The Objectives of the different waves of Stalinist repression in the Baltic Republics

ENStalinist terror has been covered extensively in historiography that deals with the entire Soviet Union and as well as with former Union republics or regions. The ‘archival revolution’ of the 1990s has definitely increased both our level of knowledge and the amount of scholarship. Not only historians but also NGOs like Memorial in Russia are concerned with the topic and have provided highly valuable information. Our knowledge of the basic facts and figures has improved tremendously, but one might note a certain lack of new interpretation and analyses. Stalinist terror is an important issue in the Baltic states today and a central focus of research on memory, especially the mass deportations of 1941 and 1949. I would hazard a guess that a bibliography of Stalinist crimes conducted in the Baltic republics, including articles and memoirs of GULAG and deportation survivors, would come to more than 1,000 titles if such a bibliography were to be compiled. In other words, the field holds a central position in recent Baltic historiography.