The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-03-10
ADMIT GUILT; ASK CHANCE TO ATONE
CRIMES; SHOULD BE SHOT,, ONE SAYS
CONTINUED FROM PAGE oNE>

preceding speakers ABOUT UIle eSUlllaJe
of the degeneration of Menshevism,
and it's logical development after No
Vember. He stressed the fact that
the Berlin group of the Second In
ternational approved their every step.
He concluded by saying that today
every Menshevik was a potential in
terVentionist enemy of the working
class. Sher said he recognized his
guilt. Whereas in 1905, after the
revolution he awaited death fearless
ly, he said he was unable today be-
cause he recognized his criminal
path, and asked to live to repair the
damage he had done.
Ginsburg then endorsed the descrip-
ton of the Menshevik organization
made by Krylenko. He described his
IS years in social democratic activity.
He joined that party in 1897; he was
first eXiled in 1902. After the revo-
luton of 1905 he worked chiefly in
legal organization of unions and pa
pers. He said he was loyal to the
Soviet government until 1925 because
he believed it was a new path to
capitalism. Doubts were created in
his mind in the turn towards socialist
construction in 1926. This gradually
led to his criminal activities, which
were fully described in previous
speeches and proceedings He said he
was unafraid of death, but he felt it
was painful to die at the hands of
the proletarian government as a
traitor of the working class. Should
the court decide to allow him his life,
his desire was to serve the revolution
and to justify confidence.
Yakubowitch in an imprisoned
speech which was not intended to
defend or to justify asked the court
to reject Krylenko's demand for the
supreme penalty. He infinitely traced
the political evolution prior to and
after the revolution. Like the others,
he emphasized the conception that
the New Economic Policy was Boil
Shevik retreat and a position towards
capitalism; turn from socialist con-
struction which caused a turn in the
violent struggle of the Anti-Soviet
forces, and encouraged hopes of the
decomposition of the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union.
He said he realized that interven-
ton meant the sharpening of the
temporary sufferings of the workers,
but thought this inevitable. He
worked not for the extra thousand
roubles but was logically and fanatic
ally developing the Menshevik princi-
pies. In 1880 events completely ex-
posed the illusions of the Mensheviks,
and the triumphant socialist con-
struction through proletarian en-
thusiasm and revealed the criminal
and treacherous work of the wreck
ers long before they were jailed.
He said he realized the trial was
an act in the class struggle. He said
he had hitherto been on the other
side of the barricades. The measures
demanded by the prosecutor, he said,
were not exaggerated, but his con-
ISOLATION in the hour of death would
be that even in that late hour he
participated infthis act in the strug-
gle Of the workers on their side of
the barricades.
Helping the court to expose Men
shevism and the Second Interna-
tional, Zalkind endorsed the previous
speeches. He described his evolution
from Bolshevism to Menshevism
through intellectual and individual
detachment from the workers. Like
the others, he does not believe the
new line of the MenshevikS began in
1927. He points out the change of
the social basis, which was shown
even in the municipal elections of
1917 in the Menshevik seats nthe
middle class areas. He traced the
wrecking work when the Soviet policy
showed that the New Economic Policy
is not the restoration of capitalism
but a breathing space presuming So
cialist advance. His doubts began in
1880, six months prior to his arrest.
He asked his release from the plan
ming work. He regarded the maxi
mum Jail sentence demanded by
Krylenko, in view of the prospect of
his life, as eliminating him from the
prospect of working for the socialist
construction even in the smallest ex-
tent. This he considered equivalent
to death.
Especial Cable to the Daily Worker)
MOSCOW, March 3.-Groman, one
OF the defendants in the trial of the
IA Mensheviks, continued his final
speech before the proletarian court.
He emphasized his recognition of
guilt in the preliminary examination
and in the trial and said that his
aim now was to establish the real
motive forces of the leading defend
ants. He traced the history of the
Russian social democrats, the Men
sheviks, from the beginning. show
ing the development Of opportunism
in the long years of personal---very.
struggle with the central aim Of
bourgeois revolution in Russia, which
was regarded as the essential stage
of socialism. Hence their pro-war
attitude in 1914, and hence they well