Artem Nikolaevich Konin,
Master’s Student, Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
“…These Gentlemen, Acting for Counter-Revolutionary Purposes, Used Their High Position as Soviet Scientists. From the Speech of A.Ya. Vyshinsky on 27 December 1930 at the People’s Commissariat of Education on the Outcome of the ‘Industrial Party’ Trial”
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2025-1-18
Post-Soviet historiography is actively studying the causes, proceedings and results of the staged trial of the mythical ‘Industrial Party’ that took place in Moscow from 25 November to 7 December 1930. The aim of these scholarly reconstructions is to reveal clear discrepancies and contradictions between the goals of the Stalinist leadership, officially announced in the propaganda accompanying the trial, and the officially proclaimed successes and their consequences of their actual consequences. It is impossible to verify the achievement of both key objectives (to legally establish the existence and ‘defeat’ of the largest domestic ‘wrecking’ organization and to thwart the West’s alleged ‘interventionist’ plans against the USSR) due to the absence of any objective evidence for either the very existence of the ‘Industrial Party’ or the development of plans for invasion against the Soviet Union during the specified period. The evidence is more tangible and specific for the effects of ‘wrecking’ trials and repressive campaigns on the militarization of Soviet life, the rise of social tensions, and anti-intellectual attitudes in both society and the political leadership, with their inevitable consequences for industry and beyond. This documentary publication (the transcript of A.Y. Vyshinsky’s speech to the active members of the People’s Commissariat of Education after the completion of the ’Industrial Party’ trial) is valuable for reconstructing the technologies used to shape in the consciousness of corporate groups of managers, not the actual, but the mythical results of the trial.
Publishing: 24/02/2025
The article has been received by the editor on 02/02/2025
How to cite: Konin A.N. “…These Gentlemen, Acting for Counter-Revolutionary Purposes, Used Their High Position as Soviet Scientists. From the Speech of A.Ya. Vyshinsky on 27 December 1930 at the People’s Commissariat of Education on the Outcome of the ‘Industrial Party’ Trial” // Historical Courier, 2025, No. 1 (39), pp. 268–290. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2025/ISTKURIER-2025-1-18.pdf]
Links: Issue 1 2025
Keywords: “Industrial Party” trial; ideological and propagand; support; A.Y. Vyshinsky; mythical and real consequences