This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Nikodemos (talk | contribs) at 20:25, 20 October 2006. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 20:25, 20 October 2006 by Nikodemos (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)The Soviet authorities orchestrated the death and deportation of millions of their own citizens, 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 occurring in the Soviet Union, mostly in the 1930s. In legal terms, the word "genocide" may not be appropriate, because there was no proven intent to destroy a specific national, ethnic, racial or religious group. Nevertheless, the term genocide is used by many respected historians, especially with respect to the Holodomor. This usage is often motivated by the fact that, e.g., ethnicity-targeted population transfer in the Soviet Union, while arguably lacking genocidal purposes, led to millions of deaths due to inflicted hardships.
The actual number (if any) of those killed or starved for political, ethnical or other reasons, is technically unknown. The number is widely debated and commonly changed back and forth, often for political reasons. 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 by intentionally not providing relief 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.
When NKVD/KGB and Russian state archives became publicly accessible to a certain degree after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it became possible to derive more accurate estimates. Opened archives made it possible both to debunk the exaggerations and to reveal certain facts for which only anecdotal evidence existed before.
See also
- Famines in Russia and USSR
- Category:Political repression in the Soviet Union for other articles on the topic.
References
 | This article does not cite any sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Human rights in the Soviet Union" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (Learn how and when to remove this message) |