The Great Terror, Robert Conquest
The Great Terror, Robert Conquest
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The Great Terror
A Reassessment

Author: Robert Conquest

Narrator: Frederick Davidson

Unabridged: 30 hr 35 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/23/2009

Synopsis

The definitive work on Stalin’s purges, The Great Terror was universally acclaimed when it first appeared in 1968. In recent years, even the former Soviet Union has come to call it the definitive account of the period. While the original volume relied heavily on unofficial sources, later developments within the Soviet Union provided an avalanche of new material, which Conquest has mined, to write this revised and updated edition of his classic work. Under the light of fresh evidence, it is remarkable how many of Conquest’s most disturbing conclusions have been verified. Many details have also been added, including hitherto secret information on the three great “Moscow Trials,” the purge of writers and other members of the intelligentsia, life in the labor camps, and many other key matters. Both a leading historian and a highly respected poet, Conquest blends profound research with evocative prose to create a compelling and eloquent chronicle of one of the twentieth century’s most tragic events.

About Robert Conquest

Robert Conquest, historian, poet, literary critic, and political writer, is the author of many books in these fields, including such classic works on Soviet history as The Great Terror and The Harvest of Sorrow, both published to much acclaim in the Soviet Union itself. He is at present a senior research fellow at the Hoover Institute, Stanford University.

About Frederick Davidson

Frederick Davidson (1932–2005), also known as David Case, was one of the most prolific readers in the audiobook industry, recording more than eight hundred audiobooks in his lifetime, including over two hundred for Blackstone Audio. Born in London, he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and performed for many years in radio plays for the British Broadcasting Company before coming to America in 1976. He received AudioFile’s Golden Voice Award and numerous Earphones Awards and was nominated for a Grammy for his readings.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Anastasia on December 14, 2009

Amongst my other reading at present I’ve been working my way through Robert Conquest’s classic The Great Terror>, an exploration of the Stalinist purge in Russia in the mid-1930s. I’ve reached the most terrible phase of that terrible part of the nation’s history, the so-called Yezhovchina, named aft......more

Goodreads review by Jonfaith on August 21, 2023

Martin Amis mined this heavily in Koba the Dread: Laughter and the Twenty Million and I was initially halted by Conquest's assertion that the 1936 harvest was "reasonably good" when in fact the harvest failed and the shortages affected everyone. I realize that Conquest operated in a different milieu......more

Goodreads review by Peter on February 22, 2015

It is hard to understand why so many intelligent people admired the socialist experiment of Soviet Union c.1934-1940. These useful idiots defended and lauded systematic mass slaughter on an industrial scale. Conquest's book, originally appearing in 1968, helped convince those still impervious to, in......more

Goodreads review by Edwin on April 04, 2016

Brilliant work, its value underscored by the savage attacks on it by Kremlin apparatchiks. Originally the standard work on the Great Terror, Stalinism was worse than Robert Conquest reported. Hitler lost, and failed to complete the cover-up of Nazi crimes (Sonderaktion 1005.) On the other hand, Stal......more

Goodreads review by Nooilforpacifists on August 09, 2015

I remember vividly using this book -- or was it the first edition? -- to refute my friends who refused to believe that evil lurked East of the Brandenburg gate and, especially, in Moscow......more

Quotes

“Mr. Conquest’s stature in the historiography of modern Europe is assured...Stalin was not only the master criminal; he was the master concealer. It took a master detective, and a poet, like Mr. Conquest, to unmask him completely.” New York Times Book Review

“The reader comes away feeling that the author knows every event of the Soviet years, that no remotely accessible document has escaped his attention...when questions, ideas, or suppositions arise in you, reader, the author invariably answers these mental queries a few pages later...Having finished this book, no one can ever again say: ‘I didn’t know.’ Now we all know.” New York Review of Books

“A terrifying record from the best of all commentators on Stalin’s USSR.” Star-Ledger (Newark)

“[A] broad, well-documented portrayal...This remains an essential source, and any library without it should buy it.” Library Journal

Awards

  • National Review’s 100 Best Nonfiction Books of the Century
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