MedvedevGoldmanMcLaughlin/McDermott

What is their understanding of the groups most at risk, the reasons for the arrests, role of Communist Party leaders, and the issue of mass participation? **

Higher ups in the Communist Party, Army, Industry, Sciences, etc.

Close possible opponents of Stalin Everyone, but especially those with more risk factors. Relatives with

Catch 22 of needing to report, prisoner's dilemma.

Mass & National Ops. Account for majority of the victims, so class enemies (of the 1930s) and foreigners, particularly foreign communists, and any group that might include spies.

p.143 there is relatively little crossover between public party denunciations and executions and the massoperati (other than the occasional use of zaivlenii to top off quotas)

Do the sources conceive of the arrests as random or targeted?

**Very much targeted, many times personally by Stalin. See driving Ordzhonikidze and Krupskaya crazy, destruction of old Bolsheviks

Almost all arrest campaigns directly ascribed to Stalin.(doesn't know about massoperati)

Some allowances (p. 437) to logic of the terrorSemi-Targeted, but spreads like a disease because of the implication of relatives and coworkers

Definitely Targeted, yet indiscriminate - Targeted in the same sense that an Artillery barrage is targeted.

How do they portray the reactions of ordinary people at the time? Did people believe that the arrests were justified?

***Interestingly enough, we can look at Medvedev's attitude itself as being an indicator of popular understanding.

p. 415 non-party members slept soundly, thought it was fine.416-417: Some party stayed loyal, others could see no way outFear, suspense, disbelief

-Lots of people thought that Stalin was unaware and that the NKVD was at fault.

No mention of this topic.

How do you think that each of the sources would summarize the reasons for the terror? Where do they lay responsibility? *Stalin, Ezov, and the Politburo.

Stalin wanted to purge dudes to solidify his position for WW2Intended killing of subject groups Accidental infection due to Zaivelinie and policy on arrests. Stalin at the top, but also local party/NKVD which propagated the whole thing. p.134-beatings &forgery of interrogation docs

The final breaking crest of longstanding policies to destroy groups that did not fit into the stalinist regime.

Zealousness causes this to spill over in many areas into common population folk.

How would you personally assess these various views?

Intersperse into everything.Having not known about the massoperati, overplays stalin's importance, but still a useful critique nonetheless (focus on high positions)Perhaps ascribes too much import to massoperati, and especially plays down the importance of the way that standard public confessions worked together with massoperati