Gang of Eight (Soviet Union) - Court Trials

Court Trials

On 15 December 1992 over a year after the incident a criminal case of 144 volumes was sent to the Military Collegiate of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation from the Prosecutor General. Anatoliy Ukolov as a deputy chairman of the Collegiate was given the case for a revision. On 26 January 1993 was assigned as a hearing for the criminal case. Those that were to be prosecuted for involvement included the aforementioned eight plus three others:

• Oleg Shenin (1937–2009), Politbureau and secretariat member
• Anatoly Lukyanov (b. 1930), Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union
• General of the Army Valentin Varennikov (1923–2009), Deputy Minister of Defense, Commander Land Forces

The trials lasted for 14 months from 14 April 1993 until 1 March 1994. The trials were open to public and press media, however the foreign press media did not participate as there were no space for them left in the courtroom. A prosecution commission was assigned and consisted of nine people and headed by Denisov, who was a Deputy Prosecutor General. The following defense attorneys were hired: Genri Reznik (Shenin), Genrikh Padva, Yuriy Ivanov (Kryuchkov), Dmitriy Shteinberg (Varennikov), and others. In total there were 17 defense attorneys. The court questioning only started on 30 November 1993 due to various procrastination techniques utilized by the defense. Questioning was conducted mainly to four people: Yazov, Kryuchkov, Shenin, and Varennikov, and lasted a couple of weeks.

On 23 February 1994 the State Duma issued a political and economic amnesty. On 1 March 1994 the case was closed as all 11 prosecuted accepted amnesty. Varennikov also accepted amnesty at first under the condition that Mikhail Gorbachev would be prosecuted next. He accused Gorbachev of leading the country to the political disaster that it was in. The court, of course, did not open a new case by his petition, but did send his inquiry to the Prosecutor General's office. The Prosecutor General's office chose not to follow up on Varennikov's petition as, according to Anatoliy Ukolov, no case has appeared in that regard.

After 10 days, however, the Presidium of the Supreme Court supported the prosecution in court by the protest of Denisov and the case was reopened. The reason for that was the procedural infringements connected with amnesty. The case should not have been closed prior to carry out the decision whether or not the accused were guilty and only then present the option of amnesty. The Presidium of the Supreme Court arranged a new hearing and assigned a new judge whom become Viktor Aleksandrovich Yaskin. He conducted the case review by already newly accepted court procedures. Yaskin gathered the prosecuted once again and asked them again if they wish to accept the amnesty. All, but Varennikov accepted it. So the case continued on only with participation of Varennikov. That case finished in full acquittance of the last as he was a subordinated to the Minister of Defense and was executing his orders.

The main organizers were identified as Kryuchkov, Yazov, Shenin, and Pavlov.