Text in Italian.

This book is dedicated to the secret murders perpetrated on Stalin's order, focusing in particular on the secret Laboratory "X", located in central Moscow, where lethal poisons were tested on detainees. This book also contains some short essays - many of which were published in «Novaja Gazeta' - regarding the life and work of the main perpetrators of justice at the time of the Soviet repressions, including Blochin, Vlodzimirskij, Rodos, Svarcman / Schwarzmann, the Kobulov brothers, Merkulov, and others.

Originally published as: Palachi. Oni vypolnyali zakazy Stalina, Novaya Gazeta, Moscow, 2011. 1st Italian edition: June 2020 (translated by Caterina Garzonio).