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Soviet Genocide is a controversial term referring to deaths of millions of civilians before, during and after World War II as designed to eliminate domestic opposition to the Soviet Union.

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 the war the Soviets committed genocide against at least nine of their distinct ethnic- linguistic sub-nations, including ethnic Germans, ethnic Greeks, Crimean Tatars, and Balkars.

While it is indisputable that Soviet Union brought death and suffering to millions of its population, some consider the term "genocide" as inappropriate, claiming that Soviet repressions were based on the notions of social class and class struggle ideology only, rather than on racist or nationalist motivation. Nevertheless the term 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. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn suggested the total number of 60 million.

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

• Category:Political repression in the Soviet Union for other articles on the topic.

• Political repression in the Soviet Union