<P> According to Service, Stalin was "one of the most notorious figures in history", one who ordered "the systematic killing of people on a massive scale". Khlevniuk stated that Stalin's actions "upended or utterly destroyed literally millions upon millions of lives", suggesting that at least 60 million people faced some form of repression or discrimination under Stalin's regime . Official records show that 800,000 were shot in the Soviet Union between 1930 and 1952, although a larger number died during torture or as a result of poor conditions in labour camps . Many more died as a result of famines and starvation; particularly during the 1932--33 famine . </P> <P> Cold War era estimates for the total number of deaths under Stalin have been as high as 60 million but more recent estimates have been far lower . In his 2008 edition of The Great Terror, Conquest stated that "at least 15 million people" were killed by "the whole range of Soviet regime's terrors", although acknowledged that exact numbers will never be known . The historian and archival researcher Stephen G. Wheatcroft attributes roughly 3 million deaths to the Stalinist regime, including those from criminal negligence but excluding famine deaths, which he and historian R.W. Davies estimate to be around 5.5 to 6.5 million . The American historian Timothy D. Snyder asserts that while the Nazi regime killed 11--12 million non-combatants, Stalin's was responsible for about 6--9 million, negating claims that Stalin killed more than Hitler . </P> <P> Historians continue to debate whether or not the 1932--33 Ukrainian famine--known in Ukraine as the Holodomor--should be called a genocide . Popular among Ukrainian nationalists is the idea that Stalin consciously organised the famine to suppress nationalist desires among the Ukrainian people . Twenty - six countries have officially recognized the famine under the legal definition of genocide . In 2006, the Ukrainian Parliament declared it to be genocide, and in 2010 a Ukrainian court posthumously convicted Stalin, Lazar Kaganovich, Stanislav Kosior and other Soviet leaders of genocide . This interpretation has been rejected by more recent historical studies . These have articulated the view that--while Stalin's policies contributed significantly to the high mortality rate--there is no evidence that Stalin or the Soviet government consciously engineered the famine . The idea that this was a targeted attack on the Ukrainians is complicated by the widespread suffering that also affected other Soviet peoples in this period, including the Russians . Despite this lack of clear intentionality on Stalin's part, the historian Norman Naimark noted that although there may not be sufficient "evidence to convict him in an international court of justice as a genocidaire (...) that does not mean that the event itself cannot be judged as genocide". </P> <P> The process of de-Stalinization in the Soviet Union took place shortly after his death . Malenkov denounced the Stalin personality cult, while Pravda restrained its praise of him and began to criticise his personality cult . Stalingrad was renamed Volgograd . In 1956, Khruschev gave his "Secret Speech", titled "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences", to a closed session of the Party's 20th Congress . There, Khrushchev denounced Stalin for both his mass repression and his personality cult . He repeated these denunciations at the 22nd Party Congress in October 1962 . In October 1961, Stalin's body was removed from the mausoleum and buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis next to the Kremlin walls, the location marked only by a simple bust . </P>

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