Posted on 04/27/2005 6:13:53 PM PDT by DaveTesla
How Many Did Stalin Really Murder?
May Day is coming up, which used to be a day of
celebration in the Soviet Union with an impressive show
of weapons and infinitely long parade of soldiers.
Perhaps, then, it would be appropriate to pay special
attention on this day to the human cost of communism in
this symbolic home of Marxism, and worldwide. This blog
is on Stalin and the Soviet Union. I will post one on
the overall cost of communism next week.
By far, the consensus figure for those that Joseph
Stalin murdered when he ruled the Soviet Union is
20,000,000. You probably have come across this many
times. Just to see how numerous this total is, look
up “Stalin” and “20 million” in Google, and you will
get 38,800 links. Not all settle just on the
20,000,000. Some links will make this the upper and
some the lower limit in a range. Yet, virtually no one
who uses this estimate has gone to the source, for if
they did and knew something about Soviet history, they
would realize that the 20,000,000 is a gross under
estimate of what is likely the true human toll.
The figure comes from the book by Robert Conquest, The
Great Terror: Stalin’s Purge of the Thirties (Macmillan
1968). In his appendix on casualty figures, he reviews
a number of estimates of those that were killed under
Stalin, and calculates that the number of executions
1936 to 1938 was probably about 1,000,000; that from
1936 to 1950 about 12,000,000 died in the camps; and
3,500,000 died in the 1930-1936 collectivization.
Overall, he concludes:
Thus we get a figure of 20 million dead, which is
almost certainly too low and might require an increase
of 50 percent or so, as the debit balance of the Stalin
regime for twenty-three years.
In all the times I've seen Conquest’s 20,000,000
reported, not once do I recall seeing his qualification
attached to it.
Considering that Stalin died in 1953, note what
Conquest did not include -- camp deaths after 1950, and
before 1936; executions 1939-53; the vast deportation
of the people of captive nations into the camps, and
their deaths 1939-1953; the massive deportation within
the Soviet Union of minorities 1941-1944; and their
deaths; and those the Soviet Red Army and secret police
executed throughout Eastern Europe after their conquest
during 1944-1945 is omitted. Moreover, omitted is the
deadly Ukrainian famine Stalin purposely imposed on the
region and that killed 5 million in 1932-1934. So,
Conquest’s estimates are spotty and incomplete.
I did a comprehensive overview of available estimates,
including those by Conquest, and wrote a book,
Lethal Politics, on Soviet democide to provide
understanding and context for my figures. I calculate
that the Communist regime, 1917-1987, murdered about
62,000,000 people, around 55,000,000 of them citizens
(see Table 1.1 for a periodization of the deaths).
As for Stalin, when the holes in Conquest’s estimates
are filled in, I calculate that Stalin murdered about
43,000,000 citizens and foreigners, over twice
Conquest’s total. Therefore, the usual estimate of 20
million killed in Soviet democide is far off for the
Soviet Union per se, and even less than half of the
total Stalin alone murdered.
But, these are all statistics and hard to grasp.
Compare my total of 62,000,000 for the Soviet Union and
43,000,000 for Stalin to the death from slavery of
37,000,000 during the 16th to the 19th century; or to
the death of from 25,000,000 to 75,000,000 in the Black
Death (bubonic plague), 1347-1351, that depopulated
Europe.
Another way of looking at this is that the annual risk
of a person under Soviet control being murdered by the
regime was 1 out of 222. But, compare -- the annual
risk of anyone in the world dying from war was 1 out of
5,556, from smoking a pack of cigarettes a day was 1
out of 278, from any cancer was 1 out of 357, or for an
American to die in an auto accident was 1 out of 4,167.
Now, I must ask, with perhaps an unconscious touch of
outrage in my voice, why is this death by Marxism, so
incredible and significant in its magnitude, unknown or
unappreciated compared to the importance given slavery,
cancer deaths, auto accident deaths, and so on.
Especially, especially I must add again, when unlike
cancer, auto accidents, and smoking, those deaths under
Marxism in the Soviet Union were intentionally caused?
They were murdered.
Anyway, when you see again the figure of 20,000,000
deaths for Stalin or the Soviet Union, double or triple
them in your mind.
Ping
Here's to all those,"Still at Sea", and they are even now.
This isn't too far away from Solzenitsyn's informal total of 66 million for the whole Soviet era including the Revolution.
Hitler would never have invaded Poland to start WW2 if Stalin had not made an de facto alliance to divide up Eastern Europe as spoils of conquest. In so doing, Stalin broke his treaties with France and Poland. Another 60 million died in Europe 1939 TO 1945, thanks to this communist treachery.
Yeah, but Uncle Joe never put panties on anyone's head...
Add Mao's millions and God-only-knows how many murders by Castro, Pol Pot and the rest, and it shows communism as a system built on death and destruction. Evil in every way.
bttt
Indeed. Communism has opressed and killed more people than all wars combined. So many that it is actually a percentage of the world's entire population.
There are two reasons why Hitler is portrayed as the butcher he was, and Stalin is forgotten: first, there are no pictures or films of the Gulag and what happened in the Lubyanka, as opposed to Hitler's camps, and a MSM that is still in the tank for Communists. If given an accurate examination, Stalin would make Hitler look like a piker when it came to murder.
"Yeah, but Uncle Joe never put panties on anyone's head..."
Wow that is the second time you have made me laugh out loud tonight!
Leni
Their total exceeds 100 million worldwide.
Given enough time, and practiced with enough vigor, communism always leads to the killing fields. It has no other place to go.
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