[pmachinery]

Citizen X is an American drama. If it depicts what you're saying (I've seen it but can't remember it) then it's just another Western dramatization depicting post-Stalin Soviet Union in cliches from the 1930s.

In the real life case Citizen X is inspired by[0], nobody was tortured for a conviction, even the guilty man, who was simply put into a cell with a police informer to gather information and questioned normally by investigators who only had ten days under Soviet law to release or charge him.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Chikatilo

[petre]

Post-Stalin Soviet Union clichés, of course. How do you think the wrongly arrested people confessed to the murders in the first place?

"At his trial, Kravchenko retracted his confession and maintained his innocence, stating his confession had been obtained under extreme duress."

[pmachinery]

> How do you think the wrongly arrested people confessed to the murders in the first place?

As in that example with Kravchenko, the same way false confessions occur in every country, pressure in some form from the police who want to convict their prime suspect / clear up a case.

It's indefensible but it's nothing unique to the Soviet Union and it's not uncommon.

https://theconversation.com/suspects-confess-to-crimes-they-...

[watwut]

That does not make citizen-x documentary. These movies were made from imagination.