Talk:Great Purge

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Western émigré victims in great purge article provides uncited source.[edit]

comment that ‘americans who went to the embassy of the united states were rounded up and shot by ‘lurking nkvd agents’ links to a third hand report piece which provides no citations. given a lack of citations this section should be shortened to discuss more general issues 82.14.96.126 (talk) 04:07, 7 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The statement is also almost copied word for word from the cited article:

Article:

At the height of the Terror, the American emigrants had besieged their embassy, begging for passports so they could leave Russia.

Wikipedia:

At the height of the Terror, American immigrants besieged the US embassy, begging for passports so they could leave the Soviet Union.

Article:

They were turned away only to be arrested on the pavement outside by lurking NKVD agents.

Wikipedia:

They were turned away by embassy officials, only to be arrested on the pavement outside by lurking NKVD agents.

The cited article is also an advertisement / summary of a book (The Foresaken) that Tim Tzouliadis wrote (the same Tim Tzouliadis also happens to be the author of the cited article). As for this author's credentials, Amazon states: "Tim Tzouliadis is a writer and filmmaker. Born in 1968, he read Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University, and went on to pursue a career in television current affairs and documentary-making for Channel 4, BBC2, NBC Television and National Geographic Television." If I'm reading that correctly, he doesn't have an academic background in history or Eastern European studies that would make him an obvious expert on the topic at hand. Though, the synopsis on Amazon on the book also claims that, the author looked into potentially reliable sources: "Through official records, memoirs, newspaper reports and interviews [Tim Tzouliadis] searches the most closely guarded archive in modern history to reconstruct their story - one of honesty, vitality and idealism brought up against the brutal machinery of repression." However, from the synopsis, it's not clear how he got access to "the most closely guarded archive in modern history", and it's also not clear how much of his book is based on actual reliable sources and how much on "memoirs [...] and interviews". I don't have a copy to fact-check. There are some reviews that say that notes and bibliography take up half the book and that he relies "mostly on secondary literature", while others say that it's mostly based on the memoirs of two Americans, "thin documentary record[s]", that the author "failed to capture the overall historical significance beyond the obvious suffering of select individuals", and that "the book is pretty thin in terms of historical interpretation and significance".

Either way, it's definitely not a classical academic source. Nakonana (talk) 17:36, 14 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Not in source[edit]

I reverted [1] recent changes by @FictiousLibrarian because no source saying that - User talk:FictiousLibrarian#February 2024 . ManyAreasExpert (talk) 18:45, 7 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Crimes against humanity category removal[edit]

Crimes against humanity is a specific legal concept. In order to be included in the category, the event (s) must have been prosecuted as a crime against humanity, or at a bare minimum be described as such by most reliable sources. Most of the articles that were formerly in this category did not mention crimes against humanity at all, and the inclusion of the category was purely original research. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 07:49, 14 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

WP:NPOV issues with "Stalin's role" section[edit]

The section, contra WP:DUE, presents a biased account containing largely only the views of a specific camp of historians. While those historians certainly exist and do have those views, the section incorrectly presents their views as consensus or as fact in Wikivoice. The section should be revised to (1) point out that there is a lively and ongoing scholarly debate as to the extent and character of Stalin's involvement and (2) summarize the views of all sides in this debate. Notable voices excluded from this discussion include the views of J. Arch Getty, Sheila Fitzpatrick, R. W. Davies, Stephen G. Wheatcroft, Jerry F. Hough, Lynne Viola, Moshe Lewin, Bob Allen, and undoubtedly others. Brusquedandelion (talk) 03:47, 26 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, the article in general seems to need a serious overhaul with more recent and quality sourcing, like the new Harris book that seems to have been well received. (t · c) buidhe 03:24, 28 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]