For the first time in Russian historiography, a comprehensive reconstruction of the dynamics and functions of the image of the "enemy of the people" as an element of the Soviet system of social mobilization was carried out on the eve and during the Great Terror. The prerequisites for the formation of the image were investigated, its structure was characterized, the mechanisms of use in the system of Soviet political agitation and propaganda at the central and regional levels were studied. On the basis of empirical content analysis data first introduced into scientific circulation, the exceptional role of the image in the system of Soviet social mobilization of the 1930s was shown.