Socialism & Mass Murder in the
20th Century
Socialism &
Mass Murder in the 20th Century
By Rick Kelo
By Rick Kelo
Without equal,
the worst evils mankind has ever had to endure have all been inflicted by big
governments. This is an examination of the major democides in the 20th
century. It is a list of the people murdered by their own government.
The 20th century saw everything from the evils of the Nazis & the
Holocaust to the big, strong, central governments of Communist & Socialist
states. However, the Nazis only killed 150,000 of their own German
citizens in the Holocaust.
What brings a
government to kill its own citizens? Something so evil even the Nazis
didn’t do much of it. Why is it that powerful central governments
have caused so many evils while the freer countries with smaller
governments were spared?
Milton Friedman
once asked that same question: “Has socialism failed because its good qualities
were perverted by evil men who got in charge? Was it simply because
Stalin took over from Lenin that communism went the way it did? Has
capitalism succeeded despite the immoral values that pervade it? I think
the answer to both questions is in the negative. The results have arisen
because each system has been true to the values it encourages, supports and
develops in the people who live under that system.”
My theory is as
follows:
Both socialism
& communism require a commitment to the use of force. You cannot
decide what to do with the other guy’s money unless you are committed to use force to
take that money from him. All socialist programs are mandatory. My
friends and I get together, decide what we think is “good” then force you
to participate. If you are a 25 year old with a terminal disease you
are forced to contribute 12% of your wage to social security
even though you will never retire. It does not matter that the difference
in salary may have allowed you to do that one last thing on your bucket list.
Force is a necessary pre-requisite for socialism to
exist.
I believe it
is because socialism, as a system, is based upon using force against your
fellow citizen that it also so happens the worst atrocities visited upon
citizens by their own governments have been inflicted by socialist
governments. It is a matter of, as Friedman said, being true to
the values socialism encourages in those living under that system. Here
is a list of the largest killings in the 20th century of citizens by their own
governments:
- 40-70 million killed. China under Chairman Mao. Single Party Socialism. 1958-61 “The Great Leap Forward”.
- 20 million killed. USSR under Joseph “socialism in one country” Stalin. 1936-52 “The Great Purge”.
- 40 million killed. USSR under all other leaders.
- 4 million killed. Cambodia under Pol Pot. Communist. 1975-79.
- 1.6 million murdered; 4 million killed in hard labor. North Korea under Kim Il Sung. Independent socialist State.
- 1.15 million killed. Yugoslavia under Josip ” socialist federation President” Tito. 1945-65.
- 1 million total killed. Ethiopia under Menghistu. Communist. 1975-1978 “The Red Terror.”
- 1 million killed. Indonesia under Suharto. Communist. 1966.
- 1 million killed from genocide; this does not include war casualties. Afghanistan under Brezhnev. Communist. 1979 – 1981.
- 800,000 killed. Rwanda under Jean Kambanda. 1994. Socialist.
The old
expression was that “Socialism Breeds Mediocrity, Capitalism Breeds
Exceptionalism.” As the numbers above show you socialism breeds a lot
more than mediocrity.
Sources:
- “Statistics of Democide” by Dr. RJ Rummel
- “Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the 20th Century” by Dr Benjamin A. Valentin
- “Afghanistan: The Soviet Invasion and the Afghan Response, 1979-1982” by M. Hassan Kaka
Communist Body Count
The following estimates represent
citizens killed or starved to death by their own Communist governments since
1918. These numbers do not include war dead. The governments are sorted by body
count (highest to lowest).
All numbers are
mid-estimates.
While this list is as
complete as I have been able to determine, it is evolving. Some numbers are
incomplete and there are still five Communist countries that have the potential
to kill more of their citizens. Over the next year, each government will be
profiled in detail on this website.
A detailed bibliography is
listed at the end of this page. Feedback is more than welcome.
Communist Body Count: 149,469,610
Rank
|
Country
|
|
1
|
 |
People's
Republic of China
Body Count: 73,237,000 1949-Present (57+ years and counting)R.J. Rummel originally estimated China's body count between between the years of 1949-1987 to be 35,236,000 (Rummel 1994). This excluded 38,000,000 million that died of famine during the Great Leap Forward. After the release of Mao: The Unknown Story, Rummel became convinced that the Chinese government was directly responsible for the famine, thus increasing his original estimate by 38,000,000 (Rummel 2005). 1,000 was added for Tienanmen Square in 1989 (Courtois 1999). |
2
|
 |
Union
of Soviet Socialist Republics
Body Count: 58,627,000 1922-1991 (69 years)The body count only covers the years 1923-1987 (Rummel 1996). |
3
|
 |
Russian
Soviet Federated Socialist Republic
Body Count: 3,284,000 1918-1922 (4 years)This body count does not include the 6,210,000 killed in the civil war (Rummel 1996). |
4
|
 |
Democratic
People's Republic of Korea
Body Count: 3,163,000 1948-Present (58+ years and counting)1,663,000 is attributed between 1948-1987 excluding the Korean War (Rummel 1994). 2,500,000 is the mid-estimate for those who starved to death between 1995-1998 (U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea 2006). |
5
|
 |
Cambodia
Body Count: 2,627,000 1975-1987 (12 years)The body count estimate is complete (Rummel 1994). The offical country name was Democratic Kampuchea during Pol Pot's reign and then known as People's Republic of Kampuchea afterwards. |
6
|
 |
Democratic
Republic of Afghanistan
Body Count: 1,750,000 1978-1992 (14 years)The body count estimate is complete (Courtois 1999). |
7
|
 |
Vietnam
Body Count: 1,670,000 1975-Present (30+ years and counting)The body count covers the years 1945-1987 for Vietnam/North Vietnam and excludes 1,062,000 from the Vietnam War (Rummel 1994). |
8
|
 |
People's
Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
Body Count: 1,343,610 1974-1991 (17 years)The body count includes 10,000 political assasinations during 1977-1978, 1,000 children killed in 1977, 110 massacred in an Orthodox church in 1975, 80,000 during the civil war between 1978-1980, 250,000 that died in 1982 through Transit Camps, and 2,500 killed in a bombing raid (Courtois 1999). Another 1,000,000 is added for the famine during 1984-1985 (BBC News 2000). |
9
|
 |
Socialist
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Body Count: 1,072,000 1945-1992 (47 years)The body count only covers the years 1945-1992 excluding 100,000 from the Tito Partisans between 1941-1944 (Rummel 1994). |
10
|
 |
Chinese
Soviet Republic
Body Count: 700,000 1931-1934 (3 years)The body count only includes the Jiangxi and Fujian provinces (Chang 2005). Although Mozambique has 700,000 to its name, the Chinese Soviet Republic produced more bodies in a shorter time period and the estimate is low. |
11
|
 |
People's
Republic of Mozambique
Body Count: 700,000 1975-1990 (15 years)100,000 civilians murdered between 1986 and mid-1988 (Young 1991) and 600,000 starved to death between 1975-1985 (Courtois 1999). |
12
|
 |
Socialist
Republic of Romania
Body Count: 435,000 1947-1989 (42 years)The body count only covers the years 1947-1987 (Rummel 1997). |
13
|
 |
People's
Republic of Bulgaria
Body Count: 222,000 1946-1990 (44 years)The body count only covers the years 1948-1987 (Rummel 1997). |
14
|
 |
People's
Republic of Angola
Body Count: 125,000 1975-1992 (17 years)The body count only covers the years 1975-1987 (Rummel 1997). |
15
|
 |
Mongolian
People's Republic
Body Count: 100,000 1924-1992 (68 years)The body count only covers the years 1924-1987 (Rummel 1997). |
16
|
 |
People's
Socialist Republic of Albania
Body Count: 100,000 1946-1991 (45 years) The body count only covers the years 1944-1987 (Rummel 1997). |
17
|
 |
Republic
of Cuba
Body Count: 73,000 1961-Present (45+ years and counting)The body count only covers the years 1959-1987 (Rummel 1997). |
18
|
 |
German
Democratic Republic
Body Count: 70,000 1949-1990 (41 years)The body count only covers the years 1948-1987 (Rummel 1997). |
19
|
 |
Socialist
Republic of Czechoslovakia
Body Count: 65,000 1948-1990 (42 years)The body count only covers the years 1948-1968 (Rummel 1997). |
20
|
 |
Lao
People's Democratic Republic
Body Count: 56,000 1975-Present (31+ years and counting)The body count only covers the years 1975-1987 excluding 47,000 war dead (Rummel 1997). |
21
|
 |
Hungarian
People's Republic
Body Count: 27,000 1949-1989 (40 years)The body count only covers the years 1948-1987 (Rummel 1997). |
22
|
 |
People's
Republic of Poland
Body Count: 22,000 1948-1989 (41 years)The body count only covers the years 1948-1987 (Rummel 1997). Excludes 1,585,000 from ethnic cleansing between 1945-1950 (Rummel 1994). |
23
|
 |
People's
Democratic Republic of Yemen
Body Count: 1,000 1969-1990 (21 years)The body count only covers the years 1969-1987 (Rummel 1997). |
References
BBC News (2000, April 6). Flashback
1984: portrait of a famine. Retrieved May 7, 2006, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/703958.stm
Chang, Jung, & Halliday,
Jon (2005). Mao: the unknown
story (1st
American ed.). New York: Alfred A Knopf.
Courtois, S., Werth, N.,
Panne, J., Paczkowski, A., Bartosek, K., & Margolin, J. (1999). The black book of
Communism: crimes, terror, repression. United States: Harvard University Press.
Rummel, R. J. (1996). Lethal politics:
Soviet genocide and mass murder since 1917 (1st paperback ed.).
New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
Rummel, R. J. (2005, November
20). Reevaluating China's democide to be 73,000,000. Retrieved April 5,
2006, from http://freedomspeace.blogspot.com/2005/11/reevaluating-chinas-democide-to-be.html
(see https://web.archive.org/web/20051215110939/http://freedomspeace.blogspot.com/2005/11/reevaluating-chinas-democide-to-be.html).
Rummel, R. J. (1997). Statistics
of democide: genocide and mass murder since 1900. Charlottesville,
Virginia: Transaction Publishers.
U.S. Committee for Human
Rights in North Korea (2006). Failure to protect: a call for the UN Security
Council to act in North Korea. United States: DLA Piper.
Young, Lance S. (1991). Mozambique's
sixteen-year bloody civil war. Retrieved November 1, 2006, from
Marxism,
Socialism, Communism: 20th Century Death Toll
No greater scourge reigned upon humanity during the 20th century
than the primitive superstitions of the hostile foreign ideology that marched
(and still marches) under the inapt misnomer of "socialism".
With its ongoing war against Christianity, against the family, and
against private property, socialism's barbarous march of mayhem and murder
wreaked unfathomable havoc upon 20th century civilization.
An estimated human tally for the reign of
destruction has been published by the late R. J. Rummel of the University of
Hawaii and is included within the table below. The source of the figures in
Table 1 is the website here.
Table 1: The 20th Century Collectivist Death Toll
|
Collectivist Regime
|
Religion
|
Millions Murdered
|
Period
|
|
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR]
|
Atheist
|
61.911
|
1917-1987
|
|
Chinese Communists [PRC]
|
Atheist
|
35.236
|
1949-1987
|
|
German (National) Socialists [Nazis]
|
Pagan
|
20.946
|
1933-1945
|
|
China (Mao Soviets)
|
Atheist
|
3.466
|
1923-1949
|
|
Cambodian Communists
|
Atheist
|
2.035
|
1975-1979
|
|
Vietnamese Communists
|
Atheist
|
1.670
|
1945-1987
|
|
Polish Communists
|
Atheist
|
1.585
|
1945-1948
|
|
Yugoslavian Socialists
|
Atheist
|
1.072
|
1944-1987
|
|
North Korean Communists
|
Atheist
|
1.663
|
1948-1987
|
|
Grand Total
|
129.6
|
70 Years
|
|
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