SOVIET TRIAL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22975, 1 March 1938, Page 11

SOVIET TRIAL

ALLEGED TREASON 21 PROMINENT MEN GRAVITY /OF CHARGES SPYING and murder ACTS of terrorism T.wraph— Association Copyright (Received February 2?, .vr. p.m.) 'cable Lo * nox ' Fcb -f The correspondent of the Tinies says the Russian State prosecutor, M. Vyshinsky, announces that a great treason trial will be opened before a military tribunal on March 2 of p prominent men, namely: Bukharin, Rykoff, Rakovkv Yagoda, Krestinsky, Roseneoltz, Gringko,' Ivanoff, Chernoff, Zelinsky, Bessonoff, Okranhoff, Khojaeff, Sharonovich. Zubar, Bulanoff, Levin, Pletnoff, Kazakoff, Jlaximoff, Kryuchkoff.

The accused are charged with organising espionage, wrecking and terrorism on behalf of hostile foreign States in order to provoke war and to dismember the Soviet, and with plotting to deliver up the Ukraine, White Russia. Turkestan, the Caucasus and the Far Eastern maritime province to their employers. The activities of the accused are alleged to date from the inception of the Soviet when Bukharin and Trotsky unavailingly plotted to frustrate the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty. Murders Included in Allegations It is asserted that with the help of prominent doctors the accused murdered the head of the Ogpu, Euibysheff, and the novelist Maxiiw' Gorky, in 1936, and M. Kiroff in 1924. The organisation was 'based on broad liues, embracing all groups, with the object of establishing a bourgeois regime. Soraet. of the accused are world famous. KiyuchkoS was secretarymanager for Maxim Gorky, while Levin, Pletnoff, Kazakoff and Maximoff «re prominent medical professors. Bukharin and Rvkoffi were expelled from, thfc Communist Party in 1937. Bukharin formerly was president of the Third (Communist) International, and Rykoff was Lenin's successor as Soviet Premier and Commissar of Communications. ' '' Soviet',! most Sensational Trial Rakovsky was President of the TJlcraine and formerly Soviet Ambassador to Britain. Yagoda is the former head; of the Ogpu. Prestinsky was assistant Foreign Commissar, Rosengoltz Foreign , Trade Commissar, Gringko Finance Commissar and director of the five-year plan. Chernoff was Agriculture, Commissar, Khojaeff Premier of Bekistan. and Levin head of the Kremlin Hospital. Pletnoff is a leading heart specialist, Kazakoff is director of the Institute of Facial Metabolism, Maximoff is a Kremlin physician. Trotsky to be Tried in Absence Zelinsky wa.3 formerly head of the Soviet co-operative organisation. Sharonovich was formerly secretary of the White Russian Communist Party, Ivanoff was once Commissar of the Timber Industry, and is an ex-Counsellor of the Soviet Embassy in Berlin. Although Trotsky is not in Russia, he in to be also arraigned on a charge of being in close association with agents of a foreign Power since 1921. Correspondents of other newspapers confirm the arrests and the forthcoming na ' which is regarded as the most wnsational in the Soviet's history.