THREE GENOCIDES IN 20th CENTURY
SARASIJ MAJUMDER
During the 20th century, three notorious Head of States
emerged who left an indelible mark on history- - Adolf Hitler , Mao Zedong, and
Josef Stalin. All three were responsible for the deaths of millions of people,
but why is Hitler often regarded as eviller than Mao, and Stalin despite the Mao having a higher
death toll? Let’s delve into this intriguing question.
While it is true that Mao’s policies and actions resulted in
a staggering loss of life, estimated to be around 60–70 million, including
those who died during the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, it is
essential to understand the context in which these atrocities occurred.
Hitler’s evilness is often highlighted due to the nature of
his regime and the systematic extermination of specific groups, most notably
Jews, during the Holocaust. The Holocaust alone claimed the lives of around 6
million Jews, along with millions of others deemed undesirable by the Nazis.
This sheer scale of targeted genocide is what makes Hitler’s crimes
particularly horrifying and unforgivable in the eyes of many.
Moreover, Hitler’s aggressive expansionist policies led to
World War II, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 70–85 million people
worldwide. The war engulfed entire nations and caused immense suffering,
leaving an enduring scar on humanity’s collective memory. The deliberate
orchestration of war on such a massive scale further solidifies Hitler’s
position as one of history’s most abhorrent figures.
On the other hand, while Mao’s policies resulted in
widespread famine, forced labour, and political persecution, they were not
directly targeted at specific ethnic or religious groups. Mao’s atrocities were
driven by ideological fervour and misguided policies rather than an explicit
intent to annihilate a particular population. This distinction, though not
diminishing the immense suffering caused by Mao’s rule, contributes to the
perception that Hitler’s actions were driven by a malevolence unparalleled in modern
history.
Another aspect contributing to the differing perception of
Mao and Hitler’s evilness is the geopolitical context in which their actions
took place. Hitler’s Nazi Germany was a prominent global power that posed a
direct threat to Western democracies, leading to a concerted effort to defeat
and hold him accountable for his crimes during World War II. The Nuremberg
Trials further solidified the narrative of Hitler as a symbol of evil.
In contrast, Mao’s China was a communist regime largely
isolated from the Western world. The Cold War dynamics between the United
States and the Soviet Union often overshadowed the atrocities committed by
Mao’s regime, reducing international focus on holding him accountable. Thus,
the lack of a comprehensive global response to Mao’s crimes may have
contributed to the perception that Hitler was a greater evil.
The Great Terror of Stalin was also a similar GENOSIDE. The Great Terror -also known as
the Great Purge- was Stalin's campaign of political repression in the
Soviet Union that occurred from 1936 to 1939. It involved a large-scale
repression of relatively wealthy peasants (kulaks), suppression of national and
ethnic minorities, and a purge of the Communist Party, of government officials,
and of the leadership of the Red Army.
Following the Civil War and reconstruction of the Soviet
economy in the late 1920s, veteran Bolsheviks advocated an end to the
"temporary" political and social restrictions that had become
institutionalized in the party and in Soviet society. Many in the party had
come to view Stalin as, at best, lax toward corruption and bureaucratization,
and at worst as undemocratic and counterrevolutionary. He thus did, in fact, against
organized opposition within the party from both the right and left wings, led
by N. Bukharin and Leon Trotsky . The response, was a wide-ranging
political purge by Stalin to eliminate challenges from past and potential
opponents within the Communist Party. There had been a previous party purge in
1933, by Lenin, but this time around expulsion meant almost certain arrest,
imprisonment without trial, and even death.
Great Purge cost life of more than 7.5 Lakhs of people.
Through the 1930s, the Party and government officials feared
the "social disorder" caused by the upheavals of the forced
collectivization of agriculture and the resulting famine of 1932–1933, and
massive and uncontrolled migration by millions of peasants into cities.
Tensions in Europe heightened Stalin's perception of “suspect” populations as a
potential “fifth column” in case of war.
Widespread police surveillance was instituted, and
imprisonment, arbitrary executions, and show trials became common practice.
Hundreds of thousands of victims were accused of various political crimes
-espionage, wrecking, sabotage, anti-Soviet agitation, conspiracies to prepare
uprisings, plotting coups, and so on; they were quickly executed by shooting,
or sent to the Gulag labour camps. Many died at the penal labour camps of
starvation, disease, exposure, and overwork.
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