Not Guilty Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Charges Made Against Leon Trotsky in the Moscow Trials

by John Dewey, John Chamberlain (Contributor), Edward Alsworth Ross (Contributor)

This book is a legal document of great historical significance. In 1936-1938, during the period of the Great Purges, in which millions died, there were three “show trials” in Moscow. 1. The first trial was of 16 members of the so-called “Trotskyite-Zinovievite Terrorist Centre”, held in August 1936, at which the chief defendants were Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev, two of the most prominent former party leaders. All were sentenced to death and were promptly executed. 2. The second trial in January 1937 involved 17 lesser figures including Karl Radek, Yuri Piatakov and Grigory Sokolnikov. Thirteen of the defendants were shot immediately. The rest received sentences in labor camps, where they were shot a few years later. 3. The third trial, in March 1938, included 21 defendants alleged to belong to the so-called “Bloc of Rightists and Trotskyites”, led by Nikolai Bukharin, former head of the Communist International, former Prime Minister Alexei Rykov, Genrikh Yagoda, Christian Rakovsky and Nikolai Krestinsky. All of the leading defendants were executed. All of the defendants in these “trials” were prominent personalities, including former members of the Politburo and old Bolsheviks whose credentials as revolutionaries could not be questioned. The charges against them were that they had received messages from Trotsky who was in such places as Copenhagen and Mexico City, directing them to overthrow the Government of the Soviet Union and restore Capitalism. Although the charges were inherently ridiculous, a committee of old leftists formed in Mexico City to examine them. They had as their star witness Trotsky himself plus one of his wives and one of his sons who had not been killed yet, plus all of Trotsky's papers. Through these documents, they were able to prove that the charges in the Moscow show trials were false. Trotsky himself was assassinated in Mexico City on August 21, 1940, two years after this Dewey Commission Report had been published.

436 pages, Paperback

First published October 30, 2008

About the author

John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. Dewey, along with Charles Sanders Peirce and William James, is recognized as one of the founders of the philosophy of pragmatism and of functional psychology. He was a major representative of the progressive and progressive populist philosophies of schooling during the first half of the 20th century in the USA.

In 1859, educator and philosopher John Dewey was born in Burlington, Vermont. He earned his doctorate at Johns Hopkins University in 1884. After teaching philosophy at the University of Michigan, he joined the University of Chicago as head of a department in philosophy, psychology and education, influenced by Darwin, Freud and a scientific outlook. He joined the faculty of Columbia University in 1904. Dewey's special concern was reform of education. He promoted learning by doing rather than learning by rote. Dewey conducted international research on education, winning many academic honors worldwide. Of more than 40 books, many of his most influential concerned education, including My Pedagogic Creed (1897), Democracy and Education (1902) and Experience and Education (1938). He was one of the founders of the philosophy of pragmatism. A humanitarian, he was a trustee of Jane Addams' Hull House, supported labor and racial equality, and was at one time active in campaigning for a third political party. He chaired a commission convened in Mexico City in 1937 inquiring into charges made against Leon Trotsky during the Moscow trials. Raised by an evangelical mother, Dewey had rejected faith by his 30s. Although he disavowed being a "militant" atheist, when his mother complained that he should be sending his children to Sunday school, he replied that he had gone to Sunday School enough to make up for any truancy by his children. As a pragmatist, he judged ideas by the results they produced. As a philosopher, he eschewed an allegiance to fixed and changeless dogma and superstition. He belonged to humanist societies, including the American Humanist Association. D. 1952.

Reviews

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is an artifact in a fascinating moment in twentieth century history. As a response to Stalin’s infamous show trials of political opponents, Trotsky tried to stage a counter “trial” to clear his name, and by extension, all communist opponents of Stalin. The famous American pragmatist philosopher, John Dewey, agree to preside over the counter trial.

[Marc Lichtman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the transcript of the proceedings of the Preliminary Commission of Inquiry into the Charges Made Against Leon Trotsky in the Moscow Trials. It is usually just known as "the Dewey Commission," because it was chaired by progressive philosopher John Dewey. Suzanne LaFollette was the secretary.

It has an introduction by Will Reissner, writer for Intercontinental Press, the Militant, and other publications. Its cover is designed to match that of the Pathfinder Press edition of 'The Case of Leon Trotsky: Report of Hearings on the Charges Made against Him in the Moscow Trials. They both use artwork by Dorothy Eisner, who did sketches during the hearings, and then turned them into paintings.

Every library should have these two books, which serve as a reminder of how strong Stalinist influence was, even in the United States, and of the few intellectuals and activists who upheld truth as higher than popularity. We could use more of them today, to take on the myths of gender and frauds like the 1619 Project.