The anti-Soviet Right-Trotskyist Bloc as an espionage-terror conspiracy

Soviet party, security, prosecutorial and judicial institutions asserted in the 1938 Third Moscow Trial that Nikolai Bukharin, Alexei Rykov and their co-defendants formed an anti-Soviet Right-Trotskyist Bloc that committed espionage, sabotage, terrorism and treason in concert with foreign intelligence services and sought the overthrow and dismemberment of the Soviet state.

1 episode

Current understanding

Later Soviet judicial review found the central criminal-conspiracy case against the rehabilitated defendants unsupported. The USSR Supreme Court found no evidence of links between Bukharin, Rykov and foreign intelligence services, found no support for the alleged network of criminal groups, and determined that major sabotage allegations contradicted the factual record. Twenty of the 21 defendants were ultimately rehabilitated; former NKVD chief Genrikh Yagoda was the exception because of separate responsibility for real NKVD crimes.

Consequences and human impact

The Third Moscow Trial turned a constructed political conspiracy into a public judicial fact at the height of the Great Terror. Twenty-one defendants were tried before the Military Collegium of the USSR Supreme Court in March 1938. Eighteen received death sentences and three received long prison terms. State propaganda presented former senior Bolshevik leaders as spies, saboteurs, terrorists and agents of foreign powers. Decades later the Soviet state reversed the legal findings for nearly the entire defendant group.

How the consequences followed

The conspiracy constructed in the Third Moscow Trial was distinct from the allegations in the earlier Zinoviev-Kamenev and Pyatakov-Radek trials, which involved different defendant groups.

Genrikh Yagoda had headed the NKVD and was implicated in real state crimes independent of the fabricated Right-Trotskyist conspiracy. Soviet prosecutors did not seek his rehabilitation.

The archival record also shows direct political management of the trial. A modern documentary edition based on RGASPI, GARF and FSB Central Archive holdings includes a complete trial transcript containing Stalin's editorial corrections.

defendants in the Third Moscow Trial

defendants sentenced to death in March 1938

20 of 21

defendants ultimately rehabilitated; Genrikh Yagoda was the exception

Quantitative figures are highlighted only when the cited evidence supports them. The scale of a related catastrophe is not automatically treated as a death toll caused solely by this belief.

Institutional episode

Soviet Union

1938–1988Officially endorsed

The Third Moscow Trial made an alleged foreign-backed conspiracy into an authoritative court judgment and propaganda event. Later Soviet review found core allegations against the rehabilitated defendants unsupported, including supposed foreign-intelligence links and sabotage activities. By 1988, 20 of the trial's 21 defendants had been rehabilitated; Yagoda remained the exception.

Institutions

All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)
People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs
Procuracy of the USSR
Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR

Documented consequences

Execution of 18 defendants after a politically constructed public prosecution
Long prison sentences for the remaining three defendants
State propaganda presenting former senior Soviet officials as a coordinated network of foreign spies, terrorists and saboteurs
Use of confessions and judicial theater to legitimize the wider Great Terror and suspicion of hidden enemy networks
Decades of official historical treatment of the convictions as proof of treason before rehabilitation dismantled the case
Posthumous rehabilitation of 20 of the 21 defendants

Institutional machinery

In March 1938 the Soviet state staged a public trial of 21 defendants around the alleged anti-Soviet Right-Trotskyist Bloc. Prosecutor Andrei Vyshinsky accused the group of espionage for foreign powers, wrecking and sabotage, terrorist murders, preparation of further assassinations and plans to assist foreign intervention and partition Soviet territory. Eighteen defendants were sentenced to death; three received long prison terms. During later rehabilitation reviews most defendants were cleared in stages. On 4 February 1988 the Plenum of the USSR Supreme Court cancelled the convictions of Bukharin, Rykov and other remaining principal defendants and terminated their cases for lack of a criminal offense.

Sources and what they establish

The Bukharin Trial, 1938 — documentary collectionElectronic Library of Historical Documents
The archival edition documents the state-managed indictment, trial proceedings, verdict and propaganda environment, including Stalin's editorial corrections to the trial transcript.
Nikolai Ivanovich BukharinGreat Russian Encyclopedia
Current Russian scholarly reference records Bukharin's 1938 conviction and rehabilitation by the USSR Supreme Court Plenum on 4 February 1988.
USSR Supreme Court Plenum resolution of 4 February 1988USSR legislation database

Last reviewed: 25/08/2026