TERRORIST PLOTS IN RUSSIA

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLII, Issue 20503, 22 August 1936, Page 17

TERRORIST PLOTS IN RUSSIA

THREATS TO KILL STALIN CONFESSION OF THREE ACCUSED TROTSKY EXPOSES REDS’ PLANS TO KILL United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright MOSCOW, August 20. Recalled at the treason trial in which Zinoviev, Kamenov, Smirnov and Holamann pleaded guilty to an indictment that they had inspired a German, Fritz David, in an attempt to shoot Josef Stalin at a congress in July, 1935, Kamenov declared that ne was in full sympathy with Trotsky. He said he had been actuated by personal hatred for M. Stalin and lust for power. Kamenox added that the former Soviet Ambassador in London (M. Sokolnikov) though a terrorist, was deliberately excluded from the plot against M. Stalin so that he could facilitate Trotsky’s return to power.

Trotsky’s role in the terror plot was greater than mine, which was great enough,” said Zinoviev. “The physical destruction of M. Stalin was Trotsky’s instruction to all agents. In admitting guilt, I am determined to tell the truth. I ordered Bogden to kill M. Stalin. I went all the way through the counter revolution to terrorism, because Trotskyism plus terrorism is Fascism.”

Admitting complicity in the Zinoviev terrorist activities, Salonova Faivilovish, former wife of the accused, Smirnov, gave evidence. “I am as guilty as the 16 prisoners in the dock,” she said. "Smirnov, on returning from abroad in 1931, informed the conspiracy centre that he had instructions from Trotsky’s .?n, Sedoff, to begin terrorist activities. A resolution was then passed to start terror, beginning with M. Stalin. Smirnov said, ‘Stalin shall be killed.’ ” Smirnov gave evidence that the terror was Sedoff’s idea, not Trotsky’s. “I disagreed with Sedoff,” said Smirnov. Confronted with a confession, signed in prison, Smirnov smiled and shrugged his shoulders. The newspapers to-day publish articles headed “Shoot the Reptiles!” The confessions at the present trial implicate at least 15 others, who will be arraigned.

RED LEADERS IMPLICATED SEQUEL TO CONFESSIONS United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received August 22, 1.15 a.m.) MOSCOW, August 21 The confessions made by the accused have implicated at least 15 other prominent men, who have already been arrested. They include M. Sokolikoff (ex-Ambassador to London), M. Bukharin (editor of “Izvestia”), M. Tomsky (ex-president of the Federation of Trade Unions), M. Rykoff (chairman of Communications) and M. Radek (leader writer of “Izvestia”). “ONLY AN ACT OF REVENGE” TROTSKY’S REPLY TO SOVIET United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright OSLO, August 20. M. Trotsky has issued a statement declaring that he will be able to prove to the world that the case is only an act of revenge, which places the Dreyfus affair and the Reichstag fire trial in the shade. “Give me a brief respite, and the prosecutors themselves will be prosecuted.”

Zinoviev and Kamenev, who were sentenced to imprisonment in January, 1935, for complicity in the assassination of Sergei Kirov, Soviet leader, at Leningrad, are among those suspected of a plot against the Russian Government. Kirov was assassinated on December 1, 1934. A revolutionary leader since 1904, he was head of the Leningrad section of the Communist Party, and recognised as one of the 10 most influential men in Russia. The assassin, Nikolaliev, was a young man formerly employed by the Workers and Peasants’ Inspection of Leningrad. He was characterised as the agent of “enemies of the working class.” A nation-w’ide search for confederates was made, while the judicial procedure of the country w r as altered to permit summary trial and execution without right of appeal of all who were actively or passively engaged in the conspiracy. Within 14 days 130 persons had been arrested, and 103 of them were executed. The assassination was to be the first of a series which was to include Stalin. The faction was described as a remnant of the old Trotsky-Kamenev opposition. Its ultimate objective was said to be the triumphal return of Trotsky as supreme dictator. Zinoviev, Kamenev and 13 other Communists were arrested on December 20, and in January, 1935, sentenced to terms of imprisonment. Trotsky took these, and other men, with him when he broke with Stalin in 1927. The difference between the two rivals was that Trotsky stood firm for the original Communist doctrine of world revolution, while Stalin wanted to reconstruct Russia from within. Trotsky has never concealed his hostility to Stalin.