Steven Rosefielde

Excess collectivization deaths 1929-1933: new demographic evidence.

The new 1937 census information however is more troublesome. According to Anton Antonov-Ovseenko the 1937 census population was 156 million. This statistic which is consistent with total excess deaths calculated from the censuses of 1926 and 1959 implies that there were 16.5 million aggregative excess deaths sustained in the Soviet Union between January 1 1929 and January 1 1937 (table 2); 7.3 million more than indicated by the official census of 1939. Some of these millions may be attributable to the famine of 1933-1934 others to Gulag and the terror. The possibility that a portion of these concealed excess deaths occurred during collectivization however cannot be ruled out. As a consequence it may be concluded that although official Soviet statistics validate the widely held impression that collectivization caused roughly 5 million excess deaths they may still conceal the full extent of the demographic losses sustained during this tumultuous period. (excerpt)