S8 Ep256: STALIN VS. TROTSKY AND THE LOGIC OF THE GREAT TERROR Colleague Professor Sean McMeekin. The discussion turns to the rivalry between Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin. While Trotsky was an infle

STALIN VS. TROTSKY AND THE LOGIC OF THE GREAT TERROR Colleague Professor Sean McMeekin. The discussion turns to the rivalry between Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin. While Trotsky was an inflexible ideologue advocating for permanent revolution, Stalin was a "savvy political operator" willing to be ideologically flexible to consolidate power. The segment details the "Great Terror" of the 1930s, distinguishing it from previous violence by noting that Stalin targeted the Communist Party itself, including high-ranking officials and military marshals. McMeekin attributes this to the inherent logic of totalitarian regimes: as economic promises failed, the regime needed scapegoats—saboteurs and wreckers—to blame for the system's deficiencies. This self-cannibalizing violence culminated in the assassination of Trotsky in 1940, though the arrests and executions continued well beyond his death. NUMBER 4