On the late evening of February 22, 1939, three judges from the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR announced their verdict in tired voices and expressionless faces: death penalty with immediate execution. The man standing before them, broken by weeks of torture, mentally drained and physically at his end, appeared paralyzed. He could hardly find words to protest or to rebel against the injustice that was happening to him here and now as he was dragged away by strong guards. A few hours later, on the 23rd, he was shot in a dark, windowless hole. Thus ended the life of Aleksandr Kosarev, a largely forgotten Soviet politician from the pre-war era, a hero to the youth of that time who revered him in their songs and sought to emulate his example. For nearly ten years, he led the Communist movement.