True enough. A lot of people (Americans included) refused to believe that Stalin was killing millions of his own people. They just dismissed it with the wave of a hand when the facts became inconvenient.
We'll never know for sure, but the few Russian records that were not shredded are now indicating that approx. 60-80 million people were killed by the Stalin regime.
Right. Go to your local used book store & pick up "Lenin's Tomb" and/or "The Black Book of Communism" in the (recent) history section.