text:  By the late 1920s, Joseph Stalin, who was born in Georgia, had established himself as the Soviet Union's leader. To eliminate opposition, he carried out a series of ruthless purges against political rivals, intellectuals, and ordinary citizens. The most severe of these was the Great Terror of the late 1930s. A grim, uncompromising audience is assembled in Moscow as a court solemnly convenes to try for treason eight intellectuals.