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Leslie Thornton in the dock at a trial in Moscow, USSR

Leslie Thornton in the dock at a trial in Moscow, USSR


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Leslie Thornton in the dock at a trial in Moscow, USSR

Leslie Thornton in the dock, at a trial in Moscow of employees of the Metropolitan Vickers Company, April 1933. They were charged with sabotage, espionage, bribery and counter-revolutionary activities.
1933

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Media ID 23078678

© The John Barrett Collection / Mary Evans Picture Library

1933 Activities Bribery Business Charged Communism Communist Counter Dock Employee Employees Espionage Legal Leslie Metropolitan Moscow Revolutionary Sabotage Soviet Spies Spying Thornton Trial Ussr Vickers


EDITORS COMMENTS
In this striking photograph, Leslie Thornton, a British subject, stands solemnly in the dock during a trial in Moscow, USSR, in April 1933. Thornton, along with several other employees of the Metropolitan-Vickers Company, was charged with a range of serious offenses against the Soviet state. The accusations included sabotage, espionage, bribery, and counter-revolutionary activities. The Metropolitan-Vickers Company, a major British engineering firm, had been involved in various business dealings with the Soviet Union since the late 1920s. However, the relationship between the two parties had become increasingly strained in the early 1930s, with allegations of industrial espionage and sabotage fueling growing tensions. Thornton and his colleagues were seen as being at the heart of these alleged activities. The trial, which took place in the Soviet capital, was a highly publicized event, with the defendants portrayed in the Soviet press as traitors and enemies of the people. The defendants were subjected to intense scrutiny and pressure, with many ultimately confessing to their crimes in what are now believed to have been coerced confessions. Despite the seriousness of the charges, there is little concrete evidence to support the allegations against Leslie Thornton and his colleagues. Many historians believe that the trial was part of a wider campaign by the Soviet authorities to purge perceived enemies and consolidate their power in the wake of collectivization and the first Five-Year Plan. The photograph captures a moment of intense drama and intrigue in the history of Soviet-British relations, with Thornton standing defiantly in the face of accusations that would forever alter his life and reputation. The trial remains a fascinating and complex chapter in the history of the Soviet Union and the Cold War era.

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