Essay Database

Stalin: Paranoia and The Purges "One death is a tragedy, a million just statistics" (Stalin). <Tab/>In a decree of September 5th 1793, the revolutionary government of France announced the implementation of harsh measures against those considered to be "enemies of the revolution" under the slogan "terror is the order of the day." For the next nine months, this "reign of terror" orchestrated by Maximilien Robespierre's Committee of Public Safety resulted in …

…his purges than for his economic and political successes. It remains a sad commentary on the fate of humanity that a single individual can, in the process of "saving" his/her country to construct an idealized utopia, create a totalitarian society of monstrous proportions. In such a society, millions of people are brutalized by inhumane acts of violence and, rather than cherishing the richness and fullness of life, society is reduced to a somnambulant existence.