"I have not taken a single step, spoken a single word, written a single line, or had a single thought which I need conceal from the party, the central committee, and you personally . . . I implore you to believe my word of honor. I am shaken to the depths of my being."
Despite being shaken to the depths of his being, Grigori Zinoviev, the old Bolshevik, party member since 1901 and intimate confidant of Lenin who penned that plea to Joseph Stalin (general secretary of the Communist Party) only minutes after being arrested, was not saved.
Chief defendant at the first Moscow Show Trial, Zinoviev was found guilty and executed on Aug. 24, 1936.