ATTEMPT ON LIFE OF M. STALIN

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21867, 21 August 1936, Page 11

ATTEMPT ON LIFE OF M. STALIN

FOUR RUSSIANS PLEAD GUILTY LEON TROTSKY CONVICTED OF COMPLICITY (Received August 20, 5.5 p.m.) MOSCOW, August 19.

Before grim-famed judges of the Supreme Court, presided over by M. V. V. Ulrich, who tried the Metro-Vickers employers’ case in 1933, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Smirnov, and Holamann all pleaded guilty to an indictment which stated that they had inspired a German, Fritz David, in an attempt to shoot M. Josef Stalin at a congress in July, 1935. The plot had failed because David was unable to take aim. Similar plots were aimed against M. Voroshilov and other communist leaders.

David is reported to have confessed that Leon Trotsky gave him instructions, and he also met an agent of the German Secret Police, who arranged with Kamenev the details of the movement to seize power. The court convicted Trotsky, also his son, of participation in the plot. If Trotsky enters the Soviet he is liable to immediate arrest and trial.

The death penalty is regarded as certain after the plea of guilty by Zinoviev and his associates. The plot to assassinate M. Stalin was allegedly formulated in Zinoviev’s flat, where Zinoviev is declared to have said, “It is an honour to kill Stalin.”

Fritz David’s alleged confession stated: “Zinoviev’s indecisiveness and wish-washyness can be blamed for the fact that Stalin is among the living.” The indictment declares that Trotsky’s main idea was to disorganise the Red Army. “Kill Stalin” was the gist of every message.from Trotsky to Russia. Trotsky, in making a statement in Norway, said: “Ever since my entry into the revolutionary movement I have been an uncompromising opponent of individual terror as a method of struggle. Since coming to Norway I have had no connexions with the Soviet Union.” [lt was officially announced in Moscow on August 14 that an antiGovernment plot, allegedly directed by Leon Trotsky, had been discovered. The police had consequently ordered the trial of Zinoviev, Kamenev. Smirnov, and 13 others. Zinoviev and Kamenev were sentenced in January. 1935, to 10 years’ and five years’ imprisonment respectively for counterrevolutionary activity over the murder of Sergie Koriv, the Soviet leader, in Leningrad. Trotsky was to be interviewed at Christiansund by Norwegian police officers. 1