Stalin's Witnesses - Hardcover

Julius Wachtel

3.81

16 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1908483385 ISBN 13: 9781908483386

Publisher: Knox Robinson Publishing Ltd, 2013

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Vilna, the Russian Empire, 1905. En route to deliver a secret pamphlet entrusted to him by his elder brothers, a young boy falls into the clutches of the Czar's secret police. Another decade will pass before the Crown gives way, not to liberally-minded revolutionaries like Vladimir Romm, the boy now a young man, but to the pitiless disciples of an embittered lawyer named Lenin. For the next three-quarters of a century, Marxism in its cruelest form will rule over Russia. Returning to Vilna during the winter of 1918 for the first time since his youth, Romm finds it occupied by Polish troops. He takes charge of a Communist militia and leads the Red Army to a small yet significant win for the fledgling Soviet state. As World War I yields to an uneasy peace, Romm joins Soviet intelligence. He is posted under various guises to Germany, France, Japan and Geneva. In 1934 Romm is named Izvestia's inaugural correspondent to Washington where he is given orders to bring key Americans to the Soviet side. But as his career reaches its zenith, Romm is suddenly recalled, arrested and forced to serve with four others as 'witnesses' at the notorious 1937 Moscow show trial. "Stalin's Witnesses" is a novel. While it sticks closely to the historical record, the witnesses speak in their own voices, guiding our journey through a tangle of fascinating events to tease out the underlying truths. It's their story, and it helped set the stage for our own.

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Review:

"Wachtel's lively fictional account offers a fresh look at the cruelty of Stalin's repression from the vantage point of one of its victims, an honest communist official and spy cast in the role of witness to sabotage at one of the three show trials of the Great Terror. The fascinating life story of Vladimir Romm encapsulates much of the Soviet experience, and the reader's natural sympathy with this attractive figure gives his cruel fate added poignancy. A powerful indictment of Stalinism and a great read besides!" --Peter H. Solomon, Jr., Professor of Political Science and Criminology, University of Toronto, author of "Soviet Criminal Justice under Stalin (Cambridge Russian, Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies Series)" and "Courts And Transition In Russia: The Challenge Of Judicial Reform" "Jay Wachtel's Stalin's Witnesses' is historical fiction at its best - a gripping story that sheds light on one of the most shocking and egregious travesties of justice in modern times. With verve and brilliantly constructed dialogue to fill gaps in the historical record and to bring the historical characters to life, Wachtel chronicles the story of five individuals who were forced to testify against their fellow Communists and in so doing condemned not only the defendants but also implicated themselves in farfetched crimes. He shows what happens when ideology enslaves human beings, hollows out their dignity, and changes their dreams into nightmares. Along the way, he showcases the duplicity and hypocrisy of fellow travelers and others who for various reasons stood by, even lent credibility to the sham proceedings. Above all, he conjures up the spirit of Stalinism - a frightening reality that stills impacts the Russian people." --Dennis J. Dunn, Professor of History and Director of the Center for International Studies, Texas State University, Author of Caught Between Roosevelt and Stalin: America's Ambassadors to Moscow

About the Author:

Julius ('Jay') Wachtel was born in Italy. Two weeks later he and his parents, both Holocaust survivors, moved to Buenos Aires. A decade later the family emigrated to the U.S. and settled in Los Angeles. His mother’s liberation by Soviet troops led Jay to develop an interest in Russia. Solzhenitsyn’s zeks captured his imagination. Seas of the oppressed slogging through the Gulag, the victims of a soulless machine, struggling to retain hope despite unimaginable hardships. A disturbing yet inspiring example of the resilience of the human spirit.

After serving in Vietnam Jay embarked on a career in Federal law enforcement. Along the way he took a break to earn a Ph.D. in criminal justice at the State University of New York at Albany. Now retired from the government he enjoys a second calling, as a lecturer in criminal justice at California State University Fullerton.

Jay’s inspiration for Stalin’s Witnesses came while designing a course in Soviet justice. He was intrigued by the 1937 Moscow Show trial, where five “witnesses” were forced to corroborate the defendants’ false confessions. One witness captured his imagination. In 1934 Vladimir Romm, a Soviet intelligence officer, came to America as Izvestia correspondent to Washington. Romm, the scion of a distinguished publishing family (the famous film director Mikhail Romm is one of its descendants) was born in Vilna, same as Jay’s mother. He became the central character in Stalin’s Witnesses.

Jay and his wife Linda live in Southern California. Their daughter, Jennifer, is a senior at NYU.

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