In 1474, Peter von Hagenbach was put on trial for atrocities committed under his command but not by him directly.
Hagenbach defended himself by arguing that he was only following orders.
His defense was rejected, and he was convicted and beheaded.
The claim used by nazi defendents during the Nuremburg trials that "an order is an order" (Befehl ist Befehl)
was also rejected by the court.
In February 1945, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was arrested for writing derogatory comments in private letters to a friend about the conduct of the war by Joseph Stalin.
He was accused of anti-Soviet propaganda and “founding a hostile organization” under Article 58 paragraph 10 and 11 of the Soviet criminal code.
Solzhenitsyn was taken to the Lubyanka prison in Moscow, where he was interrogated.
On 7 July 1945, he was sentenced in his absence by Special Council of the NKVD to an eight-year term in a labor camp.