Around 20 million (citing The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression by Stephane Courtois et al) to 35 million (citing A Century of Violence in Soviet Russia by Alexander Yakovlev) killed in all, from 1917 to 1991
The Black Book of Communism has been derided by the scholarly community for its factual inaccuracies and revisionist lies. Read how Mark Tauger discredits Werth's account of the 1933 famine, for example.
Citing Yakovlev as though he's an authority is bizarre, for he was not a historian, but was a washed-up politician whose policies brought about a catastrophe for Russia.
250,000 executed by the Cheka during the "Red Terror" and Russian civil war. (citing The Cheka: Lenin's Political Police by George Leggett) But it could be much higher (see my sig)
About 6000 were executed in the Red Terror in 1918, which does not begin to compare with the White Terror, which murdered some 40,000 people in the Don Region under Krasnov's gangs. Kolchak's hordes shot about 25,000 people just in the Ekaterinburg region.
Between 300,000 and 500,000 Cossacks killed or deported in 1919 and 1920 (known as "de-Cossackization"; not sure how many of these deaths overlap with the aforementioned Cheka executions - if at all). (citing The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression by Stephane Courtois et al)
The Black Book of Communism, which I showed to be an unreliable source, does not provide explanations for these dubious statistics. Scholarly works on the subject of deportations show that only some 40,000 Cossacks from the Terek region were resettled in parts of Ukraine; their land was distributed to poor Cossacks and indigenous Caucasians.
Between 7.2 to 10.8 million deaths during dekulakization and collectivization - which caused a famine the regime used as a weapon against supposed "class enemies" (citing Stalin and His Hangmen: the Tyrant and Those Who Killed For Him by Donald Rayfield)
Rayfield, a professor of literature, is not a historian with competence to analyze an research Russian history. His semi-fictional book is not an academic work, but is geared largely aimed at a pop audience. Estimates on the death toll on the famine are about 4 to 5 million. As experts such as Mark Tauger show, the famine was by no means "used as a weapon", but was largely caused by natural disasters.
Over 1 million Polish citizens deported by November 1940; 30% of whom were dead by 1941 (citing Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore) and 21,857 executed outright (i.e. Katyn) by the NKVD during the Nazi-Soviet pact (citing Autopsy for an Empire by Dimitri Volkogonov)
Scholarly works on the subject show that about 400,000 Poles were resettled in other parts of Russia in 1939-40. Almost all of them were released following the reconciliation between Russia and the London-based Polish regime in 1941. Citing Volkogonov is inappropriate because he was not a professional historian, but was a member of some kind of military institute.
A total of 34,250 Latvians and around 60,000 Estonians and 75,000 Lithuanians murdered or deported during Nazi-Soviet pact (citing Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore)
Those figures are too high, as scholarly work on the subject shows that about 10,000 just from Estonia were deported. Montefiore is not some kind of authority on the subject or Russian history in general.
An estimated 4.5 million (citing Gulag: A History by Anne Applebaum) to 12 million (citing How to Prevent Genocide: A Guide for Policymakers, Scholars, and the Concerned Citizen by John G. Heidenrich) deaths in the Gulag from 1918 to 1956.
Applebaum is not a historian, but is a hack for liberal circles in Washington. Her commentary on Russian politics has been extensively ridiculed for its hypocrisy and innuendo. Research by scholars such as Zemskov showed that about a million people were killed in the labor camps in a span of twenty years. Most of these deaths occurred during the war.
