Do you know what a truth and reconciliation commission is?
Moscow Trials
Kirov’s death led to three widely publicized trials that successfully wiped out many of Stalin’s political rivals and critics. Several former high-ranking Communists, including Lev Kamenev, Grigorii Zinoviev, Nikolai Bukharin and Aleksei Rykov, to name a few, were accused of treason.
The trials, which became known as the Moscow Trials, were clearly staged events. The accused admitted to being traitors and spies. Later, historians learned that the defendants agreed to these forced confessions only after being interrogated, threatened and tortured.