Word: confessionals
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Forty-eight hours later the government proudly announced to the world that Kostov had been hanged. It also made an extraordinary claim which it did not document; before the end, said the Ministry of Justice, Kostov had made a groveling plea for mercy and a "full confession." The late Traicho...
The court hastily adjourned for 20 minutes to give Kostov a chance to read his confession over. When the court reconvened, Traicho Rostov, a colorless little man who looked like a small-town schoolmaster, still firmly stood his ground. For the first time in the weird history of Communist show...
Kostov had been ousted from power last spring for being "anti-Soviet," which meant in plain Bulgarian that like Tito he opposed his country's economic exploitation by Moscow. "Kostovism," explained Bulgaria's new boss, Vulko Chervenkov, "is nothing but Titoism on Bulgarian soil." Through the summer and...
But Kostov would not play. When charges of espionage and treason were read to him, he cried: "It is not true!" Stunned, the presiding judge asked Rostov if he repudiated his earlier confession. "Yes, I do," said Rostov quietly.
* During the Great Moscow Purge trials in 1938, Nikolai Krestinsky similarly repudiated his confession, screamed: "Not guilty." He was rushed out of the courtroom, returned 20 minutes later to go back on the stand. That time he was letter-perfect in his part, missed not a cue.