MOSCOW — Each dossier holds close to 300 sheets of paper, so thin they are almost transparent, some filled with precise, clipped handwriting, others with symmetrical rows of type. Some contain allegations and accusations, but most are transcripts of interrogations carried out at the height of Stalin’s Great Terror by the feared agents of the secret police.
For 75 years, the files have remained locked away in the archives of Russia’s state security service: The country’s laws dictate that only after that amount of time can classified documents be released. In the last few months, the first two of nine volumes related to this case have been declassified.