a first Russian edition of the collected works of Marx and Engels in 28 volumes (Sochineniya1) began being published, of which ten volumes were issued under Riazanov's direction until 1931 (vol. I–III, V–VIII, XXI–XXIII ; the edition was largely completed in 1947). Riazanov also edited the works of other authors including Diderot, Feuerbach, and Hegel. He was a member of the Commission for the Study of the October Revolution and of the Russian Communist Party, commonly known as Istpart. In 1929, Riazanov was elected to the Soviet Academy of Sciences. Personality Victor Serge described Riazonov as "stout, strong-featured, beard and moustache thick and white, attentive eyes, Olympian forehead, stormy temperament, ironic utterance..." and noted that "the leaders were a little afraid of his frank way of talking." He undoubtedly had a 'frank way of talking'. The US journalist, William Reswick, heard a rumour in Moscow - which may be apocryphal - that Riazonov once Stalin, to his face: "You recite passages from Marx like a dull schoolboy without knowing what they mean." Even if it was untrue, the fact that the story was being repeated shows that he had a reputation for having a sharp tongue. Addressing the Eleventh Party Congress in March 1922, after he had effectively been banned from political activity, Riazonov claimed: Persecution, death, and legacy In December 1930, I. I. Rubin, a research assistant at the Marx-Engels Institute since 1926, was arrested by the Soviet secret police and charged with participation in a plot to establish an underground organization called the "Union Bureau of Mensheviks." As a lawyer, Rubin initially managed to avoid succumbing to false charges made by the interrogator, but he was nonetheless kept in custody and transferred to Suzdal. In Suzdal, Rubin was subjected to a cramped punishment cell barely bigger than a man and to the torture of solitary confinement. With his health starting to fail, Rubin was eventually compelled to give false written testimony against David Riazanov to secret police des. Rubin claimed that he had kept an envelope containing secret documents of the mythical "Menshevik Center" in his office at the Marx-Engels Institute before discreetly passing them along to David Riazanov. Following a show trial conducted by prosecutor Nikolai Krylenko, Rubin was found guilty of participation in the plot and sentenced to a 5-year term of imprisonment. This coerced testimony of Rubin was used in building a case against his