Trial and Death
In 1937 the NKVD accused Yakir for participating in the Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization and being a Nazi agent. Yakir maintained his innocence, both in correspondence to Joseph Stalin and at his trial, but Stalin wrote on his letter: "Rascal and prostitute". Kliment Voroshilov and Vyacheslav Molotov added: "A perfectly accurate definition". Lazar Kaganovich wrote: "The only punishment for the scoundrel, riffraff and whore is death penalty". Yakir was executed together with Tukhachevsky, and several other Soviet officers, immediately after the trial on June 11, 1937. His wife was subsequently arrested and executed, as were several of his relatives. His son, then fourteen years old, was arrested shortly after his father's execution and spent a number of years in prison camps. Yakir's military writings were banned.
Read more about this topic: Iona Yakir
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