Stalin's personal files released

Stalin's files are said to contain The declassified files contain details of issues of "exceptional ideological and political importance"

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MOSCOW, Russia -- The Kremlin has released about 1,200 of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's personal files to the Russian State Archive.

The declassified files contain details of issues of "exceptional ideological and political importance," Federal Archive Service head Vladimir Kozlov told Echo of Moscow radio.

They are said to include Stalin's correspondence with Soviet chief of secret police Nikolai Yezhov, Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov; and Lazar Kaganovich, a government minister and member of Stalin's inner circle who also conducted purges.

Yezhov presided over widespread purges in the late 1930s.

Other parts of Stalin's archive containing defence and intelligence secrets remain classified in accordance with Russian law, Kozlov said.

Russia's State Archive has received about 20,000 files from Soviet Communist Party and government archives since 1996, he said.

Russian officials have said they believe more than 20 million people were victims of Stalin-era purges before the dictator's death in 1953.

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