On 1st December 1934, Kirov, a senior member of the Leningrad Communist Party and second in power to Stalin, was assassinated by a gunman in his private office. This single event was the excuse which triggered one of the greatest state-organized massacres of all time. In the years that followed, literally millions of people were executed, accused of having been involved in the murder. The level of official falsification was unparalleled. False confessions, conflicting explanations and contradictory evidence abound in this study, which concludes that there was only one man capable of planning a crime of such epic proportions and that was Josef Stalin himself. Robert Conquest is the author of "The Great Terror", "The Harvest of Sorrow" and has also published a collection of poetry.
- ISBN10 0195063376
- ISBN13 9780195063370
- Publish Date 10 May 1990 (first published 5 January 1989)
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 7 August 2021
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Oxford University Press, USA
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 192
- Language English