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From Labor Action, Vol. 13 No. 50, 12 December 1949, pp. 1 & 3.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
The Yugoslav answer to the anti-Tito trial of Laszlo Rajk in Hungary opened in Sarajevo on December 1. Ten White Russian émigrés, accused of espionage on behalf of Moscow’s GPU, are in Tito’s dock, with appropriate confessions. The tug of war between the Tito-Stalinist ruling class in Yugoslavia and the Russian ruling class thereby reaches another peak of intensity.
The Sarajevo trial also comes in reaction to the latest call of the Cominform, in late November, for renewed struggle against Titoism. This new Cominform blast was not, to be sure, directed so much against the Yugoslav regime itself as against the rising tide of Titoism in the other satellites. In reply, the Sarajevo trial will be used to expose the operations of Russian imperialism in its satrapies.
The ten White Guardist émigrés on the pan are themselves small fry. Big time may be reached when and if Tito uses his potential star performers, the former Yugoslav big shots jailed before the break as Cominform agents, Zujovic and Hebrang, who have been on ice for the past year and a half.
The Sarajevo trial has the following propaganda aims: (1) the Russians use espionage agents in the “people’s democracies" to keep the regimes under control; (2) the Russians’ attitude in the satellites is one of an imperialist nation toward its colonies; (3) the Russians use agents from the political and social dregs of society, specifically elements with counter-revolutionary and even pro-fascist backgrounds and records.
In form, the trial conforms with the standard Stalinist pattern, developed by the GPU in the Moscow Trials of the ’30s and in the Hungarian. Rajk trial. The main evidence against the accused is their confession. The rules of evidence and the legal bases of the accusations are similar to Stalinist procedures. The Moscow Trial pattern is now a Russian export product and has not stopped at the Yugoslav border.
In spite of the totalitarian pattern of the trial, however, there is a vital difference between this one and the Moscow Trials. Whereas the charges against the defendants in those trials, as in the Rajk trial and the forthcoming Bulgarian trial of Kostov, flew in the face of all known facts about the past record and character of the accused, the propaganda aims of the Sarajevo trial are entirely based on plausible charges and are in complete consonance with the notorious practices of the Russian secret police.
Tito has right on his side in his denunciations of the actual activities of Russian imperialism and does not need to invent a fantastic dreamplot; the materials of truth are right at his hand and serve his purpose. This difference exists whether or not the specific accusations against the specific men are proved – and the totalitarian procedure of the trial scarcely even permits judgment on this score.
The White Guard Russian émigrés on trial have an interesting background that goes back to the days of the October Revolution, according to the indictment. This group of exiled Russians was part of the counter-revolutionary armies which fought against the. young Soviet republic. After the collapse of this counter-revolutionary force, they emigrated to Yugoslavia, where they continued their political and conspiratorial activities.
A different counter-revolution (Stalin’s) triumphed, but they continued to plan for the restoration of the monarchical regime. During the Second World War, these émigrés found little difficulty in offering their services to the native fascists, the Ustachi, and to the German Gestapo. At the end of the war, they evidently were able to make the transition to the new totalitarianism, some finding their way into the service of the GPU.
After the end of the war the White Guard Russian colony in Sarajevo was visited by the GPU (now MVD). The pressures used to make the White Guardists act as Russian agents may be guessed at, in particular, the threat of revoking their Russian citizenship, which would have opened them to punishment as Ustachi agents by the Tito regime. The use of such elements by the GPU has long been known.
When the break came in June 1948, these White Guardists were rounded up with other Russian agents, such as Zujovic and Hebrang. Since that time they have been on tap for an opportunity such as this. When the Russian government demanded the return of its citizens, Tito offered them the entire White Guardist colony of 12,000. After that, Stalin did not express much concern for these second-class citizens of his – politically unreliable ones at that.
The key group of those on trial are those from the Russian Orthodox Church. The principal link in the group was Vladislav Nekludov, an assistant priest who was supposed to have transmitted information from Lexej Krishkov, another priest, to Pavel Yeliseyev, a secretary at the Russian embassy in Belgrade. But the important link could not be brought to trial.
For this unfortunate development the responsibility must go to the UDBA, Tito’s GPU. Father Nekludov was “permitted” to commit suicide. Since people were going to ask questions over what may seem a rather irregular development, Father Nekludov also conveniently managed to write a notive [sic!] in which he absolved the UDBA of blame.
All of the defendants offered a largely plausible account of Russian activities in the satellite area, including the impressment into service of the most corrupt elements, for whom the Russian government offered protection against their former crimes.
This results in consequence!
One of the most interesting individuals on trial was one Arseney Boremovitch. During the war he served as chief prosecutor of the Ustachi in two courts-martial which sent 27 Partisans to their death. After the war he received Russian citizenship, delivered information to the Russian embassy, and induced other émigrés to do the same. In both instances he professed that he did nothing wrong; he viewed it as a job.
This type of testimony is just the kind needed for this trial, from the Titoist point of view. It indicates the corrupt individuals whom the Russians employ, not only in Yugoslavia but in other countries as well. This is one of the essential appeals of the trial.
The common denominator for all on trial is that the Russian government conferred Russian citizenship on them only after they had been thoroughly questioned and investigated by the MVD. All defendants had devoted their lives to anti-Soviet and counter-revolutionary activity. They had all collaborated with the fascists to one degree or another, and they all ended up in the service of the MVD, and then they all confessed, in one degree or another, to the UDBA.
It now remains to be seen what the reaction of the Cominform will be to the sharpest Tito attack yet leveled. The trial of Kostov, soon to open in Bulgaria, which is no doubt delayed so that the new script can be rehearsed, will be the first indication. Tito, on the other hand, has not necessarily played all of his cards.
Tito has held off the trial of one Vladimir Krasilnikov presumably because he is too sick to go on trial. Krasilnikov is a former counter-intelligence officer in the czarist army. He was the officer who was ordered to hunt down Lenin in 1917 when Lenin was hiding in Finland. When he is brought to trial, presumably after the Kostov trial, there will be another answer to the Cominform.
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