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Regarding the use of democide and politicide data, Frank Wayman and Atsushi Tago have shown that depending on the use of ] (generalised state-sponsored killing) or ] (eliminating groups who are politically opposed) as the criterion for inclusion in a data-set, statistical analyses seeking to establish a connection between mass killings can produce very different results, including the significance or otherwise of regime type.<ref name="Tago">{{Citation | first = Frank | last = Wayman | author-link = | first2 = Atsushi | last2 = Tago | editor2-first = | contribution = Explaining the Onset of Mass Killing:The Effect of War, Regime Type, and Economic Deprivation on Democide and Politicide, 1949–1987 | year = 2005 | place = International Studies Association | url = cite web|url=http://hei.unige.ch/sections/sp/agenda/colloquium/Wayman_TagoJPR0903.pdf}}</ref> Regarding the use of democide and politicide data, Frank Wayman and Atsushi Tago have shown that depending on the use of ] (generalised state-sponsored killing) or ] (eliminating groups who are politically opposed) as the criterion for inclusion in a data-set, statistical analyses seeking to establish a connection between mass killings can produce very different results, including the significance or otherwise of regime type.<ref name="Tago">{{Citation | first = Frank | last = Wayman | author-link = | first2 = Atsushi | last2 = Tago | editor2-first = | contribution = Explaining the Onset of Mass Killing:The Effect of War, Regime Type, and Economic Deprivation on Democide and Politicide, 1949–1987 | year = 2005 | place = International Studies Association | url = cite web|url=http://hei.unige.ch/sections/sp/agenda/colloquium/Wayman_TagoJPR0903.pdf}}</ref>


== Historical examples ==

=== Soviet Union ===
====Red Terror====
{{Main|Red Terror}}

During the ] and ], the ] unleashed the ] to suppress opposition, which culminated in the ] of tens of thousands of "]" by the political police, the ].<ref name="Melgunov">], ''The Red Terror in Russia'', Hyperion Pr (1975), ISBN 0-883-55187-X See also: </ref><ref>], ''Red Victory: A History of the Russian Civil War'' (1999) ]. ISBN 0-306-80909-5</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Leggett |first=George |title=The Cheka: Lenin's Political Police |publisher=] |year=1987 |pages=197–198 |isbn=0198228627}}</ref><ref>]. ''A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891 — 1924.'' ], 1997 ISBN 0198228627 p. 647</ref> Many victims were '] ]' rounded up and held in readiness for ] in reprisal for any alleged ] provocation.<ref>]. ''A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891 — 1924.'' ], 1997 ISBN 0198228627 p. 643</ref> One of the largest massacres of the civil war<ref name="Black">Nicolas Werth, Karel Bartošek, Jean-Louis Panné, Jean-Louis Margolin, Andrzej Paczkowski, ], ''The ]: Crimes, Terror, Repression'', ], 1999, hardcover, 858 pages, ISBN 0-674-07608-7 p. 100</ref> involved the shooting and hanging of some 50,000 White officers and civilians after general ] was put down at the end of 1920.<ref>]. .'' ], 2007 ISBN 1400040051 </ref><ref>]. '']: The Tyrant and Those Who Killed for Him.'' ], 2004. ISBN 0375506322 p. 83</ref>

Large numbers of people were put to death during and after the suppression of revolts, such as the ], the ] and the ]. ] established the ] about this time and initiated decossackization.<ref>Totten, pp.257-258</ref>

The Bolshevik policy of ] was the first example of ] leaders deciding to "eliminate, ], and ] the population of a whole territory."<ref>Nicolas Werth, Karel Bartošek, Jean-Louis Panné, Jean-Louis Margolin, Andrzej Paczkowski, ], ''The ]: Crimes, Terror, Repression'', ], 1999, hardcover, 858 pages, ISBN 0-674-07608-7 p. 98</ref> On January 24, 1919 the Central Committee issued the order to ''"carry out ] against wealthy Cossacks, ] all of them; carry out merciless mass terror against any and all Cossacks taking part in any way, directly or indirectly, in the struggle against Soviet power."''<ref>]. ''A Century of Violence in Soviet Russia.'' ], 2002. ISBN 0-300-08760-8 </ref> In the early months of 1919, some 10,000 to 12,000 ] were executed<ref name="mass terror">Peter Holquist. ""</ref><ref>]. ''A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891–1924.'' ], 1998. ISBN 014024364X p. 660</ref> and many more deported after their villages were razed to the ground.<ref name="Gellately">]. '''' ], 2007 ISBN 1400040051 pp. 70–71.</ref> Historians estimate that, during 1919 and 1920, between 300,000 and 500,000 Cossacks were killed or deported out of a population of around three million.<ref name="Gellately"/>

====Holodomor====
{{Main|Holodomor|Soviet famine of 1932–1933}}

Within the Soviet Union change in agricultural policies (]) and severe droughts caused the ].<ref name=marples2005>, , ''ExpressNews'' (]), originally published in '']'', November 30, 2005</ref><ref name="KulchFeb2007">], "Holodomor of 1932–1933 as genocide: the gaps in the proof", '']'', ], ], , </ref><ref name=Tragediya>С. Уиткрофт (]), (On demographic evidence of the tragedy of the Soviet village in 1931-1833), "Трагедия советской деревни: Коллективизация и раскулачивание 1927–1939 гг.: Документы и материалы. Том 3. Конец 1930–1933 гг.", Российская политическая энциклопедия, 2001, ISBN 5-8243-0225-1, с. 885, Приложение № 2</ref><ref name=Kremlin>, ''The News in Brief'', ], 19 June 1998, Vol 7 No 22
</ref>
The famine was most severely in the ], where it is{{By whom|date=November 2009}} often referenced as the ]. A significant portion of the famine victims (3-3.5 million) were the Ukrainians while the total number of victims in the Soviet Union is estimated to be 6 - 8 millions<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-275913/Ukraine |title=Ukraine – The famine of 1932–33 |accessdate=2008-06-26 |work=Encyclopædia Britannica}}</ref><ref>Davies and Wheatcroft, p. 401. For a review, see {{cite web | format = ] | url = http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/staff/faculty/harrison/reviews/davies-wheatcroft2004.pdf | publisher = Warwick | title = Davies & Weatcroft, 2004}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal| last = Ellman| first = Michael | title = The Role of Leadership Perceptions and of Intent in the Soviet Famine of 1931–1934 | journal = Europe-Asia Studies | volume = 57 | issue = 6 | pages = 823–41 | publisher = Routledge | year = 2005 | month = 09 | url = http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/soviet/famine/ellman.pdf | format = ] | accessdate = 2008-07-04}}</ref> . At the time, the Soviet government tried to suppress information about the famine and the Western powers demonstrated their indifference (in contrast to what happened during ]). Some scholars have argued that the Stalinist policies that caused the famine may have been designed as an attack on the rise of ], and thus may fall under the ] (see ]).<ref name=marples2005/><ref name="KulchFeb2007"/><ref name=finn>Peter Finn, , '']'', April 27, 2008, "There are no exact figures on how many died. Modern historians place the number between 2.5 million and 3.5 million. Yushchenko and others have said at least 10 million were killed."</ref><ref name="Bilin99">{{cite journal
| author=Yaroslav Bilinsky| title= Was the Ukrainian Famine of 1932–1933 Genocide?| journal= Journal of Genocide Research | year= 1999| volume= 1| issue= 2| pages= 147–156 | url=http://www.faminegenocide.com/resources/bilinsky.html | doi=10.1080/14623529908413948 }}</ref><ref name=zn2006>], "Holodomor-33: Why and how?", '']'', ] – ], 2006, , .</ref>

Economist Michael Ellman argues that the actions of the Soviet regime from 1930–34, from the standpoint of international criminal law, "clearly constitutes . . . a series of crimes against humanity" and perhaps even genocide, but only if a more ] of the term is adopted. Ellman also states that from the standpoint of national criminal law, some of the famine deaths could constitute murder:
<blockquote>
"Since the death of some of them was a natural consequence of turning back peasants fleeing from starvation and of exporting grain during a famine, the only way of defending Stalin from ] is to argue that he did not foresee that preventing peasants fleeing from the most severely affected regions and exporting grain would cause additional deaths."<ref name="Ellman">, ''Europe-Asia Studies'', ]. Vol. 59, No. 4, June 2007, 663–693. ] file</ref>
</blockquote>

====Mass deportations of ethnic minorities====
{{Main|Population transfer in the Soviet Union}}

The Soviet government during ]'s rule conducted a ] on an enormous scale which significantly affected the ethnic map of the USSR. Separatism, resistance to Soviet rule and collaboration with the invading Germans were cited as the official reasons for the deportations, rightly or wrongly. Deportations took place under extremely inhumane conditions, often by cattle truck, with hundreds of thousands of deportees dying en route.<ref name="Boobbyer">Boobbyer, Phillip (2000), The Stalin Era, Routledge, ISBN 0767900561 p. 130</ref> Some experts estimate the number of deaths from the deportations could be as high as 1 in 3.<ref>In one estimate, based on a report by ] to ], 150,000 of 478,479 deported Ingush and Chechen people (or 31.3 percent) died within the first four years of the resettlement. See: Kleveman, Lutz. ''The New Great Game: Blood and Oil in Central Asia.'' Jackson, Tenn.: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2003. ISBN 0871139065. Another scholar puts the number of deaths at 22.7 percent: Extrapolating from ] records, 113,000 Ingush and Chechens died (3,000 before deportation, 10,000 during deportation, and 100,000 after resettlement) in the first three years of the resettlement out of 496,460 total deportees. See: Naimark, Norman M. ''Fires of Hatred: Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth-Century Europe.'' Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2001. ISBN 0674009940. A third source says a quarter of the 650,000 deported Chechens, Ingush, Karachais and Kalmyks died within four years of resettlement. See: Mawdsley, Evan. ''The Stalin Years: The Soviet Union 1929–1953.'' Manchester, England: Manchester University Press, 2003. ISBN 0719063779. However, estimates of the number of deportees sometimes varies widely. Two scholars estimated the number of Chechen and Ingush deportees at 700,000, which would have the percentage estimates of deaths. See: Fischer, Ruth and Leggett, John C. ''Stalin and German Communism: A Study in the Origins of the State Party.'' Edison, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 2006. ISBN 0878558225</ref><ref>Conquest, Robert. ''The Nation Killers.'' New York: Macmillan, 1970. ISBN 0333105753</ref> People from the following ethnic groups were forcibly resettled for various reasons: ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ]. Large numbers of ]s, regardless of their nationality, were resettled to ] and ].<ref name="Boobbyer"/> Regarding the fate of the Crimean Tatars, Amir Weiner of Stanford University writes that the policy could be classified as "]". But it is{{By whom|date=November 2009}} concluded that the policy was not genocide because there was no intent to kill off the Crimean Tatars in an attack.<ref>http://books.google.com/books?id=KStML5rSbQ4C&pg=PA223</ref> In the book ''Century of Genocide'', Lyman H Legters writes "We cannot properly speak of a completed genocide, only of a process that was genocidal in its potentiality."<ref>Samuel Totten, William S. Parsons, Israel W. Charny. ''Century of Genocide: Eyewitness Accounts and Critical Views.'' Garland, 1997 ISBN 0815323530 p. 120</ref>

According to professor ], the forced mass transportation of people to distant regions and their deaths as a direct result qualifies as ].<ref>] </ref>

====National operations of the NKVD====
{{Main|National operations of the NKVD}}

According to professor Michael Ellman, the ] of the ], which targeted "national contingents" (foreign ethnicities), such as Poles, Ethnic Germans, Koreans, etc, may constitute genocide as defined by the UN convention.<ref name="Ellman">, ''Europe-Asia Studies'', ]. Vol. 59, No. 4, June 2007, 663–693. ] file</ref> A total of 350,000 were arrested and 247,157 were executed.<ref>Simon Sebag Montefiore. ''Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar'', Knopf, 2004 ISBN 1-4000-4230-5 p. 229</ref> Of these, the ] appears to have been the largest, with 140,000 arrests and 111,000 executions out of a (Polish) population of 636,000. Stalin biographer ] concurs with this view, and referred to the Polish operation as 'a mini-genocide.'<ref>]. Stalin. The Court of the Red Tsar. Vintage Books, New York 2003. Vintage ISBN 1-4000-7678-1 page 229.</ref>

====Persecution of Russian Orthodox clergy====
{{Main|Persecution of Christians in the Soviet Union}}

Regarding the persecution of clergy, Professor Michael Ellman states ''"...the 1937 – 38 terror against the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church and of other religions (Binner & Junge 2004) might also qualify as genocide as defined in the Convention (‘killing members of the group . . . with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a . . . religious group’)."''<ref name="Ellman"/> Citing church documents, ] has estimated that over 100,000 priests, monks and nuns were executed during this time.<ref>{{citebook|authorlink=Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev|author=Alexander N. Yakovlev|url=http://books.google.com/books?visbn=0300103220&id=ChRk43tVxTwC&pg=PA165&lpg=PA165|title=A Century of Violence in Soviet Russia|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2002|pages=165}} See also: {{citebook|author=Richard Pipes|authorlink=Richard Pipes|title=Communism: A History|publisher=]|year=2001|pages=66}}</ref>

In 1918, during the ], the ] executed nearly 3,000 Orthodox clergymen of all ranks.<ref name="Yakovlev">]. ''A Century of Violence in Soviet Russia.'' ], 2002. ISBN 0300087608 </ref> Another 8,000 were killed during the conflict over church valuables in 1922.<ref name="Pipes">]. ''Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime.'' Vintage Books, 1994 ISBN 0679761845 pg 356</ref> During this conflict, ] himself stated: ''"The greater the number of the representatives of the ] ] and the reactionary clergy that we will manage to ] in this affair, the better."''<ref>]. ''Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime''. ], 1995, ISBN 0679761845 pg 352</ref>

====Yezhovshchina====
{{Main|Great purge}}
Following the solidification of Stalin's position as leader of the Soviet Union, there was an escalation in detentions and executions of various people, climaxing in 1937–38 (a period known as the "Yezhovshchina"), and continuing until Stalin's death in 1953. It has been estimated that between 950 thousand and 1.2 million were killed during the Yezhovshchina.<ref name="Ellman2">{{cite journal|last=Ellman|first=Michael|title=Soviet Repression Statistics: Some Comments|journal=Europea-Asia Studies|volume=34|issue=7|year=2002|page=1151-1172}}</ref> Around 700,000 of these were executed by a gunshot to the back of the head<ref>{{citebook|author=Barry McLoughlin|coauthors=Kevin McDermott(eds)|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=8yorTJl1QEoC&pg=PA141|title=Stalin's Terror: High Politics and Mass Repression in the Soviet Union|publisher=]|year=2002|isbn=1403901198|pages=141}}</ref>, others perished in the ] due to starvation, disease, exposure and overwork.<ref name="Ellman2"/> Some prisoners were gassed to death in batches in the back of a ] disguised as a bread truck.<ref>''Night of Stone: Death and Memory in Twentieth-Century Russia'' by Catherine Merridale. ], 2002 ISBN 0142000639 p. 200</ref><ref>Timothy J. Colton. ''Moscow: Governing the Socialist Metropolis.'' ], 1998. ISBN 0674587499 </ref> Arrests were typically made citing ], which included failure to report treasonous actions and, in an amendment added in 1937, failing to fulfill one's appointed duties.

], in his 1968 book '']'' stated that the executions of former Communist leaders was a minor detail of the purges, which caused 20 million deaths including man-made ]. For the 40th anniversary edition of the book, he reduced his estimate to 13–15 million.<ref name="Conquest2007Reassessment">Robert Conquest, ''The Great Terror: A Reassessment, 40th Anniversary Edition'', Oxford University Press, 2007, in Preface.</ref>

=====Great Purge in Mongolia=====

{{Main|Stalinist repressions in Mongolia}}

In the summer and autumn of 1937, ] sent ] agents to the ] and engineered a ]<ref name="Kuromiya pg2">Hiroaki Kuromiya, ''The Voices of the Dead: Stalin's Great Terror in the 1930s.'' ], 24 December 2007. ISBN 0300123892 p. 2</ref> in which some 22,000<ref name="Thirty thousand"></ref> and 35,000<ref name="Death Tolls"></ref> people were executed. Around 18,000 victims were Buddhist ]s.<ref name="Thirty thousand"/>

=== People's Republic of China ===

In China, many historians and biographers, such as ], ], ], ], among others,<ref>{{cite web | url = http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm#Mao |title=Source List and Detailed Death Tolls for the Twentieth Century Hemoclysm | publisher = Historical Atlas of the Twentieth Century | accessdate=2008-08-23}}</ref> allege that ]'s policies and political purges, such as the ], the ], the ] and ], brought about the deaths of tens of millions of people.<ref name="deathtoll">{{cite book |last=Short |first=Philip |title=Mao: A Life |publisher=Owl Books |year=2001 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=4y6mACbLWGsC&pg=PA631 |isbn=0805066381 |page=631}}; ] and ]. ''].'' ], London, 2005. ISBN 0-224-07126-2 p. 3; ] '''' ], 1991. ISBN 0-88738-417-X p. 205: In light of recent evidence, Rummel has increased Mao's ] toll to .</ref> <ref name="Fenby"> ]. ''Modern China: The Fall and Rise of a Great Power, 1850 to the Present.'' Ecco, 2008. ISBN 0-06-166116-3 p. 351"Mao’s responsibility for the extinction of anywhere from 40 to 70 million lives brands him as a mass killer greater than ] or ], his indifference to the suffering and the loss of humans breathtaking."</ref>
====Land reform and the suppression of counterrevolutionaries====
{{Main|Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries}}

The first large scale killings took place during land reform and the counterrevolutionary campaign. During land reform, at least 1 to 3 million ] and members of their families were killed, often beaten to death by enraged peasants at mass meetings organized by party work teams.<ref name="land reform killings">{{cite book |last=Short |first=Philip |title=Mao: A Life |publisher=Owl Books |year=2001 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=HQwoTtJ43_AC&pg=PA436&dq=Mao+landlords+and+members+of+their+families+killed&ei=qHULSafGIJLsMvT9yKQE |isbn=0805066381 |pages=436-437}}</ref> The suppression of counterrevolutionaries targeted mainly former ] officials and intellectuals suspected of disloyalty.<ref>Steven W. Mosher. ''China Misperceived: American Illusions and Chinese Reality.'' ], 1992. ISBN 0465098134 pp 72, 73</ref> At least 712,000 people were executed, 1,290,000 were imprisoned in ] and 1,200,000 were "subject to control at various times."<ref name="Yang Kuisong">Yang Kuisong. ''The China Quarterly'', 193, March 2008, pp.102-121. ] file.</ref>

====The Great Leap Forward====
{{Main|Great Leap Forward}}

In 1960, drought and other bad weather affected 55 percent of the cultivated land in China, while in the north an estimated 60% of agricultural land received no rain at all.<ref name="Atimes"></ref> The ] yearbooks from 1958 to 1962 also reported abnormal weather, followed by droughts and floods. Close planting, the idea of Ukrainian pseudo-scientist ].<ref>''The People's Republic of China 1949–76'', second edition, Michael Lynch (London: Hodder Education, 2008), p. 57</ref> had been implemented. The density of seedlings was at first tripled and then doubled again, according to the theory, plants of the same species would not compete with each other. In practice they did, which stunted growth and resulted in lower yields. Lysenko's colleague's theory encouraged peasants across China to ] deeply into the soil (up to 1 or 2 meters). They believed the most fertile soil was deep in the earth, allowing extra strong root growth. However, useless rocks, soil, and sand were driven up instead, burying the topsoil. Mao Zedong's ] had reorganized the workforce; millions of agricultural workers were diverted to the iron and steel production workforce, whose output was useless.<ref name=hunger/>
As a result of these factors, year over year grain production in China dropped by 15% in 1959. By 1960, it was at 70% of its 1958 level. There was no recovery until 1962, after the Great Leap Forward ended.<ref>{{cite web|title=What caused the great Chinese famine?|url=http://www.res.org.uk/society/mediabriefings/pdfs/2000/January/yang3.pdf|date=2000-01-01|accessdate=2009-05-14}}</ref> In spite of this, China was a net grain exporter from 1958-60. This left little or none for the local populace.<ref name=hunger/> Government officials were indifferent to the people dying around them, as their top priority was the delivery of grain.<ref name=hunger/> Over a million people died in ], even though ]'s granaries held 1.25 million tonnes of grain and the neighbouring province of ] held 650,000 tonnes.<ref name=hunger/>

As a result of the ], Mao decided to pay back early to the ] a debt of 1.973 billion ], much of it in the form of grain.<ref name=hunger/>

According to government statistics, there were 15 million excess deaths in this period. Unofficial estimates vary, but are often considerably higher. ], a former ] reporter who spent over ten years gathering information available to no other scholars, estimates a toll of 36 million.<ref name=hunger>, chinaelections.org, ] ]</ref> Yang declares that the famine "was man-made. There was small-scale violence against the shortages and an increase in crime by the hungry but nothing large and organised. People were terrorised and did not dare oppose the government and the army." This was a result of the ] of the late 1950s that created a sense of fear in which no one dared oppose government policy.<ref name=hunger/>
Professors and scholars of the ], who do not use the word 'genocide' to describe it, but rather more neutral terms, such as "abnormal deaths", have estimated that they number between 17 million to 50 million. Some western analysts such as Patricia Buckley Ebrey estimate that about 20–40 million people had died of starvation caused by bad government policy and natural disasters. J. Banister estimates this number is about 23 million. Li Chengrui, a former minister of the ], estimated 22 million (1998). His estimation was based on ] and Jiang Zhenghua's estimation of 17 million. Cao Shuji estimated 32.5 million.

====The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution====
{{Main|Cultural Revolution}}

It is estimated by historian and China expert ] that around a million people were killed in the violence of the ].<ref>] and Schoenhals, Michael. ''Mao's Last Revolution''. ], 2006. p. 262</ref> Mao's ] were given carte blanche to abuse and kill the revolution's enemies.<ref>] and Schoenhals, Michael. ''Mao's Last Revolution''. ], 2006. p. 125</ref> For example, in August 1966, over 100 teachers were murdered by their students in western Beijing alone.<ref> by Andreas Lorenz in Beijing, ] Online. May 15, 2007</ref> In some regions the violence took on bizarre forms, such as in ], where political ] was practiced on a significant scale, with the approval of local party cadre.<ref>] and Schoenhals, Michael. ''Mao's Last Revolution''. ], 2006. p. 259</ref><ref>Zheng Yi ''Scarlet Memorial: Tales of Cannibalism in Modern China.'' Westview Press, 1998. ISBN 0813326168</ref>

=== Cambodia (Democratic Kampuchea) ===
{{See also|Khmer Rouge}}

] regime in Cambodia.]]

Sociologist ] described the Cambodian genocide as "the purest genocide of the ] era".<ref>''Theory of the Global State: Globality as Unfinished Revolution'' by ], ], 2000, pp 141, ISBN 9780521597302</ref>

] were a number of sites in ] where large numbers of people were killed and buried by the ] regime, during its rule of the country from 1975 to 1979, immediately after the end of the ].

At least 200,000 people were executed by the Khmer Rouge<ref>Chandler, David. The Killing Fields. At The Digital Archive Of Cambodian Holocaust Survivors. </ref> (while estimates of the total number of deaths resulting from Khmer Rouge policies, including disease and starvation, range from 1.4 to 2.2 million out of a population of around 7 million).<ref>Peace Pledge Union Information – Talking about genocides – Cambodia 1975 – </ref>

Democratic Kampuchea experienced serious hardships due to the effects of war and disrupted economic activity. According to Michael Vickery, 740,800 people in Cambodia in a population of about 7 million died due to disease, overwork, and political repression.<ref name="Bruce Sharp"/> Other estimates suggest approximately 1.7 million and it is described by the ] Cambodian Genocide Program as "one of the worst human tragedies of the last century."<ref> Cambodian Genocide Program, ]</ref> Researcher Craig Etcheson of the Documentation Center of Cambodia suggests that the death toll was between 2 and 2.5 million, with a "most likely" figure of 2.2 million. After 5 years of researching some 20,000 grave sites, he concludes that "these mass graves contain the remains of 1,112,829 victims of execution."<ref name="Bruce Sharp">{{cite web
| last = Sharp
| first = Bruce
| title = Counting Hell: The Death Toll of the Khmer Rouge Regime in Cambodia
|date= ]
| url = http://www.mekong.net/cambodia/deaths.htm
| accessdate = 2006-07-05 }}</ref> Following the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge they received aid and assistance from the United States government. While the US was aware of their genocide they supported them as a check on Vietnamese power.<ref>''Governments, citizens, and genocide: a comparative and interdisciplinary approach'' (2001), Alex Alvarez, p.6</ref>

In 1997 the Cambodian Government asked the ] assistance in setting up a genocide tribunal.<ref name=KD-Time>Doyle, Kevin. , ], July 26, 2007</ref><ref>MacKinnon, Ian , ], 7 March 2007</ref><ref>, Royal Cambodian Government</ref> The investigating judges were presented with the names of five possible suspects by the prosecution on 18 July 2007.<ref name=KD-Time/> On ] ] ], second in command of the Khmer Rouge and its most senior surviving member, was charged with ]s and ], but not charged with genocide. He will face Cambodian and foreign judges at the special genocide tribunal.<ref name="ApBbcKr"/>

=== Legal sanctions and accusations of "genocide" ===

] 1943 exhumation. Photo by ] delegation.]]

While Ethiopia's former ruler ] has been convicted of ], ] and ] by an Ethiopian court for his role in the ], and the highest ranking surviving member of the ] has been charged with those crimes,<ref name=ApBbcKr>Staff, , BBC 19 September 2007</ref><ref name="Mengistu found guilty">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6171429.stm|title=BBC, "Mengistu found guilty of genocide," 12 December 2006.}}</ref><ref name="HRW"> ], 1999</ref> no communist country or governing body has ever been convicted of genocide.
Charges of genocide have been brought against a Khmer Rouge leader. One conviction for genocide has been obtained against a communist leader, Ethiopian ];<ref>Tsegaye Tadesse. ], 2006</ref> Ethiopian law is distinct from the UN and other definitions in that it defines genocide as intent to wipe out political and not just ethnic groups. In this respect it closely resembles the distinction of politicide.<ref name=RGP>Barbara Harff, "Recognizing Genocides and Politicides", in ''Genocide Watch'' 27 (Helen Fein ed., 1992) pp.37,38</ref>

In 2002 the Ukranian President ] signed a presidential decree asserting that the famine of 1932–33 had in fact been 'genocide' against the Ukrainian nation. A parliamentary resolution in 2003 reiterated this view. In November 2006, the ] passed a bill branding the Holodomor an act of genocide against the Ukrainian people.<ref>Jan Maksymiuk, , '']'', November 29, 2006</ref> As of ], the ] and between eleven and nineteen other governments.<ref name=countriesmar2008>19 (according to Ukrainian BBC: "Латвія визнала Голодомор ґеноцидом"), 16 (according to Korrespondent, Russian edition: "После продолжительных дебатов Сейм Латвии признал Голодомор геноцидом украинцев"), "more than 10" (according to Korrespondent, Ukrainian edition: "Латвія визнала Голодомор 1932–33 рр. геноцидом українців")</ref>
The Russia government vehemently rejects the idea of the Holodomor as genocide., as well as in Ukraine which was accused of ], outright propaganda and fabrication of documents<ref name="regnum">http://www.regnum.ru/news/1138393.html</ref>

In March 2005, the Polish ] unanimously requested Russia to classify the ], the execution of over 21,000 Polish POW's and intellectual leaders by ]'s ], as a crime of genocide.<ref name="polishembassy310305">Polish government statement: </ref> Alexander Savenkov of the Prosecutor's General Office of the Russian Federation responded: "The version of genocide was examined, and it is my firm conviction that there is absolutely no basis to talk about this in judicial terms."<ref></ref>

In August 2007, ], an ] ] veteran and cousin of former Estonian president ], faced charges of genocide by Estonian authorities for participating in the ] in ] in 1949.<ref> – '']''</ref><ref> '']'', August 23, 2007</ref> The trial was halted when Meri died March 27, 2009, at the age of 89. Meri denied the accusation, characterizing them as politically motivated defamation: "I do not consider myself guilty of genocide.", he said.<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7978111.stm</ref>


== Causes == == Causes ==

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Mass killings occurred under Communist regimes including the Soviet Union under Stalin, the People's Republic of China under Mao, and Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. The word "genocide" has been applied, but the appropriateness of this is debated, and not confirmed by the chief genocide convention which the Soviet Union was a party to. One common factor posited in Communist mass killings is the revolutionary desire by radical communist regimes to bring about the rapid and total transformation of society resulting in the sudden and nearly complete material and political dispossession of millions of people.

Terminology

Benjamin Valentino claims that there is "No generally accepted terminology exists to describe the intentional killing of large numbers of noncombatants." Under the Genocide Convention, the term "genocide" does not in particular apply to the mass killing of political and economic groups.

The term "politicide" is often used to describe the killing of political or economic groups that would otherwise be covered by the Genocide Convention. R. J. Rummel coined the most widely-used democide, which includes genocide, politicide, and mass murder. Jacques Semelin prefers "crime against humanity" when speaking of the violence perpetrated by communist regimes. Michael Mann has proposed the term "classicide" to mean the "intended mass killing of entire social classes."

Valentino uses the term "mass killing," which he defines as "the intentional killing of a significant number of the members of any group of noncombatants (as the group and its membership are defined by the perpetrator)," in his book "Final Solutions: The Causes of Mass Killings and Genocides." In a chapter called "Communist Mass Killings: The Soviet Union, China and Cambodia", Valentino focuses on these three perpetrators and other communist states.

Regarding the use of democide and politicide data, Frank Wayman and Atsushi Tago have shown that depending on the use of democide (generalised state-sponsored killing) or politicide (eliminating groups who are politically opposed) as the criterion for inclusion in a data-set, statistical analyses seeking to establish a connection between mass killings can produce very different results, including the significance or otherwise of regime type.

Causes

Specific to the situation

Eric D. Weitz says that the mass killing in communist states are a natural consequence of the failure of the rule of law, seen commonly during periods of social upheaval in the 20th century. For both communist and non-communist mass killings, "genocides occurred at moments of extreme social crisis, often generated by the very policies of the regimes." They are not inevitable but are political decisions.

Robert Conquest stressed that Stalin's purges were not contrary to the principles of Leninism, but rather a natural consequence of the system established by Lenin. Alexander Yakovlev, architect of perestroika and Glasnost and later head of the Presidential Commission for the Victims of Political Repression, elaborates on this point, stating that "The truth is that in punitive operations Stalin did not think up anything that was not there under Lenin: executions, hostage taking, concentration camps, and all the rest." Historian Robert Gellately concurs, saying: "To put it another way, Stalin initiated very little that Lenin had not already introduced or previewed."

A natural consequence

Benjamin Valentino writes that mass killings strategies are chosen by Communists to economically dispossess large numbers of people. He states that a common structure unites Soviet, Chinese and Cambodian mass killings: the defence of a utopian and shared version of radical communism. Valentino's theory has been used in other works, but is contentious, as other authors claim there is no common link between various incidents where communists have been responsible for mass killing. As philosopher Isaiah Berlin put it, if one could find a 'final solution' to the world's problems, "surely no cost would be too high to obtain it."

Political scientist John N. Gray argues "that the political creation of an artificial terror-famine with genocidal results is not a phenomenon restricted to the historical context of Russia and the Ukraine in the Thirties, but is a feature of Communist policy to this day, as evidenced in the sixties in Tibet and now in Ethiopia. The socialist genocide of small, "primitive" peoples, such as the Kalmucks and many others, has been a recurrent element in polices at several stages in the development of Soviet and Chinese totalitarianism." Gray goes on to state "that communist policy in this respect faithfully reproduces classical Marxism, which had an explicit and pronounced contempt for "small, backward and reactionary peoples – no less than for the peasantry as a class and a form of social life".. Literary historian George Watson argued in The Lost Literature of Socialism that analyses of the writings of Engels and others shows that"he Marxist theory of history required and demanded genocide for reasons implicit in its claim that feudalism, which in advanced nations was already giving place to capitalism, must in its turn be superseded by socialism. Entire nations would be left behind after a workers' revolution, feudal remnants in a socialist age, and since they could not advance two steps at a time, they would have to be killed. They were racial trash, as Engels called them, and fit only for the dung-heap of history." He also claimed that from 1840 until the death of Hitler "everyone who advocated genocide called himself a socialist, and no exception has been found." Watson's claims have not been echoed in scholarly articles on the history of genocide and have been criticised by Robert Grant for "dubious evidence", arguing that "what Marx and Engels are calling for is at the very least a kind of cultural genocide; but it is not obvious, at least from Watson's citations, that actual mass killing, rather than (to use their phraseology) mere 'absorption' or 'assimilation', is in question." Grant also claims Watson's concept of 'socialism' is "at best nebulous...and at worst, anything at odds with his own classical liberalism."

In the view of Anton Weiss-Wendt, academic debate regarding the common features of mass killing and other legal measures in communist countries originates in the political advocacy of Raphael Lemkin in advocating the genocide convention. According to Weiss-Wendt, Lemkin's hobby-horse was the international ratification of a Genocide Convention, and he consistently bent his advocacy towards which ever venue would advance his objective. Associating with the US government, Central European and Eastern European emigre communities, Lemkin bent the term genocide to meet the political interests of those he associated with, and in the case of communities of emigres in the US, funded his living. In this way, contends Weiss-Wendt, Lemkin was enmeshed in an anti-Soviet political community, and regularly used the term "Communist genocide" to refer to a broad range of human rights violations—not simply to mass-killings of ethnic groups—in all the post 1945 communist nations, and claimed that future "genocides" would occur in all nations adopting communism. Lemkin's broad application of his term in political lobbying degraded its usefulness, "Like King Midas, whatever Lemkin touched turned into “genocide.” But when everything is genocide nothing is genocide!" states Weiss-Wendt. Additionally, Lemkin displayed both a racialism against Russians who he believed "were incapable of “digesting a great number of people belonging to a higher civilization,”" and made broad use of his term in the political service of the USA's anti-communist position in the 1950s concludes Weiss-Wendt. However, Lemkin has been praised for being the first to use the comparative method into the study of mass violence.

The Black Book of Communism is a collected set of academic essays on the theme of repression in Communist controlled states. It claims to detail "Leninism's 'crimes, terror, and repression' from Russia in 1917 to Afghanistan in 1989." The editor, Stéphane Courtois' object of analysis is the soviet-style system of states. Courtois claims an association between communism and criminality, "...Communist regimes...turned mass crime into a full-blown system of government," and proceeds with a claim that this criminality lies at the level of ideology rather than state practice. However, Courtois admits that the project is to conduct a nineteenth century moral history, "whereby historians performed research more for the purpose of passing judgement than understanding the issue in question." This is also the position of Malia who claims in the Foreword that Communist criminality caused mass killings is the shared analytical tendency of the collection,, culminating in the judgement that Communism or "an absolute end to inequality" must be "accorded its fair share of pure evil." Accepting that this practice of history is non-standard, Courtois justifies his capacity to judge by recourse to an ideology rooted in Catholic individualism which is capable of exceeding its own "certain hypocracy". Courtois establishes a corrupted cradle theory: that bolshevism perverted the communist movement. He proceeds to elucidate two general reasons for barbarity: racialist Russian exceptionalism and the War Experience; neither, as he observes, "explain the Bolsheviks' propensity for extreme violence." . Courtois retreats from analysis and conducts a moralism of Lenin claiming simply that power was Lenin's aim and his ideology was fundamentally voluntarist, and universally totalising both intellectually and in social conflict. Ultimately, Courtois' conclusion falls into the error he accuses Trotsky and Lenin of, "a strong tendency to develop general conclusions based on the Russian experience, which in any case was often exaggerated in interpretations." Courtois treatment of East Asian communism is cursory, and follows his corrupted cradle thesis, drawing no distinction between Vietnamese re-education structures and Kampuchean mass killings, and does not address other communist societies or parties. Courtois acknowledges but dismisses this deficiency in his theory, "a linkage can always be traced to the pattern elaborated in Moscow in November 1917." The Black Book of Communism's correctness has been disputed based on claims of serious methodological, interpretive, narrative and (to some commentators) ideological flaws.

See also

Notes

  1. Political categories are excluded from the definition contained in the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention.
  2. Weitz, pp.8-9
  3. Valentino p. 93
  4. Gurr, Barbara (1988). "Toward Empirical Theory of Genocides and Politicides: Identification and Measurement of Cases since 1945". International Studies Quarterly. 32: 359-371. {{cite journal}}: |first2= missing |last2= (help)
  5. Semelin, Jacques (2009). "Destroying to Eradicate". Purify and Destroy: The Political Uses of Massacre and Genocide. Columbia University Press. p. 344. ISBN 0231142838, 9780231142830. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
  6. Mann, Michael (2005). "The Argument". The Dark Side of Democracy: Explaining Ethnic Cleansing. Cambridge University Press. p. 17. ISBN 0521538548, 9780521538541. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
  7. ^ Valentino, Benjamin (2000) 'Final solutions: The causes of mass killing and genocide', Security Studies, 9:3, 1 — 59 DOI: 10.1080/09636410008429405
  8. Wayman, Frank; Tago, Atsushi (2005), "Explaining the Onset of Mass Killing:The Effect of War, Regime Type, and Economic Deprivation on Democide and Politicide, 1949–1987", International Studies Association http://hei.unige.ch/sections/sp/agenda/colloquium/Wayman_TagoJPR0903.pdf {{citation}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  9. Weitz, 251-252.
  10. Weitz, 251-252.
  11. Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev. A Century of Violence in Soviet Russia. Yale University Press, 2002. ISBN 0300087608 page 20
  12. Barry Ray. FSU professor's 'Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler' sheds new light on three of the 20th century's bloodiest rulers. Florida State University, 2007
  13. Valentino, Benjamin A (2005). "Communist mass killings: The Soviet Union, China, and Cambodia". Final solutions: mass killing and genocide in the twentieth century. Cornell University Press. pp. 91–151. ISBN 0801472733.
  14. Daniel Chirot, Clark R. McCauley, Why not kill them all?: the logic and prevention of mass political murder, Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006, presents a generalised theory of mass killing without reference to ideological determinants.
  15. Gray, John (1990). "Totalitarianism, civil society and reform". In Ellen Frankel Paul (ed.). Totalitarianism at the crossroads. Transaction Publisher. p. 116ISBN=9780887388507.
  16. ^ Watson, George (1998). The Lost Literature of Socialism. Lutterworth press. ISBN 9780718829865.
  17. Watson, George, The Lost Literature of Socialism, page 80. Cambridge: The Lutterworth Press, 1998. ISBN 0718829867, 9780718829865, 112 pages
  18. ^ Grant, Robert (Nov., 1999). "Review: The Lost Literature of Socialism". The Review of English Studies. 50 (200). New Series: 557–559. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  19. ^ Anton Weiss-Wendt, "Hostage of Politics: Raphael Lemkin on “Soviet Genocide”" Journal of Genocide Research (2005), 7(4), 551–559 Article hosted at inogs.com
  20. ^ Stéphane Courtois, "Introduction: The Crimes of Communism" In Eds. Stéphane Courtois, Mark Kramer, The black book of communism: crimes, terror, repression ( Harvard University Press 1999): 1–32. ISBN0674076087.
  21. ^ Stéphane Courtois, "Conclusion: Why?" In Eds. Stéphane Courtois, Mark Kramer, The black book of communism: crimes, terror, repression Harvard University Press 1999): 727–758, ISBN0674076087.
  22. ^ Martin Malia, "Foreword: Uses of Attrocity" In Eds. Stéphane Courtois, Mark Kramer, The black book of communism: crimes, terror, repression ( Harvard University Press 1999): 1–32. ISBN0674076087

References and further reading

External links

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