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

关于苏联恐怖活动的最重要文件在20世纪90年代解体后才得以查阅。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年）。这是因为，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。大多数解密的统计数据描述了逐年逮捕或定罪的数量。我们不可能简单地把所有这些数字加起来就得出一个总数，因为很多人会被计算两次。一些研究人员估计，10-15%的古拉格囚犯被重新逮捕（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犯，也描述了“普通”罪犯。这项拟议中的研究将提供一个更精确的估计，即因“政治”原因被当局逮捕两次或两次以上的人数。“复读生”的案例也将告诉我们很多关于在极权主义下生存的长期策略。斯大林主义20多年的独特历史为纵向研究提供了丰富的材料。从监狱释放的人是否（有意或被迫）搬到另一个地方，或改变他们的工作场所？他们的家庭地位和关系发生了怎样的变化？最后，本文的研究将丰富国家安全机关史学的内容。根据前恐怖分子的证词，他们在不同的恐怖活动中使用了“可疑”人员的卡片索引（其中包括“重复者”）（Hagenloh，2009; Shearer，2009）。逮捕“留级者”的浪潮与一般浪潮一致吗？特定的种族或社会或性别群体是否成为不成比例的目标？这项研究是基于几个档案来源，数字化和模拟。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），其中包括300多万个简短的传记。此外，我还将审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数字化文件集。为了了解大规模镇压运动的背景，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的胡佛研究所图书馆和档案馆进行研究，其中包含大量来自俄罗斯主要档案馆的副本。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，该档案馆拥有1991年后从前摩尔多瓦克格勃档案馆继承的关于20世纪30年代和40年代镇压的档案收藏。此外，我还将调查一批来自格鲁吉亚内务部档案馆的副本，这些副本也位于胡佛研究所档案馆。从方法上讲，本研究项目将使用复杂的数据分析工具，在数据库中识别同一个人随后被捕的高度可能性。例如，将使用机器学习算法对受害者的社会概况进行分类，并通过地理参照来跟踪受害者出生地和居住地的变化。该研究项目将阐明斯大林独裁统治的重要特征，包括政治压迫的受害者总数，他们的经历和生存策略，以及国家安全机构的运作。斯大林主义是最持久和最大规模的独裁统治之一，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，理解和解决当今世界独裁政权下政治犯的状况和前景具有最大价值。

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.