Andrey Vyshinsky

Andrey Yanuaryevich Vyshinsky (Андре́й Януа́рьевич Выши́нский) (December 10 [November 28, Old Style], 1883 - November 22, 1954), also spelt Vishinsky, Vyshinski, was a Soviet jurist and later diplomat. In 1935 he became Prosecutor General of the Soviet Union, the legal mastermind of Stalin's Great Purge. He put a "theoretical" legal base under the treason trials. The cornerstones of Vyshinsky's theory were:

• Criminal law is a tool of the class struggle
• "Confession is a queen over all sorts of evidence".

Later positions he held include those of vice-premier (1938), deputy Commissar for Foreign Affairs (1940-1949), Minister for Foreign Affairs (1949-1953), and permanent representative of the Soviet Union to the United Nations.

External link

• Vyshinsky speech at the 1936 trial of Zinoviev and Kamenev (http://art-bin.com/art/omosc22m.html)

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