The firing of the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency echoes the USSR of 90 years ago. Throughout the 1930s, Joseph Stalin conducted purges of his military (among other agencies). There were ...

History is replete with cautionary tales about the dangers of ideological purges, particularly when they target national-security institutions. One of the starkest examples comes from the Soviet Union ...

When Sergei Kirov, Stalin’s closest political ally, was assassinated in 1934, it set off one of the deadliest crackdowns in Soviet history. What followed wasn’t just an investigation—it was a national ...

On February 25, 1956, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev delivered what would become known as the “Secret Speech.” This ...

A group of Russian scientists have sounded the alarm over what they said were attempts by the head of the security service to openly justify Stalins mass purges, the first such attempt in decades. In ...

At the height of his paranoid “Great Terror,” Joseph Stalin wiped out his own Red Army leadership, arresting two thirds of his generals and executing three of his five marshals. One begged for his ...

A timeline of Stalin's life, the man that oversaw the war machine that helped defeat Nazism and who was the supreme ruler of ...

Joseph Stalin's Paranoia Triggered the Great Purge Stalin's mindset was shaped by fundamental paranoia and a belief that the Soviet Union was surrounded by enemies both foreign and domestic - he ...

The Soviet Union suffered the greatest losses of any country as it fought the Nazis in World War II. At the same time, Joseph Stalin's regime attacked its own citizens, executing, incarcerating and ...

A bitter attack on Stalin accusing him of responsibility for massacre and torture during his 30 years in power has been made by Mr Khrushchev, according to reports from reliable Communist sources.