Workers During “The Great Terror” by R. Conquest Research Paper

The era of the Great Terror is, perhaps, one of the most shocking and unprecedented instances of political homicide on a statewide scale. In his book, Conquest addresses the phenomenon of the purge that took place in the 1930s, extrapolating the essential factors that contributed to the emergence of the phenomenon. When considering the impact that Conquest’s book produced on the overall understanding of the weight that the political regime of the 1930s had on the political freedoms and rights of people, one must give the author credit for outlining the factors that led to Stalin taking over essential political processes and making the decisions that turned out to be detrimental to the overall well-being of the residents of the Soviet Union.

For instance, the gradual yet inevitable development of the conflict between Trotsky and Stalin, which Lenin unsuccessfully tried to prevent by increasing the number of the Central Committee members, should be viewed as an important point in the analysis of the tension within the USSR government.¹ Herein lie the reasons for people like Yezhov to support Stalin’s actions. Surrounded by the people that created the cult of Stalin’s personality, people like Yezhov could not resist the urge to follow his directions.

Furthermore, Conquest uses the concept of terror as the primary tool for defining the era of Stalin’s rule. Outlining the fact that Stalin was also to blame for the famine that swept a significant part of the USSR and took the lives of millions of people, especially the residents of Ukraine, Northern Caucasus, Kazakhstan, and Volga Region, Conquest makes a very clear statement concerning the threat of a personality cult. In addition, the author attacks the apologists of Stalin’s methods of managing local and foreign politics by making it evident that the Great Purge was a product of insane decisions made by a paranoid person at the helm.²

Despite the seemingly emotional tone of the narration, the statistical data and the ability to connect separate pieces of information into a cohesive string of facts can be viewed as the primary advantage of the book.

One must also give Conquest credit for specifying the internal conflict that was tearing the USSR government asunder. By alluding to Karl Radek and his statement concerning the absurdity of providing the Social Revolutionary Party members (SRs) with more freedom in the environment where SRs are viewed as a threat, Conquest contributes to a better understanding of the tensions that could be observed between the members of the party and the citizens of the USSR in the identified time slot.³ Conquest describes the increasingly large number of demands to the members of the working class, who were ostensibly supposed to become the leading power behind the changes in the social and political system of the state, in a very vivid and clear way.

• Argument: Conquest argues that, in the great scheme of events, Stalin can be considered one of the key figures behind the Great Purge. Particularly, it was the active promotion of the cult of personality that played the key role in the rapid increase in the political influence that Stalin gained in the USSR. As a result, a large amount of power was given to NKVD, which often persecuted innocent people ruthlessly.
• Keywords: Great Purge, Leninists, USSR, famine, totalitarian regime
• USSR: A state the political regime of which was based on the principles of the Socialist movement and the active promotion of the Communist values was known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or USSR.
• Great Purge: A series of repressions toward the opponents of the regime and often innocent bystanders caused by the tyranny and paranoia of Stalin are typically referred to as the Great Purge or the Great Terror.
• Leninists: The proponents of Lenin’s ideas and the opponents of Stalin and his increasingly strong influence were known as Leninists.
• Totalitarian Regime: The political system that does not imply any limits of the actions taken or influence exerted by the government or its specific members is defined as Totalitarianism.
• Famine: Viewed nowadays as genocide, the famine that took place in 1932-1933 and took the lives of a total of more than 3,500,000 people in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Volga region, Caucasus, and other areas. The famine can be viewed as a direct effect of the collectivization process aimed at redistributing wealth. Mikhail Kalinin and Grigory “Sergo” Ordzhonikidze supervised the process and contributed extensively to the further enhancement of the dekulakization practice, which led to the enhancement of famine.

Bibliography

Conquest, Robert. The Great Terror: Stalin’s Purge of the Thirties. New York: Penguin, 1971.

Footnotes

1. Robert Conquest, The Great Terror: Stalin’s Purge of the Thirties (New York: Penguin, 1971), 4-5.
2. Ibid., pp. 60-63.
3. Ibid., pp. 7-8.