ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Excess mortality in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin

Okay, so imagine you have a big family. And, let's say someone in your family is in charge of everything - like what you eat, where you live, and what you can do. That person might think they know what's best for everyone, but sometimes they make really bad decisions that hurt people.

Well, that's kind of what happened in the Soviet Union when Joseph Stalin was in charge. He was the leader of the country and had a lot of power. He wanted the Soviet Union to be a strong and powerful country, so he came up with plans to modernize industry and agriculture.

However, these plans often didn't work out very well. People were forced to work long hours in factories and on farms, and they didn't have enough food or resources to survive. This meant that many people got sick and died.

The thing is, the government didn't really count all of these deaths. They wanted to make it look like everything was going great, so they would only report certain deaths like from known diseases. This meant that a lot of deaths were hidden or not talked about.

So, excess mortality in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin basically means that a lot more people died than should have because of the bad decisions that Stalin made. And because the government didn't count all of these deaths, we may never know exactly how many people lost their lives.