Demographic processes in the Central Chernozem region of Russia during the famine of 1932-1933: historiography analysis

The paper presents the results of a historiographical analysis of the demographic processes in the Central Chernozem region of the Soviet Union during the famine of 1932-1933. This subject was chosen because the demographic processes that took place in this territory at that time are of particular interest, since it was one of the principal grain-producing regions of Russia, which in modern Russian historiography are considered one of the most strongly affected by the famine. Scientific study of this topic began in the post-Soviet period, as this topic was taboo for many years. The problems of demography and famine of the 1930s in the Central Chernozem region have been considered both in Russian and regional fact-based studies by Russian researchers. Papers by foreign researchers - primarily American, Ukrainian and Ukrainian-American - are also considered. We found that different methods were used to calculate the number of people who were starved or died of hunger, birth rate, and mortality, but they primarily used tentative prognoses data and summary reports, the results of which do not always coincide and raise questions. The papers of Ukrainian historians are quite difficult to analyze, as they are abound in value judgments that do not conform to scientific ethics, or they use somewhat incorrect demographic models. It has been ascertained that the demography of the famine of 1932-1933 in the Central Chernozem region is examined through initial approximation and only at the level of large administrative territorial units; the geography of the famine has discrepancies and has not yet been fully clarified. Urban and rural birth rate, mortality, and natural population increase have not been considered in detail, while the ethnic component of the famine of the Russian Central Chernozem region is extremely politicized and also not yet fully clarified.