The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1950-01-13
POLITICAL HousEcLEANINc
az OCCUR SOON m RUssIA
Behind The
World News
by WALTER BREEDE. JR..
Associated Press Writer


The Russian government has
announced that it is reviving the
death penalty-in the Soviet that
means the firing squad--for con-
victed spies, saboteurs end trail
tors.
The Moscow government had
abolished capital punishment in
1917, with the explanation that
il wasn't needed any more be-
cause everybody in Russia was
Stains friend, and all was
sweetness and light in RuSsia's
internal political situation.
Now there is speculation that
the revival of capital punishment
may set the stage for another
great political purge, along the
lines Of the political houseclean-
ING that found its expression in
the famous Moscow trials OF
1887.
These were indeed strange and
weird manifestations of Soviet
Justice. Seventeen defendants, all
former Soviet leaders, were hall
ed into court. They included the
brilliant Karl Radek, one time
editor Of Izvestia, the official
newspaper of the Soviet regime.
lie and the IS others were charg-
cd with conspiring with the ex-
lied Bolshevik, Leon Trotsky to
overthrow the government of
Josef Stain and set up a reign of
terror. Under Trotsky's leader
ship. il was charged, they had
connived with the Germans, the
Japs and the Italian Fascists in
the expectation those three coun-
tries would go to war against
Russia that same year. It was
alleged that the defendants had
schemed with foreign diplomats
IN Moscow to overthrow the Red
government, end Soviet Collec-
Invitation end restore the Cap
italistic system. Prosecutor An
drei Vishirsky-now the Soviet
Foreign Minister - called them
liars. bandits, wreckers, and the
advance guard of international
Fascism. Radek's own newspaper
described him as a "writhing,
hypocritical. venemous trotzkyite,
concealing poison behind a flat
tering smile" In what was later
10 become a commonplace prac-
tice al Red treason trials, the II
beat their breasts, proclaimed
ahcir guilt and threw themselves
on the mercy of the court. Thir-
teen died before a firing squad.
Four others, including Radek,
were sent TO prison.
Even before that, the crack
down on Trotzkyism had had its
legal aspect.
The first big trial of former So
Riet leaders reached its climax
In 1896. when l6 alleged plotters
we're executed. They included
men who were giants in the So
wet Hierarchy before they fell
from grace. The charge was the
same as hat which formed the
basis OF the notorious 1897 trials
the crime of Trotzkyism.
Trotzkyism was the great Rus
sian bugaboo of those days, oc-
cupying somewhat the same posi-
ton as Titoism does today. Trot-
zkyism was the terrible heresy
which threatened to undermine
Stains grip on the world Com
Hunist movement. II was an OBJ
stacle 10 Stains political am
billions. and il had to be crushed.
This was done with characteristic
thoroughneSs and brutality 49, a
procedure in which the great
Moscow trials were only a part.
Trotzky himself fled into exile,
finding a temporary haven in
TurkeStan. IStanbul, France and
finally IN Norway until the Nor
wegians kicked him out. He
sought refuge in Mexico. where
his arrival plunged the authori-
tics into a state of filters. Typical
Oi this reaction was the attitude
~ the commanding general al
the Mexican Army garrison al
TampicO, where Trotzky went
ashore from a tanker,
RslefullyS the garrison COM
mander said:
i shall never draw an easy
buneih'pr ret a Wink of sleep
lnntit Trotgky is out of town.
Despite threats of Mexican
Communists there was no vio-
lcnce on TrotzkN'S first day in
Mexico. he made the trip from
Tampico 10 Mexico City in q
hullct-proof railroad car. accom-.
panied by a guard of 30 soldiers
On that same dav, an English
traRslation Of Trotzky'S famou.
book. The Revolution Betrayed,
Mas delivered to his publisher il
New York. The book voiced ;
blunt charge that the Stain re
slime had stuffed MarxiSt Social
Ism under a brutal Bureaucracy
Iretzky accused Stain OF de
liberately starving more than fou
million peasants with creating
Dictatorship and with having Sc