ABSTRACT
The Tukhachevskiy episode was an anomaly in the great Stalin purge. Other than as an every bit as devastating and chronologically concurrent event, it had little in common with the political purge. In 1936, Stalin’s former partners Zinoviev and Kamenev and in 1938, Bukharin and Rykov, were subjected together with their alleged accomplices to extended show trials in which the charges and evidence were elaborately contrived. The ‘Trotskiyite Center’ trial in early 1937 did the same with persons chiefly noted for having been associated with Trotskiy at one time or other. The careers of almost all the accused had either been terminated or gravely beclouded for as much as a decade beforehand. In the Tukhachevskiy case, the verdict was not announced until after the sentences had been carried out, and whether a trial had even taken place was left in doubt. Moreover, only weeks earlier, the careers of the chief defendants had seemingly been secure. Tukhachevskiy had been scheduled to represent the Soviet Union at the coronation of King George VI in London on 12 May. Yakir and Uborevich had held their military district commands until 29 May.
