After having him shot as a traitor and a spy in 1938 after one of Stalin’s notorious treason trials, the Russian authorities have decided to “rehabilitate” Bukharin. They now say that it was all a frame-up and that the evidence used to convict him was false and obtained by torture. This was obvious at the time, except to those (and a long list could be given of eminent writers, scientists and artists) who thought that Stalin was a demi-god and Russia a workers’ paradise.