THE CASE
of
N. P. Vitvitsky, V.A. Gussev, A. W. Gregory, Y. I. Zivert, N. G. Zorin, M. D. Krasheninnikov, M. L. Kotlyarevsky, A. S. Kutuzova, J. Cushny, V. P. Lebedev, A. T. Lobanov, W. L. MacDonald, A. Monkhouse, C. Nordwall, P. Y. Oleinik, L. A. Sukhoruchkin, L. C. Thornton, V. A. Sokolov
CHARGED WITH
WRECKING ACTIVITIES
at Power Stations in the Soviet Union
HEARD BEFORE THE
SPECIAL SESSION OF THE
SUPREME COURT OF THE U.S.S.R.
In Moscow, April 12-19, 1933
TRANSLATION
OF THE OFFICIAL VERBATIM REPORT
VOL. II
Sessions of April 14 and 15, 1933
STATE LAW PUBLISHING HOUSE MOSCOW • 1933
This volume is the second part of the unabridged translation
of the official verbatim report of the trial
Printed in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
by The International Press, Moscow
Glavlit B = 37237
CONTENTS
Morning Session, April 14, 1933 / 5Facsimile of the Document Written and Signed by
A. Monkhouse, April 1, 1933 / 17
Facsimile of W. L. MacDonald’s Deposition,
April 3 and 5, 1933 / 34
Evening Session, April 14, 1933 / 84
Morning Session, April 15, 1933 / 140
Facsimile of the Deposition by W. L. MacDonald, March 19, 1933 / 146
Evening Session, April 15, 1933 / 224
Facsimile of the Document Written and Signed by L. C. Thornton, April 4, 1933 / 277
Facsimile of the Deposition by L. C. Thornton, March 19, 1933 / 278 &
279
PROCEEDINGS OF THE SPECIAL SESSION OF THE
SUPREME COURT OF THE U.S.S.R.
MORNING SESSION, APRIL 14, 1933, 10:15 a.m.
Commandant: Please rise, the Court is coming.
The President: Please be seated. The session is resumed. Comrade Commandant, please call witness Dolgov.
Commandant: He is here.
The President: Your name is Dolgov?
Dolgov: Yes.
The President: First name and patronymic?
Dolgov: Alexei Nikolayevich.
The President: Where do you work?
Dolgov: At the Electro-Import.
The President: In what capacity?
Dolgov: As manager of the Control Department.
The President: You’ve been called as witness at the request of the Prosecution. You must give correct evidence, for any false evidence you make yourself liable to proceedings under a criminal Charge. (Dolgov signs a statement to this effect presented to him by the Secretary.)
One question: Under what circumstances did you receive the 3,000 rubles from one of the employees of the Metro-Vickers firm?
Dolgov: The bribe was given in the office of Mr. Thornton, I believe on July 1 or 2, 1932, in the following circumstances: Mr. Thornton came as usual into my office on some business and asked...
The President: Where was that?
Dolgov: In my department. He asked me to come to see him in his office in connection with some business. As I often had occasion to attend at the office of the firm in order to present and discuss various questions in connection with claims, I went there this time to settle some questions. Thornton opened a drawer where there were 3,000 rubles and offered me the money. At first I felt my blood mounting to my head; then I decided that if Mr. Thornton, a British subject, wished to buy me, a Soviet engineer, I would take this money and hand it over to the prosecuting authorities; which I did the very same day.
The President: What did Thornton wish to obtain from you?
Dolgov: By the nature of my work it was within my duty to present claims and watch the quality of the imported electric power equipment in general. Quite naturally all the data as to the concrete defects of the imported equipment, including the equipment of the Metro-Vickers firm, was concentrated in my hands.
The equipment supplied by the firm was not always of the proper quality. I was very insistent in presenting my claims, demanding that the legitimate requests of our clients should be satisfied, and besides this, quite naturally I used to draw my own conclusions in regard to the quality of the installation. An engineer who is in charge of the placing of orders, was able to recommend one type of equipment or another. To my mind the money was given so that I should keep quiet about the bad quality of the equipment supplied by Metro-Vickers. I repeat again that I was always firm in my demands and used to ask not only the representatives of Metro-Vickers, but also the representatives of other firms that they should satisfy our legitimate demands without any beating about the bush and without befogging us with theoretical talk. I treated the Metro-Vickers firm in the same way.
Therefore, I think that the money was given me presumably to conceal defects in the imported equipment coming from the Metro-Vickers firm.
Vyshinsky: Witness Dolgov, please tell us, how long you have known Thornton?
Dolgov: I have known Mr. Thornton since 1930.
Vyshinsky: And when did that incident take place?
Dolgov: That incident took place in 1932, I believe in July.
Vyshinsky: Consequently it happened after a long acquaintance, an acquaintance lasting for about two years.
Dolgov: An acquaintance of two and a half years.
Vyshinsky: What were your relations with Thornton during these two and a half years?
Dolgov: At first, when I worked as an engineer of the Control Department (I may say I was a pioneer, I was the first engineer), Mr. Thornton and Mr. Monkhouse hardly noticed me at all, because my duties were those of presenting claims, but not the placing of orders, which was of much more interest to the representatives of the firm. So that was quite understandable. In any case, however, in 1930-31 they scarcely noticed me.
Vyshinsky: Well continue. When did they begin to take notice of you?
Dolgov: About November 1931, when I became manager of the Control Department.
Vyshinsky: How was this change of attitude towards you expressed?
Dolgov: Well, outwardly, these people began to notice me, to greet me.
Vyshinsky: To greet you?
Dolgov: Of course, to greet me.
Vyshinsky: To come in to have a chat?
Dolgov: Yes, they came in to have a chat. And then, the following little incident. The firm usually circularizes its technical magazine. Formerly I never received it. From that moment, however, I began to receive it regularly, like all the engineers of the Electro-Import.
Vyshinsky: As a definite sign of attention?
Dolgov: Yes.
Vyshinsky: And what was Thornton’s attitude to you? How did it appear to you? Was it the attitude of an intelligent, responsive and considerate man, or something different, the attitude of a harsh and insistent man?
Dolgov: On the one hand, I noticed that from this time, they began to be very amiable to me. On the other hand, this made me nevertheless insist on what it was necessary to demand. The amiability, however, undoubtedly increased. It was as if we had been acquainted a long time, and the fact that they never noticed me in 1930 – this was something of the distant past.
Vyshinsky: What conversations did you have with them? Were they only of a business nature, only within the limits of your business relations?
Dolgov: I had conversations with Mr. Thornton, who was also dealing with claims in regard to Metro-Vickers, that is, he used to receive these claims and discuss them. I had many talks with him about these claims. Apart from this, there were conversations on subjects of a purely technical order. I am a young specialist and have graduated recently, in 1929. Mr. Thornton has great practical experience. It is quite natural that it is very useful to speak with an experienced man – there is always something to learn. We spoke on technical subjects, discussed questions of various equipment.
As to Mr. Monkhouse, who by his position had less connection with my work, my conversations with him were very rare. They too, however, touched on claims. Or I used to speak with him as with a prominent specialist on questions of insulation, which interest me very much. We discussed these questions in connection with concrete facts.
Vyshinsky: Did you have any conversations with Thornton and: Monkhouse on questions not concerning your immediate duties and technique, that is, conversations in the nature of common gossip?
Dolgov: It is quite understandable that in the course of long conversations there was such talk too. There were conversations precisely in the nature of common gossip, because the representatives of the foreign firms used to surprise me by their judgments and questions which proved that they did not understand our Soviet life. Of course, there were such conversations.
Vyshinsky: What about personal matters? Questions of your personal life, of your personal position, including your material position? Was this matter touched upon either by you or by them?
Dolgov: If you put in that category such questions as asked by Mr. Thornton – “Where are you going for your holidays? Are you going to a sanatorium or to a rest home?” – then, there were such questions.
Vyshinsky: Was the question put directly as to whether you were in need of money?
Dolgov: The question was not put directly.
Vyshinsky: It may seem to you indelicate, but I wish to know, didn’t you put to Thornton the question of your difficult material position.
Dolgov: Comrade Prosecutor, I am a Soviet engineer, and I know the limits where one may speak on this question.
Vyshinsky: I do not wish to embarrass you, but it is important for me to get an answer as to whether you did not speak to Thornton, as to a representative of the firm with which you were connected – perhaps quite unconsciously because of your inexperience, or lack of caution – that your position might have been better if you were to receive a higher salary, if you had a different apartment, something of this kind? Perhaps accidentally and incautiously you touched on this question?
Dolgov: I was very busy with my work and in the process of work perhaps there was such a time when Thornton came into my room and I often nervously spoke about all this mountain of papers. Perhaps this, my heightened nervousness, gave the possibility of speaking about my being dissatisfied, but it was not necessary to speak directly to the representative of the firm about my being in need, because I was not in such need.
Vyshinsky: What is your salary?
Dolgov: 550 rubles, besides literary work, translations, reviews and articles.
Vyshinsky: What is your family position?
Dolgov: I have a wife and child.
Vyshinsky: Does your wife work?
Dolgov: Yes, she does.
Vyshinsky: How much does she earn?
Dolgov: 190 rubles.
Vyshinsky: Consequently you earn...
Dolgov: On the whole 750-800 rubles, apart from my literary earnings.
Vyshinsky: And what do your literary earnings amount to?
Dolgov: On the average I easily earned from 100-150 rubles a month, in 1932. I have plenty of material for such literary work, namely, defects in quality of material and of imported equipment – things that are of value not only to Russian engineers and technicians, but also to our entire industry. Properly speaking, I am working in this branch, but this is also in accord with my work of self-education.
Vyshinsky: Did you ever meet anyone else from Metro-Vickers, apart from Monkhouse and Thornton, someone from England?
Dolgov: Very seldom, but of course I met Cushny, since in the absence of Thornton he frequently took his place.
Vyshinsky: Did Cushny offer you any money, by hints and so on?
Dolgov: No.
Vyshinsky: And Monkhouse?
Dolgov: No.
Vyshinsky: Did Thornton at that time offer you the money right away, or was there some preparation for it?
Dolgov: I would say the extreme amiability was the preparation. He was exceedingly amiable to me, even obliging.. Thus, perhaps a day or two before this he asked me whether I was going to a sanatorium or to a rest home, because it was summer. As far as I remember, I said that I was taking my holidays in the country.
Vyshinsky: Didn’t he tell you that some of their employees get money in advance, or in some other way, for their needs in general?
Dolgov: Yes, he did.
Vyshinsky: What did you say to that?
Dolgov: I certainly said nothing at all. I showed that it did not concern me.
Vyshinsky: And soon after that conversation were you handed these 3,000 rubles?
Dolgov: In about a day after that, or several days later.
Vyshinsky: Under the circumstances as described by you to the President?
Dolgov: I forgot to say that when Mr. Thornton gave me the money he reassured me, telling me that I need not worry, that only he and Mr. Monkhouse knew about it, so that there was no need to worry, and everything was in order.
Vyshinsky: Were you presented with any demands of a general or a concrete nature, by way of compensation?
Dolgov: No, there were no demands.
Vyshinsky: How was the money offered – take it and you will return it afterwards, or some other way?
Dolgov: T heard nothing about returning the money.
Vyshinsky: But you personally took it as a loan?
Dolgov: Absolutely not.
Vyshinsky: Or as an ordinary simple bribe?
Dolgov: I took it as an ordinary bribe.
Vyshinsky: When did you make your statement to the O.G.P.U. about the fact that you were given a bribe?
Dolgov: The same day.
Vyshinsky: And you enclosed the money with your statement?
Dolgov: Yes.
Vyshinsky: Are you a member of the Communist Party?
Dolgov: No, I am not a Party member.
Vyshinsky: A member of a trade union?
Dolgov: Since 1918.
Vyshinsky: Allow me to put some questions to Thornton.
The President: You may.