The Political Economy of Famine: The Ukrainian Famine of 1933

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) Natalya Naumenko, George Mason University

Version:  View help for Version V1

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replication_files.zip application/zip 1.9 MB 12/08/2020 06:13:PM

Project Citation: 

Naumenko, Natalya. The Political Economy of Famine: The Ukrainian Famine of 1933. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2020-12-08. https://doi.org/10.3886/E128401V1

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary The 1933 Ukrainian famine killed as many as 2.6 million people out of a population of 32 million. Historians offer three main explanations: weather, economic policies, genocide. This paper documents that (1) available data do not support weather as the main explanation: 1931 and 1932 weather predicts harvest roughly equal to the 1924–1929 average; weather explains up to 8.1 percent of excess deaths. (2) Policies (collectivization of agriculture and the lack of favored industries) significantly increased famine mortality; collectivization explains up to 52 percent of excess deaths. (3) There is some evidence that ethnic Ukrainians and Germans were discriminated against.
Funding Sources:  View help for Funding Sources Economic History Center at Northwestern University; Balzan Foundation

Scope of Project

Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage Ukraine
Time Period(s):  View help for Time Period(s) 1927 – 1933 (1933 famine)
Collection Date(s):  View help for Collection Date(s) 2014 – 2015
Universe:  View help for Universe Ukrainian regions (okrugs, as of 1927) and districts (as of 1933) and their characteristics
Data Type(s):  View help for Data Type(s) administrative records data
Collection Notes:  View help for Collection Notes data collected from published statistical books and archives


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V1 [2020-12-08]

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