The Years Before the War

4 hrs. 6 min.

Language Russian

Author Leonid Mlechin

Narrator Yegor Bedulya

After Kirov’s assassination in 1934, the gears of political repression ground up hundreds of thousands of people. During the years of the Great Terror, personnel elevators worked nonstop: the highest positions were freed every day. Ninetenths of the top nomenklatura changed. Young workers, who only recently joined the party, rose to prominence. The previous requirements—such as having substantial party seniority to be promoted to a major post—were removed. Young people without education and special merits made dizzying careers. Of course they supported the repressions! Owing everything to Stalin, they hurried to prove their loyalty to the leader. They didn’t need to have anything explained. They expressed no doubts and adapted easily to any turn of the leader’s line.

0. The Years Before the War 0. The Forties and Fifties (narrated by Yegor Bedulya)