` :i just find it a little offensive that apparently we can't reference the enormity of his repression in the intro. ``severe repression`` just doesn't cut it for a regime that is regarded in the Western world (and many other countries as well) as one of the most extensively constructed totalitarian networks. and i have not seen 172 effectively contest the characterization of Stalinism as totalitarian aside from listing a few historians who go along with his position, which is by no means the definitive one.  `