Bloomsbury Stalin's Soviet Justice: ‘Show’ Trials, War Crimes Trials, and Nuremberg

This book examines the Soviet role in the Nuremberg IMT trial through the prism of the ideas and practices of earlier Soviet legal history, including the ""show"" trials of the 1920s and 1930s and the London Conference. It compares and contrasts Stalin's adoption of the ""show"" trial as a tool against domestic and international threats against the Soviet state with similar ad hoc battlefield military tribunals during World War II, and the evolution of Stalins ideas about the trial of Nazi war criminals. Stalin believed that an international trial for Nazi war criminals was the best way to show the world the sacrifices his country had made to defeat Hitler, and he, together with his legal mouthpiece Andrei Vyshinsky, maintained tight control over Soviet representatives during talks leading up to the creation of the Nuremberg IMT trial in 1945, and the trial itself. But Soviet prosecutors at Nuremberg were unable to deal comfortably with the complexities of an open, western-style legal proceeding, which undercut their effectiveness throughout the trial. However, they were able to present a significant body of evidence that underscored the brutal nature of Hitlers racial war in Russia from 1941-45, a theme which became central to Stalins efforts to redefine international criminal law after the war. Stalin's Soviet Justice provides a nuanced analysis of the Soviet justice system at a crucial turning point in European history and it will be vital reading for scholars and advanced students of the legal history of the Soviet Union, the history of war crimes and the aftermath of the Second World War. Review Stalin's Soviet Justice makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the theory and practice of criminal justice and political repression in the USSR, shedding valuable light on the important Soviet contributions to the development of international criminal law and legal institutions after World War II.Prof Jonathan Daly, University of Illinois, USAThis is no dry account of disputes over points of law; here, we learn of the conflicts, disappointments, and victories of real people that takes us beyond the stereotypes of the lawyers as puppets of the Kremlin or journalists churning out propaganda. The result is an intellectually-satisfying account both of the familiar story of the failed attempt of the USSR to use the Nuremburg trials to control the narrative of its role in the Second World War and of the lasting contribution that Soviet legal scholarship made to the development of international law.Prof Judith Pallot, University of Oxford, UK About the Author David M. Crowe is Presidential Fellow at Chapman University, USA and Professor Emeritus of History & Law at Elon University, USA. He has been a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University's Harriman Institute and a Fellow at the Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the recipient of the Southern Conference on Slavic Studies' 2010 Richard Stites Senior Scholar Award for Contributions to the Field of Slavic Studies. He is the author of numerous books, including War Crimes, Genocide, and Justice: A Global History (2013), The Holocaust: Roots, History, and Aftermath (2008), A History of the Gypsies of Eastern Europe and Russia 2nd Edition (2007) and Oskar Schindler: The Untold Story of His Life, Wartime Activities, and the True Story Behind the List (2004). He has also edited several books, such as Crimes of State Past and Present: Government-Sponsored Atrocities and International Legal Responses (2010).David M Crowe's books have been translated into six languages.