Terror and Democracy in the Age of Stalin written by Wendy Z. Goldman is a powerhouse writing on the Great Purge in Stalin’s Russia. Her work focuses on the role of the masses during the campaign of political terrorism rather turning the reader’s attention solely on the role of the functionaries. Arguing that the acts of “repression” were committed by both poor workers and political party leaders wanting to prove their dissociation with the opposition. Goldman’s work becomes a pivotal addition to the scholarship of USSR or Russia social and labor history due to her ability to bring forth the narrative of both the common people and leaders of Russia free of bias, her ease of maneuvering through the shaping of “democracy” hysteria, and analysis
…show more content…
Embedding emotion and familiarity, Goldman allows the reader the opportunity to build up a connection between them and the events that are going to take place. The author does excellently of not diving right into the frenzy of the Great Terror which, even at the beginning, is a complex and confusing moment of time especially for someone with no prior knowledge of its cause and reasoning. To help demonstrate necessary alignment to the social climate within Russia, the author achieves greater insight on the exchanges between the top functionaries and the lower workers by vividly using archived documents for narration. Chronicling the lead to Stalin’s murderous reign in the 1930s, Wendy Z. Goldman highlights issues such as mass starvation, forced loans, scarce housing, the stripping of union power, and the large gaps between workers’ wages and the price of goods. Due to Bolshevik policies on agriculture, many workers felt that the nations wish to fully industrialize became more important than the well-being of those helping build it. The Bolsheviks in response declared that the rumbling in the bellies of the workers is what was preventing them from seeing the long-term benefit of their starvation. These sacrifices suffered by those of lower status led to the search of and the need to expose corrupt officials within the factories to answer to the pains of the
Embedding emotion and familiarity, Goldman allows the reader the opportunity to build up a connection between them and the events that are going to take place. The author does excellently of not diving right into the frenzy of the Great Terror which, even at the beginning, is a complex and confusing moment of time especially for someone with no prior knowledge of its cause and reasoning. To help demonstrate necessary alignment to the social climate within Russia, the author achieves greater insight on the exchanges between the top functionaries and the lower workers by vividly using archived documents for narration. Chronicling the lead to Stalin’s murderous reign in the 1930s, Wendy Z. Goldman highlights issues such as mass starvation, forced loans, scarce housing, the stripping of union power, and the large gaps between workers’ wages and the price of goods. Due to Bolshevik policies on agriculture, many workers felt that the nations wish to fully industrialize became more important than the well-being of those helping build it. The Bolsheviks in response declared that the rumbling in the bellies of the workers is what was preventing them from seeing the long-term benefit of their starvation. These sacrifices suffered by those of lower status led to the search of and the need to expose corrupt officials within the factories to answer to the pains of the