Police photographs of Zinoviev, taken by the NKVD after his arrest in 1934. Accounts of Zinoviev's execution vary, with some having him beg and plead for his life, prompting the stoic Kamenev to tell Zinoviev to "quiet down and die with dignity". Zinoviev put up such resistance to the guards that, instead of taking him to the appointed execution room, the guards took him into a nearby cell and shot him there.Stalin: Court of the Red Tsar; Simon Sebag Montefiore, pp. 188, 193–98 The execution of Zinoviev, Kamenev and their associates was a sensational news event in the USSR and around the world, paving the way for the mass arrests and executions of the terror of 1937–1938. In 1988, during perestroika, the Soviet government formally absolved Zinoviev and his co-defendants of the spurious charges which led to their deaths.
Police photographs of Zinoviev, taken by the NKVD after his arrest in 1934. Accounts of Zinoviev's execution vary, with some having him beg and plead for his life, prompting the stoic Kamenev to tell Zinoviev to "quiet down and die with dignity". Zinoviev allegedly struggled against the guards escorting him so fiercely that instead of taking him to the appointed execution room, he was simply dragged into a nearby cell and shot there.Stalin: Court of the Red Tsar; Simon Sebag Montefiore, pp. 188, 193–98 The execution of Zinoviev, Kamenev and their associates was a sensational news event in the USSR and around the world, paving the way for the mass arrests and executions of the Great Purge of 1937–1938. In 1988, during perestroika, the Soviet government formally absolved Zinoviev and his co-defendants of the spurious charges which led to their deaths.
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put up such resistance to the guards that,
allegedly struggled against the guards escorting him so fiercely that
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the guards took him
he was simply dragged
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him
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terror
Great Purge