«The anti-soviet trotskist organization»: historiographical notes

Since 1956, historians, legal scholars and representatives of other social Sciences and Humanities have been trying to understand what happened to the population of our country in the second half of the 30-ies of XX century. Why did people lose common sense and believe in delusional fabrications of I. V. Stalin about the transformation of millions of Soviet citizens who piously believed in the ideals of Marxism-Leninism, into the malignant saboteurs? Why did most of them demand severe punishment of traitors, when the Soviet Newspapers reported the discovery of an enormous conspiracy in the ranks of the Red army? The article is an attempt to assess the General opinions of the so-called «military» («anti-Soviet Trotskist military organization), which resulted in the shooting of the prominent Soviet military leaders led by M.N. Tukhachevskiy – I.P. Uborevich, I.E. Yakir, A.I. Cork and thousands of brave, talented Soviet soldiers, committed to the cause of socialism. Thus the armed forces of our country, its defense was dealt a severe blow, which, in the opinion of some researchers predetermined the huge losses of the Soviet Union, especially in the first years of Hitler's aggression. We are especially interested in the following aspect of «the military» – was it fabricated, and the «Red Marshal» was its innocent victim, or, on the contrary, was it investigated in complete conformity to the law and the perpetrators got the punishment they deserved? The author has assessed the key issues – both liberal-minded researchers and apologists of Stalinism.