Andrey Vyshinsky

Andrey Yanuarevich Vyshinsky (Russian: Андре́й Януа́рьевич Выши́нский, Andrej Yanuar'evič Vyšinskij; Polish: Andrzej Wyszyński) (10 December [O.S. 28 November] 1883 – 22 November 1954) was a Soviet politician, jurist and diplomat.

Vyshinsky was an ethnic Pole born in the modern Ukraine. He became interested in revolutionary ideas during his university days, eventually joining the Mensheviks. He participated in the 1905 Russian Revolution, was arrested, and sentenced to prison in 1908. While in Baku prison, he met Joseph Stalin. Upon his release, he became a successful lawyer in Moscow, where also continued his activities as a Menshevik. After the Russian Revolution and end of the Russian Civil War, Vyshinsky changed his aligance to the Bolsheviks.

Throughout the 1920s, Vyshinsky prosecuted participated in a number trials of "undesireables". In 1935, he was appointed State Prosecutor of the Soviet Union, and became the legal mastermind of the Great Purge. During World War II, Vyshinsky was given a number of diplomatic responsibilities, including bringing Latvia in the USSR. In 1945, he helped install a communist government in Romania.

He was the Soviet Foreign Minister from 1949 to 1953, after having served as Deputy Foreign Minister under Vyacheslav Molotov since 1940. He also headed the Institute of State and Law in the Soviet Academy of Sciences. He died while in New York City in 1954.

Andrey Vyshinsky in Joe Steele
Andy Wyszynski an Chicago attorney who served as the Attorney General of the United States under President Joe Steele from 1933 until shortly after Steele's death in 1953.

Wyszynski was the child of Polish immigrants. He first came to national prominence as part of the team that prosecuted Belva Gaertner. When Gaertner was acquitted, Wyszynski announced that "Juries are full of jerks."

As Attorney General, Wyszynski prosecuted some of the most famous wreckers in U.S. history, including the Supreme Court Four in 1934 and Father Charles Coughlin in 1935. He was also responsible for prosecuting Soviet spies after World War II, and after the Japanese War. He held the office until shortly after Steele's death in March, 1953, when Steele's successor, John Nance Garner asked for his resignation.

Wyszynski was notorious for his bombast both inside and outside the courtroom. He routinely called defendants insulting names and loudly called for their execution. He was also quite smug, knowing full well that the defendants would ultimately confess, be convicted, and would finally be executed.