My guess is it was more about an Industrial Revolution and of course, getting rid of those that opposed the Communist Revolution. "In the future, there will be fewer but better Russians." Joseph Stalin As to depopulation, WWII and mainly the Germans killed a great many Russians. It seems to be a totalitarian mind set, the Jacobins thought the same way: "We must smother the internal and external enemies of the Republic or perish with it; now in this situation, the first maxim of your policy ought to be to lead the people by reason and the people's enemies by terror."

Maximilien Robespierre