Evening star., 1937-01-27
SOVIET TRIAL LINKS
Mr.. x TO JAPAN
Witness Tells of Alleged Plan
to Place Germs on Troop
Trains.
Ry tie Associated Press.

Trans.
2S tie Associated Press.
MOSCOW, January 27.-Ivan Alex
androvich Kniazeff, former Soviet
Southern Urals Railway chief on trial
as a confessed Trotzkist plotter. testi-
fed today So persons had been killed in
thousands" Of train wrecks which
he organized and accused q Japanese
"Mr. x" of planning to infect Russian
troop trains with deadly germs.
Kniazeff twice identified mfr. X" as
a Japanese agent, one Hiroshima, who
he said was a transport expert in
Moscow and who formerly served III
London.
The witness, on trial with the Com
mentator Karl Radek and is other
men for a conspiracy to overthrow the
Soviet regime through sabotage and
even war, sprang surprise after sur
prise.
Confessing abjectly to some $500
train wrecks during 1885 and 1886, Re
said they had killed SO persons and
injured 1854.
Letters Identified.
He identified two letters, one an
original and one photostatic copy,
which he said he received from
"Mr. x" in 1885 and 1886, the
first damaging documentary evidence
to be introduced. The contents OF the
letters were not fully disclosed in court.
Confirming orders he said he had re-
ceived in December Of 1885 to burn
military stores, Kniazeff declared:
When I met Mr.. X later he re-
preached me for doing nothing. He
said people had to be trained to COM
init wrecking in wartime.
He also told me to burn food trains
and in October presumably in 1880
Mr. K told me we might have to poison
military trains with bacteria so as to
infect the troops.
II mean the cars are prepared for
the troops through cleansing, drying,
etc. At that time we would have in
fected them.
Mr.. X said war was inevitable. I
understood from him it would start in
1887"
Last Contact in August.
Kniazeff said his last contact with
"Mr. x" was by letter in August, 1886.
Kniazeff was arrested last October
As assistant chief Of administration
of Soviet rail traffic. Kniazef testified,
he was in a position to carry out in
fection Of troop cars when war broke
out.
He asserted he became a Japanese
informant because Mr.. x" intimi-
dated him. *" he said, knew he was
Trotzkyist and threatened to expose
him to the G. P. U. (Soviet secret
police unless he co-operated with him.
J. D. Turok. another defendant,
former chief Of exploitation Of the
Perm Railroad, testified:
We managed 40 wrecks from the
end of 1884 to the time was arrested.
Some passenger trains were wrecked" Z"
Prosecutor Audrey Vishinsky cited
troop train wreck at Shumikha,
Siberia, October 27, 1885. in which 29
Russian soldiers we're killed and 20
| injured. AS he slowly read of the
name of each victim Kniazeff admitted
his full responsibility.
II organized that well-known wreck"
he said. Il also organized IS other
wrecks at the instruction Of Japanese
| intelligence agents"
Kniazeff said there were $500
planned wrecks on his railroad in 1894
and 1000 in 1885
Most Of the $500 wrecks were due
to the work Of the 'Trotzkyist' organi-
zation," he declared We kept the
rails and roadbed in such shape many
wrecks and accidents resulted.
We managed to ruin many powerful
locomotives through poor repairs"
Woman Threw Switch.
Kniazen, a neat, well-dressed busi-
ness man, testified the Shumikha
wreck was arranged by instructing an
apprentice woman switchman to throw
the wrong switch. thus crashing the
crowded troop train into standing
freight train loaded with ore
And had you no remorse over the
deaths?" Vishinsky asked.
The prisoner did not answer.
japanese agents were given secret
information, 1t was said concerning
the Russian railway system. Turok
said a Japanese agent paid him $4,000
roubles $4,000 in 1885, of which
$4,000 roubles $4,000 went to Knia-
zeff for information given them by
Livschitz
In order to deceive higher authori-
ties. the witnesses said, they made
the wrecks appear as accidents or
shifted the responsibility to innocent
persons
Stanislav Antonovich Rataichak, AZ,
who rose from the German Army ranks
to become head of all chemical indus
tries under bolshevism, testified he, G.
e. Pushin and I. I. Grashe, all de-
PENDANTS. Systematically furnished con-
fidential data to the German intelli-
gence service on the condition Of
Soviet chemical plants.
Rataichak was a German prisoner
of war who stayed in the Soviet Union
after the armistice and obtained high
position.
position. He acknowledged response
bility for three explosions, in which 5
we're killed, but denied an accident in
which II were lost
d. C. CORRESPONDENTS PROTEST.
Express "Shock and Dismay" at Arrest
Of Vladimir Romnn,