Mass Graves of Stalin Victims Sought in Moscow
The KGB is searching Moscow cemeteries for the unmarked mass graves of people executed during the purges of dictator Josef Stalin, the Tass news agency said Wednesday.
The report represented the first public admission by the security police organization that there are believed to be mass graves in the capital. Others have been reported in more remote parts of the country.
An estimated 20 million people died in purges during Stalin’s rule from the late 1920s to his death in 1953.
Under reforms initiated by President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the Soviet press began reporting on the discovery of mass graves containing Stalin’s victims about a year and a half ago.
The existence of dozens of mass graves has been reported since the Communist Party Central Committee issued a decree in 1989 ordering local governments to do all they could to redress the Stalin-era wrongs, including cooperating with groups that coordinate searches for grave sites.
The Moscow search is being conducted simultaneously with an effort to rehabilitate the victims of Stalin, restoring their reputations and expunging criminal records for the sake of their families.
The first discovery of a mass grave was reported by the press in the fall of 1988, in the Kuropaty forest of Byelorussia.
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