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According to historian Stephen Wheatcroft, approximately 1 million of these deaths were "purposive" while the rest happened through neglect and irresponsibility. [2] The deaths of at least 5.5 to 6.5 million [14] persons in the Soviet famine of 1932–1933 are sometimes, though not always, included with the victims of the Stalin era. [2] [15]
Many of those arrested after Kirov's murder, high-ranking party officials among them, also confessed plans to kill Stalin themselves, albeit often under duress. [32] The validity of these confessions is debated by historians, but there is consensus that Kirov's death was the flashpoint at which Stalin decided to take action and begin the purges.
Joseph Stalin biographer Stephen Kotkin supports a similar view, stating that while "there is no question of Stalin's responsibility for the famine" and many deaths could have been prevented if not for the "insufficient" and counterproductive Soviet measures, there is no evidence for Stalin's intention to kill the Ukrainians deliberately. [146]
The first Party purge of the Joseph Stalin era took place in 1929–1930 in accordance with a resolution of the XVI Party Conference. [4] Purges became deadly under Stalin. More than 10 percent of the party members were purged. At the same time, a significant number of new industrial workers joined the Party.
The NKVD recorded that between 26 and 27 million Soviet citizens had been killed, with millions more being wounded, malnourished, or orphaned. [479] In the war's aftermath, some of Stalin's associates suggested modifications to government policy. [480] Post-war Soviet society was more tolerant than its pre-war phase in various respects.
Stalin “killed systematically rather than episodically,” the Stanford historian Norman Naimark has observed. An elderly woman passes a house shelled by Russians in the village of Krasylivka ...
[34] [c] Joseph Stalin biographer Stephen Kotkin states that while "there is no question of Stalin's responsibility for the famine" and many deaths could have been prevented if not for the counterproductive and insufficient Soviet measures, there is no evidence for Stalin's intention to kill the Ukrainians deliberately. [58]
After decades of research in the state archives, most scholars say that Stalin's regime killed between 6 and 9 million, which is considerably less than originally thought, [15] while Nazi Germany killed at least 11 million, which is in line with previous estimates. [16]