This time, I am asking you to critique Oleg Khlevnyuk''s "The Objectives of the Great Terror, 1937-1938" (pp. 87-104 in Hoffman''s book). The article emphasizes two main points: 1) the purges were directed from the highest eschelons of the government and, in particular, by Stalin himself; 2) Their purpose was to elminate "fifth columnists" (i.e., domestic enemies) before the inevitable invasion of the U.S.S.R. by the western capitalist powers. I don''t want to give it all away, but I should try to place the article in a historiographical context for you. Prior to Khlevnyuk''s publication of this article, there was a lot of scholarship that suggested that the purges originated "from below"--i.e., via overzealous party activists and people who might just be looking to ruin their enemies. Khlevnyuk is contesting this point. His argument about the need to eliminate the "fifth column" follows the Holquist line, according to which there was some sort of ogic behind the mass murders. The assignment asks you to answer, again, questions that you applied to your critiques on Kotkin and Holquist: 1) What is the article about? Briefly describe the essay''s main points, quoting Khlevnyuk, if you like, with a page number citation (in parentheses). 2) Does Khlevnyuk effectively make his case? In other words, does he write a logical, coherent essay? Does it make sense? 3) Do you agree with the main arguments? This last question is similar to the second, but asks you to offer some personal commentary. In other words--do you feel that Khlevnyuk seems biased? Does he have an agenda?