Origins of the Great Purges The Soviet Communist Party Reconsidered, 1933-1938

List of contents

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.

Summary

This is a study of the structure of the Soviet Communist Party, from the events in the Bolshevik Party leading up to the Great Purges of 1937–1938. Professor Getty assesses the party bureaucracy and claims that the Great Purges occurred as the bloody but ad hoc result of Moscow's incremental attempts to centralise political power.

Product details

• Authors: J. Arch Getty, John Arch Getty, J.Arch Getty, John Archibald Getty
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Content: Book
• Product form: Paperback / Softback
• Publication date: 30.01.1987
• Subject: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education
• EAN: 9780521335706
• ISBN: 978-0-521-33570-6
• Pages: 288
• Series: Cambridge Russian, Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies; Cambridge Russian, Soviet and > 43; Cambridge Russian, Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies