The massacre started with the hanging order. "You need to hang- hang without fail, and do it so that the public sees- at least 100 notorious kulaks, the rich, and the bloodsuckers. Publish their names. Take away all of their grain. Execute the hostages..." (Lenin) The killing didn't stop at 100. According to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn who was imprisoned in one of the Gulags (concentration camp) upwards of 5-6 million people were killed. That is how many Jews were killed in the concentration camps.
 |
| Third degree interrogation. Drawings from the Gulag. Danzig Baldaev. |
Between Lenin and Stalin, according to historians, the number of those murdered capped at around 20 million. That is about the same number of deaths as the number of soldiers and civilians who died in WWI.
The dictatorships in Russia began to fascinate me as soon as I heard about them. I never learned about it in great detail in my formal education later to find out that it was most likely because of western scholars who were sympathetic to the communist movement. In studying more about Lenin and Stalin I realized that those who supported the Marxist philosophies were more concerned about pulling down the rich than lifting up the poor.
I wouldn't consider myself wise enough to think that I know what's best for humanity, but it worries when people tell me that I am "a privileged white male" as if they know what I had to overcome to get where I am. I am extremely fortunate, and I don't deserve what I have. But does anyone? Who decides who deserves what? When people decided they knew what everyone deserved or "needed" tens of millions of people were killed. You can decide for yourself, but I will stick to the imperfect method of letting people decided for themselves what they need.
It's truly crazy to me that communism had the support that it did and that some people still consider it a good idea today (granted it would probably have some differences, but still). In some ways I get that they were trying to help the poor, or at least claimed that they were, but that's no reason to kill 2o million people! I think it's always important that we talk about this to help us remember why we have the freedoms we do and to help prevent something like this from ever happening again.
ReplyDeleteI've always been fascinated with Russia too- especially this historical precedent of dictatorship that runs so deep there. Every time they think they've escaped it, it resurfaces in a new form. It makes me wonder if there is any practical way to execute communism without giving an inordinate amount of power to easily corruptible men. I don't know, but I honestly think that communism is a half-decent idea.
ReplyDelete