A period, from about 1934 to 1939, of intense fear among Soviet citizens, millions of whom were arrested, interrogated, tortured, imprisoned, deported from their native lands, and executed by Stalin s secret police for political or economic crimes that were spurious. The Great Terror encompassed the general population and peaked in 1937 and 1938 when it included extensive purges of party members, many of whom held high positions in the government, economy, armed forces, party, and secret police itself.
