The Black Book of Communism: Difference between revisions

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{{DISPLAYTITLE:''The Black Book of Communism''}}
{{DISPLAYTITLE:''The Black Book of Communism''}}{{Infobox book
| image            = Black Book of Communism.png
| author            = Stéphane Courtois, Nicolas Werth, Andrzej Paczkowski and others
| language          = French
| caption          = Cover of the English edition
| genre            = Fiction (claims to be nonfiction)
| title_orig        = Le Livre noir du communisme
| isbn              = 9780674076082
| image_size        = 200
}}


'''''The Black Book of Communism''''' is a 1997 book that claims [[communism]] killed 100 million people in the 20th century.<ref>{{Citation|author=Stéphane Courtois, et al.|year=1999|title=The Black Book of Communism|title-url=https://archive.org/details/BlackBookOfCommunism|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=9780674076082}}</ref> It includes Nazi soldiers killed by the [[Red Army]] and [[Kulak|kulaks]] as "victims of communism."
'''''The Black Book of Communism''''' is a 1997 book that claims [[communism]] killed 100 million people in the 20th century.<ref>{{Citation|author=Stéphane Courtois, et al.|year=1999|title=The Black Book of Communism|title-url=https://archive.org/details/BlackBookOfCommunism|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=9780674076082}}</ref> It includes [[German Reich (1933–1945)|Nazi]] soldiers killed by the [[Red Army]] as well as [[Kulak|kulaks]] as "victims of communism." The editors also confused the per-thousand symbol (‰) with the percent sign when translating from French to English, multiply some death tolls by 10 times.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Mark Kramer|newspaper=Maoist Internationalist Movement|title=Black Book of Communism editor admits mistakes|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080830080456/http://www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/agitation/blackbook/blackb3.html|archive-date=2008-08-30}}</ref>


Even some of the book's own authors criticize the historical accuracy of its conclusions:<ref>{{News citation|journalist=Anton|date=2017-08-24|title=Debunking: “Communism killed more people than naziism!”|url=https://discomfiting.medium.com/debunking-communism-killed-more-people-than-naziism-7a9880696f67}}</ref>
Even some of the book's own authors criticize the historical accuracy of its conclusions:<ref>{{News citation|journalist=Anton|date=2017-08-24|title=Debunking: “Communism killed more people than naziism!”|url=https://discomfiting.medium.com/debunking-communism-killed-more-people-than-naziism-7a9880696f67}}</ref>
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{{quote|Jean‐Louis Margolin and Nicolas Werth reproach Stéphane Courtois considering ‘the criminal dimension as one of the proper ones of the communist system’s set’, he writes in his text. ‘This results in taking away the phenomenon’s historic character’, claims Jean‐Louis Margolin. ‘Even if the communist breeding ground can lead to mass crimes, the line between theory and practice is inevident, contrary to what Stéphane Courtois says.’ Disputing the ‘approximations’, ‘contradictions’, and ‘clumsinesses that make sense’, the two authors reproach Stéphane Courtois’s ‘obsession to reach one hundred million deaths’.|Le Monde|<ref>{{safesubst:Citation| title = Les divisions d'une équipe d'historiens du communisme| year = 1997|title-url=https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1997/10/31/les-divisions-d-une-equipe-d-historiens-du-communisme_3811179_1819218.html|trans-lang =fr}}</ref>}}
{{quote|Jean‐Louis Margolin and Nicolas Werth reproach Stéphane Courtois considering ‘the criminal dimension as one of the proper ones of the communist system’s set’, he writes in his text. ‘This results in taking away the phenomenon’s historic character’, claims Jean‐Louis Margolin. ‘Even if the communist breeding ground can lead to mass crimes, the line between theory and practice is inevident, contrary to what Stéphane Courtois says.’ Disputing the ‘approximations’, ‘contradictions’, and ‘clumsinesses that make sense’, the two authors reproach Stéphane Courtois’s ‘obsession to reach one hundred million deaths’.|Le Monde|<ref>{{safesubst:Citation| title = Les divisions d'une équipe d'historiens du communisme| year = 1997|title-url=https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1997/10/31/les-divisions-d-une-equipe-d-historiens-du-communisme_3811179_1819218.html|trans-lang =fr}}</ref>}}


Margolin and Werth furthermore rebuked Courtois in an article published in ''Le Monde'',<ref>{{safesubst:Citation| title = Communisme : retour à l'histoire| year = 1997|title-url = https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1997/11/14/communisme-retour-a-l-histoire_3810094_1819218.html}}</ref> stating that they disagreed with his vitriolic introduction and its political agenda. Margolin and Werth both disavowed the book, recognizing that Courtois was obsessed with reaching a body count of a hundred million and consequently leading to careless and biased ‘scholarship’. Courtois also composed the book’s introduction in secret, refusing to share it for his other contributors. They both rejected Courtois’s equivalence of German [[Fascism]] with [[Communism]], with Werth telling ''Le Monde'' that ‘death camps did not exist in the Soviet Union.’<ref>{{safesubst:Citation| last = Getty| first = J. Arch| title = The Future Did Not Work|year = 2000|title-url = https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2000/03/the-future-did-not-work/378081/}}</ref>
Margolin and Werth furthermore rebuked Courtois in an article published in ''[[Le Monde]]'',<ref>{{safesubst:Citation| title = Communisme : retour à l'histoire| year = 1997|title-url = https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1997/11/14/communisme-retour-a-l-histoire_3810094_1819218.html}}</ref> stating that they disagreed with his vitriolic introduction and its political agenda. Margolin and Werth both disavowed the book, recognizing that Courtois was obsessed with reaching a body count of a hundred million and consequently leading to careless and biased ‘scholarship’. Courtois also composed the book’s introduction in secret, refusing to share it for his other contributors. They both rejected Courtois’s equivalence of German [[fascism]] with [[communism]], with Werth telling ''Le Monde'' that ‘death camps did not exist in the [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)|Soviet Union]].’<ref>{{safesubst:Citation| last = Getty| first = J. Arch| title = The Future Did Not Work|year = 2000|title-url = https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2000/03/the-future-did-not-work/378081/}}</ref>


When Maurice Papon was put on trial in the 1990s for deporting 1,600 Jews to death camps, his lawyers admitted ''The Black Book of Communism'' as evidence for his (relative) ‘innocence’.<ref>{{safesubst:citation|last=Wiener|first=Jon|title=How We Forgot the Cold War: A Historical Journey across America|title-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1KiD069CPsUC|location=Los Angeles|publisher=University of California Press|year=2012|page=38|ISBN=978-0-520-27141-8}}</ref>  
When Maurice Papon was put on trial in the 1990s for deporting 1,600 Jews to death camps, his lawyers admitted ''The Black Book of Communism'' as evidence for his (relative) ‘innocence’.<ref>{{safesubst:citation|last=Wiener|first=Jon|title=How We Forgot the Cold War: A Historical Journey across America|title-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1KiD069CPsUC|location=Los Angeles|publisher=University of California Press|year=2012|page=38|ISBN=978-0-520-27141-8}}</ref>
 
== See also ==
 
* [[Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation]]


== References ==
== References ==
[[Category:Books not in our library]]
[[Category:Books not in our library]]
[[Category:Imperialist propaganda]]
[[Category:Imperialist propaganda]]
<references />
[[Category:Capitalist progaganda]]

Revision as of 22:20, 27 October 2022

The Black Book of Communism
Cover of the English edition
AuthorStéphane Courtois, Nicolas Werth, Andrzej Paczkowski and others
Original titleLe Livre noir du communisme
LanguageFrench
GenreFiction (claims to be nonfiction)
ISBN9780674076082


The Black Book of Communism is a 1997 book that claims communism killed 100 million people in the 20th century.[1] It includes Nazi soldiers killed by the Red Army as well as kulaks as "victims of communism." The editors also confused the per-thousand symbol (‰) with the percent sign when translating from French to English, multiply some death tolls by 10 times.[2]

Even some of the book's own authors criticize the historical accuracy of its conclusions:[3]

Jean‐Louis Margolin and Nicolas Werth reproach Stéphane Courtois considering ‘the criminal dimension as one of the proper ones of the communist system’s set’, he writes in his text. ‘This results in taking away the phenomenon’s historic character’, claims Jean‐Louis Margolin. ‘Even if the communist breeding ground can lead to mass crimes, the line between theory and practice is inevident, contrary to what Stéphane Courtois says.’ Disputing the ‘approximations’, ‘contradictions’, and ‘clumsinesses that make sense’, the two authors reproach Stéphane Courtois’s ‘obsession to reach one hundred million deaths’.

— Le Monde, [4]


Margolin and Werth furthermore rebuked Courtois in an article published in Le Monde,[5] stating that they disagreed with his vitriolic introduction and its political agenda. Margolin and Werth both disavowed the book, recognizing that Courtois was obsessed with reaching a body count of a hundred million and consequently leading to careless and biased ‘scholarship’. Courtois also composed the book’s introduction in secret, refusing to share it for his other contributors. They both rejected Courtois’s equivalence of German fascism with communism, with Werth telling Le Monde that ‘death camps did not exist in the Soviet Union.’[6]

When Maurice Papon was put on trial in the 1990s for deporting 1,600 Jews to death camps, his lawyers admitted The Black Book of Communism as evidence for his (relative) ‘innocence’.[7]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Stéphane Courtois, et al. (1999). The Black Book of Communism. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674076082
  2. ↑ Mark Kramer. Black Book of Communism editor admits mistakes Maoist Internationalist Movement. Archived from the original on 2008-08-30.
  3. ↑ Anton (2017-08-24). "Debunking: “Communism killed more people than naziism!”"
  4. ↑ Les divisions d'une équipe d'historiens du communisme (1997).
  5. ↑ Communisme : retour à l'histoire (1997).
  6. ↑ The Future Did Not Work (2000).
  7. ↑ How We Forgot the Cold War: A Historical Journey across America (2012) (p. 38). University of California Press.
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