Short answers, pulled from the story.
Estimates of deaths in the Soviet famine of 1946-1947 range from at least 500,000 to as many as 2 million. Historian Cormac O Grada estimated 900,000 deaths in 2019, while historian Venjamin Zima placed the figure at 2 million in 1996. The Ukrainian SSR accounted for approximately 300,000 deaths, the Moldavian SSR for 100,000, and the Russian SFSR and Byelorussian SSR combined for roughly 500,000.
The Soviet famine of 1946-1947 was caused by a combination of factors: the devastation of Soviet agriculture by World War II, a severe drought in 1946 described by the Soviet government as the worst since 1891, and government policies that stripped millions of ration cards, raised bread prices, and continued exporting grain abroad even as the population starved. A postwar birth spike also placed additional strain on an already stressed food system.
Yes, the Soviet government continued exporting grain throughout the famine. Between 1946 and 1948, the USSR exported a total of 5.7 million tons of grain, excluding cereals, including shipments to France, Bulgaria, Romania, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia. Soviet leaders prioritized avoiding the appearance of weakness over halting exports, even as millions of citizens faced starvation.
The Soviet government refused international aid during the famine to avoid appearing weak in the early Cold War period. The USSR declined to join the International Emergency Food Council in 1946 because membership required disclosing economic statistics. When UNRRA head Fiorello La Guardia met with Stalin on the 29th of August 1946, Stalin strongly underplayed the severity of the food crisis rather than requesting assistance.
Children were among the most severely affected victims of the Soviet famine of 1946-1947, with hundreds of thousands dying before their first birthday. The number of homeless children rose from 296,432 in 1945 to roughly 360,000 by 1947. Childcare facilities were forced to turn children away, and most child fatalities occurred within a month of admission, as children arrived already in advanced states of starvation.
The monetary reform of December 1947 coincided with the end of the rationing system and was designed to curb inflation of the ruble. The reform was secretly planned but information leaked to party officials, some of whom spent their cash on gold and real estate before the announcement. While the reform improved consumer goods availability in major cities, economic and nutritional improvements in rural areas were much slower, and civilian living standards did not return to 1940 levels until 1953.