Identification points are listed only where two independent sources agree. Last reviewed 22 Oct 2026.
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First published in 1968 as The Great Terror: Stalin's Purge of the Thirties. The British first is a Macmillan, London, hardback of 1968 issued in a dust jacket; the copyright page of a first printing records no later impressions. Macmillan also issued the book in New York, so confirm the London imprint on the title page. Later texts are not firsts: the Pelican paperback of 1971 (with an extra preface), the revised edition of 1973 (new preface and addendum) and the heavily rewritten 1990 version, The Great Terror: A Reassessment (Hutchinson in London), which drops the appendices and biographical note. Note that Wikipedia's infobox names Oxford University Press for 1968, which conflicts with dealer and library records of the London Macmillan first.
A London Macmillan first edition is told by the printing history on the back of the title page: reprints and new editions are listed there, so a copy with no reprint list is the first, and later books carry a "First published (year)" line.
Allen and Patricia Ahearn's publisher list for ILAB says the early books carried no first edition statement but noted subsequent printings. ILAB's St Martin's Press article, drawing on a Macmillan statement of 1982, describes the same reprint history on the reverse of the title page and a "First published (year) by (imprint)" line on first editions from about 1968.
Read the full guide to Macmillan first editions, decade by decade, and check your copy's copyright page against it. Our number line decoder reads the printing from the row of numbers.
We have not yet confirmed the issue points that tell this first impression from later ones. Until we do, compare your copy's title page and copyright page with the publisher, place and year above: any later printing or edition statement means it is not this one.
Know the points? Tell us. We publish them, with credit, once a second source agrees.
Macmillan, London, in 1968, in hardback.
Points of issue are listed only where at least two independent sources agree. Last reviewed 22 October 2026. Reviewed by Harriet Ellis; read how we check facts.
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Read the guide →7 min readTo identify a first edition, check that your copy is the first printing of the first edition. Read the copyright …
Read the guide →6 min readBook condition grading uses a six-step trade scale: Fine, Near Fine, Very Good, Good, Fair and Poor. Collectors grade the …
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