page_title: Sholom Schwartzbard
section_title: The trial
hierarchical_section_title: Sholom Schwartzbard / The trial
caption_attribution_description: English: memorial plate near shalom schwartzbard grave in avihayil, israel עברית: לוחית זיכרון לשלום שווארצבארד ליד קברו באביחיל
context_page_description: Samuel Schwarzbard was a Russian-born French Yiddish poet of Jewish descent. He served in the French and Soviet military, was an anarchist, and is known for the assassination of the Ukrainian national leader Symon Petliura. He wrote poetry in Yiddish under the pen name of Baal-Khaloymes.
context_section_description: Schwartzbard was arrested and was put on trial by the Public Court Committee on October 18, 1927. His defense was led by Henri Torrès, a renowned French jurist who had previously defended anarchists such as Buenaventura Durruti and Ernesto Bonomini and who also represented the Soviet consulate in France.
  The core of Schwartzbard's defense was to attempt to show that he was avenging the deaths of victims of pogroms, whereas the prosecution (both criminal and civil) tried to show that (i) Petliura was not responsible for the pogroms and (ii) Schwartzbard was a Soviet agent.
  Both sides brought on many witnesses, including several historians. A notable witness for the defence was Haia Greenberg (aged 29), a local nurse who survived the Proskurov pogroms (now, Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine) and testified about the carnage. She never said that Petliura personally participated in the event, but rather some other soldiers who said that they were directed by Petliura. Several former Ukrainian officers testified for the prosecution, including Red Cross representative who witnessed Semesenko's report to Petliura.
  After a trial lasting eight days the jury acquitted Schwarztbard.
  According to Ukrainian historian Michael Palij, a GPU agent named Mikhail Volodin came to Paris in August 1925 and met Schwartzbard, who began stalking Petliura. He had previously planned to assassinate Petliura at a gathering of Ukrainian émigrés marking Petliura's birthday but the attempt was foiled by anarchist Nestor Makhno who was also at the function.
caption: Memorial plate near Shalom Schwarzbard plate in Avihayil Cemetery
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