Human rights in the Soviet Union
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
The neutrality and factual accuracy of this article are disputed. Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page. |
 |
The Soviet authorities have been accused of causing the deaths and deportation of millions of their own citizens in order to eliminate domestic opposition to the Soviet Union. It includes the persecution of members of nations incorported into the USSR which since the fall of the USSR live in states independent of Russia.
There are several documented instances of large-scale unnatural death in the Soviet Union. In legal terms, the word "genocide" may be appropriate, because specific ethnic groups were targeted. Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Volga Germans, Crimean Tatars, Chechens, and others were deported to remote unpopulated areas, such as Siberia or Kazakhstan. It is commonly accepted that the ethnicity-targeted population transfers in the Soviet Union led to millions of deaths due to inflicted hardships.
The actual number of killed or starved for political, ethnical or other reasons, is technically unknown. It has been estimated as between 3.5 and 8 million by G. Ponton, 6.6 million by V. V. Tsaplin, 9.5 million by Alec Nove, 20 million by The Black Book of Communism, 50 million by Norman Davies, and 61 million by R. J. Rummel.
The deaths of millions of people in Ukraine during the Holodomor famines of 1932—1933 was caused intentionally by confiscating all food and blocking the migration of starving population by the Soviet government. The reported number of victims varies up to 10 million, while 5 million is the lowest commonly accepted number. During World War II the Soviet Government, collectively punished at least nine of their distinct ethnic- linguistic sub-nations, for perceived collaboration with the enemy, including ethnic Germans, ethnic Greeks, ethnic Poles, Crimean Tatars, and Balkars.
[edit] See also
- Famines in Russia and USSR
- Category:Political repression in the Soviet Union for other articles on the topic.
