According to Timothy Snyder, author of Bloodlands, 2-3 million people died in the forced labor camps of the Gulag and perhaps a million were shot during the Great Terror of the late 1930’s. Another five million starved in the famine of 1930-1933, of whom 3.3 million were Ukrainians who died as a result of a deliberate policy related to their nationality or status as relatively prosperous peasants known as kulaks.
但是，与克伦威尔不同，斯大林导致了为数巨大的平民因为非战争和军事原因死亡。据蒂莫西·斯奈德（Timothy Snyder）的《鲜血之地》（Bloodlands）一书的数据，200—300万人死于古拉格劳动营，另外20世纪30年代后期的大清洗中可能也有一百万人被枪决。另有五百万人在1930—1933年的饥荒中饿死，其中330万是乌克兰人，他们因为与其国籍和所谓的“富农”身份有关的有意为之的政策而死。