The Great Purge
The Great Purge was a decisive internal upheaval in the middle period of the Republic of Gilead, a systematic liquidation that discredited and eliminated many of the original architects of the regime. It reshaped the power structure, replacing the relatively confident early leadership with a more cautious and paranoid style of rule, and it directly consumed the Commander of the household where Offred served, Frederick R. Waterford.
Background and Causes
The Great Purge did not emerge from a vacuum but was a consequence of the internal logic of Gilead's totalitarian system. The regime had been built by a small group of men who participated in the top-secret Sons of Jacob Think Tanks, where the philosophy and social structure of Gilead were hammered out. These original architects, including Waterford and B. Frederick Judd, were known to have been childless, a condition that may have stemmed from a sterility-causing virus developed in secret pre-Gilead gene-splicing experiments with mumps, intended for insertion into the caviar supply of top Moscow officials but abandoned after the Spheres of Influence Accord. The official records of the Sons of Jacob meetings were destroyed after the Great Purge, which suggests that the purge was in part an effort to erase the regime's own origins and the fingerprints of its founders. The purge was also a mechanism for settling scores and eliminating rivals within the elite, as the regime became increasingly paranoid about internal dissent.
What Happens
The Great Purge directly affected the household where Offred was posted. The Commander, Frederick R. Waterford, met his end in one of the earliest purges, probably soon after the events Offred describes. He was accused of liberal tendencies, of being in possession of a substantial and unauthorized collection of heretical pictorial and literary materials, and of harboring a subversive. This last accusation likely referred to Offred herself, whose flight would have placed her in that category, or more probably to Nick, who helped her escape. The regime, before it began holding its trials in secret, televised the proceedings, and the events were recorded in England via satellite. The shots of Waterford from these broadcasts are clear enough to establish that his hair was indeed gray. The purge also consumed other original architects; Judd, a hard-liner credited with devising the form of the Particicution ceremony and orchestrating the President's Day Massacre, was also among those liquidated. The purge was not limited to the highest levels; it created a climate of fear where any transgression could be used against one by undeclared enemies within the regime.
Consequences and Aftermath
The Great Purge fundamentally altered the character of Gilead. The style of middle Gilead became more cautious than the early period, as the surviving Commanders learned that their positions were not above attack. The purge also had a chilling effect on the regime's internal dynamics, making it more Byzantine in the extreme. The destruction of the official records of the Sons of Jacob meetings meant that much of the regime's early history was deliberately obscured. The purge also created opportunities for the Mayday underground, as the chaos and shifting loyalties allowed operatives like Nick to infiltrate the power structure at the highest levels. For Offred, the purge was the immediate cause of her final escape; when the black van arrived for her, it was Nick, acting as a member of the Eyes and the Mayday underground, who orchestrated her rescue, calling in a team of Eyes who may or may not have been authentic but were under his orders. The purge thus served as both the culmination of the regime's internal contradictions and the catalyst for Offred's uncertain departure into the darkness.
