Why such a deafening silence from the academic world regarding the Communist catastrophe, which touched the lives of about one-third of humanity on four continents during a period spanning eighty years?Another reason can be added in distinction to the West in general: American optimism. Among the mature, our American confidence in trouncing the enemy in WW II has turned a benign eye to the danger of evil; among the adolescent, seriousness would be handily dealt with a fast joke to ensure contempt and ridicule.Why is there usch widespread reluctance to make such a crucial factor as crime--mass crime, systematic crime, and crime against humanity-- a central factor of analysis of Communism?
Is this really something that is beyond human understanding? Or are we talking about a refusal to scrutinize the subject too closely for fear of learning the truth about it? [such as, "Time and again the focus of terror was less on targeted individuals than on groups of people."]
The reasons for this reticence are many and various. First, there is the dictator's understandable urge to erase their crimes and to justify the actions they cannot hide . . .
. . . Not satisified with the concealment of their misdeeds, the tyrants systematically attacked all who dared to expose their crimes and victims grew reluctant to speak out . . .
As is usually the case, a lie is not, strictly speaking, the opposite of the truth, and a lie will generally contain an element of truth. Perverted words are situated in a twisted vision that distorts the landscape . . . Like martial artists, thanks to their incomparable propaganda strength grounded in the subversion of language, successfully turned the tables on the criticism leveled against their terrorist tactics . . . Thus they held fast to their fundamental principle of ideological belief, as formulated by Tertullian for his own era: "I believe, because it is absurd."
Like prostitutes, intellectuals found themselves inveigled into counterpropaganda operations . . . confronted with this onslaught of Communist propaganda, the West has long labored under an extraordinary self-deception, simultaneously fueled by naivete in the face of a particularly devious system, by the fear of Soviet power, and by the cynicism of politicians . . . this self-deception was a source of comfort . . .
there are three more specific reasons for the cover-up of the criminal aspects of Communism. The first is the fascination with the whole notion of revolution itself . . . Openly revolutionary groups are active and enjoy every legal right to state their views . . .
The second reason is the participation of the Soviet Union in the victory over Nazism . . .
The final reason . . . the Communists soon grasped the benefits involved in immortalizing the Holocaust.
--Stephaen Courtois, "Introduction" The Black Book of Communism
Among the educated, our optimism confidently rides the raft of reason, convinced that the life of reason effectively excludes the reality it is meant to understand.
Another reason why is because knowledge of other facts is limited. Probably self-confidence is the cause of that limitation as well.
More can be added.
Would that Covenantor and Coyote were here as well.
Additionally, one pragmatic reason and one existential reason.
After the WWII the Western powers that were left standing -- America and Britain -- knew they had limited resources with which they would have to rebuild the rest of Western Europe. Thus, East and Central Europe were left in the Soviet lap, the thought being that it would merely exhaust the Russians. That didn't turn out exactly as planned, but that gave the West the sense that the post-WWII Soviet Empire was of their own making. The recognition of the fact muted all criticism.
The existential reason is given by that Soviet general in the head article. Democracy degenerates into socialism by itself. You don't condemn what you are bound to become.