Did Vyshinsky's recognition of the evidence accused?

The phrase “recognition is the queen of evidence” is often attributed to the prosecutor Vyshinsky. We check if it belongs to him.

For more than 30 years, the phrase “recognition is the queen of evidence” has been attributed to the Stalin prosecutor who actively participated in political repressions and the so-called “Moscow processes” of the 30s of the 20th century Andrei Yanuarievich Vyshinsky. Most often, its monograph is indicated as the source “The theory of judicial evidence in Soviet law ”(1941).

Until 1988, this phrase, however, is almost never found in books or on the pages of the Soviet press. In any case National Corps of the Russian Language Does not know a single mention of her. With the help of the Google Books service, we managed to find it in two places: on the pages of the detective story "Game Game", published in 1966 in the magazine "Spark" (No. 39), as well as in the detective of the Vainer brothers “Walk on the roads of knocked down cats and dogs”, published in 1986 on the pages of the magazine "Friendship of Peoples" (No. 7). But Vyshinsky’s references in both described cases.

Why did the phrase after 1988 become winged with us and has since been inextricably linked with Vyshinsky? The fact is that it is this year in "Literary newspaper", one of the most important print bodies of a single country, an article by the lawyer and writer Arkady Vaxberg “Queen of Evidence” dedicated to Vyshinsky came out. It is interesting that in the article itself, the author does not attribute such words to the prosecutor, but says only the following: “Among many scientific works of academician Vyshinsky, the monograph“ Theory of judicial evidence in Soviet law ”was especially high in those days. It was in it that one of the main postulates of the ancients was given, which was actively and hypertrophied was operated by a repressive machine: "The recognition of the accused is the Queen of evidence."

This is the right statement. It is unequal. He talks about a fact that is easy to check. Indeed, for centuries, lawyers used the Latin saying "Confessio Est Regina Probationum". And Vyshinsky more than once brought him in his works. However, he criticized him as an obsolete principle of bourgeois law, separately mentioning that such confessions were often obtained under torture, which is unacceptable.

But Vaxberg, as well as many other historians and lawyers They wrote The fact that in real processes Vyshinsky, like the entire Stalinist judicial system, were guided by this principle. The confessions, given under the most cruel torture, did not embarrass anyone, laying down the basis of indictments.

At the same time, such subtleties did not linger in the minds of a wide reader's audience, and the phrase began to be massively attributed to Vyshinsky himself. In fairness, we note that Vaxberg did not try to dispel the myth freely or involuntarily created. In 1992, the writer published the book “The Queen of Evidence. Vyshinsky and his victims, ”which fixed him.

Even a refutation of erroneous attribution given back in 1997 in the first edition "Dictionary of modern quotes" Edited by Dushenko, the situation did not change. Vyshinsky pseudocytte became a meme, which is still repeated politicians And Serious publications.

In numerous apologetic in relation to Stalin and his environment books The last twenty years, the authors love to analyze this “liberal myth” in detail. At the same time, they conclude that since Vyshinsky in theoretical work and public speeches criticized the principle under discussion, which means that he did not adhere to him in real judicial practice. And this does not follow from nowhere. That is, in the place of one myth, another is immediately created, only with the opposite sign.

The correct approach is to separate the facts from opinions and interpretations. The fact is that the attribution of the phrase “recognition is the queen of evidence” Vyshinsky is a mistake, a myth. And what principles the prosecutor was guided and on what grounds he built his accusatory speeches on real processes, it is easy to find out by reading these numerous published speeches and works of professional historians who studied the processes themselves.

Incorrect attribution of quote

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. https://author.tude/post/50120 Full and high -quality analysis from Vadim Nesterov.
2. http://a-pesni.org/zona/totalitar/caricadoc.htm Literary Gazeta, No. 4 (5174), January 27, 1988 (reprint of the article).
3. https://biography.wikireading.ru/144818 A little about Vyshinsky - the head of the book of A. G. Zvyagintsev “Fatal femid. The dramatic fate of famous Russian lawyers. ”