# How many people died in Russia from 1910-1953 **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 20, 2010, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-died-in-russia-from-1910-1953/543823 "2010-06-20T00:31:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2010, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-died-in-russia-from-1910-1953/543823/1 "2010-06-20T00:31:33Z")
In this period Russia experienced The first world war The Russian Civil war The Stalinist purges The Second world war Several famines What is the total death toll for the entirety of that period? I would assume over 100 million. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2010, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-died-in-russia-from-1910-1953/543823/2 "2010-06-20T01:54:30Z")
According to Wikipedia: Deaths in WWII: 24,000,000 Deaths in WWI and the Civil War: 20,000,000 Estimated count of all deaths due to Purges: 3,000,000 Deaths from Famines of 1921, 1932, and 1947: 13,200,000 So that’s just over sixty million. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2010, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-died-in-russia-from-1910-1953/543823/3 "2010-06-20T02:30:34Z")
Are we talking about deaths because of these events, or all deaths over this period? (And why the extra 4 years before WWI?) Obviously quite a lot of people would have died over this period, even if everything in Russia had been peaceful and peachy. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2010, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-died-in-russia-from-1910-1953/543823/4 "2010-06-20T03:30:01Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Obviously quite a lot of people would have died over this period, even if everything in Russia had been peaceful and peachy. Perhaps _more_ would have died! (Spoiler: People who don’t die may have children, who may themselves eventually die.) ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2010, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-died-in-russia-from-1910-1953/543823/5 "2010-06-20T08:16:45Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Perhaps _more_ would have died! (Spoiler: People who don’t die may have children, who may themselves eventually die.) Over a period of just 43 years that seems unlikely. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2010, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-died-in-russia-from-1910-1953/543823/6 "2010-06-20T09:40:38Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > In this period Russia experienced Don’t forget the flu of 1918. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2010, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-died-in-russia-from-1910-1953/543823/7 "2010-06-20T16:51:25Z")
> [@](#): > > Don’t forget the flu of 1918. From what I could find, Russia was relatively unaffected by the 1918 epidemic. Apparently there had been an epidemic of a similar flu in Russia in 1889 and many Russians still had some immunity to the 1918 flu as a result. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2010, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-died-in-russia-from-1910-1953/543823/8 "2010-06-20T17:38:18Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > From what I could find, Russia was relatively unaffected by the 1918 epidemic. Apparently there had been an epidemic of a similar flu in Russia in 1889 and many Russians still had some immunity to the 1918 flu as a result. Clearly the 1918 flu never played Risk as a kid. Eddie Izzard paraphrased ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2010, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-died-in-russia-from-1910-1953/543823/9 "2010-06-20T21:47:50Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Are we talking about deaths because of these events, or all deaths over this period? (And why the extra 4 years before WWI?) Obviously quite a lot of people would have died over this period, even if everything in Russia had been peaceful and peachy. Deaths from the events, not deaths from old age. Russia had a population of about 130 million around 1910, so if they lost half their starting population (60 million deaths as was claimed) to war, disease and famine it does say a lot about the resiliency of civilization that half the people can die in 40 years and things still go on.