Trial of the All-Union Bureau of Mensheviks and Menshevik M.A.Valerianov-Brownsteins fate

After the victory in October 1917 the Bolsheviks began theprosecution of their former associates, who were among other political parties and movements, in struggle against autocracy. Such otherpolitical parties included the RSDRP (Russian Social Democratic Party) members. They were exposed to prosecutions and arrests in thesame measure as the representatives of other parties and movements. According to the USSR OGPU (Joint State Political Directorate)data 6 structures of the Moscow committee of Mensheviks illegal bureaus, 4 storehouses of literature, the archive of the Central PartyCommittee bureau were liquidated from 1923 to 1928. Information received by OGPU indicated the active Mensheviks function insome big cities of the European part of the USSR and some republics of Transcaucasia. With the aim to strike the next blow on Mensheviksthe Bolshevist country leaders, with direct I. Stalins support it was decided to organize a political trial. It took place in Moscow onMarch 1-9, 1931. It was the result of disclosure by OGPU of a counterrevolutionary Mensheviks organization, which ostensibly operatedin the USSR. The members of the organization were accused of contacts with the anti-Soviet forces abroad, of organization of thenational economy destruction and preparation of the Soviet power overthrow. 14 persons were officially tried during the trial of theAll-Union Bureau of Mensheviks, but the trial materials allow speaking about the criminal prosecution of 122 persons. It is possible toassert nowadays that the OGPU bodies falsified the trial according to the instructions of the countrys government. Moreover, it does notinclude any documentary and material evidences of Mensheviks criminal activity. There are many conflicting events and facts describedin that trials materials. In the archive of the Federal Security Service Department of Tomsk Region archival investigatory materials(1937) were discovered on the former member of the Mensheviks Central Party Committee. It was M.A. Brownstein-Valerianov,who illegally arrived in the USSR in 1929 and served an exile in Kolpashevo after condemnation in the process of 1931. He was arrestedin March, 1937 and convicted as the head of underground activity among the Mensheviks in Siberia and a member of counterrevolutionaryorganization on the Soviet power overthrow with participation of the socialist revolutionaries. He was shot in June 1938.A diary, which was discovered in the materials, represents real interest for researchers. In this diary M.A. Brownstein-Valerianov describedthe All-Union Bureau of Mensheviks trial preparation process in detail. The diary was found in 1933 in the walking courtyardof the Suzdal political insulator. Considering Brownstein-Valerianovs position in the party of Mensheviks and the fact of his illegalcoming to the USSR, the OGPU bodies had plans to make him one of the main figurants of the process. But he did not cooperate withthe investigation and as a protest went on a fatal hunger strike. For this reason and in connection with his bad health condition he wasnot present at the proceeding, but after it ended he was convicted for 10 years of imprisonment. The whole work of the trial preparationwas described in the diary. Details are described of the conditions of custodial control, the methods of investigation and the work of theOGPU Criminalist Expert Department, which was responsible for preparation and carrying out of the next show trial against the enemiesof the Soviet state. This document is a striking illustration, which estimates the political situation in the country of that time inconnection with the campaign for the Bolsheviks political opponents destruction.

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