Do you even *know* about works of Vitaly Zemskov? He (as opposite to Conquest, and other western mythmakers) worked with archives and documentary evidence.
Here's a link to interview with him:
http://www.contr-tv.ru/article/events/2 ... 6/repress2 (for anyone, who can read in russian). For anyone, who cannot, here's some numbers:
The total number of victims of political repression in USSR in period from 1921 to 1953 (e.g. so-called Stalin's era) is approximately 4 mln. This includes: 800 000 condemned to death, and 600 000 died in prison camps for various reasons.
So: there are 1,4 mln died due to a "Stalin's repressions", and 2,6 mln released and/or rehabilitated afterwards.