Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"The world's press was present, as well as the regime's leader, Joseph Stalin. Justice would be done. However, it jarred on Western sensibilities when Vyshinsky called the accused 'liars and buffoons' and 'despicable pygmies,' and when no evidence was offered. . . . More trials and purges followed, and repression became a way of life for Stalin. Confessions were all that was needed, and there were ways of making people talk. Only in 1956 did the regime admit that Stalin had committed crimes against his own people." [Furtado: 1001 Days]