Welcome to Russian history we told.

Episode 323, in the case of the anti-Soviet bloc of Rights and Truskyites, part two.

Last time, we covered the first part of the trial of the 21 men accused of

conspiring against the Soviet Union when plotting to murder the leadership of the country.

Today, we continue following the transcript of their trial and finish up the series.

The opening session of the second day of the trial held on March 3rd, 1938, begins with

the testimony of Vladimir Ivanov.

He would admit to being recruited by the Tsarist secret police, the Okrana, starting in

2011, when Ivanov was an eighth grader in a school in Tula,

a city about 120 miles south of Moscow. This is not a surprising revelation, as many Bolsheviks

were double agents, including Jakob Izzymersky, a leading Bolshevik and close associate

of Vladimir Lenin. Yevnau Azev, Roman Malinowski, and Dimitri Bogrov were others.

There was even talk of Joseph Stalin being one, but the evidence of that is kind of sketchy,

although he could have ordered any evidence destroyed. But all of that is kind of sketchy, although he could have ordered any evidence destroyed.

But all of that is the focus of another not too distant episode.

After getting Yvanov to admit being a double agent, the prosecutor, Andrei Vajensky,

steered the witness into implicating Nikolai Buharn.

Here is when a series of gaps and facts become clear.

Ivanov claims that Bukharin, Rikov, and himself plan to overthrow Stalin and the Soviet government.

He admitted they met in places in person where they could not possibly have been together.

Of course, this really didn't matter, as all of the defendants were going to be found guilty

anyway.

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