUTION CELLARS

As soon as the trial was over, the defect in the bargain Zinoviev and Kamenev had struck with Stalin became apparent. Having carried out their side of it, they no longer possessed any sanction to make him do the same with his.

Under the new law, seventy-two hours’ grace was allowed for the accused to put in their petitions for pardon. Some of these may have been put in and rejected, though Smirnov, at least, seems not to have made an appeal. In any case, the announcement of their execution was made only twenty-four hours after the verdict.

Various accounts of the actual execution have filtered out. They are of course based on unconfirmable NKVD reports.

Zinoviev was unwell and feverish. He was told he was to be transferred to another cell. But when he saw the guards, he at once understood. All accounts agree that he collapsed, yelling in a high-pitched voice a desperate appeal to Stalin to keep his word. He gave the impression of hysteria, but this is probably not fair, as his voice was always very piercing when he was excited, and he was perhaps trying to make a last speech. He was, in addition, still suffering from heart and liver trouble, so that some sort of collapse is understandable. It is said that the NKVD lieutenant in charge, fearing the effect of this scene if prolonged along the corridor and down into the cellar, hustled him into a nearby cell and shot him there and then, later receiving an award for his presence of mind.¹⁵⁶

When Kamenev was called from his cell to execution, he made no complaint and appeared stunned. He was not killed by the first shot, and the NKVD lieutenant in charge became hysterical and kicked the executioner with a cry of “finish him off.” Smirnov was calm and courageous. He is reported as saying, “We deserve this for our unworthy attitude at the trial.”¹⁵⁷

Recent Soviet publications tell us of the fate of some others incriminated in the trial. Gaven, the main link to Trotsky, apparently gave evidence against Smirnov,¹⁵⁸ and so may be presumed to have confessed. His nonappearance at the trial may have been due to illness. He was carried out to be shot on a stretcher on 4 October.¹⁵⁹ The leading Zinovievite, G. F. Fedorov, brought from the Chelyabinsk isolator on 4 September, was shot on 5 October, the day after Gaven. And this may indicate a broader secret trial—though others implicated survived a little longer.¹⁶⁰