The Shakhty Trial (Russian: Ша́хтинское де́ло) was the first important Soviet show trial[1] since the case of the Socialist Revolutionary Party in 1922. Fifty-three engineers and managers from the North Caucasus town of Shakhty were arrested in 1928 after being accused of conspiring to sabotage the Soviet economy with the former owners of the coal mines. The trial was conducted on May 18, 1928, in House of Trade Unions, Moscow.[2] Thirty-four of the accused received prison terms, while eleven were sentenced to death (with six being executed; the rest received commutations). The remainder were acquitted or received suspended sentences.
- ^ Kurt Rosenbaum, Community of Fate: German-Soviet Diplomatic Relations 1922-1928, (Syracuse University Press, 1965), p. 265.
- ^ Kotkin 2014, pp. 702–705