The Great Terror: A Reassessment

When Conquest wrote the original volume, he relied heavily on unofficial sources. With the advent of glasnost, an avalanche of new material became available, and Conquest mined this enormous cache to write, in 1990, a substantially new edition of his classic work, adding enormously to the detail. Both a leading historian and a highly respected poet, Conquest blends profound research with evocative prose, providing not only an authoritative account of Stalin's purges, but also a compelling and eloquent chronicle of one of this century's most tragic events. He provides gripping accounts of everything from the three great "Moscow Trials," to methods of obtaining confessions, the purge of writers and other members of the intelligentsia, life in the labor camps, and many other key matters.

On the fortieth anniversary of the first edition, in the light of further archival releases, and new material published in Moscow and elsewhere, it remains remarkable how many of Conquest's most disturbing conclusions have continued to bear up. This volume, featuring a new preface by Conquest, rounds out the picture of this huge historical tragedy, further establishing the book as the key study of one of the twentieth centurys most lethal, and longest-misunderstood, offenses against humanity.

Book I, The Purge Begins

Introduction

1. Stalin Prepares

2. The Kirov Murder

3. Architect of Terror

4. Old Bolsheviks Congress

5. The Problems of Confession

Book II, The Yeshov Years

6. Last Stand

7. Assault on the Party

8. The Party Crushed

9. Nations in Torment

10. On the Cultural Front

11. In the Labor Camps

12. The Great Trial

13. The Foreign Element

14. Climax

Book III, Aftermath

15. Heritage of Terror

Epilogue: The Terror Today

Notes / Bibliography / Index