The History of the Gulag: From Collectivization to the Great Terror

Oleg Khlevniuk's Russian archive work on researching the true extent of the destruction of humans under Stalin is by far the best work in the field. By painstakingly analyzing secret reports, top secret letters between Commissars, censuses, official data, the Chrushchov era KGB research, etc. he is capable of giving an authoritative and absolutely fair analysis of exactly what went on in the GULAG system in particular and Stalinism as a whole, how many people were affected and how, and what this means for the accuracy of the 'popular view' of Stalin's crimes.

Contrary to Conquest, Malia, Montefiore etc. etc. he presents the facts and the documents as they are and lets them speak for themselves, instead of going on and on about the show more moral/sentimental issues without any thorough factual backing, as almost all such popular writers on the USSR do. Certainly no fan of Stalin either, he manages to present the simple facts in such a clear and well-evidenced way that he does justice to all involved. An impressive achievement considering the political meaning of the subject. show less

Die Reihe "Annals of Communism" publiziert regelmäßig Dokumente aus Partei- oder Staatsarchiven, die von großem Wert für die Historiographie des Kommunismus sind.Khlevniuk legt mit dieser Quellensammlung, die in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Staatsarchiv der Russländischen Föderation (GARF) entstand, eine Dokumentation exemplarischer Quellen der einzelnen Phasen des Straflagersystems zwischen 1929 und 1941 vor. Es empfiehlt sich jedoch zum Beispiel Stettner über die Gulags aus 1996 parallel zu lesen, um die nötigen Hintergrundinformtionen zu erhalten.