MOSCOW A Russian human rights group has published a database containing personal information about nearly 40 , 000 members of the notorious security force that carried out Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin ' s purges , shedding light on an ugly stretch of history the Kremlin would prefer to remain hidden . The archive , culled from the records of Stalin ' s security forces the NKVD and posted on the website of Memorial , the human rights group , for the first time names those who carried out some 700 , 000 executions from 1935 to 1939 during The Great Terror . Russian President Vladimir Putin has in recent years revised Stalin ' s legacy , emphasizing the dictator ' s role in defeating Nazi Germany in World War II and turning the Soviet Union into a world power .