Precarious Friendship
Moscow, Weimar and the OGPU
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
The 1920s play a prominent roll in relations between Germany and Russia. The Rapallo Treaty intensified cooperation. But the activities of the Comintern and the Soviet secret service OGPU to promote Communist revolution in Germany led to confrontation. The climax came in 1925 with the “Cheka Trial” against an unmasked agent in Leipzig. Moscow promptly reacted: Three Berlin students sojourning in the Soviet Union became “terrorists”, were indicted for espionage in a show-trial, and condemned to death. The case is an instructive example for the absurd rationality of fabricated court proceedings.
(Osteuropa 3/2008, pp. 17–36)