Stalin's Crimes Against the Non-Russian Nations: The 1987-1990 Revelations and Debate

Abstract

This paper' examines the de-Stalinization debate that reemerged in the late 1980s as conducted by, or concerned with, the non-Russian nationalities? The paper focuses on one aspect of this debate - the discussion of individual cases of repression and the discovery of mass gravesites. Many individual testimonies of repression have been published in the press. These testimonies have been particularly graphic and powerfully illuminative. Even more graphic have been reports of mass gravesites in virtually all the republics. As noted by Stephen White, these testimonies and reports have been the most emotionally significant element of de-Stalinization: ''This grisly record...[is] in itself a critique of Stalinism more powerful than anything historians could muster.