This is an excellent book on Stalin's Soviet Union. It outlines how 14 people were arrested for their religious beliefs, tried and sentenced summarily.
In 1952 fourteen poor, barely literate Seventh Day Adventists were tried for advocating pacifism and refusing to work on Saturdays. Author Hiroaki Kuromiya has carefully gone through the police and court documents to reveal how the defendants were arrested and charged with the above crimes. In many cases the recorded charges were made days after the actual arrest. Police interrogations would appear to have possibly included tortures of some sort (although nothing is recorded).
When the trials occurred, those charged recanted their original guilty pleas. However, the short trials still found all guilty. And each was sentenced to lengthy times in the gulags.
This book gives a real good snapshot of the Stalinist police state. Well worth the read for those interested in the history of the former Soviet Union.
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