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by James O. Henry Chairman, History Department, Biola College
great rivals in the 1920’s and raising the question of why they had to be annihilated. Then he quotes Mr. Aragon as having written of the first great purge trial in 1936 — in which the former top leaders Lev Kamenev and Gregory Zinoviev were convicted — that: “Not one document permits establishing the degree of falsity which took place in the testimony of the accused at this trial. But this trial served as the basis for an entire series of others.” Mr. Wurmser notes that of the “other” trials was that of top Soviet military leaders who were convicted and executed, but who have since been fully cleared. The three great purge trials that Izvestia thus hints were frame-ups saw 16 Bolshe vik leaders, including Kamenev and Zinoviev, convicted in 1936: 17 others convicted in 1937, and 21 others, in cluding Bukharin and Alexis Rykov, convicted in 1938. All of these men confessed to charges of treason and to sabotage on behalf of the capitalist world and in association with Leon Trotsky. Berlin Reds Drop Job Regimenting Under pressure of protests by East Berlin parents, teachers and high school students, the Communist au thorities have dropped a plan to tell graduating pupils what jobs they must take. The Communist party paper Neues Deutschland acknowl edged recently that the practice of forcing the youngsters into unwanted jobs was ‘bureaucratic, narrow-mind ed and schematic.” But the paper made it clear that the Socialist re gime would receive its right to direct the young job seekers to certain categories of work. The angry reac tions in East Berlin were so persistent that the city administration called a news conference to announce the lift ing of the order. Horst Kuemmel, a deputy mayor, said the numerous let ters and prptests received were “justi fied in their harsh criticism.” He called the action an “outgrowth of schematism.” According to East Ber lin press reports, teachers of 12th graders were given lists containing the name of each pupil and the job that the state authorities had picked for him or her.
Red China Shelving Big Power Projects
Communist China’s ambitious plans for huge hydro-electric power projects appear to have been shelved indef initely, along with most other major industrial programs initiated during the period of the ill-fated “great leap forward.” Instead, the Chinese Com munists are carrying out a more mod est program of constructing small power units throughout the country and increasing the number of rural areas served with power supply. The new emphasis on bringing electricity to the country-side is part of Peking’s drive to raise agricultural production, which has been combined with re- trenchmen in capital construction and 'heavy industry. Peking has made no mention of the projects for three years. Shortages of food, clothing and essential household commodities have forced the Chinese Communists to concentrate on raising production in agriculture and light industry. This may have caused Peking to abandon its major power projects. However, the key factor is believed to have been the deterioration in relations between Communist China and the Soviet Union. Izvestia has published the first public suggestion in the Soviet press that the purge trials, conducted by the late Andrei Vishinsky, were false. In the trials many of the greatest early leaders of the Soviet Communist party were convicted of treason and sentenced to death after publicly “confessing” their guilt. The hint that these trials may have been falsi fied has special interest because of rumors reported from 'Moscow over several months that some of the lead ing victims, such as Nikolai Buk harin, has been quietly declared in nocent of the crimes for which they were convicted, although they are still regarded as having been politi cally in error. Izvestia has published an article by a French Communist, Andre Wurmser, on a history of the Soviet Union written by the French Communist ■writer, Louis Aragon. Mr. Wurmser gets into the matter ob- I liquely by first discussing Stalin’s Soviet Press Hints Frame-up In Purge Trials of 1930's
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