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Revision as of 20:21, 26 June 2006 by Gaius Cornelius (talk | contribs) (Delete duplicate word using AWB)(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 the Russian Federation.
While it is indisputable that USSR Government brought death and suffering to millions of its population, the legal use of the term "genocide" as inappropriate because international law on genocide is based on the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and the Soviet Union made sure that the drafting of the convention excluded genocides based on social class and class struggle ideology. 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. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn suggested the total number of 60 million.
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 ppunished 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
- Category:Political repression in the Soviet Union for other articles on the topic.
References
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