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Summary Revision Guide Trials of Communism: Lectures and Readings
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A revision guide for the course Trials of Communism, all lectures and assigned readings.
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Lecture 1: IntroductionTopics:
Week 1 Introduction: What is a Political Trial?
Week 2: Ordering East/Central Europe after World War II (1945-1947) – specific processes of
retribution that took place after World War II in relation to ethnic Germans mostly Germans were
the group that needed to be punished for all the wrongdoings they inflicted on the populations in
Europe
Week 3: The Holocaust Trials (1945-1960s) – Holocaust trials are a range of very different kinds of
trials such as the trials that took place at state level (mostly in Poland where the major extermination
camps were located) and those trials were aimed at punishing the Nazi criminals, and trials that took
place on an international level (tribunals) and the Eichmann trial were affairs of World War II debated
many years later outside of Europe
Week 4: Stalinist Justice (the 1950s) – party purges after the installation of communist regimes in
Eastern Europe (most violent trials: executions)
Week 5: Dissident Trials (the 1970s)
Week 6: Revolutions (1989) – military tribunals
Week 7: Transitional Justice (post-1989) – ICTY
States use justice (trials) to consolidate their power, to gain legitimacy amongst the people and to
show that they are the governments which should stay in power
Trials can also be a way of nation building and creating certain narratives about the states and the
people in question
Political trials took place very often in important moments of political transition: between political
systems
Political trials
Two different ways to look at political trials: lawyers vs. historians’ perspective
understanding of trials differ per perspective historians look at how trials reflect certain
political changes
To look at political trials as a way of describing certain political processes, events and
changes in a state
To look at political trials as a way of societal changes
To look at political trials as cultural representations (trials and actors in film/media)
To look at political trials as media history (technology in trials/introduction of tapes/
televisation of trials)
The Schwartsbard Trial 1927. Schwartsbard, an Ukrainian Jew, was accused of murdering Symon
Petliura, an Ukrainian emigrant in Paris and a member of the Ukrainian government in exile, and he
committed the murder (and confessed!) in order to take revenge on Ukrainian nationalists for
murdering many members of his family during pogroms Schwartsbard commented, by murdering
a member of the government, on the political climate (the legal system) which allowed Semitism to
exist without persecuting the perpetrators. The court recognized that Schwartsbard made a political
statement about the lack of legitimacy in Ukraine (question legitimacy) and he was found not guilty
Political trials
Lawyers vs. historian’s perspective
Actors: judge, defendant, prosecutor (agency)
Trials follow a certain formula (conventions)/script (particularly in non-democratic settings
but not only): during show trials, defendants have little agency and have to work according to
a script
, The setting of the trials (place of the defendant, prosecutor, judges, audience): metaphor of
theatre for (political) trials
The state as actor in political trials the state very often uses trials as a way of
demonstrating their power/legitimacy (authoritarian states in particular): to use law to
execute complete control of the state over their population
*defendants took radical actions at times to question the legitimacy of the state and/or
court, by drinking poison in the courtroom, committing murder or suicide
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg Cold War Trial 1953. Jewish American couple who were accused of
spying for the Soviet-Union and selling nuclear secrets to the Soviet-Union, in the midst of the Red
Scare (in the 1950s there were many show trials) couple was found guilty and were executed and
during the 1990s the release of the Soviet secret documents confirmed that Julius was spying but it
remained unclear if Ethel was involved
Political trials in the early days political trials important for the legitimacy of states and institutions
Socrates (399 BC) was convicted of corrupting the youth of Athens and the government was
afraid that Socrates would create more dissent and instability to the new system (post-war
trial)
Jesus (34 AD) who was convicted of blasphemy (‘’godslastering’’)
Joan of Arc (1431)
Galileo (1633) was accused of heresy: trial about the power and legitimacy of the church as
the executor of the trial, not about questioning the scientific findings of Galileo (the claims
were accepted and believed)
Trials are connected to post-war periods/post-war reconstruction or state building!
Dreyfus Affair 1894-1906. The trial began after the end of the Franco-Prussian war, which took place
in 1870, and it ended with the unification of Germany in 1871 and the annexation of Alsace. Dreyfus
was an Alsatian Jew and he was accused of selling military secrets to the Germans. Dreyfus was
attacked by the conservative part of the French society (trial took place in France) but the left-wing
intellectuals wanted to clear Dreyfus’ name. The trial turned into a discussion about the French
society and about the Jewish minority (anti-Semitism from the conservatives) and German speakers.
He was sent to Devils’ island but later his name was cleared.
The trial was also culturally relevant. During the trial, journalist Herzl, came up with the necessity of a
Jewish state and he publicly advocated this due to the rising anti-Semitism.
Importance of the public involvement in contemporary and criminal trials, since the past decade,
and mostly in trials of celebrities. The media played a very important role in the outcome of the trial
and many observers stated that the way the media displaced Amanda Knox was what led to her
conviction. In that trial, the murder victim was Meredith Kercher and two people were convicted
namely Amanda Knox and her Italian boyfriend. Knox was cleared after she was imprisoned for three
years already.
A criminal trial can turn into a political trial due to the presence of the media which led to wider
discussions such as race, culture, sex, societies. Some people clamed, in the OJ Simpson trial, that he
was being discriminated for his dark skin tone.
Adolf Eichmann Trial 1961. Eichmann was one of the main executors and organisers of the
Holocaust. He was tried in Jerusalem and the entire trial was recorded for the first time and the tapes
were broadcasted to many countries and televised into national television in more than 200
countries. This shows the development of filming and technology. The trial became a very
transnational public event because everyone in the world followed the development of the trial.
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