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The vast and complex tragedy of Stalins purges, culminating in the Great Terror, made victims of millions of Russians between 1932 and 1939. This gripping book assembles and translates into English for the first time an astonishing array of formerly top secret Soviet documents from that period. Exposing to daylight the hidden inner workings of the Communist Party and the dark inhumanity of the purge process, these documents immeasurably deepen our understanding of an agonizing episode of Soviet history.From dossiers on the liquidated Soviet elite to police reports of peasant unrest to private letters from victims and purgers to secret transcripts of Central Committee meetings, the nearly two hundred documents presented here confirm Stalins role as executor of the terror. Yet the top party elite, or nomenklatura, were also key to the unfolding of a terror that proceeded with fits and starts, moves and countermoves, and steps toward and away from the abyss. From 1932 to early 1937 Stalin and the nomenklatura agreed on the need to destroy all dissidents, to stage show trials, to carry out mass arrests, purges, and shootings, and to prevent any resistance to these cleansings. Eventually deep insecurities that magnified any opposition and iron discipline within the party led the nomenklatura to support Stalin in purging their own colleagues, and in 1937 and 1938 they serially voted one another into prison.

For the first time, the hidden world of American communism can be examined with the help of documents from the recently opened archives of the former Soviet Union. By interweaving narrative and documents, the authors of this book present a convincing new picture of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), one of the most controversial organizations in American public life. Heated debates about whether the Communist Party harbored spies or engaged in espionage have surrounded the party from its inception. This authoritative book provides proof that the CPUSA was involved in various subversive activities. At the same time, it discloses fascinating details about the workings of the party and about the ordinary Americans and CPUSA leaders who participated in its clandestine activities.The documents presented range from letters by Americans wishing to do international covert work for the Soviet Union to top secret memos between the head of Soviet foreign intelligence, the Comintern, and the CPUSA. They confirm that--the Soviet Union heavily subsidized the CPUSA and that some prominent Americans laundered money for the Comintern;--the CPUSA maintained a covert espionage apparatus in the United States with direct ties to Soviet intelligence;--the testimony of former Communists concerning underground Communist activity in the United States can be substantiated;--American Communists working in government agencies stole documents and passed them to the CPUSA, which sent them on to Moscow;--the CPUSA played a role in atomic espionage;and much more.An engrossing narrative places the documents in their historical context and explains key figures, organizations, and events. Together the narrative and documents provide a revealing picture of American communism and convey the contradictory passions that drew so many Americans into the Communist movement and eventually tore that movement apart.

The 14,500 Polish army officers, police, gendarmes, and civilians taken prisoner by the Red Army when it invaded eastern Poland in September 1939 were held in three special NKVD camps andexecuted at three different sites in spring 1940, of which the one inKatyn Forestis the most famous. Another 7,300 prisoners held in NKVD jails in Ukraine and Belarus werealso shot at this time, although many others disappeared without trace.The murder of these Poles is among the most monstrous mass murders undertaken by any modern government.Three leading historians of the NKVDmassacres of Polish prisoners of war at Katyn, Kharkov, and Tvernow subsumed under Katynpresent 122 documents selected from the published Russian and Polish volumes coedited by Natalia S. Lebedeva and Wojciech Materski.The documents, with introductions and notes by Anna M. Cienciala,detail the Soviet killings, the elaborate cover-up, the admission of the truth, and the Katyn question in Soviet/RussianPolish relations up to the present.

Based largely on formerly top-secret Soviet archival documents (including 66 reproduced documents and 70 illustrations), this book portrays the inner workings of the communist party and secret police during Germany's horrific 194144 siege of Leningrad, during which close to one million citizens perished. It shows how the city's inhabitants responded to the extraordinary demands placed upon them, encompassing both the activities of the political, security, and military elite as well as the actions and attitudes of ordinary Leningraders.