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The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression

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Many people who do not like this book attacked that the statistics or estimations are inflated. Take Cambodia as an example. I visited S21 a few years ago. Some said 2 millions were killed by Pol Pot, sme said 1.7 millions. Some Chinese scholars estimated that 80 millions died of non-natural causes under Mao's rule; 50 millions were killed or oppressed to death during the Cultural Revolution alone. But some people dispute these figures. Let's say we give the preceding estimations a 90% "discount" : Only 20 thousands (= 2 millions X 10%) were massacred by Pol Pot and only 8 millions (80 millions X 10%) by Mao. But, these "discounted" figures are still horrible! The only way to explain "away" these crimes is to argue that anti-right movement, Great leap forward, cultural revolution, Gulag, S21... and many others never happen. If a girl was raped by a gang, it doesn't matter whether she was raped 5 times or 50 times. The only way to dismiss the case is to say that the girl is a liar. But, I am not a lair. And many Chinese, Vietnamese, Cambodians... who experienced the suffering are not liars. Unlike some anti-Capitalist or anti-American critics who are enjoying luxary and freedom in the Capitalist America, those people who speak the truth spent many years in jail or lost virtually everything, including their home. I keep remembering in 1989 right after June 4, my parents told me not to come home... Please don't just focus on quantitative methodology (numbers). Numbers alone cannot tell the whole story.

First, understand that this is not a popular or literary work, but an accounting ledger of the casualties of 20th century communism. Once you understand that this is not _Darkness At Noon_ or _Dr. Zhivago_, you can accept it and its horrifyingly high numbers as intended. The authors have taken advantage of the opened KGB archives to track down the details of hundreds of repressions and atrocities committed by the Soviet power in the name of their ideology. They do the same for other communist regimes like Cuba and China without the benefit of archival materials. The fact that they still have to round the death tolls to the nearest thousand in many cases firmly makes the authors' controversial point: Communism is the most murderous idea ever devised. One of the authors asserts that communism is not one whit a lesser evil than nazism. It lasted longer, immiserated and killed more people, and had more friends in influential western institutions, no matter that the repressions and killings were class-based rather than race-based. The book has two generous photo-inserts, to make the text's point more immediately. The arrival of this book, along with _Venona_, _The Haunted Wood_, and _The Shield and The Sword_, gives heartening evidence that the murderous truth about the Communist era may finally seep into the general consciousness, if not yet into the politically correct recesses of tenured radicaldom. Here are the facts--hereafter, ignorance about communism is strictly voluntary.

This book could have been a lot longer. It could not have been any shorter, though: it takes a brick of a book to really provide the crushing scope of this murderous ideology, and the authors have slowly, methodically, relentlessly added example after example to put in display, naked, a monster that killed tens of millions in the 20th Century and that will continue to kill (one hopes in a far smaller scale) in the 21st until it wastes itself out and vanishes. Communism became religion and state and proceeded to murder away as if the body count meant better chances of achieving that utopian society it pretended to aim at. We now know the absolute disasters that all Communist societies were -and are-, but this book is necessary as a ready reference work on evil that should be next to to William Shirer's "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich." Communism has managed to kill more than 100 million people, and this estimate is actually quite conservative: Solzhenitsyn puts the figure at 60 million in the former Soviet Union alone; Roy Medvedev opts for 40 million dead just under Stalin, not counting those who died because of World War II. Nobody really knows how many millions were murdered by Mao. Many historians and writers had told us parts of this sad tale: Milovan Djilas, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Robert Conquest, W.S. Kuniczak, Aino Kuusinen, Armando Valladares, Roy Medvedev, Dmitri Volkogonov, and others, so many, indeed, that a complete list would require several pages. But the authors of "The Black Book of Communism" do what none of the other authors had done before: they provide us with a total view of malignity, proving that, from Russia to Korea, from China to Cuba, from Africa to Europe, Communism was, indeed, a cancer. An excellent and necessary work.

Anyone who harbors delusions that communism/socialism, if only applied correctly, would solve all ills, should read this book. In every instance communism/socialism results in the gulag and extermination camps. I heard Kurt Vonnegut speak at U.C. Irvine a few years ago, and he said, "communism is a good system, it just happens that in the Soviet Union, the system was run by a bunch of crooks." Vonnegut--whose books are published by a capitalist conglomerate--is a first-rate novelist, but I hope he reads this book, and gets it through his head that the communist SYSTEM ITSELF is what is rotten. This book wears on the soul after a bit, because SO MUCH death and torture and incarcertation resulted in all communist systems. But one should feel a bit worn down when reading this book, because it means you are feeling the impact of what millions upon millions have suffered.

As a Russian language student who spent two years working and studying in the former Soviet Union just before its collapse, I heard a good number of grisly accounts from working class Soviet citizens detailing the horrors that their government had inflicted upon them and their parents, including torture, imprisonment, execution, and even commitment to madhouses for such "diseases" as believing in God. Nevertheless, coming from an American educational establishment that had for decades treated Communism with kid gloves, I couldn't help but wonder if my Soviet friends had been exaggerating a little bit. Now, ten years later, this amazing book demonstrates just how abominable Communism really was, just how brutal, just how rapacious, and just how WRONG, the delusions of its comfortable Western apologists notwithstanding.

The dumbest thing you will ever hear a member of the Birkenstock Left say about Communism is that it was a good idea badly implemented. Rather than commit an immediate and warranted act of violence to knock some sense into anyone silly and naive enough to promote such nonsense, give them this book.

The Black Book of Communism lays bare the truth behind this murderous theology and shows that, contrary to the assertion above, Communism has left a trail of murder and deceit wherever it has taken root.

There are those who claim that Lenin was a great man who simply lost control of the Revolution he started. Explain then the numerous examples of his bloodthirsty orders. My personal favorite is when he calls for the hanging of the kulaks in a tone so mild-mannered you'd think he was asking his babushka to save him some sugar beets. The banality of evil, indeed.

While a large portion of the book is rightly devoted to the Bolsheviks (including an amazing account of Russian Civil War atrocities), you'll also find detailed accounts of Communism in China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Latin America, and Africa. This is by far the most comprehensive and detailed account of Communism's global terror yet produced and demonstrates conclusively that the Communist ideal IS the problem, not errors in its execution.

Aside from providing numerous, detailed examples of Communist atrocities, this book raises a number of disturbing questions. Why do so many persist in following this atheistic religion with such single-minded fervor, even in the U.S. and Europe? Why does the West continue to deny that Communism, not Fascism, is the most murderous ideology yet created by Man (having caused over 100 million deaths worldwide, according to the authors)? Why did it take so long for this book to be written?

Once you crack the cover on this masterful work, you will be utterly enthralled (and likely outraged) by the unfolding narrative. While the book is huge, most readers will find it a quick read and well worth the time invested. I dare anyone to read this and emerge with any respect for the Communists or their fellow travellers. Even the casual reader will walk away with a deeper appreciation for the suffering inflicted by this warped creed, as well as sincere gratitude to the men and women who risked life and liberty to destroy it.

Liberal elites should read this book. Johnny Depp (millionaire) was recently on the cover of "Premiere" magazine wearing a Che Guevara (Castro's communist partner) medallion. This book points out that, when a 13 year old boy in Che Guevara's army ate some food he was not supposed to, Che Guevara had him killed. There is obviously a big gap between the Johnny-Depp-types' perception of communism, and the reality of communism. This book shows you the reality.

This book is a must read for all students of twentieth century history. This century cannot be understood without an understanding of the effect, more than eighty years, of the brutal, nihilistic and morally corrupt political system called Communism.

THE BLACK BOOK covers the history of Communism, starting with the Bolsheviks in Russia and, chapter by chapter, covers the communist movements and governments, country by country, to the present day. It thoroughly explores the crimes of slavery, genocide, murder, terrorism-which even the youngest of children were not exempt-and repression committed in the name of Communism. The most poignant aspects of this book are excepts from narratives of unfortunate people sentenced to socialist concentration camps for political crimes.

We in the western democracies have long held a double standard with regard to Fascism and Marxist-Leninist Communism. Books are published almost weekly concerning some aspect of Hitler and the Nazis. Programs, such as THE NAZIS: A WARNING dominate documentaries concerning the twentieth century. Hitler and his followers formed but one of the disgusting stains on the fabric of humanity. However, the Nazis were never able to compete with the scale of terrorism, murder, torture of Communism. The land areas and populations under repression by the Nazis pale in comparison with Communism. A recent election in Austria, in which several supporters of a Nazi apologist were elected, was met with cries of outrage from all over Europe and the United States. No such outcry has greeted the election of any communist legislators in Europe or elsewhere.

This book should serve as a warning to those who have never come face-to-face with the reality of Communism, especially here in the United States. It should serve as a warning concerning those that, in their youth, fully supported the Communist movements in Asia and Cuba and still seek to have major aspects of Communism as a part of the laws and society of the United States. We should remember that Communism has not gone away, it is still very much alive in the world today.

For many years, having a sense of the tradgedy that took its toll in eastern Europe and reading the editorial pages of this countries many dailies, It was a wonder to me how such rapaciousness and villiany could have come into being and been apologized for. Did I come away with a clearer understanding of this moral tradgedy and how its causes were championed? NO! However it has heightened my awareness that something has gone tragically wrong in the moral centeredness of the West. Perhaps it is easier to understand the cause and effect of this tradgedy, its implementation, and internal maintenance, ie. the repressions, the murders, the mass deportations of entire ethnic populations than to understand the aid and comfort given it by many members of what to date has been the grandest experiment in huyman liberty. Perhaps it isn't to be found in a catalogue of this nature but in the many fine works of repentant red diaper babies and ex-communists. As David Horowitz has said, " The idea of 'the people' is more important than the people themselves." This is the notion that makes possible the understanding that "tranforming" society was nothing more than code for wrecking society, hauling it up root and branch rather than carefully cultivating it. Whereas one calls for pruning the other calls for laying down new furrows in which to plant its murderous seeds. Also I would recommend on this this topic: "Harvest of Sorrow" by Robert Conquest "Witness" and "Ghosts on the Roof" by Whittaker Chambers "Destructive Generation", "The Politics of Bad Faith", "Radical Son" and "Hating Whitey" by David Horowitz also there are many fine books being published now that delve into the conspiracy that was Communism.

The Black Book of Communism A Black Book is a name associated with various official books (usu. bound in black) of public significance; The most famous black book of the 20th century was one the Allied Powers published after the Nuremberg Trials documenting Nazi war crimes. Unlike that Black Book, this one on Communism is not the product of governmental investigation, though one is long overdue, but the work of scholars.

This book does not replace the earlier histories of Soviet Communism, say Medvedev's "Let History Judge" or Solzhenitsyn's "Gulag Archipelago," or even the work of western scholars such as Robert Conquest's "The Great Terror." Nor does it replace the works on other communist countries such as the People's Republic of China. What this black book seeks to do is give a catalog of the "achievements" of communism, namely, terror, repression, and in the case of Ukraine and Cambodia: genocide. It succeeds.

The book does have comprehensive coverage of communists in power, but it does not give a history of communism in places where the communists never came to power. I would have liked to have read about communism in Western Europe and the United States. The disgraceful behavior of the communists and their apologists in the west would have made for a controversial and a compelling chapter.

I use this book as a handy reference guide, and that was what it was made for.