Soviet famine of 1932-1933
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See the article about the Holodomor for a desciption of the 1932-33 famine in Ukraine, much of which also applies to the wider Soviet famine in other regions.
[edit] Estimation of the loss of life
Robert Conquest in his book The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivisation and the Terror-Famine estimates 7 million deaths.
According to the The Black Book of Communism, 6 million deaths.
The 2004 book The Years of Hunger: Soviet Agriculture, 1931-1933 by R.W. Davies and S.G. Wheatcroft gives a best estmate of around 6 million deaths.[1]
A study from 2005 by Michael Ellman: states "It should be noted that it would be a mistake simply to add this figure to the Davies & Wheatcroft estimate of 5.7 million famine deaths to arrive at a figure of 5.7 + 3=8.7 million ‘victims of famine and repression’. This would involve double counting the excess deaths in the OGPU system (approximately 300,000 according to Davies & Wheatcroft). Taking account of this, and also of the repression of non-peasants in this period, an estimate of ‘about eight and a half million’ victims of famine and repression in 1930 – 33 seems the best currently available."[2]
