Talk:Andrey Vyshinsky

Old talk

"Confession is a queen over all sorts of evidence". -- it should be noted, its not Vyshinsky's own invention, according to Solzhenitsyn, this cornerstone of Soviet law was produced by comrade Krylenko. Constanz - Talk 18:34, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Actually this comes from Ancient Rome - Forced_confession, and - at least on paper - Vyshinsky badmouthed it as outlived bourgeois practice in his 1941 book. Whether he struggled against or promoted this approach in practice is not so clear.85.90.120.180 (talk) 09:07, 25 April 2013 (UTC)

Possible cause of death

According to rumour, Vyshinsky's death might have been caused by suicide.

Speculation is useless. A heart attack was widely mentioned at the time. He is said to have died at his desk.

Further comment

"Confession is a queen over all sorts of evidence". - this is known to be a "solzhenicism", a lie, simply put. Vyshinsky never said anything like that. On the contrary, in his book "A theory of legal proof in Soviet justice" he clearly states that regina probationum (queen of all evidence) is completely unacceptable in Soviet legal practice. I am deleting it.

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Deleted Cyrillic and Chinese renderings and references, and os dating in 1st sentence of article.

These are never needed in a modern, English-language article. --NCDane (talk) 02:54, 8 January 2010 (UTC)

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Changes

I made a few minor changes [1] related mostly to his "scientific" career. He was included in Soviet Academy for political reasons, not for his scientific achievements according to sources like a book by Birshein about history of Soviet science. He is mostly known for his expression "confession of the accused is the queen of evidence" which became a motto of Stalinist repressions when confessions under torture were the only "evidence". A contribution to the science of law? It is enough to tell that he was a member of Soviet Academy (as a matter of fact). Biophys (talk) 18:43, 17 August 2011 (UTC)

Actually, Andrey Vyshinsky has published more than 300 books and articles on the theory of law, legal history, criminal law and procedure (by 1941), so his contribution to legal theory was more than significant and his position in Soviet Academy in fact well-deserved. Moreover, he carried out a significant legal reform in the beginning of 1930s. And the expression "confession of the accused is the queen of evidence" was never approved by him - in fact, he cited this "medieval" principle in his major work "Theory of judicial evidence in Soviet Law" only to disprove it. He also tried (as much as he could in his position) to restrain some of the harmful practices of the NKVD, including the ones concerning the aforementioned "regina probationum"". Ann Vyshinsky 19:59, 26 September 2015 (UTC)

References

Awards and decorations

I do not mind that there is a new awards and decorations section, but it would be good with some more comment to clarify why it would be significant that he got the awards. --Mlewan (talk) 17:49, 18 April 2015 (UTC)

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Unfortunate language: "In June 1940 Vyshinsky was sent to Latvia...He was generally well received"

He was well received among high-ranking Bolsheviks, while most Latvians who had heard of him probably hated his guts... AnonMoos (talk) 00:22, 11 February 2021 (UTC)