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Sergei Kirov
The Great Purge was a violent political campaign that Soviet leader Joseph Stalin carried out from 1936–1938. Its aim was to eliminate any resistance to the Communist Party, resulting in mass arrests and executions. It’s estimated that at least 750,000 people were killed during the Great Purge.
The Great Purge Quotes in Sofia Petrovna
The Sofia Petrovna quotes below are all either spoken by The Great Purge or refer to The Great Purge. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 16
Quotes
Lying in her bed, she would think about her next letter to Comrade Stalin. Since Kolya had been taken away, she had already written three letters to Comrade Stalin. In the first she had asked him to review Kolya’s case and have him released since he was not guilty of anything. In the second, she had asked to be told where he was so that she might go there and see him just once more before she died. In the third, she implored him to tell her one thing only: was Kolya alive or dead? But there was no answer…The first letter she had simply dropped into the mailbox, the second she had sent by registered mail, and the third, with a return slip for confirmation of delivery. The return slip came back after a few days. In the space “signature of recipient” was an incomprehensible scribble, in small letters: “…eryan.”
Who was this “Eryan”? And had he given Comrade Stalin the letter? After all the envelope had been marked: “Personal and Private.”
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