Victor Kravchenko (defector) - The Trial of The Century

The Trial of The Century

An attack on Kravchenko's character by the French Communist weekly Les Lettres Françaises resulted in his suing them for libel in a French court. The extended 1949 trial featuring hundreds of witnesses was dubbed 'The Trial of the Century'. The Soviet State flew in Kravchenko's former colleagues to denounce him, accusing him of being a traitor, a draft dodger, and an embezzler. His ex-wife appeared as well, accusing him of being physically abusive and sexually impotent. When a KGB officer alleged that he had been found mentally deficient, Kravchenko jumped to his feet and screamed, "We are not in Moscow! If you were not a witness, I'd tear your head off!"

In a convincing case, Kravchenko's lawyers presented witnesses who had survived the Soviet GULAG. Among them was Margarete Buber-Neumann, the widow of German Communist Heinz Neumann, who had been shot during the Great Purge. As a survivor of both Soviet and Nazi concentration camps, her testimony corroborated Kravchenko's allegations concerning the essential similarities between the two dictatorships. The court ultimately ruled that Kravchenko had been unfairly libeled. Kravchenko was awarded only symbolic damages. In the view of one close observer, Alexander Werth,

Technically, Kravchenko won his case.... But on balance the case caused more damage to Kravchenko than to the French Communists, and although the Soviet Union and its police system did not come too well out of it, the Kravchenko Affair did not in any way interfere with the vast Peace Campaign the French Communists were planning to launch upon the world.

Les Lettres Françaises appealed the verdict. A higher French court upheld the verdict but reduced the fine from 50,000 francs to 3 francs, or less than US$1, on the grounds that trial publicity had helped Kravchenko sell books.