RYLE@URVAX (Martin Ryle) (02/13/90)
Why are the Stalinist deaths relatively unknown? Several reasons, I think. To begin with, Hitler and the Third Reich are gone and can be dealt with at some distance. The heirs of Stalin have been until recently still in place in Moscow. In addition, Hitler's atrocities were directed against particular, identifiable groups--Jews, Poles, Protestant Churchmen. Stalin'g crimes were much less particular; his was a generalized terror against which no one was immune. Third, Hitler's crimes would not be widely believed were it not for the photographs of the victims and the eye-witnesses and the testimony. Until Solzhenitsyn, who chonicled Stalin's crimes? It is interesting that the Soviet people are learning the full scope of Stalin's rule only now. It is not easy to absorb. Martin Ryle University of Richmond, VA ryle@urvax.urich.edu