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This collection is a preliminary exploration of a new subject of historical inquiry: the phenomenon of denunciation in modem European history. It is based on a conference on practices of denunciation, focused particularly on the Soviet Union under Stalin and on Nazi Germany, which was organized by Sheila Fitzpatrick and Robert Gellately at the University of Chicago in April 1994. More than half of the papers published here were originally presented at that conference. 1

We must begin with the question of definition. This is tricky, because the accusatory acts by citizens that we are interested in are not clearly distinguished as a category of everyday behavior in contemporary English. The word" denunciation" comes closest but has the disadvantage of exoticism: an English speaker is more likely to use it in connection with, say, Nazi Germany than in describing the mores of an English village. We should say at the …