From arrest to arrest: experiences of the re-convicted victims of Stalinist terror in the USSR, 1930-1953

从被捕到被捕：1930-1953 年苏联斯大林主义恐怖活动重新定罪受害者的经历

• 批准号: 2720892
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Nottingham
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2720892
• 关键词: arrest; experiences; re; convicted; victims

The most important documents about the terror in the Soviet Union became accessible after its dissolution in the 1990s. However, the central question of the exact number of victims of Stalinism is still widely debated (Khlevniuk, 2022; Wheatcroft, 2022; Zhuravskaya et al., 2021). This is, not least, because for precise estimation researchers still need to identify the number of so-called 'repeaters' ('povtorniky'), i.e. people arrested multiple times during Stalin's rule. Most declassified statistics describe the numbers of year-by-year arrests or convictions. It is not possible to establish a total simply by adding up all these figures because many people would be counted twice. Some researchers have estimated that 10-15% of Gulag prisoners were re-arrested (Khlevniuk, 2022). However, these estimations are based on selected judicial statistical data that describe not only political but also 'ordinary' criminals. The proposed research will offer a more precise estimation of the number of people arrested two or more times by the authorities for 'political' reasons. The case of 'repeaters' will also tell a lot about the long-term strategies for survival under totalitarianism. The unique history of over 20 years of Stalinism provides abundant material for a longitudinal study. Did people released from prison move (intentionally or forcedly) to another place, or change their workplace? How did their family status and relations change? Finally, the study will enrich the historiography of the state security agencies. According to the testimonials of former perpetrators of terror, they used card-indexes of 'suspicious' persons ('repeaters' were counted among these) for the different campaigns of terror (Hagenloh, 2009; Shearer, 2009). Did the waves of arrests of 'repeaters' coincide with general waves? Were specific ethnicities or social or gender groups disproportionately targeted? The research is based on several archival sources, both digitised and analogue. I will analyse a large-scale online database, Victims of Political Terror in the USSR (Memorial, 2017), which includes more than 3 million short biographies. Additionally, I will examine a collection of digitised documents from terror victims' investigative files from the Moscow Region, held by the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF). To contextualise the massive repression campaigns and explore available statistics on 'repeaters', I will conduct research at the Hoover Institution Library and Archives at Stanford, USA, which contain a large collection of copies from major Russian archives. For a broader regional perspective, I will work at the National Archive of the Republic of Moldova (NARM), which holds archival collections on the repressions of the 1930s and 1940s inherited after 1991 from the former Moldovan KGB archive. Furthermore, I will investigate a collection of copies from the Archives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia, also located at the Hoover Institution Archives.Methodologically, this research project will use complex data-analytics tools to identify within the database subsequent arrests of the same person with a high degree of probability. For example, machine-learning algorithms will be used to classify victims' social profiles, and georeferencing for tracking changes in victims' places of birth and residence.This research project will elucidate important features of Stalin's dictatorship, including the total number of victims of political repression, their experiences and strategies for survival, and the functioning of the state security agencies. Stalinism was one of the longer-lasting and largest-scale dictatorships and this makes a deeper exploration of the Soviet penal system and the experiences of repressed citizens of the utmost value for identifying, understanding and addressing the conditions and prospects of present-day political prisoners under authoritarian regimes across the world.

20 世纪 90 年代苏联解体后，有关苏联恐怖活动的最重要文件得以公开。然而，斯大林主义受害者的确切人数这一核心问题仍然存在广泛争议（Khlevniuk，2022；Wheatcroft，2022；Zhuravskaya 等人，2021）。这尤其是因为为了精确估计，研究人员仍然需要确定所谓的“重复者”（“povtorniky”）的数量，即在斯大林统治期间多次被捕的人。大多数解密统计数据描述了逐年逮捕或定罪的数量。仅仅通过将所有这些数字相加来确定总数是不可能的，因为许多人会被计算两次。一些研究人员估计，10-15% 的古拉格囚犯被再次逮捕（Khlevniuk，2022）。然而，这些估计是基于选定的司法统计数据，这些数据不仅描述了政治罪犯，而且还描​​述了“普通”罪犯。拟议的研究将对因“政治”原因被当局两次或多次逮捕的人数进行更准确的估计。 “复读机”的案例也将告诉我们很多关于极权主义下生存的长期策略的信息。斯大林主义20多年的独特历史为纵向研究提供了丰富的素材。从监狱释放的人是否（有意或被迫）搬到另一个地方，或改变工作场所？他们的家庭状况和关系发生了怎样的变化？最后，该研究将丰富国家安全机构的史学。根据前恐怖袭击者的证言，他们在不同的恐怖活动中使用了“可疑”人员的卡片索引（“重复者”也被算在其中）（Hagenloh，2009；Shearer，2009）。 “重犯”的逮捕浪潮是否与一般浪潮一致？特定种族或社会或性别群体是否成为不成比例的目标？该研究基于多种档案来源，包括数字化和模拟的。我将分析一个大型在线数据库，苏联政治恐怖受害者（纪念馆，2017 年），其中包含超过 300 万篇简短传记。此外，我还将检查俄罗斯联邦国家档案馆 (GARF) 保存的莫斯科地区恐怖受害者调查档案中的一系列数字化文件。为了了解大规模镇压活动的背景并探索有关“重复者”的可用统计数据，我将在美国斯坦福大学胡佛研究所图书馆和档案馆进行研究，其中包含来自俄罗斯主要档案馆的大量副本。为了更广泛的区域视角，我将在摩尔多瓦共和国国家档案馆 (NARM) 工作，该档案馆收藏有 1991 年后从前摩尔多瓦克格勃档案馆继承的关于 1930 年代和 1940 年代镇压的档案馆藏。此外，我将调查格鲁吉亚内务部档案馆（也位于胡佛研究所档案馆）的副本。从方法上讲，该研究项目将使用复杂的数据分析工具在数据库中识别随后被捕的人同一个人的概率很高。例如，机器学习算法将用于对受害者的社交档案进行分类，并使用地理配准来跟踪受害者出生和居住地的变化。该研究项目将阐明斯大林独裁统治的重要特征，包括政治迫害的受害者总数。镇压、他们的生存经历和策略，以及国家安全机构的运作。斯大林主义是持续时间最长、规模最大的独裁政权之一，这使得对苏联刑罚制度和受压迫公民的经历进行更深入的探索，对于识别、理解和解决当今政治犯的状况和前景具有最大的价值在世界各地的独裁政权下。