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Step 13 of 16 · November–December 1933

Purge and the toll

The famine ends with the 1933 harvest, and the party blames Ukrainian "nationalism". Demographers later put the toll at about 3.9 million excess deaths.

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  • Losses 1932–34 (circle area)

Circles show each 1932 oblast's total losses for 1932–34 (HURI); no month-by-month split per oblast is published. Borders and the cordon are approximate.

Claims

FamineMedium confidence
1) Time range
1933-11-18 … 1933-11-22
2) Group profile
CP(b)U CC plenum · Under Kosior (First Secretary) and Postyshev (Second Secretary)Selector: Kharkiv
3) Decisions
  1. Kosior declared local nationalism the main danger in Ukraine
  2. In the 1933 purge, 237 raion party secretaries and 249 raion executive chairmen were replaced
Affected
About 100,000 party members expelled in Postyshev's first year; Ukrainian intelligentsia
Gap
Purge figures do not add up across sources.

EN WikipediaEN Wikipedia · Pavel Postyshev

FamineHigh confidence
1) Time range
1932-01-01 … 1934-12-31
2) Group profile
Population of the Ukrainian SSR · 1932 borders: 7 oblasts and the Moldavian ASSRSelector: About 32.7 million people in 1932
3) Decisions
  1. No decision of their own
Affected
3,942,500 excess deaths (133.3 per 1,000) plus about 600,000 lost births (Institute of Demography, 2015; the 2010 Kyiv court used 3,941,000)
Gap
Serious studies range from 1.8 million (Wheatcroft) to 4.8 million; political figures of 7–10 million are not demographic. Infoboxes: EN 3.5–5 million, RU 3.5–5 million (with Shubin's 1–2 million), UK 2.6–10.5 million.

IDSS 2015Levchuk et al. 2020

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