Soviet Witnesses: Priests, Museum Workers, Poets, Soldiers

From the outset of the Nuremberg Trials, the Soviet Union began looking for witnesses who could speak before the court. The draft lists were compiled using materials from the local branches of the Extraordinary State Commission (CHGK). It is worth recalling that the CHGK included priests, writers, scientists, and other prominent public figures.

Extensive draft lists were quickly shortened. Hence, in November 1945 the heads of the Soviet Prosecutor's Office, the People's Commissariat for State Security (NKGB of the USSR), and the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD of the USSR) asked the regional directorates of the NKGB and the NKVD for detailed information on three to five specific witnesses from each region. The candidate was required not only to know the facts of war crimes but also to have an appropriate "political" leaning. They were also to have the "overall development, the capability to defend their point of view during meticulous questioning in court by experienced lawyers who could use the slightest ambiguity against us in testimony". The local NKGB and NKVD sent positive or negative characteristics. On 27 November 1945, a "list of witnesses planned to be summoned to the Nuremberg war crimes trials" was drawn up based on this information. The list included only Soviet citizens, but during the trials the Soviet side also summoned Polish citizens to testify.

Only a few citizens on the list were able to speak at Nuremberg because the parties to the trial agreed to limit the number of witnesses. The following witnesses spoke in February 1946: Jacob Grigoriev, a collective farmer, Nikolai Lomakin, a Russian Orthodox priest, Doctor Eugene [sic] Kivelisha, and Joseph Orbeli, a Soviet orientalist, historian, and academician. Affidavits were taken from the other witnesses on the list.