In front of the entire courtroom, he wailed hoarsely and scolded himself mercilessly.

Raddick has every reason to prove that he is the author of the so-called "Trotsky's directives". You know, of all the defendants, he was the only one who recanted the "confession" prepared for him by the interrogator Caderov and "created" a new version of the "directive" on paper, of course, after a separate conversation with Stalin. Raddic's sudden outburst of anger and hints about his special contribution to the case caused the court and the prosecutor general to panic and be at a loss. In order to avoid further trouble, the presiding judge, Mallih, hastened to announce an adjournment.

Radek's groveling to Stalin and his efforts to help the prosecutor general in court gave the impression that he had completely degenerated into a shameless villain, who did not care what was to be said of him. However, if you carefully analyze Radek's speech in court, it is not difficult to see that behind his frenzied self-revelation, there is a hidden opposite purpose: to make the world realize that the indictment is baseless and that the court lacks any real evidence that can prove the guilt of the accused.

Until the trial was over, its directors did not seem to be aware of the true intentions of the cunning Raddic. He has been pandering and paralyzing the Prosecutor General and the judges with self-slander and fierce attacks on Trotsky, so that they do not discover his cleverly disguised, but dangerous, "entrainment" that is sufficient to overturn the whole accusation.

It wasn't until his final statement that Raddic finally lifted the curtain and revealed a bit of his tricks. At the beginning of his statement, he still unequivocally confessed his guilt: "There is no reason for a sane adult to commit treason. I tried to find a mitigating circumstance to excuse myself, but in vain. A man who has been involved in the workers' movement for 35 years, now that he has confessed that he has betrayed the motherland, can no longer justify his crimes by any means. I can't even say that it was Trotsky who dragged me into the water, and this is not for any reason, you know, when I met Trotsky, I was already an adult, and I already had a fully fixed conviction".

In this way, Raddic presented the confession that had been promised to the interrogators, thus paralyzing the Attorney General's vigilance surname. He played a tactic that gave himself the opportunity to speak out loud something that was completely unexpected by the organizers of the trial. Radek then announced to the court that, although he agreed with the main charges charged by the prosecutor general, he would protest Vyshinsky's intention to portray the defendants as bona fide bandits.

"The Attorney General said that these people sitting in the dock are pure bandits and spies, and I protest against this! There are two witnesses: first, my own confession, in which I admit that I have received instructions and letters from Trotsky (regrettably I burned them); The second was Pydakov's, who admitted that he had spoken to Trotsky. The confessions of the other defendants were all based on the confessions of the two of us. Since you are dealing with genuine bandits and spies, how can you be sure that we are telling the truth? ”

Radek's words were tantamount to a resounding slap in the face to Stalin.

But, despite these short but powerful attacks, Raddick nevertheless played an incalculable role in Stalin orchestrating the farce of the trial. On the whole, he successfully fulfilled the task given to him by Stalin.

On the day the verdict was announced, Radick, along with his comrades, stood up from the dock to await the verdict. When the verdict was read out in Ullih, all the defendants were so focused that they stopped breathing. After reading the convictions of the verdict, Ullih began to announce the sentences imposed on each defendant in turn: "...... Death penalty", "...... the death penalty". When Raddic was recited, he declared, "...... 10 years of deprivation of liberty. ”

Raddic smiled. When the verdict was announced, he turned and shrugged his shoulders at the other defendants, smiling guiltily, as if he was a little embarrassed about his success. The same guilty smile he sent to his audience.

But Stalin, in the Kremlin, when he learned of the results of the trial, did not laugh.

Stalin immediately realized. His well-orchestrated farce of trial will inevitably lose its deceptive surname, and henceforth, no matter what he says or uses to fabricate the crimes of the Trotskyists, the world will not believe him, nor will it believe the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

What annoyed Stalin even more was the matter with China.

Just yesterday, he had already received reports about the "Chinese side".

He could no longer endure the series of failures suffered by the operation in China.

He now even wonders if anyone in the Ministry of Internal Affairs is doing things for the Chinese against him.

"At the beginning, I thought that no matter what aspect, Zhang Xueliang was not enough to replace Yang Shuoming." Stalin looked at Yezhov and said in a deep voice.

"You are absolutely right, Comrade Stalin." Ye Ruofu immediately replied, "In our plan, whether Zhang Xueliang can replace Yang Shuoming or not, it will plunge China's political axe into chaos, and this is what we want." ”

"But right now China doesn't seem to be in chaos." Stalin looked at Yezhov coldly and said, "On the contrary, I heard that the Chinese have begun to mobilize troops on a large scale. ”

"This is a misinformation of intelligence, Comrade Stalin." Cold sweat began to ooze from Yezhov's back, but when he looked at Stalin, his face remained calm.

"That's the normal change of defense of the [***] team, the scale is not as big as you said, Comrade Stalin, in order to save military spending in recent years, the size of the Chinese political axe has been reduced to the lowest level in history, and it is impossible for them to conjure up so many troops out of thin air."

"I want you to understand, Comrade Yezhov, that we do not live in one country, but in a multinational system, and it is ultimately inconceivable that the Soviet Republic and the imperialist countries exist side by side. But as long as this situation is not over, a bitter war between the Soviet Republic and the imperialist countries is inevitable. Stalin looked at Yezhov and said, "We should remember." We are in constant danger of aggression. ”

"I understand, Comrade Stalin."

"It would be not only ridiculous but stupid to think that the foreign enemies of the USSR would not attack the Soviet state at the first opportunity!" Stalin roared, "The imperialists will not abandon their attempt to destroy the only workers' and peasants' state in the world!" ”

"We must seek the aid of the international proletariat! The consolidation of the national defense forces, the consolidation of the Red Army and the Red Navy, and the mobilization of the whole country to repel the military offensive of the domestic enemy should be combined with the struggle against the attempt to restore capitalism. ”

Yezhov understood what Stalin was worried about, but he could no longer find the right words to reassure his master.

For twenty years, socialism existed only in the Soviet Union, surrounded by capitalist countries. This gives it a strong sense of insecurity. Stimulated by the constant crisis, the initial desire to export the revolution gradually gave way to the urgent task of defending the revolution at home. Most Soviets believed at the time that the Soviet Union was under the threat of a massive conspiracy of spies and saboteurs controlled by foreign secret services. In this atmosphere, Yezhov, like Stalin, lived in a world of intrigue.

For many NKVD officers who have endured terror or taken over the posts of those who have been repressed, survival is the main purpose. Work dulls their senses, their hearts become cruel, they feel that it is better not to think about the terrible things they have done, and that it is more important to obey the will of the leader than anything else.

Yezhov stared at Stalin with some trepidation, waiting for the leader to break out further, but to his surprise, Stalin stopped there.

"Just let the Chinese be proud for a while, they won't be proud for too long." Stalin regained his composure and said to himself.

"Are we going to attack China?" Yezhov asked.

"Of course not." Stalin gave Yezhov a cold look, and Yezhov realized that he was talking too much, and immediately closed his mouth.

"Go about your business." Stalin waved his hand at Yezhov.

Yezhov left Stalin's office, and just as he closed the door, he turned his head to look, and he saw Stalin pick up the phone and say in a low voice: "Comrade Molotov, please come to me, yes, now." ”

Yanjing, Huaxia Federal Department of Homeland Security.

In a secret room, a Russian is sitting in a chair talking to a Chinese half hidden in the shadows.

“…… They know equally that most of the victims are innocent, but as loyal Leninists they must agree that Soviet Russia is always threatened by the machinations of the international capitalist organizations, and that their secret services must be sabotaging it. The Germans, the Chinese, and themselves tried to exploit the extreme panic of Stalin and the NKVD to convince them that there was a more imaginary conspiracy – which is why the NKVD inflicted such heavy losses on Russia. Because they can only get out of this world of conspiracy if they give up their beliefs. The Russian said.

"No wonder during this period of time, people like you, who originally belonged to the 'Cheka', began to increase in their defection to our country. Poor you, like a pack of faithful hounds, who stalk their prey with all their might, but do not guard against the hunters behind you. They could not have imagined that Stalin would be so vicious and deceitful, and that it would be impossible for them to use the great power of their own organs to save their lives. ”

The Chinese nodded and motioned for the Russians to continue.

"It was none other than Stalin himself who directed the farce of the trial! In fact, in the whole process of preparing for the Moscow trial, if the leaders of the Ministry of Internal Affairs had carefully analyzed the various instructions given by Stalin, they would have been surprised to find that Stalin had to eliminate them in the end, because they had directly participated in the conspiracy to destroy Lenin's Old Guards and were unpopular witnesses to Stalin's crimes. Moreover, Stalin had to eliminate the little people who had contributed to the farce of the trial, because if they became witnesses, they would be able to expose Stalin's plan to destroy the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in broad daylight. ”

"The leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the interrogators knew very well that Zinoviev and Kamenev had not killed anyone at all and did not intend to kill anyone. According to Stalin's logic, all politicians who do not hesitate to use assassination to eliminate their political opponents in order to seize power must do whatever it takes to eliminate all traces of their crimes, including the merciless execution of their assassination orders. They should have realized that Stalin, having eliminated his political enemies, would kill all those who had been involved in planning and knowing the farce of the Moscow trials, even if they were the leaders and general functionaries of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. ”

"In Stalin's eyes, enemies were everywhere, duplicity and spies were everywhere. I remember you Soviet greatest psychiatrist Vladimir? In 1929, Bekhterev asserted that Stalin suffered from 'delusional schizophrenia', but our experts believe that unlike the real paranoids, Stalin has always maintained a calm, if not amazing, but also calm judgment. In addition to this, he also has an amazing sense of intuition and a sense of time. Of course, it is not excluded that there are some paranoic tendencies in Stalin's 'paranoia' pathology. The Chinese smiled and said.

"Yes, both in private conversations and in official speeches, he always said that foreign intelligence agencies have formed a despicable web of conspiracy in which all sorts of enemies operate under a banner. In his speech to a senior NKVD officer, he said that in the struggle against imperialist spies, it is impossible to avoid some innocent victims, and it is better to let 10 innocent people suffer than to let one spy slip through the net. He was always afraid that traitors in the NKVD would assassinate him. He also fears that others will poison him. He had a waitress whose sole duty was to make tea for him in a sealed bag stored in a locked cabinet, which could only be opened in the presence of NKVD staff. On one occasion, when the guards discovered that the tea bags in the cabinet had been opened, the waitress was arrested and immediately escorted to the rubianka. ”

"Tell me about his cleansing of the army." The Chinese nodded and said.

On June 11, 1937, the Soviet newspaper published a short political axe notice. The notice said that Marshal Tukhachevsky and seven other senior Red Army generals had been arrested for acting as spies for 'foreign countries' and would be brought before a military tribunal. They were also charged with the defeat of the Red Army in the anti-Soviet war deliberately launched by the capitalist countries. The next morning, a new official announcement appeared in the newspaper: The trial had ended, and all the defendants had been sentenced to execution by shooting, which would be carried out immediately. At the same time, the circular also mentioned that the military tribunal was composed of a group of high-ranking generals. Thus, on June 12, the Soviet people knew that Marshal Tukhachevsky, who was the most powerful of the world, and such famous generals as Yakir, Upolevich, Kolk, Putna, Edero, Feldman, and Primakov, who yesterday were considered the elite of the army and excellent strategists, were shot dead. ”

Even all the members of the Central Committee and the vast majority of the members of the Politburo never expected that Stalin would attack these military cadres. Stalin convened an emergency Politburo meeting only a few days before the start of the massacre, at which the People's Commissar of Defense Voroshilov made a report on the revelation of the cabal in the Red Army. Three of the high-ranking generals accused of being Hitler's spies were Jews! That alone is enough to prove how absurd this accusation is. Moreover, the members of the Politburo knew that if Tukhachevsky and his comrades-in-arms were really Germans, they would never allow Voroshilov to report to the Politburo, because he himself would have been arrested and imprisoned for at least 'negligence'. The fact that he, the People's Commissar of National Defense, had recruited such a large number of spies and traitors and handed over to them the most important military districts of the Soviet Union was not to push the country to ruin? ”

"The performance of the Politburo members at this meeting was completely in line with Stalin's requirements. Each of them knew that if they were not careful with a word, they would not go home after the meeting, but go to prison. You know, even their personal chauffeurs and personal guards were personally arranged by NKVD Yezhov. ”

"Immediately after the purge of Tukhachevsky and other generals, there was a mass arrest in the army. They had appointed a large number of officers during their tenure, and now they were naturally under suspicion. If we take into account the fact that Tuchachevsky served as Deputy People's Commissar of Defense for many years, it is not difficult to imagine how many military commanders he once appointed and how many relevant documents were issued. Now, these officers and the people mentioned in the relevant documents are all blacklisted. ”

"In the major military districts, hundreds of Red Army commanders go missing every day. They were joined in prison by their closest lieutenants and those who seemed to be considered their friends. In the first weeks and even months after the purge began, officers could be found to replace those arrested. However, these replacements are often arrested shortly after they take office, and it is difficult to find a replacement for them. ”

After listening to the Russians' story, the Chinese's faces clearly showed a look of surprise.

"This is simply self-defeating, isn't he worried that the Soviet army will lose its combat effectiveness because of this

(To be continued)