Perspectives on the Great Purge

In the West there has always been a great association between the Soviet Union, particularly during Stalin's lifetime, and the use of state organs to perpetuate terror and violence escalating in the Great Purges of the 1930's. While much scholarly research has been invested into this complex time in history, there is also much confusion, exaggeration, and obfuscation of not only facts, but principle details which help explain the situation, or at least place it in its proper context.

Some of the most renowned works (in the West) regarding the purges of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during the 1930's come from British Historian (and Fellow at the Hoover Institute at Stanford University) and former MI5 agent, Robert Conquest. Conquest's work has earned him fame as a Russian/Soviet historian and one of the leading authorities on Soviet 'crimes.' Though his work incorporates the use of many details and historical facts, there is definitely some obvious bias apparent in his writings that reflect his conservative stance (it should be noted here that the Hoover Institute is a conservative/libertarian think-tank). Likewise, other more objective accounts have been made by such historians like Montefiere. Montefiere's works, unlike Conquests, focus less on trying to portray Stalin as a devious tyrant and spends more time than any other author on examining the historical contexts in which the events took place, as well as on those closest to him (see Stalin: Court of the Red Tsar). Another historian who has written on the subject and gone into great details regarding those closest to Stalin is Donald Rayfield, whose book Stalin and His Hangmen discusses the relationship between Stalin and many of his closest associates and the Soviet secret police organs.