Page "Great Purge" Paragraph 7

According to Nikita Khrushchev's 1956 speech, " On the Personality Cult and its Consequences ," and more recent findings, a great number of accusations, notably those presented at the Moscow show trials, were based on forced confessions, often obtained by torture, and on loose interpretations of Article 58 of the RSFSR Penal Code, which dealt with counter-revolutionary crimes.

Due legal process, as defined by Soviet law in force at the time, was often largely replaced with summary proceedings by NKVD troikas.