Soviet famine of 1932-1933

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The Soviet famine of 1932-1934 affected all major grain-producing areas of the Soviet Union: Ukraine, North Caucasus, Volga Region, South Urals, West Siberia and Kazakhstan. The manifestation of this famine in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic is referred to as Holodomor. Unlike the previous similar famine, the information about the famine of 1932-1934 was suppressed in the Soviet Union until perestroika.

[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.
  • The Black Book of Communism estimates 6 million deaths.
  • The 2004 book The Years of Hunger: Soviet Agriculture, 1931-1933 by R.W. Davies and S.G. Wheatcroft, gives an estimate 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]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Davies and Wheatcroft, p. 401. For a review, see [1]
  2. ^ http://www.paulbogdanor.com/ellman.pdf