Krylenko was appointed State Prosecutor in 1928 , and acted as prosecutor in the first three show trials staged after Joseph Stalin had taken control of the communist party. At the Shakhty Trial, in 1928, Krylenko called for death sentences for all 52 defendants. He was also the prosecutor at the Industrial Party Trial in 1930, and the Menshevik Trial in 1931, at which he called for death sentences for five of the 14 defendants.