One can speak meaningfully about a historical fact, but we can rarely speak with 100% certainty about anything in the past, even if we were alive when the event we're speaking of took place.
We are able to speak meaningfully about historical facts because with most historical events come enough of a basis of evidence that a particular event took place. Even if all of the details are not known, it is possible to take the evidence that is out there and then search for further evidence and draw conclusions. However due to the use of propaganda and misinformation that is spread by countries about what is going on within their borders, one can never be 100% sure what really happened. In addition, some circumstances are mysterious in the way that there is no way to know for sure what happened because many factors were involved, and at other times, cultural values and points of view will have influence over what information is being spread.IRL 6 (http://www.katardat.org/russia/pictures/photos-collectivisation.html) discusses photographs from Communist Russia that show collective farms and the workers, and this serves as some evidence that collective farming took place to some degree, however in many of the photographs one can observe people who are smiling and appear to be happy. Since collective farming is not known to be something that made people in Communist Russia happy and it has also been said that farmers worked harder on their own plots of land than the collective farms, it can be deduced with reason that since Stalin used propaganda to glorify himself and his decisions in other circumstances, the photographs are one form of propaganda. However it is impossible to know for sure what exactly happened, especially when relating to the history of a country that we did not know much about what was happening until the 1990s after the country collapsed and records and information was then released. The USSR in the past chose what information to let out and what not to let out, so before records were discovered, there was little certainty about what had happened in the past, and what this demonstrates is that at any given point, people may think they know the whole picture but there may still be other information that has not been released or discovered.
Another example that illustrates some of my points above is the Kirov murder. IRL 7 (http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/stalin/97020) references this. It is known beyond reasonable doubt that Kirov was murdered and by who, so one can speak meaningfully about that and use the evidence to draw conclusions as to WHY he was murdered. There are theories but will we ever know for sure? Much of the information regarding the murder is very obscured and one must use historical context of what was going on in Russia at the time to figure out who else was behind the murder. For instance Kirov was murdered by someone who did not like him, yet how do we know for sure that Stalin was directly involved? We don't, because he never admitted to being involved and all we can do is use the evidence that Kirov was winning support at the expense of Stalin and that Stalin had reason to want him dead. Therefore one can speak of this and draw conclusions but we will never know for sure because there are so many factors to take into consideration here and too little solid evidence to show exactly why it happened how it did.
Often times, someone's view of a historical event will be colored by their cultural background and the values of that society. Here in IRL 4 (http://www.cliffordmay.org/1906/a-creeping-coup-is-russia-heading-back-to-the-ussr) it is said that Russia is heading back toward its Communist ways. Is it really? That article was not written by someone from Russia and the author likely comes from a country that historically was opposed to Communism, and we do not know for sure if they are spreading accurate information or if the quotes given in that article actually came from the said speakers. Although it is often said that Russia is heading back toward Communism, will we really know unless we live there and observe the political climate for ourselves? There has to be a reason why people are saying this, but we do not know for certainty if Russian leaders today have the desire to turn back to Communism from the past. It is not known whether or not Russia really is heading back toward Communism or if the perspective that it is, comes from Communist-fearing countries that will interpret any even somewhat Communist behaviors as such. An example of cultural differences coming into play can be seen here in IRL 8 (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-russia-stalin2-2009nov02,0,2551543.story). That refers to an article about if Stalin was really as bad as we thought he was. The definition of "bad" differs among people, and some people view him as bad while others probably emphasize the good things that he did, so how will we ever know if he was "bad"? To some people he would have been and to others he wouldn't have, so opinion comes into play as well.
There is room to speak about historical facts meaningfully as there are various sources and remains left from the past, but we will never know what happened for sure due to misinformation being spread and propaganda (such as photos of overly enthusiastic collective farmers that contradict what is believed to be true about the unpopularity of such farms among the workers, cultural differences (i.e. ones that would lead some to believe Stalin was good and others believe he was bad), and obscure facts, for instance with the Kirov murder. In addition, 100% certainty is almost impossible to obtain because even if the large majority of history could be proven, there would likely be one or two minor details that still could not.
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