VISHINSKY: Accused Rykov, tell us, when did your underground conspiratorial activities against the Soviet government begin?
RYKOV: Essentially they began in 1928 . . . I actively fought the policy of the party and the Soviet government, and chiefly the policy of the party towards the peasantry . . .
VISHINSKY: Consequently, you committed direct high treason?
RYKOV: Yes.
Court proceedings in "the Case of the Anti-Soviet Bloc of Rights and Trotskyites" (Moscow, 1938)
Andrei Y. Vishinsky, the "haranguing hyena" or the "jeering jaguar" who achieved U.N. notoriety (1947-54) for his vitriolic attacks on the U.S., made his reputation as a...