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From Labor Action, Vol. 13 No. 52, 26 December 1949, p. 1.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
Traicho Koifov, former No. 2 man in the Bulgarian Communist Party, was executed two days before the general election held on December 18. In the oft-postponed election, reinforced by this unanswerable argument, the Stalinist puppet regime counted Itself in with a 97 per cent majority for its slate – the only slate.
Up to the last minute in court, Kostov, maintained his innocence of the main accusations. But Bulgaria’s CP announced that he had “confessed” once more before he mounted the gallows. Notwithstanding this face-saving claim, Kostov’s refusal to confess during the trial was a blow to the GPU masterminds of Premier Kolarov.
At the Rajk trial in Hungary, where all of the defendants played their parts to the GPU’s satisfaction, the lawyer’s actions were worth about a footnote. Mervyn Jones, writing in the English Stalinist New Central European Observer for October 29 on the Rajk trial could say the following:
“I should like to beg all who are unconvinced of the validity of the trial to read the speeches of the defense lawyers. They are extremely cogent and make use of every possible loophole in the prosecution’s case and every excuse for the defendants.
“But the evidence itself discredited the defense. The defense lawyers pleaded that their clients were ‘in a tight spot’ and could not refuse to become informers of the Horthy police when faced with torture, or, later, American spies when faced with exposure.”
But Kostov denied his guilt in court to the police-agent charges. Therefore his defense lawyer could ill afford to be “cogent.”
This employee of the secret police actually got up and began to apologize because he was defending a criminal whom he knew was guilty. He pointed out that “the defense must assist the prosecution to find the objective truth in a case” and that he was doing his stint only because the Constitution gave the accused the right to a defense.
The Titoists, commenting on the deep differences that exist in the Bulgarian CP over the trial, claim that the first prosecutor assigned to the trial committed suicide because he could not play along with the farce. The defense lawyer evidently was attempting to remove the stigma even from the cursory “defense” which he offered.
One of the interesting aspects of the Kostov trial which also appeared in the Rajk trial was the attempt to link up the Stalinists who were connected with the Spanish Civil War as being “Trotskyites” or Anglo-American agents. Reaching back, the GPU this time pulled up Bela Kun, leader of the Hungarian Soviets in 1919 and later a faithful Stalinist wheelhorse. Bela Kun, who disappeared in 1938 after returning from Spain, was accused of being Kostov’s accomplice in 1934 along with another “Trotskyite” named “Walter” who was really Josip Broz, now known as Tito.
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Last updated on 11 December 2022