Note Book

A new crowdsourced project about people executed under Stalin aims to tell victims’ personal stories, as a way of illustrating the vast scope of the purges, using photos and information submitted by relatives.

Called Immortal Gulag (Bes­smertny Barak in Russian), the social networking campaign publishes chilling daily accounts of the tragedies that befell ordinary men, women and children. The name is strikingly similar to the Bessmertny Polk (Immortal Regiment) effort, which saw tens of thousands of Russians (including Putin) marching with portraits of their family members who fought during World War II.

The project’s founders say they object to the country’s victory in the war being used to rehabilitate the role of Stalin. Immortal Gulag, they say, is the unheard side of the story.