Stalin's Witnesses: A novel of the Great Terror and the Moscow Show Trials

Biographies & Memoirs

Wachtel, Julius

Community & Culture

Julius Wachtel

Stalin's Witnesses

Vilna, the Russian Empire, 1905. En route to deliver a secret pamphlet entrusted to him by his older brothers, a young boy falls into the clutches of the Czars secret police. Another decade will pass before the Crown gives way, not to liberally minded revolutionaries like Vladimir Romm, but to the pitiless disciples of an embittered lawyer named Lenin. For the next three-quarters of a century, Marxism in its cruelest form will rule Russia. Returning to Vilna during the winter of 1918 for the first time since his youth, Romm finds it occupied by Polish troops. As World War I yields to an uneasy peace, Romm joins Soviet intelligence. In 1934 Romm becomes the USSR's inaugural correspondent to Washington and strives to bring key Americans to the Soviet side. But as his career reaches its zenith, Romm is suddenly recalled, arrested, and forced to testify with four other "witnesses" at the notorious 1937 Moscow show trial.

Literature & Fiction

Literary

Knox Robinson Pub

<p>Vilna, the Russian Empire, 1905. En route to deliver a secret pamphlet entrusted to him by his elder brothers, a young boy falls into the clutches of the Czar's secret police. Another decade will pass before the Crown gives way, not to liberally-minded revolutionaries like Vladimir Romm, the boy now a young man, but to the pitiless disciples of an embittered lawyer named Lenin. For the next three-quarters of a century, Marxism in its cruelest form will rule over Russia. Returning to Vilna during the winter of 1918 for the first time since his youth, Romm finds it occupied by Polish troops. He takes charge of a Communist militia and leads the Red Army to a small yet significant win for the fledgling Soviet state. As World War I yields to an uneasy peace, Romm joins Soviet intelligence. He is posted under various guises to Germany, France, Japan and Geneva. In 1934 Romm is named Izvestia's inaugural correspondent to Washington where he is given orders to bring key Americans to the Soviet side. But as his career reaches its zenith, Romm is suddenly recalled, arrested and forced to serve with four others as 'witnesses' at the notorious 1937 Moscow show trial. "Stalin's Witnesses" is a novel. While it sticks closely to the historical record, the witnesses speak in their own voices, guiding our journey through a tangle of fascinating events to tease out the underlying truths. It's their story, and it helped set the stage for our own.</p>

Knox Robinson Publishing

<p>http://www.stalinswitnesses.comIn November 1936 Vladimir Romm, the USSR’s celebrated correspondent to Washington, was recalled to Moscow and thrown into the dungeons of the infamous Lubyanka prison. He and four other “witnesses” would soon take the stand at the second of the three Moscow Show Trials, the most notorious events of their kind in modern history. Their testimony, given before diplomats and correspondents from around the world, would corroborate the equally false confessions of dozens of influential Communists, consigning witnesses and defendants alike to the executioner and leaving a chronically suspicious Stalin the undisputed leader of the Soviet state.Based on extensive research in North American, European, and Russian archives, interviews with descendants, and secondary sources, Stalin’s Witnesses is a fictionalized yet historically faithful account of how the lives of four Soviet citizens and a German expatriate intersected in a Moscow courtroom three-quarters of a century ago. We perch on Romm's shoulders as he agitates for socialism, navigates the treacherous shoals of the revolution, serves as a Soviet correspondent/spy in Japan and Europe, and, once the USSR and America establish diplomatic relations, assumes his post in America’s capital. With his career at its zenith, Romm is abruptly recalled to Moscow and becomes another victim of Stalin’s paranoia. A fictional but deeply fact-based prison diary conveys how the regime’s vicious prosecutor, Andrei Vyshinsky, crafted a scenario so persuasive that it convinced Western leaders, including President Franklin D. Roosevelt, that leading Party members had conspired to topple Stalin and abandon their beloved country to Germany and Japan.As a guide for students of the era, the novel includes a detailed author’s notes section with references to source materials. In this expanded edition, a Prequel takes readers to the turbulent times preceding the Russian Revolution, and to the famous Eastern European publishing family that gave Romm his name.</p>

Stalin's Witnesses: A Novel of the Great Terror and the Moscow Show Trials

Genre Fiction

Independently published

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