Between the winter of 1936 and the autumn of 1938, approximately three quarters of a million Soviet citizens were subject to summary execution. More than a million others were sentenced to lengthy terms in labor camps. Commonly known as "Stalin's Great Terror," these events are also among the most misunderstood moments in the history of the twentieth century. The Terror gutted the ranks of factory directors and engineers in three years, and raged through the armed forces on the eve of the Nazi invasion. The wholesale slaughter of party and state officials endangered the Soviet state, making...