"My Lords… The charges against me are trumped up… I am innocent… Long Live the revolution… Hail the motherland!"… These words had a magical effect inside the courtroom, now packed to its fullest… The trial of Alexei Zuganovic was billed as the trial of the century… Co-revolutionary cum founding father of the people's state turned traitor… Alexei's journey had seen him rise to the post of the Chairman of the people's party and tumble to a solitary dank cell in the heart of Moscow… The public bayed for the blood of the man who had betrayed the Motherland to her enemies…
Few expected Alexei to contest the charges… The prosecution was sure that 3 days of non-stop torture, including sleeplessness would 'persuade' him to own up to his crimes, so his denial in the courtroom came as a nasty shock to them… The judges were equally surprised… They had been told that all they had to do was to accept his admission of guilt and announce a death sentence… They were not sure of what they were supposed to do now… The gasp that had sounded out following Alexei's denial had now been replaced by a constant murmuring in the packed courthouse… There were foreign journalists furiously scribbling down what they believed was the scoop of the day and then there were severe looking Policemen who looked revolted at the thought of having to dirty their hands on this hoodlum again tonight…
Alexei, in the meanwhile, re-commenced with his denial, praising the glorious revolution, applauding the public, proclaiming his undying and sincerest loyalty to the state, the Party and the Great leader… His words seemed to be having an impact on the crowd that had assembled… Some people had begun to doubt the charges that had been levied against him… The dour looking Prosecution Attorney now approached the bench… He demanded that the court be adjourned for the day… The Judges acquiesced….
Alexei's thoughts had taken him back in time… He remembered the day when he had stood with the Great Leader in the centre of Moscow, where the two had jointly declared the revolution to be a dazzling success… The King had fled and the government now belonged to the toiling masses, the Great Leader had said.. Alexei had tears in his eyes… The Party had then sent him to the front to lead the war against the marauding armies of the enemy… He remembered his first battle, where he saw miles upon miles of dead bodies… How the sight had revolted him… He personally persuaded the Great Leader to call for an end to hostilities… He remembered the rousing welcome given to him by Muscovites when he had returned after signing the peace deal… The Party and the Great Leader had showered heaps of praises upon him… And that is when things started changing… Some of his over-enthusiastic supporters started styling him as the one to succeed the Great Leader… They said that the Great Leader was now old and that he should pave the way for a younger successor, and who would be a better successor than the hero Alexei… Word got around… Plots began to be hatched… On 13th Nov, 7 years after the revolution, there was an attempt on the Great Leader's life as he was addressing a rally in Alexei's hometown… Suspicions became doubts… Doubts became certainties… The Great Leader demanded Alexei's head… Alexei resigned… He went on a self-imposed exile to the Far East… His detractors said he was hatching a plot against the Party… Some even said that he was planning to split the Motherland… They said he was hands-in-glove with the imperialists, the capitalists and the bloody West…
One fine February morning, when it was cold enough to wear a coat and warm enough to be outside, 3 strangers came to meet Alexei… They said their Hellos and then one of them punched Alexei in the gut… It was a bloody punch… Alexei tasted blood in his mouth… and before he could react, he passed out… When Alexei awoke, he found himself closeted in what seemed like a Train Wagon… For 3 days, he was held captive in the wagon… No food…No water… He yelled and shouted demanding an explanation but eventually ran out of energy… Then, one day, the train stopped and someone opened the door of the wagon… The whiff of the air told Alexei that he was back in Moscow… His heart sank… He knew that this could mean only one thing… His fate had been sealed… He tried to fight off the guards who had come to take him away, but he had no energy left in him…
In the heart of Moscow lies the Lubyanka Prison… It is exclusively reserved for Political Prisoners… Locals who stay in the area claim that they can hear cries and shrieks through the night… They do not exaggerate… Lubyanka is where Political Prisoners are either reformed or dispatched from this world… Alexei knew what Lubyanka was better than anyone else… He was the Mastermind behind the Government's reform program to convert the ex-imperialists to the new system… Alexei had personally supervised many of the tortures… He had felt no shame, no remorse then… He was doing his duty for the motherland… Today, he found himself on the other side of the table… Although he'd tried to mentally brace himself with the techniques that he himself had used not so long ago, there was something about first smack on the face… It sent him flying off his chair… For 3 days and 3 nights, he was subjected to the torture of the worst kind… On the 3rd night, he was allowed to sleep for 2 hours… Next morning, he was presented in the Courthouse, where he'd caused an uproar…
Tonight was extra-hard for Alexei… The torturers came at him with vengeance, hitting him with whatever they could get their hands on… Wooden planks, steel rods, buckets, needles etc. etc. They were careful not to damage his face… He was to be presented in the courthouse tomorrow… Alexei begged them to let him go… He could not take the blows anymore…. But the blows never stopped… Eventually, he passed out….
The next morning, Alexei appeared in the Courtroom again… He looked haggard… The Prosecution Attorney told the court that Alexei had signed his admission of guilt and that the trial was no longer necessary… Alexei did not remember signing any piece of paper… He wanted to protest, but words failed him… With tears in his eyes, he looked around the packed courtroom for a pair of sympathetic eyes… Only, he encountered intense hatred, abhorrence and revulsion… He closed his eyes… Alexei had never prayed… But presently, he said his prayers… He begged the almighty to pardon his crimes…
Now, the Judges pronounced their verdict… It was a unanimous decision… Alexei was convicted, by his own admission, of the charge of having connived with the enemies of the State and having plotted against the People, the Party and the Great Leader… There was only one punishment for the crime… Execution by Firing Squad…
The policemen dragged him away… He was bundled in a car and taken to a desolate spot… A kerchief was tied around his eyes… He heard the blast of the musket… That sound was the last thing he experienced in his life…
His body was dumped in an unmarked grave and was eventually covered up… No one ever came to know that Alexei Zuganovic was innocent….
