Cognitive Dissonance in the context of Stalin's 1937 Party Purge

Solzhenitsyn's descriptions of the responses of the Party elite's to their arrests and imprisonments are perfect examples of the challenge we face in terms of our interlocutor's 'COGNITIVE DISSONANCE' and help me explain a powerful enemy in our struggle to 'wake the flock up'...yes it does seem hopeless...but as a great man once said 'Niemals Verzweifeln' (Never Despair) !!!