[T.L.Sink]

All the most widely acclaimed Soviet scholars (Robert
Conquest and Adam Ulam to cite only two) believe that
at least 20 million perished in the gulags and purges
under Stalin. One of the unfortunate characteristics of
human nature is to "mythologize the past". Some people
in Russia today see the disorder and corruption that exists
as Russia struggles toward a more democratic society --
so they tend to look at the past and see only the "order"
that existed under Communism. They view this with a certain
nostalgia as they screen out the horrors of the past that
were part of that history. It brings that well-known
axiom of Santayana to mind: those who don't remember the
past are condemned to relive it.

[Zhangliqun]

All the most widely acclaimed Soviet scholars (Robert Conquest and Adam Ulam to cite only two) believe that at least 20 million perished in the gulags and purges under Stalin.

And that doesn't count the 14 million dead from the Terror Famines of 1932-1933, primarily in Ukraine, but also Kazakhstan and other nearby places.