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Counting Soviet deaths in the Great Patriotic War : comment

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Harrison, Mark, 1949- (2003) Counting Soviet deaths in the Great Patriotic War : comment. Europe-Asia Studies, Vol.55 (No.6). pp. 939-944. ISSN 0966-8136

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0966813032000123097

Abstract

Michael Haynes has pointed out that the conventional methodology for estimating the number of Soviet war deaths provides only a lower limit. It calculates wartime “excess” deaths, assuming that no one was killed by the war who would normally have died anyway; this sets a lower bound on the number of real war deaths that may have resulted directly or indirectly from enemy action. Where is the upper limit? Haynes proposes the 16 million total of “normal” deaths as a measure of the maximum possible downward error when real Soviet war deaths are estimated by the excess mortality method. The possible margin of downward error arising from this method can be calculated and is not 16 million but approximately 1.9 million.

Item Type:	Journal Item
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DK Russia. Soviet Union. Former Soviet Republics D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D731 World War II
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Economics
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	World War, 1939-1945 -- Casualties -- Statistics, World War, 1939-1945 -- Soviet Union
Journal or Publication Title:	Europe-Asia Studies
Publisher:	Routledge
ISSN:	0966-8136
Date:	21 April 2003
Volume:	Vol.55
Number:	No.6
Page Range:	pp. 939-944
Identification Number:	10.1080/0966813032000123097
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Access rights to Published version:	Open Access
References:	Andreev, E., L. Darskii, and T. Khar’kova (1990). “Otsenka liudskikh poter’ v period Velikoi Otechestvennoi voiny.” Vestnik statistiki, no. 10, pp. 25-7. Ellman, Michael, and S. Maksudov (1994). “Soviet Deaths in the Great Patriotic War.” Europe-Asia Studies, 46(4), pp. 671-80. Haynes, Michael (2003). “Counting Soviet Deaths in the Great Patriotic War: a Note.” Europe-Asia Studies, 55(2), pp. 303-9. Krivosheev, G.F., V.M. Andronikov, P.D. Burikov, V.V. Gurkin, A.I. Kruglov, E.I. Rodionov, and M.V. Filimoshin (2003). Rossiia i SSSR v voinakh XX veka. Statisticheskoe issledovanie. Moscow: OLMA-PRESS. Titmuss, R.M. (1950). Problems of Social Policy. History of the Second World War, United Kingdom civil series. London: HMSO. Wheatcroft, S.G., and R.W. Davies (1994). “Population.” In R.W. Davies, Mark Harrison, and S.G. Wheatcroft, eds, The Economic Transformation of the Soviet Union, 1913-1945, pp. 57-80. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/225