2-481-404 - © Fine Art Images/Heritage Images

The Trial of the Twenty-One, Moscow, USSR 1938. The Trial of the Twenty-One was the last of a series of show trials of prominent Bolsheviks during Stalin's Great Purge. The most prominent defendant was Nikolai Bukharin, former head of the Communist International and member of the Soviet Politburo. The 21 defendants were all found guilty and 18, including Bukharin, were executed by firing squad. Found in the collection of the State Museum of the Political History of Russia, St. Petersburg.