For many years research on the demography of the Holodomor has been hampered by lack of adequate data to address key issues like the number of losses due to the Holodomor, and the relative impact of the 1932-1933 Famine in different areas of the former Soviet Union. Using the most comprehensive set of data available to date and original documents not included in previous research, as well as sophisticated demographic methodologies, a team of demographers at the Institute of Demography and Social Research of the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences (including Omelian Rudnytsky, Pavlo Shevchuk, Natalia Levchuk, and the speaker, who will be talking on behalf of the entire group) has been working for the last year to provide more definite answers to these questions.

The research has been framed within the context of the former Soviet Union, and provides estimates of direct and indirect losses for all former Soviet Republics. Besides providing a more definite and scientifically sound estimate of the number of Holodomor losses in Ukraine, this comprehensive approach allows one to compare the magnitude of losses in Ukraine with losses in Russia, Kazakhstan and other former Soviet republics.