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Black Book of Communism

 
 
 
 
 
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In France, this damning reckoning of communism's worldwide legacy was a best seller that sparked passionate arguments among intellectuals of the Left. Essentially a body count of communism's victims in the 20th century, the book draws heavily from recently opened Soviet archives. The verdict: communism was responsible for between 85 million and 100 million deaths in the century.

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06/15/2008
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mykk 26 days ago

"The Black Book of Communism" is an extremely interesting book, that everybody should read. Thank you, Stéphane Courtois. And thank you sol_invictus.

crptbggr 3 months ago

Thanks for posting this, it would be great if there were an actual ebook copy somewhere. This one is a scan, and although nice to have it would be handy to be able to text search.

kabud 4 months ago

Stalin's regime (1924-53):
http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm#St...

Republic of China, Mao Zedong's regime (1949-1975):
http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm#Mao

http://www.digitalsurvivors.com/archives/commun...

davidmcb 4 months ago

Don't Waste Your Time.

Criticism

[edit] Questioning the estimated number of victims

The estimates for Joseph Stalin's regime in the Soviet Union range between 3.5 and 60 million,[6][7] and those for Mao Zedong's China range between 19.5 and 75 million.[6] The authors of the Black Book defend their estimates for the Soviet Union (20 million) and Eastern Europe (1 million) by stating that they made use of sources that were not available to previous researchers (the archives mentioned above). At the same time, the authors acknowledge that the estimates from China and other nations still ruled by communist parties are uncertain since their archives are still closed. French journalist Gilles Perrault, writing in an op-ed in Le Monde diplomatique has accused the author of having used incorrect data and of having manipulated figures.[8]

[edit] Argument that some deaths were unintentional

Historian J. Arch Getty[9] noted that famine accounted for more than half of Courtois's 100 million death toll. He believes that these famines were caused by the "stupidity or incompetence of the regime," and that the deaths resulting from the famines, as well as other deaths that "resulted directly or indirectly from government policy," should not be counted as if they were equivalent to intentional murders and executions.[10] Another UCLA professor, Mark Tauger, also disagrees with the author's thesis that the Holodomor was an artifical famine and genocide.[11] This is an ongoing controversy among historians. For example Robert Conquest sees this famine, the Holodomor, as intentional. Alexander Dallin said the authors make no attempt to differentiate between intended crimes such as the Moscow show trials and policy choices that had unintended consequences such as the Chinese famine. [12]

[edit] Argument that the book is one-sided

Another criticism of the Black Book is the charge that it discusses the communist states alone, without making any sort of comparison to capitalist states. Critics have argued that capitalist countries could be held responsible for just as many deaths as communist states, or perhaps more (see The Black Book of Capitalism)[13][8] Noam Chomsky writes that Amartya Sen in the early 80s estimated "the excess of mortality" in India over China to be close to 4 million a year. Chomsky therefore argues that in India alone, the democratic capitalist "experiment" since 1947 has caused more deaths than in the entire history of Communism everywhere.[14]. In particular, the Black Book's Black Book's attribution of 1 million deaths to Communism while ignoring the U.S. role in Vietnam has been criticized a methodological flaw. [15]

[edit] Argument that terror was justified

Journalist Daniel Singer has also criticized the Black Book for discussing the faults of communist states while ignoring their supposed positive achievements; he says...