Regarding two of the questions letter-writer Walter Slack raises concerning recent research on Joseph Stalin ("
Stalin's crimes," May 12 and TribLIVE.com):
- Virtually every "revelation" about Stalin's crimes against party members made by Khrushchev in his famous 1956 "Secret Speech" turns out to have been not simply incorrect but a deliberate lie. I'm concluding a lengthy study of this very issue.
- Neither Alexander Yakovlev's nor Dmitri Volkogonov's works are objective. They tailored their mendacious books -- "research" is not the proper word here -- to Gorbachev's and Yeltsin's political needs.
As my earlier letter explained ("Standing by Stalin," May 1 and TribLIVE.com), my conclusions reflect new research on the Stalin period being done now in Russia. This research is based on documents from formerly secret Soviet archives. It shatters what we have all been taught for a half-century.
It is exciting and important stuff, and there's much more to come.
Grover Furr
Montclair, N.J.
The writer is an English professor at Montclair State University.
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