The great purge was in many ways a tragedy and a great crime, both for the loss of life involved but also for the loss of talent within the soviet political and bureaucratic sphere.
That said I have a hard time crying many tears for the old bolsheviks who were so willing to go along with power plays, purges and clique/factionalism bullshit but then ended up on the wrong end of it themselves.
The great purge was in many ways a tragedy and a great crime, both for the loss of life involved but also for the loss of talent within the soviet political and bureaucratic sphere. That said I have a hard time crying many tears for the old bolsheviks who were so willing to go along with power plays, purges and clique/factionalism bullshit but then ended up on the wrong end of it themselves.