Sometimes you have to feel sorry for Herr Hitler. The Fuhrer got a terrible rep as a genocidal tyrant but in terms of 20th century murderous tyrants he is—at best—in the top 3. The same in fact goes for things like ecological and economic mismanagement. Fascism a.k.a. National Socialism may have been inefficient and poor at the creating economic growth its leaders promised and it’s followers demanded but it didn’t totally trash otherwise viable economies. Nor did it create ecological disaster zones big enough to be seen from space.
The ideology that did all this, and also pipped Herr Hitler in genocide stakes is International Socialism a.k.a. Communism.
The meme I started this blog post with contains elements of the flags of three of the most murderous communist regimes, though there is considerable argument about which should come first or indeed whether other regimes, such as North Korea, should not be included. Lets consider why (other than the fact the DPRK flag has different colours—making it hard to combine) these three deserve their places.
On the left we have Hammer and Sickle of the Soviet Union. This was, of course, the first communist nation and thus the father (or grandfather) of the rest. Not only that, but under Stalin it pioneered techniques of murdering its own citizens that had not been so successfully deployed at large scale before. The most impressive loss of life was caused by the Holodomor, that is the deliberately engineered starvation in the Ukraine of 1932/33 that killed about 10 million people (estimates range from 4 million to 14 million). However Soviet mismanagement caused other famines as well as the environmental catastrophe that is the Aral sea (or what remains of it) and also sent thousands (possibly millions) to suffer and die in the Siberian Gulags. About the only positive thing to say of the Soviet Union under Stalin is that it defeated Hitler before he could put his mass genocide of Slavic “Untermenschen” in place.
In the middle we have the People’s Republic of China, which as with the Soviet Union, managed to kill its population in a wide variety ways. The most impressive loss of life was caused by Mao and his “Great Leap Forward“. As a result of that somewhere between 35 and 45 million people died between 1958 and 1962, most from starvation although about 10% were executed and usually tortured first. In addition to the Great Leap Forward, other policies, such as the One Child Policy may have caused a total (including the Great Leap) of some 100m deaths and coerced abortions. This makes Maoist China number 1 in total deaths ever. In fact the People’s Republic of China probably killed more people than lived in the world 2000 years ago and it killed about 1% of the global population in the 1950s/60s.
On the right we have Kampuchea (Cambodia). Under Pol Pot, Kampuchea almost certainly achieved the record for most deaths per capita, wiping out about 20% of the population in the four years of 1975-79. In terms of total deaths, the 1.7-2 million (estimates vary) is relatively small (Herr Hitler has it beaten easily), however in 1975 the entire population was less than 10 million. So far as we know no other regime has come close to killing that many of its own people so quickly.
It is true other communist regimes have been less murderous, though the Vietnamese regime’s forcible integration of former South Vietnam led to millions of refugees (the Vietnamese boat people) and Cuba has also seen a large number of its population attempt to flee to the USA. In Africa it is somewhat unclear how many of the Communist inspired regimes killed people because of communism or because of tribal loyalties and general incompetence. However the famines in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the Horn of Africa took place in Communist Ethiopia and Communist Somalia. The 1983 Ethiopian one is definitely considered to have been partially caused by deliberate policy by the Communist government of Ethiopia and killed between 400,000 and 1 million people. One legacy of African communism is “Do they know it’s Christmas” which is particularly ironic when you realize that it was create to raise money for famine victims in a formerly Christian country that had become communist. All in all Communism seems to lead to economic mismanagement at best, and at worst to megalomaniacs having the ideological justification to starving parts of their citizenry to death.
In terms of deaths over population, the most destructive regime in history I suspect is the protofascist Paraguyan regime of mid-XIX century. In the war of the Triple Alliance, between 1864 and 1870, the most common estimates state the population went down from more than half a million to a bit more than 200.000, of which less than 30.000 were men.
Another, older, more important event that could be mentioned might be the Thirty year war, with the German States experiencing a reduction in population of one third on average, and peaks of 75% like in Wurttemberg. The cause in that case was of course religion.
Another astonishing figure that I read in “Stalingrad” by Anthony Beevor, although I never found it anywhere else, is that in 1945, of the males born between 1920 and 1925 in the Soviet Union, only the 5% was still alive. Charge that 75% to Hitler and 25% to Stalin.
Good point about Paraguay. How about Kampuchea for most deaths/capita in the 20th century?
In terms of deaths over population, the most destructive regime in history I suspect is the protofascist Paraguyan regime of mid-XIX century. In the war of the Triple Alliance, between 1864 and 1870, the most common estimates state the population went down from more than half a million to a bit more than 200.000, of which less than 30.000 were men.
Another, older, more important event that could be mentioned might be the Thirty year war, with the German States experiencing a reduction in population of one third on average, and peaks of 75% like in Wurttemberg. The cause in that case was of course religion.
Another astonishing figure that I read in “Stalingrad” by Anthony Beevor, although I never found it anywhere else, is that in 1945, of the males born between 1920 and 1925 in the Soviet Union, only the 5% was still alive. Charge that 75% to Hitler and 25% to Stalin.
Good point about Paraguay. How about Kampuchea for most deaths/capita in the 20th century?
Please remember that the Soviets and Germans shared information on imprisonment and genocide tactics during the late 1930’s.
The Soviets were keen to showcase to the National Socialists of Germany the efficiency of the gulag system and arbitrary terror execution systems. There were numerous tours of Soviet prisons by German officers.
Even though the NAZI’s “officially” hated the Russian form of Socialism, the National Socialist Party was originated from the left and thus called National Socialism, a German Nationalist version.Determined to unify Germany again.
Historians(Left leaning) can try to change history but any reading of policies of Nazi’s in 1930’s will prove the Left origins of the Party
But Communism has been good for the World generally, by exterminating so many people and keeping the World population down. A bit of bad luck for their victims but.Disgusting actually.
Leftists hate discussing the slaughter of innocents in their name. they duck and weave and make rubbish excuses etc etc.
Leftist dictatorships usually kill the people that got them into power first, thus eliminating the closest risk to the dictatorship.
The World will drift towards Communism again, especially the ignorant West, and it is our turn to murder and slaughter our own innocents in the name of “equality for all”.
They will hunt the old first this time. The young of the West have been poisoned against the elderly for the last 20 years
Please remember that the Soviets and Germans shared information on imprisonment and genocide tactics during the late 1930’s.
The Soviets were keen to showcase to the National Socialists of Germany the efficiency of the gulag system and arbitrary terror execution systems. There were numerous tours of Soviet prisons by German officers.
Even though the NAZI’s “officially” hated the Russian form of Socialism, the National Socialist Party was originated from the left and thus called National Socialism, a German Nationalist version.Determined to unify Germany again.
Historians(Left leaning) can try to change history but any reading of policies of Nazi’s in 1930’s will prove the Left origins of the Party
But Communism has been good for the World generally, by exterminating so many people and keeping the World population down. A bit of bad luck for their victims but.Disgusting actually.
Leftists hate discussing the slaughter of innocents in their name. they duck and weave and make rubbish excuses etc etc.
Leftist dictatorships usually kill the people that got them into power first, thus eliminating the closest risk to the dictatorship.
The World will drift towards Communism again, especially the ignorant West, and it is our turn to murder and slaughter our own innocents in the name of “equality for all”.
They will hunt the old first this time. The young of the West have been poisoned against the elderly for the last 20 years
In the 20th century there is also the Rwandan Genocide of Tutsi. Somewhere between 40% and 80% of the Tutsi population, somewhere between 500k and 1M, killed. This took place in less than a 4 month period. Much of, maybe most of, the killing was done with machetes.
Also early in the 20th century, the Ottoman Turks managed four genocides within a decade: the Armenian, the Greek, the Assyrian and the Maronite genocides. In the century following these massacres, the Turkish government has never acknowledged these genocides and, in fact, the Turkish education system systematically portrays the events of the genocides as innocent Turkish nationals defending themselves against Armenians, etc.
In the 20th century there is also the Rwandan Genocide of Tutsi. Somewhere between 40% and 80% of the Tutsi population, somewhere between 500k and 1M, killed. This took place in less than a 4 month period. Much of, maybe most of, the killing was done with machetes.
Also early in the 20th century, the Ottoman Turks managed four genocides within a decade: the Armenian, the Greek, the Assyrian and the Maronite genocides. In the century following these massacres, the Turkish government has never acknowledged these genocides and, in fact, the Turkish education system systematically portrays the events of the genocides as innocent Turkish nationals defending themselves against Armenians, etc.