Body Count: 85-100 Million Dead From Communism
"The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression" documents communist crimes against humanity, but also crimes against national and universal culture, from Stalin's destruction of hundreds of churches in Moscow to Ceausescu's leveling of the historic heart of Bucharest to the widescale devastation visited on Chinese culture by Mao's Red Guards.
As the death toll mounts—as many as 25 million in the former Soviet Union, 65 million in China, 1.7 million in Cambodia, and on and on—the authors systematically show how and why, wherever the millenarian ideology of Communism was established, it quickly led to crime, terror, and repression. An extraordinary accounting, this book amply documents the unparalleled position and significance of Communism in the hierarchy of violence that is the history of the twentieth century.
Essentially a body count of communism's victims in the 20th century, the book draws heavily from recently opened Soviet archives. The verdict: communism was responsible for between 85 million and 100 million deaths in the century.
HT: NCPA
25 Comments:
Oh come on Mark do you really think anyone wants to start a communist revolution in the US?
Why don't you show us how the worthless, shameful and illegal military adventure in Iraq has helped or hurt our economy.
It's certainly a little rich to attribute all those deaths to communism.
Unless you're willing to also consider the deaths in Iraq, deaths in the U.S. due to lack of health care, deaths due to the Nazi's in WWII, deaths in Africa caused by corrupt but capitalist regimes, etc. as "deaths due to capitalism".
If you insist on viewing everything from a communist/capitalist perspective then you'll never be able to fix your own countries problems. You've got capitalism, but people keep dieing. How is that possible?
"You've got capitalism, but people keep dieing. How is that possible?"
I'm pretty sure people die in every country in the world. Human mortality remains at 100%.
Colin: Well, yes, that was sort of my point.
Not only that, you've got people dying because of corruption, war, oppression, etc. - preventable things - everywhere. If communism gets the blame for everything bad that happens in communist countries, then surely capitalism must be to blame for everything bad that happens in capitalist countries, no?
fred, are you any less dead if you die for good rather than evil?
You forget there are plenty more killed by the economic "liberalism" they've adopted. It's nothing more than just slave labor with little attention to quality. On this one, the ticker's still counting.
The crimes from this "liberalism" are just the same as the ones from the "evil socialism" if not worse(which ends up being the case).
Anonymous --
Your point is rather ridiculous. The death toll attributed to communism isn't simply for every bad thing that happens -- e.g. you got struck crossing the road because the government didn't put in place a crosswalk. This is about policies that directly led to people's death. In China we can see this through the cultural revolution and the collectivization campaign that led to the deaths of millions. In the USSR, especially under Stalin, government action was if anything even more direct, with hundreds of thousands of laborers perishing in the construction of huge elaborate projects that were part of the 5 year plans, people packed off to Siberia and the deliberate starvation of those in the Ukraine. Pol Pot made death an explicit part of his agenda.
Any alleged moral equivalency is nonsensical and a slap to those that died at the hands of the communists. What a despicable system, that invariably relied on oppression to sustain itself.
You can criticize Mark's post as unremarkable, but the defense of communism or alleged parallels with capitalism that some posters are trying to mount is rather disturbing.
anon 1:44, add all of those up if you think they are significant; I guarentee you that they won't even come close to topping the number of people who directly perished due to communist policies.
Well I see the pathetic pinkos are out and about on this one...
anon @ 11:02 AM whines with the typical libtard flair for ignoring the facts: "Why don't you show us how the worthless, shameful and illegal military adventure in Iraq has helped or hurt our economy"...
Truly amazing! Are you suffering from BDS?
Why don't you show us what was shameful and illegal stopping the horrors in Iraq which is but one front in the war on terror?
How come people can't show us how LBJ's so called War On Poverty has accomplished anything?
In 1993 Dr. Rector wrote the following: The Poverty Paradox: How America Spent $5 Trillion on the War on Poverty without Reducing the Poverty Rate...
anon @ 12:39 also whines with a depth & breadth that shows me of someone who has never left his/her bedroom: "If communism gets the blame for everything bad that happens in communist countries, then surely capitalism must be to blame for everything bad that happens in capitalist countries, no?"...
Name one accomplishment of communism that is used world-wide for the betterment of mankind...
Maybe you can make a case for the AK-47 and how its eliminated millions of greenhouse gas producers, eh?
Maybe you should try perusing George Reisman's excellent tome: CAPITALISM: A Treatsie On Economics...
"Why don't you show us how the worthless, shameful and illegal military adventure in Iraq..."
Why don't you keep your sophomoric, normative opinions out of an otherwise intelligent discussion? You leftards are so consumed with hatred of Bush that you can't think straight. Idiot.
skh.pcola
Juandos,
Thanks for the link to the book (1,000 pages!) about capitalism. I saw some sections that will be read shortly.
skh.pcola
Article VI of the US Constitution makes any treaties signed part of domestic law. ("...all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.")
Which means the PL
The US signed the UN Charter in 1945 therefore a violation of the UN Charter is a violation of domestic and international law.
The UN Charter permits war 1) for Self defense from an attack or imminent attack or 2) after the UN Security Council authorizes the use of military force.
Therefore the Iraq military adventure is illegal by US domestic and by International law.
Iraq war was illegal and breached UN charter, says Annan
War critics astonished as US hawk admits invasion was illegal
anon @ 3:48 pm says: "Thanks for the link to the book (1,000 pages!) about capitalism"...
No problem... Some good reading there...
anon @ 6:50 PM says: "Article VI of the US Constitution makes any treaties signed part of domestic law. ("...all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land..."
Hmmm, I think you need to reread that Article 4 again... I believe its about contracts between the states...
""Iraq war was illegal and breached UN charter, says Annan"...
You mean this Kofi Annan?...LOL! ROFLMAO!
"War critics astonished as US hawk admits invasion was illegal"...
Hmmm, let's see...
What?!?! No direct quotes from Perle... No direct quotes from Rummy... Nothing to back up Burkeman or Borger's story other than their word that it was said...
Are these clowns Burkeman and Borger vying for a job with the New York Times?
juandos how did I know you'd rise to the bait. LOL.
Religion and war between various versions them has killed far more people then disease ever did. All of the various versions think their god is the one and only.
The whole thing is a bunch of crap.
Several ultra high members of the US military and this administration admitted that the Iraq war was illegal and concocted prior to the 9-11 attacks. Unfortunately, my sources must remain anonymous. Just take my word for it. Perhaps, the NYT will run it.
Are we not really discussing totalitarianis? Whether it is communist totalitarianism, or fascist totalitarianism...human beings die.
Anon. 9:56
With regard to religions being the cause of human deaths, I believe that you are confusing the justifications that people use with religion. People are responsible for their own choices no matter how they want to dress it up.
You might brainwash a 14 year old with pseudo religious babble but let us not confuse Islamo fascism with Islam. It never ceases to amaze that those who advocate violence in the name of religion don't actually do what they preach...Rev. Ian Paisley & Osama bin laden for example. I imagine that both will die safe in their beds.
"Several ultra high members of the US military and this administration admitted that the Iraq war was illegal and concocted prior to the 9-11 attacks."...
Was that before or after they showed you the parts of the crashed UFO found at Roswell?
"Unfortunately, my sources must remain anonymous. Just take my word for it."...
LOL! Those funny voices in your head?
"Perhaps, the NYT will run it..."...
LOL! The NYT?!?! ROFLMAO!
"Religion and war between various versions has killed far more people then disease ever did. All of the various versions think their god is the one and only. The whole thing is a bunch of crap."
What?? Are you that ignorant of history? Communism, responsible for 100 million deaths in one century alone, was not religious at all and in fact involved forced ATHEISM!!
There will always be religious wars, but they have been/will be as nothing compared to the carnage and destruction caused by godless men...
I'm surprized nobody has mentioned the Africa-U.S. slave trade as an example of a capitalist atrocity. I don't think that there's a clear estimate of the number of deaths, but it's in the 10s of millions. And then of course you have the after-effects that still last to this day in both Africa and the U.S.
If you add up all the slave trades you may or may not get 100 M deaths, but there were fewer people back then. Atrocities are bigger nowadays because populations are bigger.
Possibly the earliest capitalist atrocity, and definately on 100M scale, is the anihilation of American Indians (both South and North).
Yes boys & girls we have another, 'I hate America - it sucks! loon in the crowd...
"I'm surprized nobody has mentioned the Africa-U.S. slave trade as an example of a capitalist atrocity"...
Are you just ignorant of the facts or don't you want to bring up the African on African slave trade, its still ongoing and was going long before there was even colonies in what is now the US...
How about the Arab on African slave trade... That's also well over a thousand years in the making before the science of capitalism was offered up to fools like you...
Capitalism if anything contributed to the demise of the slave trade...
Slaves can't and won't (understandably so) work as well or as productively as freed men...
What difference does it make that there was slavery prior to capitalism?
The atrocities committed by Pol Pot, Stalin, etc. weren't particularly innovative either. Lots of pre-communism precident for torture and murder.
Pure capitalism doesn't really exist any more - even in the U.S. there are social programs. So comparing the worst of communism with a very non-radical modern capitalism that no longer exists doesn't make sense.
You need to compare the worst of both systems if you want to come to any meaningful conclusions.
The communists know that they can not defeat us except from within. The battle is already on and people must choose their sides.
We know which side the individuals are on who deny such supportable facts about the terrors of communism
The communists know that they can not defeat us except from within. The battle is already on and people must choose their sides.
We know which side the individuals are on who deny such supportable facts about the terrors of communism
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