Quote Originally Posted by ReluctantSamurai View Post
Thanks for making the effort. However, I'm not sure one can use simple extrapolation using data covering other countries. I'm not a statistician, so my opinion may be incorrect. But....the point I was trying to make concerning the Ukraine and its view towards the ruling Communist Party remains. Ukrainians harbored a deep resentment towards the Bolsheviks both for the forced collectivization of farms, the withholding of food during the Great Famine, and for religious persecution. Without knowing the true nature of Nazism, I believe they would have given a great deal of support to the Germans if it hadn't been for the Einsatzgruppen.
Of course, the lack of data about the population of Ukraine, the effect of famine etc... only gives us the option of an educated guess at best. But, in the lack of concrete information, those "educated guesses" are based on demographics in 99% of the cases. Keep in mind that Russia also suffered additional losses after the WW1 due to Civil War, war against various expeditionary armies and and war with Poland between 1918-1930. I would sincerely be surprised if the effect of famine was more than a million or two deaths in entire Soviet Union and not more than a few hundred thousands in Ukraine specifically. Of course, there is a large margin of error, but figures of 20 millions, even 10 and 5, are simply not possible.