Nikolajus Bucharinas: versija
Nikolai Bukharin: Version

Summary/Abstract: A prominent Soviet and party figure Nikolai Bukharin (1888–1938) was sentenced to death in one of the famous Moscow Trials. In 1956 (the times of mass rehabilitation of the victims of Stalinism) he was not rehabilitated due to “long-lasting anti-Soviet fight”. In the times of perestroika, he was acknowledged an innocent victim of Stalinism and rehabilitated, though 276 cases of the Third Moscow Trial remained unsolved. When the Soviet Union collapsed and the archives became accessible to researchers (definitely not all archives and not to all researchers), more research studies gradually emerged confirming the statement that not all victims were innocent – there was a severe Bolshevik fight over power irrespective of the measures. Hence, none of the partakers in that fight can be considered an innocent victim. The majority of party and government figures, including military officers, scientists or artists supporting one or another belligerent party, if not executioners, were the tools of repressions, which gradually became unnecessary and were destroyed. The violent death of such figures does not make their life any nobler. Nikolai Bukharin, who proposed to drive all the residents of the Soviet Union to the barracks of “labour armies” and to burn the entire world on the fire of revolution, is an example of such a figure.

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