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Vasili Vasilievich Ulrikh (July 13, 1889 – May 7, 1951) was the presiding judge at all the major show trials of the Great Purges in the Soviet Union, as well as many lesser trials, including a large number of secret trials that lasted only fifteen minutes or less. He was noted for the extreme speed and injustice with which he handled his cases. Image File history File links Stop_hand. ... July 13 is the 194th day (195th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 171 days remaining. ... 1889 (MDCCCLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... May 7 is the 127th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (128th in leap years). ... 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... The term show trial serves most commonly to label a type of public trial in which the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt of the accused: the actual trial has as its only goal to present the accusation and the verdict to the public as an impressive example and... The Great Purge is the name given to campaigns of repression in the Soviet Union during the late 1930s which included a purge of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. ... A secret trial is a trial that is not open to the public, nor reported in the news. ...

Early life

Vasili Ulrikh was born in Riga, Latvia, then a part of the Russian Empire. His father was a Latvian revolutionary of German descent and his mother was a Russian noblewoman. Because they were openly involved in socialist revolutionary activity, they were sentenced to a five-year period of exile in Irkutsk. Riga (Latvian: Rīga), the capital of Latvia, is situated on the Baltic Sea coast on the mouth of the River Daugava, at . ... Imperial Russia is the term used to cover the period of Russian history from the expansion of Russia under Peter the Great, through the expansion of the Russian Empire from the Baltic to the Pacific Ocean, to the deposal of Nicholas II of Russia, the last tsar, at the start... Irkutsks location Irkutsk (Иркутск), the chief town of the Irkutsk Oblast, is one of the most important places in Siberia, being not only the principal commercial depot north of Tashkent, but also a fortified military post, an archbishopric of the Russian Orthodox Church and the seat of several learned societies. ...

In 1910 Ulrikh returned to his native Riga and entered a course of study at the Riga Polytechnical Institute. He graduated in 1914, and with the beginning of World War I he was sent to the front as an officer.-1... 1914 (MCMXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... Combatants Allies: Serbia, Russia, France, Romania, Belgium, British Empire, United States, Italy, and others Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Ottoman Empire Casualties Military dead:5 million Civilian dead:3 million Total dead:8 million Military dead:4 million Civilian dead:3 million Total dead:7 million The First World...

After the Bolshevik Revolution, Leon Trotsky secured him entrance into the Cheka. Ulrikh subsequently served on a number of military tribunals, and came to the attention of Joseph Stalin, who apparently liked his terse, even laconic style of reporting as well as his total lack of sentiment. (Russian: Лев Давидович Троцкий; also transliterated Leo, Lev, Trotskii, Trotski, Trotskij, Trockij and Trotzky) (November 7 [O.S. October 26] 1879 – August 21, 1940), born Lev Davidovich Bronstein (Лев Давидович Бронштейн), was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist theorist. ... Cheka-KGB emblem: sword and shield The Cheka (ЧК - чрезвычайная комиссия) was the first of many Soviet secret police organizations, created by decree on December 20, 1917 by Vladimir Lenin and led by Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky. ... (Russian, in full: Иосиф Виссарионович Сталин [Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin]; December 18 [O.S. December 6] 1878[1] – March 5, 1953) was the leader of the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s to his death in 1953 and General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1922-1953...

Career

In 1926 Ulrikh became Chairman of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR. It was in this capacity that he handed down the pre-determined sentences of the Great Purges. Among others, sentenced Zinoviev, Kamenev, Bukharin, and Tukhachevsky. He attended the executions of many of these men, and occasionally performed executions himself. 1926 (MCMXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR (Военная коллегия Верховного суда СССР) was created in 1924 to the Supreme Court of the USSR as a court for the higher military and political personnel of Red Army and Fleet. ... The Great Purge is the name given to campaigns of repression in the Soviet Union during the late 1930s which included a purge of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. ... Grigory Yevseevich Zinoviev (Григо́рий Евсе́евич Зино́вьев, real name Ovsel Gershon Aronov Radomyslsky (Радомысльский), also known as Hirsch Apfelbaum), (September 23 [September 11, Old Style], 1883 - August 25, 1936) was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet Communist politician. ... Categories: People stubs | Old Bolsheviks | Soviet politicians | Exonerated Soviet death sentences | Russian Jews ... Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin ( Russian: Николай Иванович Бухарин), ( October 9 ( September 27 Old Style) 1888 – March 13, 1938) was a Bolshevik revolutionary and intellectual, and later a Soviet politician. ... Marshal of the Soviet Union Mikhail Tukhachevsky Mikhail Nikolayevich Tukhachevsky (also spelled Tukhachevski, Tukhachevskii, Russian: Михаил Николаевич Тухачевский) (February 16, 1893 - June 11, 1937), Soviet military commander, was one of the most prominent victims of Stalins Great Purge of the late 1930s. ...

During the Great Patriotic War, Ulrikh continued to hand down death sentences of people accused of sabotage and defeatism. He was also the main judge during the Trial of the Sixteen leaders of the Polish Secret State and Armia Krajowa in 1945, and Estonian Separatists. The Eastern Front1 was the theatre of combat between Nazi Germany and its allies against the Soviet Union during World War II. It was somewhat separate from the other theatres of the war, not only geographically, but also for its scale and ferocity. ... Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening an enemy through subversion, obstruction, disruption, and/or destruction. ... Defeatism is acceptance and content with defeat without struggle. ... The term sometimes is also applied to First Moscow Trial during the Great Purges in USSR The Trial of the Sixteen (Polish: Proces szesnastu) was a staged trial of 16 leaders of the Polish Secret State held by the Soviet Union in Moscow in 1945. ... Polish Secret State (also known as Polish Underground State; Polish Polskie Państwo Podziemne) is a term coined by Jan Karski in his book Story of a Secret State; it is used to refer to all underground resistance organizations in Poland during World War II, both military and civilian. ... The Armia Krajowa or AK (Home Army) functioned as the underground army in German-occupied Poland, which was active in all areas of the country from September 1939 until its disbanding in January 1945. ... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ...

After the conclusion of the war, Ulrikh presided over a number of the early trials of the Zhdanovshchina. In 1948 he made the mistake of exiling to Siberia a group of Ukrainian peasants instead of sentencing them to death. Stalin demanded his resignation, and he was subsequently reassigned to post of course director at the Military Law Academy. He died of a heart attack on May 7, 1951 and was buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow. The Zhdanov decree was issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on 10 February 1948. ... 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ... Red Army Military Law Academy (later Soviet Army Military Law Academy) (Russian: ) (November 5, 1939-May 18, 1956 was formed on the base of the Military Law Department of the All-Union Law Academy. ... A myocardial infarction occurs when an atherosclerotic plaque slowly builds up in the inner lining of a coronary artery and then suddenly ruptures, totally occluding the artery and preventing blood flow downstream. ... 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... Grave of Anton Chekhov Novodevichy Cemetery (Новодевичье кла́дбище, Novodevichye kladbishche) is the most famous cemetery in Moscow, Russia, situated next to the World Heritage Site, the 16th-century Novodevichy Convent, which is the citys third most popular tourist site. ... Moscow (Russian: Москва́, Moskva, IPA: ) is the capital of Russia and the countrys principal political, economic, financial, educational and transportation center, located on the river Moskva. ...

References

• Anton Antonov-Ovseyenko, The Time of Stalin
• Robert Conquest, The Great Terror: A Reassessment
• Amy Knight, Who Killed Kirov: The Kremlin's Greatest Mystery
• Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago
• Arkady Vaksberg, Stalin's Prosecutor: The Life of Andrei Vyshinsky
• Dmitri Volkogonov, Stalin: Triumph and Tragedy