Description
Book SynopsisThis is a study of the structure of the Soviet Communist Party in the 1930s. Based upon archival and published sources, the work describes the events in the Bolshevik Party leading up to the Great Purges of 1937â1938. Professor Getty concludes that the party bureaucracy was chaotic rather than totalitarian, and that local officials had relative autonomy within a considerably fragmented political system. The Moscow leadership, of which Stalin was the most authoritarian actor, reacted to social and political processes as much as instigating them. Because of disputes, confusion, and inefficiency, they often promoted contradictory policies. Avoiding the usual concentration on Stalin's personality, the author puts forward the controversial hypothesis that the Great Purges occurred not as the end product of a careful Stalin plan, but rather as the bloody but ad hoc result of Moscow's incremental attempts to centralise political power.
Trade Review'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
Table of ContentsList 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.
