Frequently asked questions Q1:
A1: |
Communist regimes Communist regimes refers to those countries who declared themselves to be socialist states under the Marxist-Leninist, Stalinist, or Maoist definition (in other words, communist states) at some point in their history.
Scholars use several different terms to describe the intentional killing of large numbers of noncombatants. [nb 1] [2] The following have been used to describe killing by Communist governments:
Genocide Under the Genocide Convention, the crime of genocide does not apply to the mass killing of political and social groups. Protection of political groups was eliminated from the UN resolution after a second vote, because many states, including Stalin's USSR, [3] anticipated that clause to apply unneeded limitations to their right to suppress internal disturbances. [4] However, as genocide studies developed and it became more apparent that political groups were being targeted, this restriction has been re-evaluated. Mass killing by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia has been labeled genocide or auto-genocide and, although it remains controversial, the deaths under Leninism and Stalinism in the USSR and Maoism in China have been investigated as possible cases. In particular, the famines in the USSR in the 1930s and during the Great Leap Forward in China have been increasingly "depicted as mass killing underpinned by genocidal intent." [5] [nb 2] According to Alexandra Laignel-Lavastine, "historians and philosophers close to politically liberal groups" in Europe, especially in Romania, have made the term Communist Genocide part of today's vocabulary. [6] Genocide is a popular term for mass political killing, which is studied academically as democide and politicide. [7]
Politicide The term politicide is used to describe the killing of *****groups that are not covered by the Genocide Convention. [8] It includes the mass killing of political, economic, ethnic and cultural groups. [7] Manus I. Midlarsky uses the term politicide to describe an arc of mass killings from the western parts of the Soviet Union to China and Cambodia. [nb 3] In his book The killing trap: genocide in the twentieth century Midlarsky raises similarities between the killings of Stalin and Pol Pot. [10]
Democide R. J. Rummel coined the term democide, which includes genocide, politicide, and mass murder. [11] Unlike politicide, randomly conducted and non-targeted mass killing are included. Frank Wayman and Atsushi Tago have shown the significance of the differences between the democide and politicide data-sets in that statistical analyses based on them can produce very different results, including whether or not regime type is a significance variable. [7] Helen Fein has termed the mass state killings in the Soviet Union and Cambodia as "genocide and democide." [12]
Crimes against humanity Klas-Göran Karlsson uses the term crimes against humanity, which includes "the direct mass killings of politically undesirable elements, as well as forced deportations and forced labour". He acknowledges that the term may be misleading in the sense that the regimes targeted groups of their own citizens, but considers it useful as a broad legal term which emphasizes attacks on civilian populations and because the offenses demean humanity as a whole. [13] Jacques Semelin and Michael Mann believe that crime against humanity is more appropriate than genocide or politicide when speaking of violence by Communist regimes. [14]
Classicide Michael Mann has proposed the term classicide as the "intended mass killing of entire social classes". [15]
Repression Stephen Wheatcroft notes that, in the case of the Soviet Union, terms such as the terror, the purges, and repression are used to refer to the same events. *****He believes the most neutral terms are repression and mass killings, although in Russian the broad concept of repression is commonly held to include mass killings and is sometimes assumed to be synonymous with it, which is not the case in other languages. [2]
Mass killing Ervin Staub defined mass killing as "killing members of a group without the intention to eliminate the whole group or killing large numbers of people without a precise definition of group membership. In a mass killing the number of people killed is usually smaller than in genocide." Referencing earlier definitions [nb 4], Joan Esteban, Massimo Morelli and Dominic Rohner have defined mass killings as "the killings of substantial numbers of human beings, when not in the course of military action against the military forces of an avowed enemy, under the conditions of the essential defenselessness and helplessness of the victims". [18] The term has been defined quantitatively by Benjamin Valentino as "the intentional killing of a massive number of noncombatants", where a massive number is defined as at least 50,000 intentional deaths over the course of five years or less. [19] This is the most accepted quantitative minimum threshold for the term. [18] He applies this definition to the cases of Stalin's USSR, the PRC under Mao, and Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, while admitting that mass killings on a smaller scale also appear to have been carried out by regimes in North Korea, Vietnam, Eastern Europe, and Africa. [nb 5]
Holocaust The United States Congress has referred in legislation to "an unprecedented imperial communist holocaust" [20] [21] and the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation established as a result of that legislation refers to this subject as the "Communist holocaust". [22] The term Red Holocaust has been used by German historian Horst Möller; American academic Steven Rosefielde has published a book on this subject titled Red Holocaust. [23] [24] According to Alexandra Laignel-Lavastine, "historians and philosophers close to politically liberal groups" in Europe, especially in Romania, have made the term Red Holocaust part of today's vocabulary. [6]
Below are answers to frequently asked questions about the corresponding page User:AmateurEditor. They address concerns, questions, and misconceptions which have repeatedly arisen on the talk page. Please feel free to change this material in light of new discussion. |
To view an explanation to the answer, click the [show] link to the right of the question.
Mass killing and Genocide. No generally accepted terminology exists to describe the intentional killing of large numbers of noncombatants.
{{
cite book}}
: Missing or empty |title=
(
help)
[1]
...the majority of deaths resulted not from direct execution, but from the infliction of 'conditions of life calculated to bring about [the] physical destruction' of a group, in the language of Article II(c) of the Genocide Convention.
{{
cite book}}
: Missing or empty |title=
(
help)
[5]
Indeed, an arc of Communist politicide can be traced from the western portions of the Soviet Union to China and on to Cambodia.
{{
cite book}}
: Missing or empty |title=
(
help)
[9]
{{
cite journal}}
: |first2=
missing |last2=
(
help); Cite journal requires |journal=
(
help)
{{
cite book}}
: Unknown parameter |coauthors=
ignored (|author=
suggested) (
help)
{{
cite book}}
: Check |isbn=
value: invalid character (
help)
{{
cite book}}
: Check |isbn=
value: invalid character (
help)
Frequently asked questions Q1:
A1: |
Communist regimes Communist regimes refers to those countries who declared themselves to be socialist states under the Marxist-Leninist, Stalinist, or Maoist definition (in other words, communist states) at some point in their history.
Scholars use several different terms to describe the intentional killing of large numbers of noncombatants. [nb 1] [2] The following have been used to describe killing by Communist governments:
Genocide Under the Genocide Convention, the crime of genocide does not apply to the mass killing of political and social groups. Protection of political groups was eliminated from the UN resolution after a second vote, because many states, including Stalin's USSR, [3] anticipated that clause to apply unneeded limitations to their right to suppress internal disturbances. [4] However, as genocide studies developed and it became more apparent that political groups were being targeted, this restriction has been re-evaluated. Mass killing by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia has been labeled genocide or auto-genocide and, although it remains controversial, the deaths under Leninism and Stalinism in the USSR and Maoism in China have been investigated as possible cases. In particular, the famines in the USSR in the 1930s and during the Great Leap Forward in China have been increasingly "depicted as mass killing underpinned by genocidal intent." [5] [nb 2] According to Alexandra Laignel-Lavastine, "historians and philosophers close to politically liberal groups" in Europe, especially in Romania, have made the term Communist Genocide part of today's vocabulary. [6] Genocide is a popular term for mass political killing, which is studied academically as democide and politicide. [7]
Politicide The term politicide is used to describe the killing of *****groups that are not covered by the Genocide Convention. [8] It includes the mass killing of political, economic, ethnic and cultural groups. [7] Manus I. Midlarsky uses the term politicide to describe an arc of mass killings from the western parts of the Soviet Union to China and Cambodia. [nb 3] In his book The killing trap: genocide in the twentieth century Midlarsky raises similarities between the killings of Stalin and Pol Pot. [10]
Democide R. J. Rummel coined the term democide, which includes genocide, politicide, and mass murder. [11] Unlike politicide, randomly conducted and non-targeted mass killing are included. Frank Wayman and Atsushi Tago have shown the significance of the differences between the democide and politicide data-sets in that statistical analyses based on them can produce very different results, including whether or not regime type is a significance variable. [7] Helen Fein has termed the mass state killings in the Soviet Union and Cambodia as "genocide and democide." [12]
Crimes against humanity Klas-Göran Karlsson uses the term crimes against humanity, which includes "the direct mass killings of politically undesirable elements, as well as forced deportations and forced labour". He acknowledges that the term may be misleading in the sense that the regimes targeted groups of their own citizens, but considers it useful as a broad legal term which emphasizes attacks on civilian populations and because the offenses demean humanity as a whole. [13] Jacques Semelin and Michael Mann believe that crime against humanity is more appropriate than genocide or politicide when speaking of violence by Communist regimes. [14]
Classicide Michael Mann has proposed the term classicide as the "intended mass killing of entire social classes". [15]
Repression Stephen Wheatcroft notes that, in the case of the Soviet Union, terms such as the terror, the purges, and repression are used to refer to the same events. *****He believes the most neutral terms are repression and mass killings, although in Russian the broad concept of repression is commonly held to include mass killings and is sometimes assumed to be synonymous with it, which is not the case in other languages. [2]
Mass killing Ervin Staub defined mass killing as "killing members of a group without the intention to eliminate the whole group or killing large numbers of people without a precise definition of group membership. In a mass killing the number of people killed is usually smaller than in genocide." Referencing earlier definitions [nb 4], Joan Esteban, Massimo Morelli and Dominic Rohner have defined mass killings as "the killings of substantial numbers of human beings, when not in the course of military action against the military forces of an avowed enemy, under the conditions of the essential defenselessness and helplessness of the victims". [18] The term has been defined quantitatively by Benjamin Valentino as "the intentional killing of a massive number of noncombatants", where a massive number is defined as at least 50,000 intentional deaths over the course of five years or less. [19] This is the most accepted quantitative minimum threshold for the term. [18] He applies this definition to the cases of Stalin's USSR, the PRC under Mao, and Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, while admitting that mass killings on a smaller scale also appear to have been carried out by regimes in North Korea, Vietnam, Eastern Europe, and Africa. [nb 5]
Holocaust The United States Congress has referred in legislation to "an unprecedented imperial communist holocaust" [20] [21] and the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation established as a result of that legislation refers to this subject as the "Communist holocaust". [22] The term Red Holocaust has been used by German historian Horst Möller; American academic Steven Rosefielde has published a book on this subject titled Red Holocaust. [23] [24] According to Alexandra Laignel-Lavastine, "historians and philosophers close to politically liberal groups" in Europe, especially in Romania, have made the term Red Holocaust part of today's vocabulary. [6]
Below are answers to frequently asked questions about the corresponding page User:AmateurEditor. They address concerns, questions, and misconceptions which have repeatedly arisen on the talk page. Please feel free to change this material in light of new discussion. |
To view an explanation to the answer, click the [show] link to the right of the question.
Mass killing and Genocide. No generally accepted terminology exists to describe the intentional killing of large numbers of noncombatants.
{{
cite book}}
: Missing or empty |title=
(
help)
[1]
...the majority of deaths resulted not from direct execution, but from the infliction of 'conditions of life calculated to bring about [the] physical destruction' of a group, in the language of Article II(c) of the Genocide Convention.
{{
cite book}}
: Missing or empty |title=
(
help)
[5]
Indeed, an arc of Communist politicide can be traced from the western portions of the Soviet Union to China and on to Cambodia.
{{
cite book}}
: Missing or empty |title=
(
help)
[9]
{{
cite journal}}
: |first2=
missing |last2=
(
help); Cite journal requires |journal=
(
help)
{{
cite book}}
: Unknown parameter |coauthors=
ignored (|author=
suggested) (
help)
{{
cite book}}
: Check |isbn=
value: invalid character (
help)
{{
cite book}}
: Check |isbn=
value: invalid character (
help)