Historical Organization
Supreme Court of the USSR
Supreme Court of the USSR
Details
Organization Timeline
Shakhty trial opens against coal engineers and specialists
📅 18 May 1928The Shakhty trial began with charges that engineers and technical specialists had sabotaged coal production. The highly publicized proceedings portrayed technical failures as political conspiracy...
Five Shakhty defendants executed
📅 9 July 1928Five defendants convicted in the Shakhty case were executed, while other death sentences were commuted. The punishment signaled the costs of being classified as an enemy of industrialization and...
The first Moscow show trial begins
📅 19 August 1936Former Bolshevik leaders Zinoviev and Kamenev were tried on fabricated conspiracy charges and later executed. The public trials used coerced confessions to legitimize repression and to erase rivals...
Second Moscow trial opens
📅 23 January 1937The show trial of Georgy Pyatakov and other former opposition figures used coerced confessions to portray political dissent as foreign-directed sabotage. The proceedings helped prepare the public...
The third Moscow trial concludes
📅 13 March 1938Nikolai Bukharin and other defendants were convicted after a public trial marked by coerced confessions and sweeping conspiracy claims. The purges devastated the party, state institutions, military...