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Everybody knew that Soviet statistics were unreliable, whether they were about industrial production or about mortality rates. The first time I realised how unreliable Soviet statistics were
was in the early 1980s, when I started to look at child mortality statistics. Year after year, reports of child mortality kept on increasing. This was entirely unexpected. Child mortality
is a bad thing. Hence in the Soviet Union it had to decline, not to increase. With hindsight I realised what might have happened. I was caught by an early manifestation of the glasnost
principle: “Let’s tell the truth.” Some lowly official must have decided to put the true figures into the report and must have been very proud that he followed the leaders’ latest
instructions. The year after, another lowly official must have realised that child mortality can’t be that bad in the Soviet Union and solved the problem by replacing the actual figure by a
note: “Data not available.” And then there were no further reports. This was of course just a minor interference with the handling of statistics at a time of uncertainty. For major
interference we have to go back to 1937, when a census was held after eleven years without one. Stalin decided that the population of the Soviet Union would be 180 million. The census came
up with a figure of 162 million. Those responsible for this discrepancy were arrested and shot. But this was a one-off thing. I believe those compiling the 1939 and 1970 censuses came to no
harm. My aim here is to examine a set of statistics which has never been compiled before, although the relevant figures were never contested. I am looking at the year of death for men who
were at any time members of Stalin’s Politburo, the highest organ of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. I have a list of their names. The main piece of information I give is the date
of their death, from the youngest (Frunze) to the oldest (Kaganovich). A letter P after a name means that he was purged by Stalin, tried and shot. To highlight two examples: Bukharin was
shot at 50, Beria at 54. Another piece of information is the length of time they spent in the Politburo. The longest time was Stalin himself, with 36 years; the shortest time was probably
the Ukrainian Party leaders, Kossior, Postyshev, Rudzutak, Eiche, about 7 years 7 years (I could not find the exact date of their arrest). I can also add a few comments to the statistics. *
Out of the total number of 53 who were full members of the Politburo, according to my classification 23 were purged, about 43%. It was clearly a dangerous job. Unlikely that any life
insurance company would have given them cover. * Trotsky is down with a P as having been purged at the age of 61. It would be more correct to say that Stalin had him assassinated. * Zhdanov
and Shcherbakov were killed by misdiagnosing their illness. * Tomskii and Ordzhonikidze escaped arrest by committing suicide. * Ignatev is quoted to have died at the age of 79. This is a
remarkable achievement. He was for a while the head of the Cheka or Secret Service. He and Dzerzhinski shared the privilege of dying in bed. The others — Yagoda, Ezhov, Abakumov, Ryumin,
Beria — were all shot. * The whole thing started with Kirov. At the end of the 17th Congress in 1934, a vote took place for membership of the Politburo. Kirov got more votes than Stalin.
That was a mortal offence. Kirov had to die. Stalin made sure that he would die. He procured a mentally unbalanced man who was ready to assassinate Kirov. The rest is Stalin’s revenge upon
Kirov, upon Russia, upon the Communist Party, upon all decency. List of Politburo members, with the age at which they died: Frunze 40 P, 9 Aristov 63 Syrtsov
44 P Kalinin 71 Shkiriatov 71 Abakumov 46, P Shcherbakov 73 A Kuybishev 47 Pervukhin 74 Voznesenski 47, P Korotchenko 75 Kirov
48, P Stalin 75 Sokolnikov 50, P Kosygin 76 Bukharin 50, P Brezhnev 76 Eiche 50, P Andreev
76 Ordzhonikidze 50, Adrianov 76 Kossior 50, P Mikhailov 76 Rudzutak 51, P Khruschev 77 Postishev 52, P Saburov
77 Zhdanov 52 , P Zhukov 78 Zinoviev 53, P Ignatiev 79 Kamenev 53, P, Bulganin 80 Bubnov 54, P, Suslov
80 Beria 54, P, Melnikov 81 Lenin 54 Ponomarenko 81 Krestinski 55, P Shvernik 82 Tomskii 56, P Mikoyan
83 Rykov 57, P Kuusinen 83 Chubar 58, P Malenkov 86 Malyshev 59 Voroshilov 88 Trotsky 61, P Molotov
96 Chesnokov 63 Kaganovich 98 A MESSAGE FROM THEARTICLE _We are the only publication that’s committed to covering every angle. We have an important contribution to
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