Pictorial essay: Death trenches bear witness to Stalin's purges
July 17, 1997
Web posted at: 4:07 p.m. EDT (2007 GMT)
SANDERMAKH, Russia (CNN) -- Amid the low hills and
picturesque streams of Karelia, a republic in northwest
Russia, excavators unearthed more than 9,000 bodies of
political prisoners -- a horrific reminder of the nation's
past.
The bodies were found earlier this month by members of a
Russian historical society known as Memorial. The victims
were the result of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin's purges of
the 1930s, carried out by the NKVD, later known as the KGB.
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