they force people to lie and to slander entirely innocent persons". He was sentenced to death and executed on 28 July 1938. After Stalin's death, Rudzutaks was one of the first victims of the terror to have his case posthumously reviewed. He was cleared of all charges in 1955. His case featured prominently in Nikita Khrushchev's famous Secret Speech to the 1956 Communist Party congress. Notes References Barmine, Alexander, One Who Survived, New York: G.P. Putnam (1945) 1887 births 1938 deaths Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Executed Latvian people Great Purge victims from Latvia Latvian communists Latvian revolutionaries Old Bolsheviks People from Courland Governorate People from Kuldīga People from Saldus Municipality People's commissars and ministers of the Soviet Union Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Soviet rehabilitations