List of tables; Preface; Introduction: the Great Purges as history; 1. The Communist Party in the thirties; 2. What was a purge?; 3. The Verification of Party Documents of 1935: a case study in bureaucratic ineptitude; 4. Radicalism and party revival; 5. Radicalism and enemies of the people; 6. The crisis matures: 1937; 7. Epilogue: the Ezhovshchina; Conclusion: some observations on politics in the thirties; Appendix: the Kirov assassination; Bibliographic essay; Notes; Index.
This is a study of the structure of the Soviet Communist Party in the 1930s.
'With the aid of these little used materials, Dr. Getty has greatly enhanced our understanding of the Great Purges.' The Times Higher Education Supplement 'He has cleared the ground of many influential myths and has advanced many challenging hypotheses. His book is a landmark in the writing of Soviet political history.' London Review of Books 'Arch Getty has produced an exciting and timely book, devoted to a reappraisal of the Soviet Communist Party in the thirties. Using archival and newspaper sources, he queries the image of a tightly-organized party, controlled from the centre by its omnipotent leader, Stalin. Instead we see a badly-organized, inefficient and faction-ridden institution, marked by indecision at the top and confusion at the bottom. Against this backgroun, Getty offers us a new and original explanation for the explosion of political violence and terror in the Yezhovshchina. Origins of the Great Purges is the most stimulating book on the Soviet period to have appeared in several years. No one who works on Soviet politics and history can afford to ignore it.' Dr. Mary McAuley, University of Essex
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