For a number of years, Stalin went step by step to organize the "great terror." How this happened, what are its reasons, whether Stalin and his entourage faced opposition in Soviet society - these questions are considered in the book. Using new archival materials, the author talks about such events as the death of S. Ordzhonikidze and the removal of P. Postyshev, the preparation of the February-March (1937) Plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the replacement of Yezhov with Beria.