The Scale and Nature of German and Soviet Repression and Mass Killings, 1930–1945

Jul 6, 2026

The article examines how historians should approach understanding repression and mass killing in 1930s–1940s Stalinist Russia and Nazi Germany. It argues against simplistic, single-cause comparisons while proposing that common explanatory factors—society, modern technology, ideology, and bureaucratic organization—can illuminate why leaders’ attitudes escalated to mass-scale violence. Using new Soviet data and considering German evidence, the work analyzes the complex chronology and challenges repeated, poorly supported estimates of victim numbers.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages35

Reading Time1 h 28 min

Introduction

Understanding vs excusing mass killing

Explaining repression and mass killings at the same time

Comparative Causation and Its Limits

Critiques of simplistic causal links

Debates on scale, chronology, and singularity

Scope and Expertise

Focus on Soviet data

Relevance of German analysis

Definitions and Conceptual Framework

Repression, purges, terror, holocaust, genocide

Distinguishing degrees and mechanisms of repression

EUROPE-ASIA STUDIES, Vol. 48, No. 8, 1996 1319-1353 The Scale and Nature of German and Soviet Repression and Mass Killings, 1930-451 STEPHEN WHEATCROFT HOW DO WE UNDERSTAND repression and mass killing? Should we even try lo understand them?' Is it correct that to understand is lo excuse? Who would ever dare to claim that they could understand mass killing? This article is written in the belief that historians do have an obligation to attempt to understand serious topics, and that they should not be diverted by the fear of touching something controversial. One of the major questions facing the historians of both the Soviet Union and of Germany is to explain how the governments of these countries could engage in mass repression and mass killings that arose in both their countries at almost the same time. In one sense it can be argued that these events were caused by totally independent factors that are exclusively related to the internal specifics of these countries. This is the way that we would explain why these events occured. Hitler was clearly anti-Semitic and we could attempt to ask why; Stalin was clearly impatient of groups that got in the way of his idea of what needed to be done, and we could look at what motivated him and fed his paranoia. But in another sense, when we are trying to explain why these attitudes of these leaders took on the significance that they did, and why they were transformed into events that took on the mass scale that they did, then we need to look at olher kinds of causes. These oiher kinds of causes are related to the nature of society, modern technology, ideology and the bureaucracy. What was it that empowered this anti-Semitism and impatient revolutionary paranoia to an extent that they resulted in mass repression and mass killings on the scale that they did? Where this article approaches the question of comparisons of causation, it is in this second sense . And in this sense I think that it is legitimate to look for some common links. But of fundamental importance for this is an improved understanding of the scale and the nature of the repression and mass killings that were part of Stalin's Russia and of Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s. This article is primarily concerned with providing a better basis for such an understanding. Historians have already written too much on this topic without such a basis of understanding. Recently, great notoriety has been aroused by several attempts to draw a simplistic causal link between the repression and mass killing in the Soviet Union and in Germany.2 These claims (or in the case of Nolte suggestions) are generally based on a poorly defined understanding of the complexities of these phenomena, an inaccurate understanding of their scale and a weak appreciation of their chronology. These 0966-8136/96/081319-35 © 1996 University of Glasgow 1320 STEPHEN WHEATCROFT scholars have, with reason, been accused of attempting to 'relativiste' the abhorrent nature of Hitler's Germany. But other scholars who have been most careful to insist on the'singularity' of Nazi crimes against the Jews have nevertheless accepted comp arisons in which the Stalinist system is presumed to have killed two or three times as many people as Hitler's regime.3 This article analyses the complex nature of repression and masskilling andwillchallengetheseoftenrepealedbutlittleunderstood figures. My main area of expertise is the Soviet Union, and since it is on the Soviet side that many new data have recently become available, I devote most of this article to a more detailed analysis of the data to which we now have aecess regarding the Soviet case.However, I am also interested to see to what extent an analysis of the German data can improve our understanding of Soviet repression and mass killing. It is to be hoped that an improved analysis of the Soviet data might also he of some value tn historians working with the German data. Definitions The events we are di

FAQs

Why does the article emphasize the obligation to attempt to understand repression and mass killing?

It argues that historians must try to understand serious, controversial topics rather than avoiding them out of fear.

What does the article say about simplistic comparisons between Soviet and German repression?

It criticizes claims based on unclear complexity, inaccurate estimates of scale, and weak attention to chronology, noting accusations of minimizing Nazi Germany’s abhorrence.

How does the article define and differentiate forms of repression and induced premature mortality?

It distinguishes levels ranging from temporary removal of civil liberties to forced labor and permanent removal through induced death, including both conscious killing and neglect-driven death, as well as how harsh disciplinary regimes blur distinctions for victims.

Jul 6, 2026

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