Koldushko A.A. “They Can Do No More to Me than Execution by Firing Squad…”: German Nationals at the Kizel Show Trial in 1937

Abstract: The article focuses on the specialists from Germany that came to work in Soviet coal industry enterprises and who later became participants in one of the most well-known show trials in the Urals – the Kizel show trial of 1937. On the basis of original sources, the author reconstructs the organization and operation of the show trial from the arrest to sentencing. The author also reconstructs the scenarios and methods of influence during the course of the investigations, methods of “preparing” the accused for their appearance before the court, as well as the consequent fate of the German nationals after their repatriation. The author based his research on general scientific and specific-historical methods, among which the analysis of historical sources takes a predominant place. The scientific novelty of the article consists of, in the first place, the introduction of new unpublished sources of the archival-investigation cases from the Perm State Archive of Modern History and Politechnic Archive of Germany’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Secondly, the article’s scientific novelty lies in its contribution of elucidating through the example of the Kizel show trial the mechanisms of preparing and conducting regional show trials. As a result of this examination the author comes to the conclusion that the show trials not only aimed to show society the existence of factual enemies, but also gave an opportunity to the initiators and organizers of such trials to quickly rise up the career ladder.

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