Nadezhda Mandelstam's Hope Against Hope

This essay will discuss how helpful is Nadezhda Mandelstam’s Hope against hope was to the understanding of the origins, nature, and historical significance of the Soviet “Great Purges” of the 1930’s. It must be brought to attention that a book like Hope against Hope will never give a reader a full understanding of the origins, nature, and historical significance of this troubled period in not only Soviet but also World History. What this book does cover which helps us get a clear picture of the origins, nature, and historical significance of the 1930’s purges will be discussed below along with what the book does not convey to us and the reasons why.
Before one can discuss the origins, nature, and historical significance of the 1930’s Great Purges one must first have in mind a clear picture of what is a purge and what is not a purge. It is important to state what is and what isn’t a purge. On this E.M.Iaroslavskii states “In this area we can make very big mistakes”. The Communist party of Russia itself used the word chistka rendered purge but literally speaking meaning a “sweeping” or “cleaning”. The Communist party used the word quite specifically applied only to the periodic membership screenings of the ranks of the party. Nevertheless Western scholars have applied the word “purge” to everything from political trials to police terror to nonpolitical expulsions from the party. In this essay the Western Scholars defintion shall be used for this discussion.

      In Hope against Hope Nadezhda Mandelstam does provide us with an insight into her opinion and the opinion of her late husband to the origins of the purges of the 1930’s. Nadezhda writes, “When there are two groups fighting for the right to unlimited control over the fate of their fellow citizens, the losers are doomed to die”. (1). This is of course referring to the struggle for power, which occurred after the death of Lenin. The struggle that took place had different players and different teams with...