861.20/387: Telegram
The Chargé in the Soviet Union (Henderson) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 11—11:30 a.m.]
113. Reference my telegrams number 105 of June 8, 2 p.m., and 111 of June 9, 9 p.m.,24 this morning’s Pravda contains the following announcement:
“The invariable rule of the case of Tukhachevski, Yakir, Uborevich, Kork, Eideman, Feldman, Primakov, and Putna who had been arrested by the Commissariat for Internal Affairs at various dates, has been completed and the case has been turned over to the court.
[Page 379]The above-mentioned prisoners are charged with violation of their military obligations (oath of allegiance), treason to the Fatherland, treason to the peoples of the U.S.S.R., and treason to the workers and peasants Red Army.
The investigation has established that the accused, and also Gamarnik, who committed suicide, participated in anti-State connections with leading military circles of a certain foreign nation which follows an unfriendly policy in regard to the U.S.S.R. Being in the military secret service of this nation, the accused systematically supplied the military circles of this nation with espionage information concerning the condition of the Red Army, conducted wrecking work designed to weaken the Red Army, and endeavored to prepare the defeat of the Red Army in case of an armed attack upon the [U.S.S.R.], and it was their purpose to facilitate the restoration of the power of the landowners and capitalists in the U.S.S.R.
All of the accused have pleaded guilty in the fullest measure to the charges brought against them.
The hearing of the case will take place today June 11 at a closed special judicial session of the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R., consisting of the Chairman V. Ulrich, Chief of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court, and the following members of the court.”
There follow the names and titles of Alksnis, Budenny, Bleucher, Shaposhnikov, Corniv, Dybenko, Kashirin and Goryachev. All of these have been mentioned in my telegrams under reference and despatches on this subject except Division Commander Goryachev who is Commander of the Sixth Cossack Cavalry Corps, Army Commander Kashirin who is in charge of the North Caucasus Military Okrug and Army Commander Alksnis who is Chief of Soviet Air Forces.
The announcement ended with the statement that the case would be heard in the manner prescribed by the law of December 1, 1934. This law which was passed on the day of the Kirov murder referred only to cases involving terrorism and the grounds for its invocation in the present instance where no charges of terrorism have been made are not apparent. It provides for hearings without counsel either for the state or the defendants. Death sentences axe to be executed immediately after they are passed.
As far as the accused are concerned all of them have been mentioned in the Embassy’s telegrams and despatches except Feldman and Primakov. Feldman was a corps commander and Chief of the Field Officers Administration. Primakov was also a corps commander and was second in charge in the Leningrad Military Okrug.
The announcement was accompanied by an editorial which consisted largely of epithets and of a polemic against the German press which had claimed that the present wave of shifts in [and] arrests in high military circles in the U.S.S.R. amounted almost to a “crisis of the “Soviet power”. The editorial ended with generous praises for the Soviet intelligence service and its leader Ezhov. It was stated that [Page 380] the intelligence service was growing and increasing in strength and would soon show what it was capable of.
It is generally assumed that Germany is the “foreign nation” involved. It should be noted however that both Yakir and Feldman are Jews and the former has a reputation of being an extreme Jewish nationalist.
- Latter not printed.↩