ABSTRACT
The quest for truth about the Stalin era must begin with a look at the situation in Russian archives. In the 1990s, this improved greatly for scholars who wanted to consult documents from that period. The declassification of hitherto secret papers led to the publication of many works, some of very high quality. But as the years passed, political developments made things more difficult. It used to be much easier to gain access to sensitive material under Boris Yeltsin than it is today.
