We cannot understand the tragedy of 1937 without taking into account an external factor - because Stalin opposed not only the opposition within the country, but also powerful hostile forces operating from the outside. It was they who rallied around Trotsky under the bloody banner of the International. They did their best to prevent rapprochement with Germany and eventually directed the "possessed" Fuhrer at the USSR. They stood behind the anti-Stalinist putsch at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. They sabotaged all efforts to transform Russia from the "cannon fodder of the World Revolution" into a great superpower.