[1] All 11 defendants were accused of treason for collaborating with the Nazi German military, police and SS forces, which were responsible for implementing the occupational policies during the German–Soviet War (1941–1945).
All but one of the defendants had joined Sonderkommando 10a, a subunit of the death squad Einsatzgruppe D. The sole exception was Mikhail Lastovina, a kulak who had managed to avoid capture during the 1930s dekulakization.
[1] Richard Ruoff, commander of the German 17th Army; Kurt Christmann [de], head of the local Gestapo; and 13 other SS officials were charged in absentia.
The British journalist Alexander Werth called the trial "first-rate hate propaganda" that was intended to emphasize the suffering of Soviet civilians under the German occupation.
Even in the Soviet Union, some noted that the massacre of the 7,000 civilians in Krasnodar was actually a relatively-minor incident in comparison what the Germans and collaborators were doing elsewhere in the country.