Fragments of the transcript of the December plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in 1936.

From the transcript of the December plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in 1936.

From Comrade Bukharin's speech. December 4, 1936

Questions of History, 1995, No. 1 Pages. 7

Bukharin. ...And suddenly, what kind of monstrous accusation is this? And why, after all, if you say that it was Sosnovsky who spoke, why don't you give me a confrontation with him, why don't I have the opportunity to talk to him at a confrontation ? (Stalin. You were offered a confrontation with Sosnovsky, you were ill, they were looking for you.) I wrote a letter to Yezhov. I really was sick, but I wrote that I would drag myself sick, but they didn’t call me 3 . (Molotov. In any case, this will not be the case ...) But now, after all, the plenum of the Central Committee. I can say that I spoke with Radek. I wrote in the first letter 4. I was terribly frank with him. I said that I was under the same accusation as he was. I regarded him as a comrade in misfortune. I don't give up. Understand, when a person is completely alone, when he has no one with whom he could share, and when such an accusation weighs on him, he will begin to look for a butt and he will stick to any warm place. Radek was essentially in the same position as me, and I stumbled upon him. (Zhukov. It's a hot place, not only warm.) Hot, but not warm.

Stalin. When there is a thousand testimonies against you, don't worry, wait, we want to find out when there are testimonies of people like Kulikov - he was considered an honest person ...

Bukharin. I haven't seen Kulikov since 1928.

Stalin. There is evidence from such a person as Kulikov, Uglanov, Sosnovsky... (Voice from the floor. Yakovlev.) Why should they lie to you? They may lie, but why? Can we hide this from the plenum? You are indignant that we raised this question at the plenum, and now you are facing a fact.

Bukharin. I am outraged not by the fact that this question was raised at the plenum, but by the fact that Nikolai Ivanovich concludes that I knew about terror, that I was guilty of terror, and so on. With regard to Kulikov, it is very easy to do - you need to find out where and when he saw me, and find out that he has not seen me since 1928-1929. (Stalin. It's possible.) Secondly, I don't even know, I don't even remember now who Yakovlev is. (Kaganovich. Sapozhnikov.) Sapozhnikov was one of a group of young people. Tov. Stalin once showed him a note, I answered it. But what year is this? They were all arrested in 1932. You can't mix it all in one pile! ..

... The first is a confrontation with Sokolnikov 5 . I affirm that, by its very essence, it could not give anything, for the simple reason that Sokolnikov himself admitted, and I asked to record this, that he never talked about anything political with me, he talked about a review of his book. wives. (Stalin. But he talked to Tomsky, who told you. Beria. In any case, he is not your enemy.) I'm not talking about Tomsky, I'm talking about myself ...

Notes:

2. The protocol of Sosnovsky's interrogation for November 14–16, 1936, spoke of the establishment of a bloc between the Trotskyist center and the "Rightists", the names of Bukharin and Tomsky were indicated, it was noted that the basis of the bloc "was individual terror against the leaders of the party", it was emphasized that Bukharin knew about Ryutin's platform and discussed its content with him. On December 7, 1936, before the second session of the Plenum of the Central Committee, confrontations were held between Bukharin and a number of persons, including Sosnovsky. (APRF, f. 3, op. 24, d. 258, l. 25–62; d. 458, v. 1, l. 98–115; d. 260, l. 51–72.)

3. In a letter to Stalin dated December 2, 1936, Bukharin mentioned a letter to Yezhov, to which he received no answer, as well as his difficult physical condition: shattered to the ground. Was only on your report. Of course, for any explanations, I’ll drag myself where they point me ... ”(APRF, f. 3, d. 259, l. 7.)

4. This refers to Bukharin's first letter to members of the Politburo of the Central Committee and A. Ya. Vyshinsky dated August 27, 1936.

5. A confrontation between Sokolnikov and Rykov, Sokolnikov and Bukharin was held on September 8, 1936 by the USSR Prosecutor A. Ya. Vyshinsky in the presence of the Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks Kaganovich, as well as the Secretary of the Central Committee, Chairman of the CPC under the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks Yezhov. To Vyshinsky's question whether Sokolnikov knew about the direct facts of the participation of Bukharin and Rykov in the Trotskyist-Zinoviev bloc, Sokolnikov answered in the negative, adding that he knew about this from Tomsky, Radek and Serebryakov. (APRF, f. 3, op. 24, d. 240, l. 93.).