:::::The idea that Soviet authorities deliberately tried to reduce rural population does not follow from the Ellman's works; that is purely your conclusion. Ellman clearly writes about some unknown fraction of the mortality in 1931-34 that can be attributed to deliberate starvation. The fact that some famine victims were probably a result of deliberate starvation does not allow us to describe all famine deaths as a result of mass killings. 
 :::::In addition, you seem to ignore totally the point about "The decline in mortality rates during the Soviet period". If we discuss the deaths that were an unintended result of the Communist policy, and forget about the overall decline of mortality during the Soviet period, we create an absolutely misleading impression about the Soviet regime. It would be absolutely ahistorical approach.