Joseph Stalin

===Death toll===
{{main|Excess mortality in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin}}

With a high number of excess deaths occurring under his rule, Stalin has been labelled "one of the most notorious figures in history".{{sfn|Service|2004|p=3}} These deaths occurred as a result of collectivisation, famine, terror campaigns, disease, war and mortality rates in the Gulag. As the majority of excess deaths under Stalin were not direct killings, the exact number of victims of Stalinism is difficult to calculate due to lack of consensus among scholars on which deaths can be attributed to the regime.{{sfn|Ellman|2002|pp=1163–1164}} Stalin has also been accused of [[Excess mortality in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin#Genocide allegations|genocide]] in the cases of forced population transfer of ethnic minorities in the Soviet Union and the famine in Ukraine.{{sfnm|1a1=Chang|1y=2019|2a1=Moore|2y=2012}}

[[File:GULag 2 Museum Moscow Russia.jpg|thumb|Interior of the [[Gulag]] Museum in Moscow]]
Official records reveal 799,455 documented executions in the Soviet Union between 1921 and 1953; 681,692 of these were carried out between 1937 and 1938, the years of the Great Purge.{{sfn|Getty|Rittersporn|Zemskov|1993|p=1022}} According to [[Michael Ellman]], the best modern estimate for the number of repression deaths during the Great Purge is 950,000–1.2&nbsp;million, which includes executions, deaths in detention, or soon after their release.{{sfn|Ellman|2002|pp=1162–1163}} In addition, while archival data shows that 1,053,829 perished in the Gulag from 1934 to 1953,{{sfn|Getty|Rittersporn|Zemskov|1993|p=1024}} the current historical consensus is that of the 18&nbsp;million people who passed through the Gulag system from 1930 to 1953, between 1.5 and 1.7&nbsp;million died as a result of their incarceration.{{sfn|Healey|2018|p=1049|ps=: "New studies using declassified Gulag archives have provisionally established a consensus on mortality and 'inhumanity.' The tentative consensus says that once secret records of the Gulag administration in Moscow show a lower death toll than expected from memoir sources, generally between 1.5 and 1.7 million (out of 18 million who passed through) for the years from 1930 to 1953."}} Historian and archival researcher [[Stephen G. Wheatcroft]] and Michael Ellman attribute roughly 3&nbsp;million deaths to the Stalinist regime, including executions and deaths from criminal negligence.{{sfnm|1a1=Wheatcroft|1y=1996|1pp=1334, 1348|2a1=Ellman|2y=2002|2p=1172}} Wheatcroft and historian [[R. W. Davies]] estimate famine deaths at 5.5–6.5&nbsp;million{{sfn|Davies|Wheatcroft|2004|p=401}} while scholar Steven Rosefielde gives a number of 8.7&nbsp;million.{{sfn|Rosefielde|1996}}

In 2011, historian [[Timothy D. Snyder]] summarised modern data made after the opening of the Soviet archives in the 1990s and states that Stalin's regime was responsible for 9&nbsp;million deaths, with 6&nbsp;million of these being deliberate killings. He further states that estimates of 20&nbsp;million or above, which were made before access to the archives, are not credible.{{sfnm|1a1=Snyder|1y=2010|1p=384|2a1=Snyder, 27 January 2011}} According to Rogovin, 80–90% of the members of the Central Committee elected at the [[6th Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks)|Sixth]] through to the [[17th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)|Seventeenth Congresses]] were physically annihilated.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rogovin |first1=Vadim Z |title=Was There an Alternative? 1923–1927: Trotskyism: a Look Back Through the Years |date=2021 |publisher=Mehring Books |isbn=978-1-893638-96-9 |page=495 }}</ref>