Corrigenda and Errata

Corrigenda and errata concerning the article by Michael Ellman, ‘Stalin and the Soviet Famine of 1932–33 Revisited’, Europe-Asia Studies, 59, 4, pp. 663–93.

(1) p. 665, Odintsov quotation

The report from which this quotation comes was published in full in Ukrains'kii khlib na eksport: 1932–1933 (Kyiv, 2006), pp. 286–95. This passage has been misquoted by some authors. In 1995 Goroshko paraphrased it in a somewhat one-sided way. Later Kul'chits'kii treated Goroshko's paraphrase as a quotation. See S. Goroshko, ‘Golod yak zasib borot'bi totalitarnoi derzhavi protiv selyan’, in Golodomor 1932–1933 gg. v Ukraini: Prichini i nasledki (Kyiv, 1995), p. 102 and S. V. Kul'chits'kii, Golod 1932–1933 gg v Ukraine kak genotsid (Kyiv, 2005), p. 212.

(2) p. 668, top paragraph

The reasons for Evdokimov's removal from the central organs of the OGPU in 1931 are unclear and controversial. For a quite different interpretation from the one given in the text see S. Wheatcroft, ‘Agency and Terror: Evdokimov and Mass Killing in Stalin's Great Terror’, Australian Journal of Politics and History, 53, 1, pp. 34–36. See also A. Pavlyukov, Ezhov. Biografiya (Moscow, 2007), pp. 269–70.

(3) p. 669, Table 1

TABLE 1 1932–33 Repression under the Decree of 7 August 1932

Date	Agency	Charged^a	Arrested	Sentences	Death sentences
1 November 1932	OGPU	n.a.	31,488	6,406^b	501
15 January 1933	USSR courts	n.a.	n.a.	103,000	4,880^c
1 March 1933	RSFSR courts	n.a.	n.a.	98,266	4,202
1 January 1933–1 May 1933	USSR courts	n.a.	n.a.	81,251	4,183
31 December 1933	RSFSR general courts^d	n.a.	n.a.	125,735^e	n.a.
31 December 1933	OGPU	250,461	n.a.	21,583^f	2,226^g
Notes: ^a Privlecheno. In general the number charged is greater than the number arrested since it includes persons charged but not held in detention.^bThe discrepancy between OGPU arrests and sentences results from transfers to other bodies (e.g. the court system), cases still under investigation, and releases. OGPU releases prior to sentence were not insignificant. For data on this see Table 3.^cThis is an incomplete figure which only refers to the 70,060 cases for which there were data at the time of writing this report. However, the number of actual executions in the judicial system seems to have been much less than the number of death sentences by that system. According to the RSFSR Commissar of Justice Krylenko (Solomon 1996, p. 117) the number of persons actually executed under the decree in 1932 in the RSFSR did not exceed 1,000 (this figure probably excludes extra-judicial repression by the OGPU). Solomon (1996, p. 223) suggests that the actual number of judicial executions in 1933 was at least as many as in 1932.^dIn addition there were transport courts and military tribunals which also implemented the decree.^eAccording to the archival source used for Table 2 row 2 (l.3), 22,347 of these sentences were issued in 1932 and 103,388 in 1933. Repression under this decree did not end at the end of 1933. According to the same source, there were 37,729 convictions in 1934, 12,827 in 1935 and smaller numbers in all years up to and including 1946 (the source was compiled in 1947).^fAccording to the January 1934 OGPU report, in 1933 the OGPU sentenced 15,177 people under the decree of 7 August. Allowing also for the 6,406 people sentenced by 1 November 1932, produces a total of 21,583. This is a slight underestimate since it excludes November–December 1932. The difference between the numbers charged by the OGPU and the numbers sentenced by it, reflects sentences by the courts to which most cases were transferred, cases stopped during investigation or trial, or even acquittals.^gAccording to the January 1934 OGPU report, in 1933 77,581 people were sentenced by the courts and the OGPU. Of these, the OGPU sentenced 1,725 to death. Adding on the 501 OGPU death sentences by 1 November 1932, gives the figure of 2,226 OGPU death sentences by the end of December 1933. This figure is a slight underestimate because it excludes OGPU death sentences in November–December 1932.Sources: Menzhinsky's report to Stalin of 3 November 1932 (Berelovich & Danilov 2005, p. 217); Vinokur's report of 7 March 1933 (Zyuzina 2004, pp. 128–31); Vyshinsky's report to Stalin of 23 March 1933 (Danilov et al. 2001, pp. 726–33); Vinokur's report of July 1933 (Zyuzina 2004, pp. 133–47); archival source cited in Table 2 (l.3); and the OGPU report to Stalin of 8 January 1934 (Berelovich & Danilov 2005, pp. 506–7).

This table remains the same except for the deletion of note ^c in the original, but for the sake of clarity we have chosen to reproduce the whole table here.

(4) p. 678, footnote 26

This footnote should now read:

²⁶The evidence for this is Stalin's 10 January 1939 telegram (Ellman 2005, footnote 22) and the discussion at the June 1957 CC Plenum (Kovaleva et al. 1998, p. 119). According to Okhotin and Roginskii (Danilov 2006, p. 571) torture was authorised in July 1937. According to Pavlyukov (Ezhov.Biografiya p. 316) it was authorised in August 1937.

(5) p. 682, footnote 30

This footnote should now read:

³⁰According to Kul'chits'kii (2005, p. 196), the number of famine deaths in Ukraine was 3.2 million. This is 56% of the Davies and Wheatcroft estimate of the total number of famine victims. Since the Kazakh famine began in 1931, whereas the overwhelming majority of the Ukrainian victims died in 1933, the Ukrainian proportion of 1933 excess deaths was higher than the Ukrainian proportion of total famine deaths. The 3.2 million estimate is an estimate of excess deaths in Ukraine, not of excess deaths of those of Ukrainian nationality. To obtain the latter, one would have to add the excess deaths of Ukrainians outside Ukraine and subtract the excess death of non-Ukrainians in Ukraine. According to Vallin, Meslé, Adamets and Pyrozhkov (‘A New Estimate of Ukrainian Population Losses during the Crises of the 1930s and 1940s’, Population Studies, 2002, 56, 3, pp. 249–64) famine mortality in Ukraine in 1932–1934 (mainly 1933) was 2.6 million and in addition fertility declined by about 1.1 million, making a total population loss of about 3.7 million. In addition they estimate inter-census (1926–1939) deportations at 930,000 making a total inter-census (1926–1939) population loss for Ukraine from famine and terror of about 4.6 million. They also estimate wartime (1941–1945) excess deaths at 6.7 million, which means that the war was two and a half times more deadly than the 1932–1934 famine.

(6) p. 684, 3rd paragraph

‘The migration ban only applied to areas predominantly inhabited by Ukrainians.’ This is not quite correct. The 22 January 1933 directive of Stalin and Molotov does only refer to the North Caucasus and Ukraine. However, on 16 February 1933 the Politburo extended the migration ban to the Lower-Volga. See Tragediya sovetskoi derevni vol. 3 (Moscow, 2001), p. 644.

(7) p. 687, footnote 42, line 3

This footnote should now read:

⁴²The notorious NKVD order 00447 of 30 July 1937 specified that one of its targets was (section I point 6) ‘sectarian activists, churchgoers (tserkovniki) and others’ who were already detained in prisons, camps, colonies and special settlements, but who continued ‘active anti-Soviet, subversive, work’ in those locations.