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Not really. Getting anything useful from the archives is still like pulling teeth, and quite a few documents still have not been declassified. Solzhenitsin only had access to his own experience and interviewing very few people (obviously, this research was not exactly looked upon with approval). But he was also the first to make note of it. I mean specifically repressed through the state apparatus, not lacking Internet access. Of course there are different degrees of that repression here, from being executed on the spot, to dying of hunger and overwork, all the way down to being relocated 101+ kilometers from a big city. I would very much count victims of Holodomor (as well as of less known famines in Central Asia etc.) and Great Leap -- it does not matter to the dying if the State actively wanted to kill them, or just did not care the least bit if they die or not. And there are studies from real historians that conditions in Soviet labor camps, during peace time, were worse than in Nazi extermination camps (I am not sure if there are English copies online, but certainly Russian ones are accessible). Absolute numbers may not mean all that much (although as far as exterminating their own citizenry, communist Khmer Rouge have no equals) but it is still important to remember and never forget -- it's not a competition who is more evil, it's about making sure that evil does not get repeated. USSR of Khrushchev and beyond -- it's also place where workers demonstrating for decent pay and food for their children were fired upon by the army, slight liberalization efforts in satellite countries were crushed with tanks, dissidents had their brains fried in psychiatric hospitals, etc. etc. Sure, it was much better than Reich in the 30s-40s, or USSR itself in the same period, but it is also an apples to oranges comparison. Had Reich been contained instead of defeated, chances are it would have evolved into something similar by then as well. But Soviet apologia usually does not make a distinction anyway. |