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Summary: Definitive work on one of history's darkest episodes...
Review: Robert Conquest's The Great Terror, a Reassessment, is they definitive English language work on Stalin's purges. The book has had some criticism from the far left, but Conquest has been largely vindicated by the now open Soviet archives.
This book is largely dispassionate. Conquest resists the urge to excessively moralize. Instead, he treats his subject matter in largely chronological order, with a few diversions for background. The result is a detailed catalog of the horrors of the purges. The text relies on excerpts from the trail transcripts, and these are absolutely chilling taken in context of the result. Each trial is worse than the other. In fact, to some extent the trials are worse because of the sheer routine the purges degenerated intoforced confessions, self-betrayals, they all became commonplace. Society turned against itself, until you were not considered a responsible citizen unless you denounced somebody; turning on your neighbors, friends, even relatives became a method of insuring personal security and survival. This book is 'must' reading for anybody who wants to understand Stalinism and this period of the Soviet Union. The lessons learned should never be forgotten...
Rating: 
Summary: Be skeptical of the numbers
Review: Stalin is one of history's greatest mass murderers, along with Hitler, Mao, Leopold II (See King Leopold's Ghost if the reference is obscure), but the Soviet archives cast some doubt on the numbers traditionally tossed around. You can get a sense of the latest estimates if you read Werth's contribution to the Black Book of Communism, or, for the really short summary, read Getty's review of that book in the March 2000 issue of the Altantic Monthly. Roughly 2 to 3 million people died in the Gulag or were executed during the Stalin era. A much larger number, perhaps 6 million, died in the famines of the early 30's. And hundreds of thousands died in the forced population transfers of various ethnic groups. So you still get into the ten million range, but the much higher numbers often cited are probably inflated. And if you question the accuracy of Soviet documents, these were internal memos written by various bureaucrats running the system who needed to know how many slave laborers were available for planning, how much barbed wire was needed for camps, etc... According to Getty, the numbers from various sources on the Gulag population are all consistent, which is why he thinks they are probably fairly accurate.
Rating: 
Summary: Worthless
Review: The book was written by a former British intelligence agent during the cold war, what can one expect? It is full of distortions and lies from Russian and Ukrainian emigres, same with his 'harvest of sorrow' book. Sources are non-existant of anything else. Do yourselves a favor and read J. Arch Getty and Thurston, as well as Reese's "Stalin's Reluctant Soldiers" for some real historical work.
Rating:
Summary: Worthless
Review: The book was written by a former British intelligence agent during the cold war, what can one expect? It is full of distortions and lies from Russian and Ukrainian emigres, same with his 'harvest of sorrow' book. Sources are non-existant of anything else. Do yourselves a favor and read J. Arch Getty and Thurston, as well as Reese's "Stalin's Reluctant Soldiers" for some real historical work.
Rating: 
Summary: Very good intro to this topic
Review: The last review is utter nonsense: Conquest is one of the most respected of all Soviet historians. He clearly despises Stalin, but how could one look upon his unfathomable devastation otherwise? As someone who has studied Soviet history for years, I can tell you that Conquest's writings are right in line with nearly all books on the topic of Stalin, even those by Marxists like Medvedev (not to mention the great Solzhenitsyn himself). This is a good intro to the topic of Stalinist terror. To a novice reader, it will be a bit hard to keep all of the names straight, but it will also be a real eye-opener -- you'll see where Orwell mined many of his ideas. I'd strongly recommend that all readers of this gravitate to Kravchenko's I Chose Freedom (cliched title, I know, but a great autobiography).
Rating:
Summary: Definitive
Review: This book is terrifying and interesting from start to finish. The most appalling thing is that there was no opposition to Stalin's reign of terror as he eliminated all forms before they organized and proceeded to purge the intelligentsia and the military only 3 years before World War 2. He brought his own country to its knees for personal power. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is willing to spend the time reading it though I admit, some basic russian history would be helpful as I had none.
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Summary: The classic book on The Great Terror
Review: This will ceetinaly be one of the books future students looking back into the 20th century will be reading to understand what happened in one of the most important moments. Conquest has survived his ideological critics in pristine conditions, thus the predictive historian is judged well by history itself in a wonderful and blessed anti-irony. When the world has forgotten the likes of Hobsbawm, here Conquest will sit, at the head of the table.
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Summary: The Great Terror: A Reassessment
Review: Upon its publication in 1968, Conquest's The Great Terror: Stalin's Purge of the Thirties ( LJ 12/1/68) received wide acclaim for its broad, well-documented portrayal of the death of millions in Stalin's peacetime consolidation of power. A generation later, the collection of samizdat literature and the openness of glasnost have permitted access to better information, thereby allowing a reassessment of the study. Conquest's review largely confirms the original work. In the new edition more recent documentation is incorporated and some portions are revised based upon new data. However, the substance of the text is much the same. Outdated appendixes have been removed. This remains an essential source, and any library without it should buy it. Larger collections will want the revision.--
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Summary: HISTORY AS SURREALISM
Review: When I read the first edition of this book back during the Cold War, it was difficult to believe the quality of scholarship and research effort that Conquest demonstrated throughout this book, written while the KGB was still running amok. What most general histories dismissed with a few sentences or paragraphs as "millions died or were imprisoned", Conquest gave us the names, the chronology, and the results of Stalin's paranoid Reign of Terror. Now that the archives have become more accessible, Conquest is able to update his work and further illuminate this darkest period of Russian (and perhaps world) history. ANYTHING written by Conquest is worth reading if you want to understand the workings of 20th century Soviet politics and society.
Rating:
Summary: A shocking and compelling testament
Review: Written by one of the world's leading Sovietologists, this is a shocking documentation of Stalin's atrocities. As one who has studied and taught professionally in the area, I stand in awe of Professor Conquest's scholarship.
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