What do you think?
Rate this book
Stalin's Prosecutor: The Life of Andrei Vyshinsky
During Joseph Stalin’s reign few men proved to be more appallingly ruthless than Andrei Vyshinsky, who as prosecutor-general presided over the infamous Moscow Show Trials of the 1930s. In this groundbreaking history, Soviet journalist Arkady Vaksberg draws on previously unseen KGB files and other source material to limn an unforgettable portrait of one of that period’s most important and, until now, mysterious figures.
Born in Odessa in 1883, Andrei Vyshinsky rose to the upper echelon of power to become one of the most feared and despised of Stalin’s henchmen. He gained notoriety for carefully orchestrating the purge trials of the thirties. Which led to the deaths of thousands of Stalin’s enemies—real or imagined. Radek, Rykov, Kamenev, Zinoviev and Bukharin were only some of the many revolutionaries, high-ranking army officers and senior government officials to fall during this dark period. Through it all, Vyshinsky was there to guarantee conviction, with or without evidence, while maintaining a pretense of legality.
When his savage legal career ended in 1938, Vyshinsky moved on to diplomatic service, eventually rising to the post of foreign minister, where he continued to exercise his special talent for justifying Soviet actions during the cataclysmic 1940s and early 1950s. Hid remarkably long career ended with “honorable exile” as the Soviet delegate to the United Nations after Stalin’s death in 1953. In ironic contrast to his many victims, Andrei Vyshinsky died a peaceful death in his residence on capitalistic Park Avenue a year later.
The life of this single, crucial individual is also the previously untold story of the inner workings of the Stalinist justice system, a fascinating and telling look at Soviet conduct during that epoch, and, ultimately, a unique and staling glimpse into the very inner circle of Stalin’s coterie. This, one of the first and most revealing of the post-glasnost books to come out of the Soviet Union, is a truly valuable contribution to our understanding of 20th Century history.
Born in Odessa in 1883, Andrei Vyshinsky rose to the upper echelon of power to become one of the most feared and despised of Stalin’s henchmen. He gained notoriety for carefully orchestrating the purge trials of the thirties. Which led to the deaths of thousands of Stalin’s enemies—real or imagined. Radek, Rykov, Kamenev, Zinoviev and Bukharin were only some of the many revolutionaries, high-ranking army officers and senior government officials to fall during this dark period. Through it all, Vyshinsky was there to guarantee conviction, with or without evidence, while maintaining a pretense of legality.
When his savage legal career ended in 1938, Vyshinsky moved on to diplomatic service, eventually rising to the post of foreign minister, where he continued to exercise his special talent for justifying Soviet actions during the cataclysmic 1940s and early 1950s. Hid remarkably long career ended with “honorable exile” as the Soviet delegate to the United Nations after Stalin’s death in 1953. In ironic contrast to his many victims, Andrei Vyshinsky died a peaceful death in his residence on capitalistic Park Avenue a year later.
The life of this single, crucial individual is also the previously untold story of the inner workings of the Stalinist justice system, a fascinating and telling look at Soviet conduct during that epoch, and, ultimately, a unique and staling glimpse into the very inner circle of Stalin’s coterie. This, one of the first and most revealing of the post-glasnost books to come out of the Soviet Union, is a truly valuable contribution to our understanding of 20th Century history.
374 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 1991
1 person is currently reading
29 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 21, 2021
A worthy biography of one of the most notable and influential people in the history of the 20th century. However, the book itself, and the author’s writing style in particular, stands out among its peers as somewhat quirky and unique. So much so, that I can fully understand some readers being completely put off by it.
Now, I don’t want to scare anyone! The author, Arkadi Vaksberg, lovingly tries to imitate Alexandr Solzhenitsyn’s iconic writing style, but never quite succeeds. That being said, when the author’s own voice is heard and he isn’t focusing on copying someone else, his native writing style is beautiful and a great pleasure to the reader. His text is always richly descriptive, colorful, visceral, and not at all dry and long-winded, as biographies can be.
The material substance of the book, Andrei Vyshinsky’s life, is thorough and all-encompassing, covering all the major and minor events of the politician’s life. Sadly, herein also lies the book’s greatest weakness. The author notes his not being a ‘professional historian’, and it shows. An especially criminal flaw for a historical work, in my opinion, is the noticeable lack of dates given. There were many instances of me reading many pages worth of important events, with only my guess as to when the events in question took place.
Secondly, motivated either by the desire to keep the book succinct or by lack of time and/or other resources, the author glances over many important events with the words, ‘as is general knowledge’ or ‘much has already been written on the subject’. This places tremendous demands on the reader. This, accompanied by the fact that the author places Vyshinsky almost in a vacuum, devoid of the people who influenced certain events much more than he ever did, leads me to say that this is a phenomenal biography and an enthralling read, but to someone on the ‘finish line’, not starting point, of researching Soviet history.
P. S.
If this is of importance to anyone, the letters on the pages of the physical book are very fat. It’s like the entire book is written in 'bold'. This was a bit intimidating at first, but I can say that, luckily, I quickly got used to it!
Now, I don’t want to scare anyone! The author, Arkadi Vaksberg, lovingly tries to imitate Alexandr Solzhenitsyn’s iconic writing style, but never quite succeeds. That being said, when the author’s own voice is heard and he isn’t focusing on copying someone else, his native writing style is beautiful and a great pleasure to the reader. His text is always richly descriptive, colorful, visceral, and not at all dry and long-winded, as biographies can be.
The material substance of the book, Andrei Vyshinsky’s life, is thorough and all-encompassing, covering all the major and minor events of the politician’s life. Sadly, herein also lies the book’s greatest weakness. The author notes his not being a ‘professional historian’, and it shows. An especially criminal flaw for a historical work, in my opinion, is the noticeable lack of dates given. There were many instances of me reading many pages worth of important events, with only my guess as to when the events in question took place.
Secondly, motivated either by the desire to keep the book succinct or by lack of time and/or other resources, the author glances over many important events with the words, ‘as is general knowledge’ or ‘much has already been written on the subject’. This places tremendous demands on the reader. This, accompanied by the fact that the author places Vyshinsky almost in a vacuum, devoid of the people who influenced certain events much more than he ever did, leads me to say that this is a phenomenal biography and an enthralling read, but to someone on the ‘finish line’, not starting point, of researching Soviet history.
P. S.
If this is of importance to anyone, the letters on the pages of the physical book are very fat. It’s like the entire book is written in 'bold'. This was a bit intimidating at first, but I can say that, luckily, I quickly got used to it!
November 13, 2020
A good history.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews