: The purges allowed Stalin to replace the old Bolshevik guard with a new elite of "young strivers" completely dependent on him for their status. Geopolitics and the "Waiting" for Hitler Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929–1941
Kotkin portrays the Great Terror not as a sign of madness, but as a calculated political tool. Stalin believed that in the event of an inevitable war, internal rivals—former comrades and military leaders—could become a "fifth column" for foreign enemies. Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929–1941
In the second volume of his definitive biography, , historian Stephen Kotkin examines the decade where Joseph Stalin transitioned from a powerful dictator into a world-shaping despot. The narrative follows Stalin’s relentless "revolution from above," his internal purges, and the strategic chess match with Nazi Germany that culminated in the largest land invasion in history. : The purges allowed Stalin to replace the
: Nearly a million people were executed, including the top military brass and cultural elite. In the second volume of his definitive biography,