[Ixa]

Here is a short section from the article Lies Concerning the History of the Soviet Union called "454,000 is not 9 million", which will be of interest to Trotskyite "Marxists". (The entire article can be viewed here: http://www.etext.org/Politics/Staljin/S ... index.html)

Now carefully examine the table on this webpage: http://www.etext.org/Politics/Staljin/S ... ode16.html

The author goes on to say:

"From the above Table, there are a series of conclusions which need to be drawn. To start with we can compare its data to those given by Robert Conquest. The latter claims that in 1939 there were 9 million political prisoners in the labour camps and that 3 million others had died in the period 1937-1939. Let the reader not forget that Conquest is here talking only about political prisoners! Apart from these, says Conquest, there were also common criminals who, according to him, were much greater in number than the political prisoners! In 1950 there were, according to Conquest, 12 million political prisoners! Armed with the true facts, we can readily see what a fraudster Conquest really is. Not one of his figures corresponds even remotely to the truth. In 1939 there was a total in all the camps, colonies and prisons of close to 2 million prisoners. Of these 454,000 had committed political crimes, not 9 million as Conquest asserts. Those who died in labour camps between 1937 and 1939 numbered about 160,000, not 3 million as Conquest asserts. In 1950 there were 578,000 political prisoners in labour camps, not 12 million. Let the reader not forget that Robert Conquest to this day remains one of the major sources for right-wing propaganda against communism. Among right-wing pseudo-intellectuals, Robert Conquest is a godlike figure. As for the figures cited by Alexander Solzhenitsyn ? 60 million alleged to have died in labour camps ? there is no need for comment. The absurdity of such an allegation is manifest. Only a sick mind could promote such delusions.

"Let us now leave these fraudsters in order that we may ourselves concretely analyse the statistics relating to the gulag. The first question to be asked is what view we should take about the sheer quantity of people caught up in the penal system? What is the meaning of the figure of 2.5 million? Every person that is put in prison is living proof that society was still insufficiently developed to give every citizen everything he needed for a full life. From this point of view, the 2.5 million do represent a criticism of the society."

In other words, taking into account the additional lies described at length in the forementioned article (which is too long to bother quoting), the common image of the Stalin era is based on lies which can be proven false.