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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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011689
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01168900.014
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1990-09-17
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WORLD, Page 41World NotesSOVIET UNIONPardons for Troika Cons
Glasnost has given Soviets an unprecedented look into their
history. One result: rehabilitation for perhaps millions of people,
including many of those villainized for blatantly political
purposes during Joseph Stalin's long and dictatorial reign.
Last week the Kremlin recommended blanket amnesty for everyone
convicted by the infamous star-chamber "troika" courts of the
Stalin era, in which three party and state officials had absolute
power over the accused. The courts were the dictator's primary
instrument of mass terror during the 1930s and functioned until his
death in 1953. According to Western historians, the amnesty may
apply to as many as 20 million people, a large number of them
posthumously. Another post-Stalinist landmark: the weekly magazine
Literaturnaya Gazeta published a detailed account of the role
played by the dictator's secret police in the 1940 assassination
of his exiled rival Leon Trotsky, finally acknowledging that the
killer was acting on Stalin's orders.