In the history of the Soviet Union, political terror is undoubtedly one of the most incendiary issues. This issue has provoked an outburst of national emotion, unleashed by Gorbachev's glasnost' campaign. Even the hitherto sacred years of Lenin's rule are no longer immune to harsh criticism and condemnation. Indeed, the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party has made known Lenin's extreme cruelty toward the church and believers. This revelation is tantamount to dismantling “the Soviet myth that it was Stalin who initiated repression against the clergy and believers.”

There are still limits to the availability of sources, however. As V. V. Tsaplin, the director of the Central State Archive of the National Economy of the Soviet Union (TsGANKh SSSR) in Moscow, admits, the documents on political repression in the Soviet state archives have not been declassified. Consequently, all sorts of speculation on this hitherto forbidden subject circulate in the Soviet press and even scholarly publications, often drawing on Western scholars' work. In the West, in turn, one may be tempted to believe that citations by the Soviets are authoritative.

Although access to archival documents on terror is limited, the Soviet archives are not closed altogether. Soviet historians, who have had access to classified archival material, have published some informative articles on the extent of the terror under Stalin. The Committee for State Security (KGB), the successor to the notorious security police (OGPU-NKVD), also has recently published data on the victims of the state terror under Stalin.