The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation

by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

But even the most superbly successful of these theatrical productions was expensive and troublesome. And Stalin decided not to use open trials any longer. Or rather in 1937 he probably did have a plan for holding public trials on a wide scale in the local districts—so the black soul of the opposition would be made visible to the masses. But he couldn’t find producers who were good enough. It wasn’t practical to prepare things so carefully, and the mental processes of the accused weren’t so complex, and Stalin only got into a mess, although very few people know about it. The whole plan broke down after a few trials, and was abandoned.