> This pervasive atmosphere is nowhere to be seen in the pictures

You could have just asked any survivor of these times.

As yourself: would you write a similar comment about Nazi Germany? May be you would consider it insensitive to the millions of its victims? Well, your comment about USSR is insensitive exactly for the same reasons.

I was born in that country, many members of my family have had to survive through it, and many didn't — just as many others have been killed by the Nazis. And westerners who, out of mistrust to their government, begin to whitewash Soviet union make my blood boil. You're as bad as holocaust deniers.