Stalin's Soviet Justice

From the 'show' trials of the 1920s and 1930s to the London Conference, this book examines the Soviet role in the Nuremberg IMT trial through the prism of the ideas and practices of earlier Soviet legal history, detailing the evolution of Stalin's ideas about the trail 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 Hitler's racial war in Russia from 1941-45, a theme which became central to Stalin's 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.

David M. Crowe is Presidential Fellow at Chapman University, USA and Professor Emeritus of History & Law at Elon University, USA. He is the author of numerous books, including War Crimes, Genocide, and Justice: A Global History (2013), The Holocaust: Roots, History, and Aftermath (2008), and Oskar Schindler: The Untold Story of His Life, Wartime Activities, and the True Story Behind the List (2004). David M. Crowe's books have been translated into six languages.

Introduction, David M. Crowe (Elon University, USA)
1. Late Imperial and Soviet 'Show' Trials, 1878-1938, David M. Crowe (Elon University, USA)
2. Traitors or War Criminals: Collaboration on Trial in Soviet Courts in the 1940s, Alexander V. Prusin (New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, USA)
3. 'Nikto ne zabyt': The Politicization of Soviet War Dead, Thomas Earl Porter (North Carolina A&T State University, USA)
4. The Human Face of Soviet Justice: Aron Trainin and the Origins of the Soviet Doctrine of International Criminal Law, Valentyna Polunina (Heidelberg University, Germany)
5. 'May Justice be Done!': The Soviet Union and the London Conference (1945), Irina Schulmeister-André (Independent Scholar, Germany)
6. The Soviet Union at the Palace of Justice: Law, Intrigue, and International Rivalry in the Nuremberg Trials, Francine Hirsch (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA)
7. Soviet Journalists at Nuremberg: Establishing the Soviet War Narrative, Jeremy Hicks (Queen Mary University of London, UK)
8. From Geneva to Nuremberg to New York: Andrei Vyshinsky, Raphaël Lemkin, and the Struggle to Outlaw Revolutionary Violence, State Terror, and Genocide, Douglas Irvin-Erickson (George Mason University, USA)
Select Bibliography
Index