A Socialist Sense of Justice: Soviet international legality and political trials, 1920-1928

Abstract

This thesis examines early Soviet political trials and legal theory of the 1920s as experiments in revolutionary legality directed not only at domestic audiences but also at an international public. Drawing on Soviet archival materials, trial transcripts, Comintern records, legal writings, and foreign press coverage, it argues that the Soviet state used the courtroom as a stage for transnational communication, seeking to render socialist legality intelligible to foreign observers while simultaneously presenting it as a transformative alternative to liberal legal traditions. By analysing both the conduct of major political trials and the theoretical debates that accompanied them, the thesis demonstrates how legality became a medium through which the Bolsheviks attempted to engage global audiences in the political meaning of the revolution.

The study focuses on three major trials and the broader legal discourse surrounding them. The 1920 Tactical Centre trial is analysed as an early experiment in presenting Soviet justice through recognisable legal forms to international audiences in the aftermath of civil war. The 1922 trial of the Socialist Revolutionaries represented the most ambitious attempt to internationalise Soviet legality, attracting foreign delegations, international solidarity campaigns, and intense debate over the meaning of revolutionary justice. Alongside these proceedings, Soviet jurists and organisations such as International Red Aid developed competing approaches to international law, debating whether socialist legality should adapt existing legal norms or openly reject them.

The thesis concludes with the 1928 Shakhty trial, which marked a shift in the international framing of Soviet justice. While earlier trials had projected the courtroom as a platform for revolutionary politics addressed to the world, Shakhty recast legality as a defensive instrument against foreign influence and internal sabotage. Together, these episodes reveal that Soviet legality in the 1920s functioned as a sustained experiment in communicating revolutionary politics through the language of law, an experiment that ultimately exposed the tensions between international intelligibility and ideological transformation.