Tag #147150 - Interview #77954 (Miron Manilov)

During my studies at school, the period of arrests [during the Great Terror] [19] started, there were trials of enemies of the people [20]. We were constantly finding out that a certain betrayer or spy was divulged. We weren't perplexed that all enemies of the people were famous military commanders, great party and economy leaders, people who strenuously were working for the Soviet regime and protecting it. Now, I'm asking myself, why I have never questioned this back in that time and why there were so many of the so-called enemies of the people. I didn't have any thoughts like that. We took things in good faith. If people were imprisoned or shot, it meant that they were guilty. The Party and Stalin couldn't make any mistakes; it was an undisputable and unquestionable belief.