Page "Great Purge" Paragraph 31

It is now known that the confessions were given only after great psychological pressure and torture had been applied to the defendants.

From the accounts of former OGPU officer Alexander Orlov and others, the methods used to extract the confessions are known: such tortures as repeated beatings, simulated drownings, making prisoners stand or go without sleep for days on end, and threats to arrest and execute the prisoners ' families.

For example, Kamenev's teenage son was arrested and charged with terrorism.

After months of such interrogation, the defendants were driven to despair and exhaustion.