My world history teacher claimed that the USSR killed off a sizable portion of its own population during WW2 and that Stalin 'encouraged and organized' pogroms against Russian Jews. Is there any truth to that?

by Willenium

The closest examples I can see of the USSR killing off it's own people would be from the population transfers of the 30s and 40s, but I imagine those deaths would be vastly outnumbered by German-inflicted deaths.

Is she wrong? If she's right, what accounted for those deaths.

As far as the pogroms go, I wasn't able to find any references to them in soviet history past 1918. Were there outbreaks of anti-Semitic violence during Stalin's reign, and were they encouraged or aided by the state?

Sjoerder

While not a direct answer to your question, these other questions may offer some context:

Answers by /u/kieslowskifan, /u/commiespaceinvader, /u/blackjacksandhookers.