Page "Joseph Stalin" Paragraph 11

The official Soviet archival records do not contain comprehensive figures for some categories of victims, such as those of ethnic deportations or of German population transfers in the aftermath of World War II.

Eric D. Weitz wrote, " By 1948, according to Nicolas Werth, the mortality rate of the 600, 000 people deported from the Caucasus between 1943 and 1944 had reached 25 %.

" Other notable exclusions from NKVD data on repression deaths include the Katyn massacre, other killings in the newly occupied areas, and the mass shootings of Red Army personnel ( deserters and so-called deserters ) in 1941.

The Soviets executed 158, 000 soldiers for desertion during the war, and the " blocking detachments " of the NKVD shot thousands more.

Also, the official statistics on Gulag mortality exclude deaths of prisoners taking place shortly after their release but which resulted from the harsh treatment in the camps.

Some historians also believe that the official archival figures of the categories that were recorded by Soviet authorities are unreliable and incomplete.

In addition to failures regarding comprehensive recordings, as one additional example, Robert Gellately and Simon Sebag-Montefiore argue that the many suspects beaten and tortured to death while in " investigative custody " were likely not to have been counted amongst the executed.