Reply #236: Alright, Ace...

[JoseGaspar]

If you don't like my math quiz, let's try one of yours.

According to your quoted "estimates", above, Stalin killed 34 million people between 1939 and 1954. This number is exclusive of the 20 to 25 million Soviets who died as a result of the Nazi invasion of 1941.

Now, try this:

According to the Census of 1939, there were 168 million people in the Soviet Union. Annexations of the Baltic States and other territories in 1939 added another 24 million for a total of 192 million. According to the Census of 1959, there were 209 million people of whom 75 million had been born since 1940.

The death rate in the Russian Empire was 3% on the eve of the first World War. It was 1.6% after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Explain to me how 55 to 60 million people (20 to 25 million in WW2 plus your 34 million) could have died of "unnatural causes" between 1939 and 1959? That would make the death rate due to natural causes nearly zero over those 20 years. In fact, the death rate falls to nearly 1% just to account for those who died in the World War.

Or do you mean that Stalin was "responsible" for everybody who was a victim of the Nazi invasion of 1941?

There are people who say that but they are not called "demographers".