The trial of the decade — against former party
heavyweight, Bo Xilai – has become a disaster for the new Chinese
leadership. The charismatic Bo’s forceful assertions of innocence
against charges of petty corruption and misuse of office have enlivened
his supporters and made his accusers look weak and petty.
Joseph Stalin mastered the political show trial.
His first, against sixteen of Lenin’s deputies and Trotsky allies,
lasted five days. His second, against seventeen party officials, lasted a
week. The third, against the twenty-one members of the “Bloc of
Rightists and Trotskyites,” lasted almost two weeks in the presence of
invited diplomats and journalists.
Stalin orchestrated his show trials as carefully
staged rituals. In each, the defendants’ confessions were extracted well
before the trial. They dutifully confessed in public court to
horrendous crimes of murder, espionage, and treason. Official newsreels
showed the repentant traitors begging for mercy. With few exceptions the
defendants received the death penalty and were shot within a day or two
of the trial. The Soviet press condemned the “mad dogs” in incessant
drumbeats of vitriol. Factory workers organized “spontaneous” meetings
to demand the supreme penalty. Confused diplomats and journalists, many
of whom did not understand Russian, sat in the court room as
interpreters whispered in their ears. They concluded that the show
trials had exposed real plots against a Soviet Union, which had narrowly
averted overthrow by sinister forces from within and without. What a success for Mr. Stalin!
Stalin would erupt in laughter at the pantywaist
show trial of the disgraced party leader, Bo Xilai, currently underway
in Beijing. It violates all of Stalin’s rules for a successful show
trial.
