The Great Terror

The Great Terror

Stalin’s Purge of the Thirties

Summary

Robert Conquest's The Great Terror is the book that revealed the horrors of Stalin's regime to the West. This definitive fiftieth anniversary edition features a new foreword by Anne Applebaum.

One of the most important books ever written about the Soviet Union, The Great Terror revealed to the West for the first time the true extent and nature Stalin’s purges in the 1930s, in which around a million people were tortured and executed or sent to labour camps on political grounds. Its publication caused a widespread reassessment of Communism itself.

This definitive fiftieth anniversary edition gathers together the wealth of material added by the author in the decades following its first publication and features a new foreword by leading historian Anne Applebaum, explaining the continued relevance of this momentous period of history and of this classic account.

Reviews

  • More than any other writer, Conquest has been responsible for bringing to the attention of the West the extent of the crimes committed against humanity in the name of Soviet Communism
    Sunday Times

About the author

Robert Conquest

Robert Conquest (1917 – 2015) was one of the twentieth century’s greatest historians of the Soviet Union. He came to international renown on publication of his ground-breaking history The Great Terror: Stalin’s Purge of the Thirties in 1968, which revealed the true extent and nature Stalin’s political executions and imprisonments. As well as holding academic posts at various universities, including the London School of Economics, Columbia University and Stanford University, he was an acclaimed poet, critic, novelist and translator.
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