SOVIET TRIAL

Grey River Argus, 29 December 1934, Page 5

SOVIET TRIAL

KIROV’S MURDER Twelve Accused (Aus. & N.Z. Cable Assn.) (Received December 28 at 7.15 p.m-? LONDON, December 28. The “Daily Express’s’’: Warsaw correspondent says: The trial- of Nikolaev and thirteen others who are accused of the murder of Kirov was begun by a Military Court at the Smolny Institute in Leningrad. The Soviet crime authorities, at the last minute, decided that it would be unwise for them to hold the trial at Moscow, as had been arranged. Two thousand soldiers surrounded the Institute. The jjrisoners were chained by the wrists and by the ankles. • When asked how he pleaded, Nikolaev said: “I freed Russia from a low-dowu scoundrel! Others will fin ish my work! Nikolaev then burst nut laughing. The day was treated as a holiday. Processions marched through streets demanding the deaths of all of the Zinoviev group. Journalists are now to be allowed to be present at the trial. Kaganovitch. one 'of M. Stalin’s chief lieutenants, came from "Moscow to watch the trinl. The station at Leningrad was cleared while he do trained. The Moscow radio announced that a large mass of correspondence from M. Trotsky htid been found giving evidence of the existence of an organisation in .Bulgaria, Lithuania, and Germanv that had been plotting to upset the Soviet Government.