Trotsky's rehabilitation requested by 62 Ceylon M. P. s
The following appeal was addressed to Krushches by 62 Senators and Members of the House of Representatives of Ceylon: " Your Excellency,
We, the signatories to this appeal,, are all members of " the Parliament of Ceylon.
We have noted in the published proceedings of the " 22nd Congress of the C.P.S.U. that it has been officially " stated that in the time of the late Josep V. Stalin various leading revolutionaries and others had been falsely accused and falsely declared guilty at frame-up trials of " infamous political erimes against the Union of Soviet So" cialist Republics.
We also note with real satisfaction that the Govern" ment of the U.S.S.R. and the C.P.S.U. itself have set going processes which will enable the reconsideration of " these cases and the rehabilitation, mostly posthumously, " of the victims of the terror of that time.
It is hardly necessary to remind Your Excellency that " the most famous of the persons thus condemned in Stalin's time was Leon Trotsky, co-leader with Lenin of the Grea October Revolution of 1917 and a principal builder o " the Red army. As Your Excellency is aware Trotsky " was «tried» in his absence in March 1938 and «convicted» " of « Anti-Soviet espionage, diversive and terroristic activi.
" ties for the purpose of undermining the power of the " U.S.S.R., accelerating an armed attack on the U.S.S.R., " assisting foreign aggressors to seize territory of the U.S.S.R. "and to dismember it...»
Your Excellency is no doubt aware that on the very " announcement of the charges against him Trotsky repud. " iated and denounced them publicly as totally false and " also offered to go before an international commission on " the footing of an assurance by him that if the commission " found him guilty in any respect he would immediately " place himself at the disposal of the police authorities of " the U.S.S.R. Your Excellency is also no doubt aware that " Trotsky did in fact go voluntarily before the celebrated " Dewey Commission which after a careful and prolonged " investigation accepted Trotsky's positive proof that Stalin's " charges against him were false.
In all these circumstances we appeal to you to cause " a public and authoritative revision of the proceedings and " the alleged evidence against Trotsky, bringing to bear upon the revision the known established facts which were in no
" Permit sed ed dt hat the althorising of such a rer.
"ision by the Government of the U.S.S.R. will redound enormously to the credit not only of the U.S.S.R. but "also of the entire international working class movement.
Yours truly, 23rd November, 1961.