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The Resource The Red Army and the Great Terror : Stalin's purge of the Soviet military, Peter Whitewood

The Red Army and the Great Terror : Stalin's purge of the Soviet military, Peter Whitewood

Creator
Summary
On June 11, 1937, a closed military court ordered the execution of a group of the Soviet Union's most talented and experienced army officers, including Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevskii; all were charged with participating in a Nazi plot to overthrow the regime of Joseph Stalin. There followed a massive military purge, from the officer corps through the rank-and-file, that many consider a major factor in the Red Army's dismal performance in confronting the German invasion of June 1941. Why take such action on the eve of a major war? The most common theory has Stalin fabricating a "military conspiracy" to tighten his control over the Soviet state. In The Red Army and the Great Terror, Peter Whitewood advances an entirely new explanation for Stalin's actions<U+0127> �an explanation with the potential to unlock the mysteries that still surround the Great Terror, the surge of political repression in the late 1930s in which over one million Soviet people were imprisoned in labor camps and over 750,000 executed. Framing his study within the context of Soviet civil-military relations dating back to the 1917 revolution, Whitewood shows that Stalin sanctioned this attack on the Red Army not from a position of confidence and strength, but from one of weakness and misperception. Here we see how Stalin's views had been poisoned by the paranoid accusations of his secret police, who saw spies and supporters of the dead Tsar everywhere and who had long believed that the Red Army was vulnerable to infiltration by foreign intelligence agencies engaged in a conspiracy against the Soviet state. Recently opened Russian archives allow Whitewood to counter the accounts of Soviet defectors and conspiracy theories that have long underpinned conventional wisdom on the military purge. By broadening our view, The Red Army and the Great Terror demonstrates not only why Tukhachevskii and his associates were purged in 1937, but also why tens of thousands of other officers and soldiers were discharged and arrested at the same time. With its thorough reassessment of these events, the book sheds new light on the nature of power, state violence, and civil-military relations under the Stalinist regime.--
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
360 pages
Contents
  • The Red Army in Civil War
  • The Red Army in consolidation
  • Reorganization and crisis in the Red Army
  • The Red Army and the Bolshevik Party, 1930-1936
  • The military purge
  • The expansion of the military purge and the mass operations
Isbn
9780700621170
Instance
Label
The Red Army and the Great Terror : Stalin's purge of the Soviet military
Title
The Red Army and the Great Terror
Title remainder
Stalin's purge of the Soviet military
Statement of responsibility
Peter Whitewood
Creator
Subject
Language
eng
Summary
On June 11, 1937, a closed military court ordered the execution of a group of the Soviet Union's most talented and experienced army officers, including Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevskii; all were charged with participating in a Nazi plot to overthrow the regime of Joseph Stalin. There followed a massive military purge, from the officer corps through the rank-and-file, that many consider a major factor in the Red Army's dismal performance in confronting the German invasion of June 1941. Why take such action on the eve of a major war? The most common theory has Stalin fabricating a "military conspiracy" to tighten his control over the Soviet state. In The Red Army and the Great Terror, Peter Whitewood advances an entirely new explanation for Stalin's actions<U+0127> �an explanation with the potential to unlock the mysteries that still surround the Great Terror, the surge of political repression in the late 1930s in which over one million Soviet people were imprisoned in labor camps and over 750,000 executed. Framing his study within the context of Soviet civil-military relations dating back to the 1917 revolution, Whitewood shows that Stalin sanctioned this attack on the Red Army not from a position of confidence and strength, but from one of weakness and misperception. Here we see how Stalin's views had been poisoned by the paranoid accusations of his secret police, who saw spies and supporters of the dead Tsar everywhere and who had long believed that the Red Army was vulnerable to infiltration by foreign intelligence agencies engaged in a conspiracy against the Soviet state. Recently opened Russian archives allow Whitewood to counter the accounts of Soviet defectors and conspiracy theories that have long underpinned conventional wisdom on the military purge. By broadening our view, The Red Army and the Great Terror demonstrates not only why Tukhachevskii and his associates were purged in 1937, but also why tens of thousands of other officers and soldiers were discharged and arrested at the same time. With its thorough reassessment of these events, the book sheds new light on the nature of power, state violence, and civil-military relations under the Stalinist regime.--
Member of
Assigning source
Provided by Publisher
Cataloging source
DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Whitewood, Peter
Dewey number
355.0094709043
Index
index present
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
Series statement
Modern war studies
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Stalin, Joseph
  • Soviet Union
  • Vsesoiu͡znaia͡ kommunisticheskaia͡ partiia͡ (bolʹshevikov)
  • Political purges
  • Political persecution
  • Soviet Union
Label
The Red Army and the Great Terror : Stalin's purge of the Soviet military, Peter Whitewood
Instantiates
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 333-347) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier.
Content category
text
Content type code
txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent.
Contents
The Red Army in Civil War -- The Red Army in consolidation -- Reorganization and crisis in the Red Army -- The Red Army and the Bolshevik Party, 1930-1936 -- The military purge -- The expansion of the military purge and the mass operations
Control code
FIEb17758221
Dimensions
24 cm.
Extent
360 pages
Isbn
9780700621170
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia.
Media type code
n
System control number
(OCoLC)911240374
Label
The Red Army and the Great Terror : Stalin's purge of the Soviet military, Peter Whitewood
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 333-347) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier.
Content category
text
Content type code
txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent.
Contents
The Red Army in Civil War -- The Red Army in consolidation -- Reorganization and crisis in the Red Army -- The Red Army and the Bolshevik Party, 1930-1936 -- The military purge -- The expansion of the military purge and the mass operations
Control code
FIEb17758221
Dimensions
24 cm.
Extent
360 pages
Isbn
9780700621170
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia.
Media type code
n
System control number
(OCoLC)911240374

Subject

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