Talk:Mass killings under communist regimes/Archive 2

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Archive 5

Ethiopia

I removed this section. There was no indication in the section that genocide in Ethiopia was "Communist genocide" as opposed to genocide committed by a Communist regime. Note that the Derg replaced a regime that also committed genocide and Ethiopia was engaged in a civil war both before and after the Derg came to power. The Four Deuces (talk) 13:29, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

User:C.J. Griffin re-inserted the section with the comment He was a communist ruler actually convicted of the crime. Please not that this argument is synthesis and not contrary to WP policy. See WP:SYN: Do not combine material from multiple sources to reach a conclusion not explicitly stated by any of the sources. There is nothing in the sources that connects genocide in Ethiopia to communist genocide. The Four Deuces (talk) 14:14, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

When Mengistu Haile Mariam officially calls his policy "the Red Terror" and is convicted of genocide, it does not look like synthesis to me to call it "Communist genocide." True, he did not did not call it "Red Genocide," but he wouldn't would he? Nobody would say such a thing about themselves. Is the supposed synthesis the use of "Red" instead of "Communist"? Please don't try to pull something like that. He called himself a Communist and used he word "Red" to signify Communism, was supported by the Soviet union, actively engaged in what he called Red Terror, and was convicted of genocide. The obvious fact is that this was a Communist genocide. I've removed the synthesis template. Smallbones (talk) 14:54, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

This is exactly the kind of problems I thought this article would raise when I suggested it be renamed above. Since it is about the theory of 'communist genocide', every proposed example must be assessed to see whether it is covered by that theory; technically, if 'communist genocide' has not been mentioned in relation to an event, then it would be WP:SYN for us to include it here. Whereas if we simply renamed the article to Genocides in communist countries, we wouldn't have that problem - all we'd need is a reliable source saying (a) that an event was genocide, and (b) that it occurred in a communist country. It wouldn't be necessary to determine whether the specific phenomenon of 'communist genocide' applies. Maybe there's no support for that move, but doesn't it seem like a more sensible approach? Robofish (talk) 15:08, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

If there is no concept of Communist genocide then there is no reason for the article at all. Genocides in communist countries would be as invalid an article as Genocides in countries that begin with the letter "A". The justification for not deleting this article was that there was a concept of Communist genocide. Yet this article is not about that subject at all. The Four Deuces (talk) 15:17, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

The Four Deuces, please don't split the hair between "communist genocide" vs. "genocide committed by a Communist regime". Once again, various sources, including numerous books use the term "communist genocide". It is absolutely correct that both words are used against any intentions of the original meanings. "Communism" in Cambodia has nothing to do with noble, utopian ideas of "communism" as equality and fraternity of people. Still, we use the term "communist state" in very ugly meaning. The same with "genocide": As somebody mentioned it, there is a difference between legal abd common usage of the word (and this happens for many other words). Concluding, wikipedia's job to report how the term "communist genocide" is used, not to prove that it is used in wrong way.

Now, about "mass killings" title. There were plenty of mass killings under communist regimes, which are not called "genocide" even by fierce opponents. The term "genocide" is used to describe mass killings of categories of people, for lack of better term; the term "politicide" somehow did not catch up yet. This is article is not about arbitrary mass killings. If one wishes to really be pinpointing and nailing it down, I may suggest the title Communist genocide and politicide. Indeed, I have seen quite a few texts which do use the "and", including the most recent article I wrote, Law on Communist Genocide, on a particular subject I ran across while browsing sources related to this one. - Altenmann >t 15:46, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

I just noticed this. I went ahead and moved the page you created to a more appropriate name. Please do not create other pages on Wikipedia just to make a point here. Thanks! csloat (talk) 19:53, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

While I appreciate your correct renaming I do not appreciate your jumping to conclusions (WP:AGF to you, if you like alphabet soups). This is how I usually work: I browse the web for whatever reason, stumble across a topic I don't see in wikipedia, and create an article, without particular presuppositions. In this case I was browsing for "communist genocide" and noticed multiple encounters of the phrase "law on communist genocide", and voila! you have a new article. I prefer to write factual articles, rather than waste my time on various opinionated political essays, often created by cut-and-pastes glued together by some trivial musings and usually vigorously defended by their creators. Now, please explain which exactly POINT you had in mind? - Altenmann >t 23:24, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Altenmann, you say I am splitting hairs and then say numerous books use the term "communist genocide". They do indeed but they do not use it to mean genocide in Communist countries, they use it to refer to genocide committed as a result of Communist ideology. That excludes genocide with motivations other than Communist ideology. Also genocide committed by White Russians and Nazis within Communist Russia or the the Soviet Union were Genocides in Communist countries, although they were not Communist genocide. Incidentally why do you use the lower case "c" in "communist"? Do you want to expand the article to include genocide by communists who were not Communists? The Four Deuces (talk) 16:03, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

I was not addressing the title suggestion "genocide in communist countries". As for the usage of the term "CG": there is no common agreement of the purposes of killing termed "CG": it may be either ideologically or politically motivated. And politicians was twist ideology to their favor. As for communists which are not Communists, well, Trotskyites say they are the majority of them. So let's not go into this. Let's not turn this into a "true Scotsman" joke/fallacy. - Altenmann >t 17:02, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

People who use the term "CG" claim that it is ideologically motivated by Marxist theory, which is why this article exists. Communists did not commit genocide against minorities out of prejudice or jealousy of their property but because they were barriers to the achievement of Marxist ideology, and the writings of Karl Marx advocated this. BTW I think you may have the Communist/communist difference mixed. Big "C" Communism refers to parties that were members of the Communist International, its successor organizations and successor parties. Small "c" communism is a wider concept and includes Trotskyists. The Four Deuces (talk) 17:14, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

You write: People who use the term "CG" claim that it is ideologically motivated by Marxist theory, which is why this article exists. I don't see this written in our article. Please let us limit the discussion to article content. - Altenmann >t 22:38, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

(out) Discussion of article content may include both what is in and what should be in the article. The majority of people who defended this article claimed that "CG" was ideologically motivated by Marxist theory, which is why the article exists. See the AfD discussion: [1]. A typical comment was Keep, "communist genocide" is a specific concept, for example Rebecca Knuth treats it as such in the chapter Understanding Genocide: Beyond Remembrance or Denial --Martintg (talk) 02:04, 5 August 2009 (UTC) So I am asking that either the article actually contain information about Communist genocide or that it be merged with other genocide article. The Four Deuces (talk) 23:15, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

the lead says "no communist country or communist individual has ever been charged with or convicted of genocide" right after "Ethiopia has been convicted" and "the highest ranking surviving member of the Khmer Rouge has been charged". What is this, an ouroboros tail swallowing? Also, the fact is that the very first charge of genocide in history submitted to the UN in November 1947 was against Soviet Union. [2] Well, another fact is that since Soviet Union was a member of the security council, such charges never made it to the UN's open agenda.--Termer (talk) 05:59, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

No one gets convicted of genocide. The criteria are much too strict. Ethiopia was convicted of Crimes against humanity and war crimes. Individuals and countries get charged and even convicted of those all the time. Thank you for spotting the '47 charge. Once you learn to appreciate the magnitude of the distinction between WC and CAH and genocide, and between charges and convictions, you will see that the '47 charge, which even the source article points out was overreaching, is effectively trivia that does not really belong in the lede with the rest of what I wrote, but for now it can stay. Anarchangel (talk) 14:45, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

"overreaching" is an opinion of the author in the context. Unlike for example a fact that about 50 years later , on the same basis as the 1947 charge made by the Baltic states, a former head of the KGB was found guilty of genocide and sentenced for life in Latvia where he died in prison.--Termer (talk) 03:24, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

This article is about Communist genocide not genocide in Communist countries. Please improve the article by adding information about Communist genocide. The Four Deuces (talk) 06:17, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

Communist genocide not genocide in Communist countries? Please read the article and the sources that speak about the subject: Communist genocide = mass killings by communist regimes etc. FYI such regimes only have occurred in what you have called "Communist countries". there have been charges of genocide against Communist regimes/countries and anything saying differently that is not even referenced like your edit [3], can be removed by anybody at any time. Please refer to a source that says so, until then, no source -nothing to talk about.--Termer (talk) 13:26, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

Again..."no communist country or communist individual has ever been convicted of genocide"? Opening up the first book on the subject speaks about exact opposite: for example Alfons Noviks, a former head of the KGB On 13 December he was found guilty of genocide and sentenced to life. More about communists sentenced for the crime of genocide available for example McCormack, T. "Soviet genocide trials in the Baltic states, the relevance of international law". Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law - 2004. pp. 388–409. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); External link in |chapterurl= (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help)--Termer (talk) 02:41, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

I concede the 'individual'. I am content with "no communist country or government has ever been convicted of genocide"

As for the rest of the changes: you really ought to include some of the sentences from the source nearby the ones you cherrypicked, such as, "In the majority of the Estonian cases the charges of genocide have been connected with the preparation and carrying out of deportations.", which comes right before the one you put in the article, "In 1999 Vassilli Beshkv was convicted for an 'intent to destroy in part a national group offering resitance (sic) to the occupation regime which was also a social group declared "kulaks"'"

It is a rather novel approach to law, would you not say, to accuse a person of genocide for deporting someone? Estonians died of the cold, on long train journeys in railway freight cars. But a Russian commissar who signs a deportation order is not genocidal because of what happened to the people he deported, any more than the customs officials who deport someone would be, should they put someone aboard a plane that crashed. If they knew it would crash, it might be manslaughter, it might even be murder, and if you could prove it was politically motivated it might be politicide, but it is not genocide. So take a care what you dig up, and how you present it. The Estonians are quite clearly subverting the definition of genocide to suit their political agenda. It would behoove you not to repeat their mistakes. Anarchangel (talk) 14:10, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

Please Anarchangel do not use wikipedia talk pages for publishing essays on the subject. If you do have problems with the facts cited by the sources, please take it to the relevant addressees.--Termer (talk) 03:02, 30 August 2009 (UTC)

Split this article

Many editors have requested that the name of this article be changed to "Genocide in Communist countries". My reaction has been that the term "Communist genocide" has a specific meaning, even though it is not mentioned in the lead to this article, and has a different meaning from "Genocide in Communist countries". Therefore I suggest that the article be split into two articles: "Communist genocide in Communist countries" and "Non-Communist genocide in Communist countries". The first article would describe genocide committed by Communist regimes as part of Communist ideology while the second article would describe genocide committed by Communist regimes that was unrelated to Communist ideology. The Four Deuces (talk) 04:15, 30 August 2009 (UTC)

That is a rather odd concept: "genocide committed by Communist regimes that was unrelated to Communist ideology". --Martintg (talk) 21:33, 30 August 2009 (UTC)

User:Martintg defended this article at the AfD claiming that there was a concept of "Communist genocide"/"communist genocide" (he never explained which it was). However, no one has explained the concept of Communist genocide in this article. I ask Martintg why after valiantly defending this article he does not edit the article in order to explain his theory of Communist genocide that he defended in the AfD. This is surprising becaue Martintg discussed his theories extensively. In case they are forgotten, allow me to quote Martintg's reasons for keeping this article. If Martintg has now abandoned his previous beliefs about "Communist genocide" then the article should be deleted. I will now list Martintg's reasons for keeping this article and note that the article in no way reflects any of the reasons he gave.

Explanation of the theory of Communist genocide, below
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.
"communist genocide" is a specific concept, for example Rebecca Knuth treats it as such in the chapter Understanding Genocide: Beyond Remembrance or Denial The Holocaust is also a "democide" according to Rummel's definition, by your reasoning the Holocaust was not genocide? Quite a number of authors such as Stéphane Courtois, Benjamin Valentino, John Gray, Eric Weitz, Ronit Lenṭin and Rebecca Knuth have made the connection between mass killing in a number of communist regimes, the connection being that communist ideology was used as the justification for the killing See the works by Stéphane Courtois, Benjamin Valentino, John Gray, Eric Weitz, Ronit Lenṭin and Rebecca Knuth. Actually the concept is not synth, noted British political philosopher John N. Gray publisged the concept of "Communist genocide" here. The concept of "Communist genocide", linking the genocides committed by various communist governments and attributing the phenomenon as a feature of Communist policy is published here. Communists certainly intended to destroy national groups, hence they committed genocide, as the literature shows This is simply not true. Many books do make a link between communist ideology and genocide, see Eric D. Weitz's book A century of genocide for example Indeed if you read further the paragraph states it was a combination of reactions similar to what moved the Nazi system from discrimination to genocide, so the author seems to be implying that Nazi ideology alone is an insufficient explanation too. Either way, ideology is a factor, the question is to what degree. Communist ideology promotes the destruction of national groups, no question about that, and destruction of national groups is genocide according to Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. It is well known that Karl Marx was a racist. In "On the Jewish Question" Marx spoke of the Jews as a nationality in highly abusive and venomous language, heaping abuse on their religion, calling the Jews a "chimerical nationality" which he saw destined to disappear as a spiritual and cultural entity. Marx was against the Czechs and Southern Slaves too, stating:"Because the Czechs and the Southern Slavs were then 'reactionary nations', 'Russian outposts' in Europe, outposts of absolutism … to give support to the national movements of the Czechs and Southern Slavs at that time would have been to give indirect support to Tsarism, a most dangerous enemy of the revolutionary movement in Europe." Not synth, noted British political philosopher John N. Gray discusses the concept of "Communist genocide" here. Comment - Ellen Frankel Paul in the book Totalitarianism at the crossroads discusses the general concept of "communist genocide":"Again, it must be observed that the political creation of an artificial terror-famine with genocidal results is not a phenomenon restricted to the historical context of Russia and the Ukraine in the Thirties, but is a feature of Communist policy to this day, as evidenced in the sixties in Tibet and now in Ethiopia. The socialist genocide of small, "primitive" peoples, such as the Kalmucks and many others, has been a recurrent element in polices at several stages in the development of Soviet and Chinese totalitarianism. Once again, communist policy in this respect faithfully reproduces classical Marxism, which had an explicit and pronounced contempt for small, backward and reactionary peoples - no less than for the peasantry as a class and a form of social life" There is nothing in John N. Gray's bio that suggests that this British political philosopher and former Professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics is a fringe theorist. He appears to have published extensively and in fact there is a book written about him: The Political Theory of John Gray, which states "He is much cited and discussed within political and social theory, but he also has a much wider audience, being one of those quite rare creatures in British academic life, a public intellectual, writing regularly for the quality press and appearing on both radio and TV". So I don't see where you get the idea his views are "largely ignored outside the National Review and libertarian circles". What ever your personal view is of John Gray, it cannot now be said that the concept of "Communist genocide" is WP:SYNTH Genocides have particular characteristics, Nazi genocide was derived from an explicit and pronounced contempt for Jewish people, while Communist genocide was derived from an explicit and pronounced contempt for any small, "backward" and reactionary peoples. How so? The line "Communist genocide was derived from an explicit and pronounced contempt for any small, "backward" and reactionary peoples" is from a published source, the comparison to Nazi genocide is not made in the article, but merely a response to User:Multixfer. I'm not sure what you are exactly arguing for here, when you state "should we have 50,000 short POV fork articles and stubs about every instance of genocide committed", this article does the opposite and aggregates a number of genocides into one article, an aggregation that is supported in the literature because of its particular features related to Communist ideology that makes it stand apart from regular genocide. This has already been mentioned several times above. However the article has since been significantly expanded by several other editors of good standing. So what? "Communist mass killing" [16] also gets tons of hits. This is a naming issue which is a content issue that should properly be discussed on the article talk page rather than here. "Zionist mass murder" only gives me 1,060 hits. Indeed Google searches throw up some strange results, and only covers stuff that is online in any case. I think we are straying off topic here, what we name a topic is a content issue, to be discussed else where, we don't go deleting an article because we don't like the name Claiming "A passing reference as part of a controversial discussion of political liberalism by John N. Gray is not a substitute for significant scholarly work" mis-interprets of the previous discussion, please provide a published source that contends John Gray's chapter "Totalitarianism, Reform and Civil Society" published in the book "Totalitarianism at the crossroads" is in any way "controversial". There is nothing in John N. Gray bio that suggests that he is a fringe theorist or controversial, yet we have Wikipedians here who have asserted that without providing any evidence what so ever. It is the quality of sources, not quantity, that determines reliability, and by all accounts John Gray is a scholar of the highest order. Now you are engaging in WP:SYNTH, taking the comments from a publisher about an unrelated book written by somebody else and applying it to John Gray's particular chapter "Totalitarianism, Reform and Civil Society" in "Totalitarianism at the crossroads". You really need to find a published scholarly review on John Gray's specific views about "Communist genocide" before you can claim it is "controversial", without it no controversy exists. As for this claim of "POV fork", what is the name of the article that this is supposedly a fork of Again, this is just a naming issue which should be addressed as a content issue on the talk page, some names are used more often than others in various contexts, but they all point to the same underlying topic, the mass killing of people by totalitarian communist regimes around the world. What is "inherently POV" about this topic? What is the alternate POV this article is suppose to fork, that communist regimes didn't kill anyone? Has anyone provided any sources that articulate the claim that no one was killed? "Communist genocide" is a specific term discussed in books, memorial days proclaimed for and courts prosecuting alleged perpetrators because of it. It is a notable and worthy topic no matter how you want to name it. Probably more likely a case of WP:IDONTLIKEITitis. We have people here asserting it is "inherently POV", but seem unable to articulate what the actual POV issue is. I don't see anywhere in the article that makes the judgment that Communism is "something totally evil", it is for the reader to judge. Is it a fact that these regimes engaged in mass killing, many eminent scholars contend in published sources that these mass killings were genocidal and a common feature of totalitarian communist policy in multiple regimes, and discuss it in terms of "communist genocide". Would you be comfortable if the article was renamed to Communist mass killings, or would you also contend that was POV too, disputing even that fact? *Sorry, but this comes across as personal opinion, you need to find published sources that make these claims and add it to the article per WP:YESPOV. Plenty of published sources associate mass killings with Communism have been provided, you need to find reliable sources that assert there is no connection between mass killing and totalitarian Communism. Easy, see the book Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century, chapter 4. Some seem to hold the view that there is no causal link between communist ideology and mass killings. The view seems to be that the mass killings in the former USSR, the Democratic Kampuchea, in the People's Republic of China and Ethiopia were all independent events where the ideology of government was just co-incidental, not a root cause. The problem is that no evidence is presented from published sources that supports the case that this view of no causal link is held by any significant author, we are just left with the unqualified opinion of some Wikipedians that this is the case. When presented with books that make that causal link, like Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century, the author who has published extensively in academia is immediately dismissed as a crazy fringe theorist by the AfD nominator. So have you published your theory of no causal link between totalitarian communism and mass killing in some journal? One eminent scholar (fringe theorist according to our AfD nominator) has stated "it must be observed that the political creation of an artificial terror-famine with genocidal results is not a phenomenon restricted to the historical context of Russia and the Ukraine in the Thirties, but is a feature of Communist policy to this day, as evidenced in the sixties in Tibet and now in Ethiopia. The socialist genocide of small, "primitive" peoples, such as the Kalmucks and many others, has been a recurrent element in polices at several stages in the development of Soviet and Chinese totalitarianism. Once again, communist policy in this respect faithfully reproduces classical Marxism, which had an explicit and pronounced contempt for small, backward and reactionary peoples - no less than for the peasantry as a class and a form of social life". How about you provide evidence for your assertion "As far as I can tell his theory has received no recognition either from the academic community" by providing a published paper that refutes the causal link between the communism and mass killing. Seems all you can offer is "common sense", i.e. OR, and a personal attack. How about trying to contribute to the debate by supplying a peer-reviewed paper that claims that ideology was not a factor in mass killings in the various Communist regimes. With regard to the POV fork argument, the nominator seems the believe this article is a direct POV fork of the article Communism, when in fact is is simply a valid sub article of a notable topic in need of coverage (and there is a vast range of sub topics in this space, see Template:Communism), (I note also that Wikipedia does not have an article Totalitarian communism either). Whether we call it Communist genocide, Communist mass killing, Totalitarian Communist mass killing, Communist inspired mass murder or something else is really just a naming issue, but the underlying topic is a valid one and is covered extensively in the literature [24] There is no escaping the fact that there is a significant body of literature that does discus and make the link between mass killing and the implementation of communist ideology, no matter how much we would want to paint prominent scholars and authors that hold that view as "fringe theorists" The argument "Communist" and "genocide" is not a meaningful intersection of topics" is as meaningless as the argument "Islam" and "terrorism" is not a meaningful intersection of topics", yet we have the article Islamic terrorism precisely because it is a meaningful intersection. You argument appears to be equivalent to claiming that since there is nothing inherently "evil" or inhuman in the Koran, the article Islamic terrorism should be deleted. It the issue is one of labeling the entire theory as genocidal, why would you object to renaming to Totalitarian Communist genocide? Would you consider Totalitarian Communist mass killing? Surely nobody here disputes that mass killing was a defining feature of Totalitarian Communist regimes, even if some of us claim the mass killing wasn't genocide. How can you claim it is SYNTH, then acknowledge "that there is a historic linkage between events, roughly along the arguments of the Black Book". If the author of the Black Book, Stéphane Courtois, writes about this linkage in his book, as Benjamin Valentino, John Gray, Eric Weitz, Ronit Lenṭin and Rebecca Knuth also do in their respective books, then it is no longer SYNTH. No body has provided authors that have contended that there is no linkage, so how can you speak of a "wider historical debate" Synthesis is advancing a new position, how is what is in the lead new from what has already been published by Peter A. Zuckerman, Benjamin Valentino and Benjamin Wiker, who are essentially saying the same thing? In fact, the Black Book appears to be only cited within the body in regard to numbers of deaths, So I don't quite understand what you mean when you say "Copypasting a summary of a highly politicized document like the Black Book". "even though there are plenty of sources claiming the link is merely coincidental at best", care to post these sources that claim that Communist ideology was not a factor in mass killing in these regimes? Indeed, not withstanding the question whether or not the mass killing was genocide, the fact that mass killing was inspired by Communist ideology is not in question. It is interesting to note that the Dictionary of Genocide has an entry for "Communism", characterizing it as an intolerant, repressive and genocidal political force in the modern world. In fact in the same book states that mass killings along the lines of genocide are often motivated doctrinally. Genocide scholar Helen Fein contends such genocides are justified by an articulated social goal that enjoins the destruction of the victims. It goes on to state that the notion of "class struggle" was used as a guideline for aggressive policies that has led to regimes using genocidal means to destroy the "enemies of the working class", leading to the destruction of millions of lives. So Communist mass killing is certainly a valid topic. Please don't get personal, I wasn't alone in supporting keeping this article. Evidently you still seem to be a bit upset that the article was not deleted, given your lengthy response. You want the article split yet you haven't supplied on single source that supports the notion of "genocide committed by Communist regimes that was unrelated to Communist ideology". --Martintg (talk) 01:08, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

New lead

I propose putting User:Martintg's ideas into the lead. However they appear to be too long. Perhaps Martintg could summarize them. The Four Deuces (talk) 01:00, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

Well ofcourse the article lead has been significantly changed since the AfD, if you want to revert it back, be my guest. BTW, it is not "my idea" that genocide in Communist countries was driven by communist ideology, but the idea of Stéphane Courtois, Benjamin Valentino, John Gray, Eric Weitz, Ronit Lenṭin and Rebecca Knuth. --Martintg (talk) 01:11, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

Your whole justification for this article was that that genocide in Communist countries was driven by communist ideology. If you no longer believe this, then the article should be deleted. If you now want to delete the article then I will support you new view. The Four Deuces (talk) 02:13, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

What an odd discussion, as if articles are kept or deleted upon the basis of my personal opinion. If you are still unhappy about the result of the AfD, don't take it out on me. As I recall, many people argued that this article should be kept, and many published authors continue believe that Communism is a misanthropic ideology that has an innate tendency to be genocidal. You may disagree with their viewpoint, but WP:RS requires us to acknowledge it regardless of whether we like it or not. --Martintg (talk) 03:35, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

So shall we include a section of "reliable sources" defending communism and arguing that it is the only way to avoid capitalist genocide? I don't see how you can base an article on such claims without giving them undue weight. csloat (talk) 00:44, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Whether genocide is driven by ideology or ideology is quoted as a justification for genocide, it's a dance of ideology and genocide. I wouldn't expect the article to be deleted any time soon. VЄСRUМВА  ♪  03:38, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

Here's a suggested lead for the article, please comment:

Communist genocide is a fringe theory developed during the cold war, that mass killing was inspired by Communist ideology. The theory was written about in the Black Book of Communism, and popularized by the John Birch Society and other radical right-wing American groups. However since the end of Communism the theory has gone into decline, and has been replaced by other conspiracy theories, such as the New World Order.

The Four Deuces (talk) 03:57, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

Uh no. Now THAT is complete OR and SYNTH, as well as complete nonsense.radek (talk) 10:02, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

I've added some cite tags to your proposed lead. Do you have a source, or is it your own original research? --Martintg (talk) 04:36, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

Unfortunately, with the exceptions of Italy and Japan (who were vicious, but possibly NOT genocidal) the major genocides of the 20th century were primarily committed by regimes at least CLAIMING to be communist.Aaaronsmith (talk) 04:49, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

I notice you left out Germany, I guess you think they got a bad rap. Turkey too. Then there are numerous recent examples. The Four Deuces (talk) 05:39, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

Nope. You made the same mistake the media, hollywood, the socialists have been quietly ignoring for 70 years. The NAZIS (a term they rarely used themselves) were socialist almost indistinguishable from communists. Hitler stated it in his speeches and the only difference between the two I've ever seen in print is the Russian communists thought lumpenman had to give up his individuality to achieve perfection while the NAZIS thought he could keep it. Where do you think the term NAZI comes from? An acronym of the german words for National Socialism aka the National Workers (arbeite) Society - - - -

As for Turkey, you've got me. Unless . . . . anyone know what the Turkish government claimed to be?Aaaronsmith (talk) 16:29, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

I have not heard that theory before. The fringe theory promoted by Jonah Goldberg in his book Liberal Fascism was that both Nazis and Italian Fascists were socilialists. ("Fascists" in France, Spain and other countries were however right-wing.) But he never claimed that Nazis were Communists and drew no distinction between Nazis and Italian Fascists. I would be most appreciative if you could provide a source for your theory. Also, do you believe that genocide occured in Nazi Germany or was this just left-wing propaganda? Incidentally Turkey was right-wing. The Four Deuces (talk) 22:09, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

You have not heard of A. James Gregor's book The Faces of Janus or the recent OSCE resolution equating Communism with Nazism? we all know that Fascism had its origins in communism, and communism exhibited facets of fascism from its inception. --Martintg (talk) 23:11, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

(out)He did not say that Nazis were Communists. He said "The fact is that the Soviet Union of Josef Stalin was more like fascism than intellectuals throughout the decades from the 1930s to the 1980s seemed prepared to allow." (I don't have a copy of the book and there is no JBS bookstore where I live.) Anyway Aaaronsmith draws a distinction between Nazis, who he says were "Communist" and Italian Fascists. Do you know of any theory that considers Nazis to be Communists or socialists but puts Italian Fascists in a different category? The Four Deuces (talk) 23:34, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

Sorry The Four Deuces for lecturing but, the political spectrum does not follow a straight line but forms a circle. on one edge of the circle there are people who believe in democracy and on the opposite side of the circle, right next to each other sit the extremist right and left wings. You're acting like you're surprised that "nazi" means national socialism? National socialism is an extremist right wing ideology and communism the extreme "left wing". And on the political scale, on the circle those stand right next to each-other. At the same time the national socialism doesn't have anything to do with for example the modern Scandinavian style social democratic welfare states that run on the Social democratic ideology. And that might be the best candidate for the opposing force in the political scale, meaning n the circle to the extreme lefts&rights, "nazis and commies".--Termer (talk) 06:23, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Termer, that is only one conception of the political spectrum. Here's a link to the seating plan of the the European parliament. Ex-Communists sit on the far left and neo-fascists are on the far right. (Of course the fascists sit as independents but they occupied the far right when they had party status, as fascist always have.)[4] But Aaaaronsmith's theory is that while Nazis were communists (which they circle theory does not say) the Italisn Fascists were not. I just have not come across this theory before. Btw I have met people from across the political spectrum and Communists and fascists seem to express different views. The Four Deuces (talk) 18:57, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Some more sources

I wonder what you think of this piece.

Also this book might be of interest. (Igny (talk))

One more holodomor denial (quote:The myth of the Ukrainian famine was created by the most reactionary sections of American society) (Igny (talk) 17:15, 31 August 2009 (UTC))

Considering that WP has an extensive article on the black book of communism and other anti communist books, articles and opinions, I think it is time to create an article about the article "Democratic Genocide" by Curtis. It is a widely cited piece, see here for an interesting opinion about that article and the events which were the reason for the article. (Igny (talk) 17:21, 31 August 2009 (UTC))

Just some interesting quotes from here (Igny (talk) 17:40, 31 August 2009 (UTC))

the Cold War liberals championed the Genocide Convention as a weapon in the anti-Communist arsenal,

James J. Martin concludes perceptively: "... over 40 years after Raphael Lemkin invented the word 'genocide,' most people who have heard it think they know what it means. The overwhelming majority of them are mistaken; they do not."

I would really like to know why Indonesian killings of 1965–66 and the Operation Condor are not mentioned in this article. (Igny (talk) 17:57, 31 August 2009 (UTC))

I don't have time to read the references right now (gotta go) but I will note we are beginning to make a semantic mistake in our politics. This article may be an obvious attempt to trash communism. The suggestions to respond by having a new article to show the other side are reasonable. HOWEVER, both of the suggestions I have read have been just plain wrong. One suggested capitalism - which is NOT the opposite of Communism (I don't care how ofter the radicals in my classes at Berkeley misused the term). The other suggests democracy - a complete misunderstanding of the lexicography. Most of the communist regimes claimed to be "democracratic", some were legally if de facto something else, and some really were democracies (let us remember Hitler was legally elected).

I'll come back and follow your links to inform myself, but for the moment, we will keep this thread a whole lot cleaner if we remember that to show the opposite of "communist genocides" the opposing article should be named "free market genocide" (or something pretty close). This will avoid a LOT of misunderstanding and arguing over nothing.Aaaronsmith (talk) 20:19, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

I agree with Igny, Communist genocide should include genocide against suspected Communists. This happened in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Congo, El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala, Haiti, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Nicaragua, Paraguay, and many other countries. The Four Deuces (talk) 22:21, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

What next, will you be advocating for an article about genocide against suspected Nazis? --Martintg (talk) 04:42, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

"Free market genocide"? To avoid confusion?? That seems nuts to me. "Genocide" literally means killing a people or a race, not a belief system or economic arrangement. If genocides were committed in the name of stamping out "communism" then sure it could be included here, but the idea of "genocide against Communists" is not a real concept, since Communists are not a race or culture. csloat (talk) 22:56, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

Quick comment (I'm not back). You're catching on to the problems. Communism is an economic system, and the opposite is free market (and Yes, it does sound dumb). On the other hand communISTS are a culture. A cross ethnic, cross cultural, etc. sub culture, just like Christianity.Aaaronsmith (talk) 02:44, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Well you can say that only if you're using a definition of culture that is, well, entirely bogus. North Korean communists, Cuban communists, and American communists in no way share "cultural" ties. So, no, there is no genocide against "communists" and there is no genocide against "free marketeers", and, in fact, there really is no Communist genocide, ultimately, which is the problem with this whole thing. csloat (talk) 21:48, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

We are wasting everyone's time talking about topics other than the article, for example, what is the theoretical opposite of "communist" so we can have equal time on genocide articles. Please feel free to start a genocide task force or go to already established articles such as United States and state terrorism and take those conversations elsewhere and not muddy the waters here. Thank you. VЄСRUМВА  ♪  02:23, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Correction: We have already wasted so much time about the trollish synthesis, now we are discussing the ways to improve the article. So please stop stalling the discussion. (Igny (talk) 02:38, 1 September 2009 (UTC))

I agree with Vecrumba, this discussion is getting off topic, which is genocide by communists, not against them (I agree with Commodore Sloat here, the idea of "genocide against Communists" is not a real concept). --Martintg (talk) 04:39, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

That is why as you hopefully noticed I did not suggest an article on anti-communist genocide. Also since the communist genocide is clearly is not a real concept, why were you against merging this article to genocides in history?(Igny (talk) 14:51, 1 September 2009 (UTC))

In case 'communist genocide' is not a real concept in someones opinion, why should it be merged into genocides in history in the first place? I mean, only someone who thinks that communist genocide was a genocide should support adding it among other genocides in history.--Termer (talk) 02:21, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

This article is about a number of unrelated incidents that have been termed genocide. The correct article for these incidents is genocide. If in fact they were not genocides then perhaps they should be put in an article called alleged genocide. But since there is a consensus that there is no such thing as "communist genocide" then there is no more reason to have this article than to have an article about genocides that were committed in even-numbered years. The Four Deuces (talk) 02:40, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

I said this once and repeat it again. Merge the article to genocides in history for better context, more neutral coverage, and to fix synth issues. Most of this article is already there (please spend a few moments to read genocides in history) just add the missing tidbits which would look less SYNTH in that article. (Igny (talk) 02:50, 2 September 2009 (UTC))

Please stop coming up with the same arguments again and again that everybody has heard hundreds of times at this talk page exactly like at the AfD. There is no point of keep circling the discussion around. Thanks!--Termer (talk) 02:56, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Please stop asking provocative questions then if you already know the answers and your only intent seems to be to attack them. Is that your only counterargument that I repeated myself 3 times in 3 different places? (Igny (talk) 03:10, 2 September 2009 (UTC))

asking provocative questions? attack them? Whom? I must have missed something but, if I only had any idea what are you talking about?--Termer (talk) 05:05, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

PS. in case you were referring to my question above, how exactly was that provocative? It's straight forward logic, if you don't think that the 60-100 people killed by the communist regimes has anything to do with the term genocide, why to advocate adding it to genocides in history? It just doesn't make any sense. And I'm sorry if this feels anything like "attack them". In an intelligent discussion arguments should follow certain extent of logic and or reason. If it lacks reason, the discussion is not going to get anywhere.--Termer (talk) 05:33, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Igny (please accept this as a comment not intended to start a fight): Wiki already has articles w titles pretty much that stupid. For example: "List of Events Named Massacre". Right. The Black Hole of Calcutta and the Rape of Nanking don't qualify. But they had to perform backflips to disqualify the "Barbie Massacre" (a strange piece of action art that actually happened and was actually called a massacre). Go figure.Aaaronsmith (talk) 03:02, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Correction (sigh this really isn't my week and had a terrible edit conflict posting above that encouraged me to hit return before proofing) above should have been addressed to Four Deuces and should have referenced his comment about "genocides committed in even numbered years".Aaaronsmith (talk) 03:21, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Usage of the term "Communist genocide"

The article still lacks the definition of the concept "Communist genocide". The section Definition only talks about the term "genocide". Add to this section the definition of "communist" and you will only observe the synthesis in action. Now since it is indisputable that the term is indeed used in various sources, so I suggest replace the section Definition (which lacks the definition anyways) by the History of the term or something similar to describe who when and why uses this term (again no one yet produced the source which defines the term). Again, in my opinion, the article should be about the usage of the term "Communist genocide" rather than about the non-existing concept of "communist genocide". (Igny (talk) 14:54, 2 September 2009 (UTC))

I agree. Perhaps you could do this. There should also be a discussion of the validity of the term. Since the concept has not entered mainstream academic discourse we will have to rely on book reviews which of course should be taken from respected newspapers. Also, we should be clear in the title that the "c" in "Communist" is upper case. Btw Martintg provided an excellent listing of the literature on "Communist genocide" which I have summarized above at Talk:Communist genocide#Split this article. The Four Deuces (talk) 15:19, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

This search for a "definition of a concept" is a straw man argument. This is not an article about a concept, it is an article about events that have been perpetrated by Communists that have been deemed to be genocide by reliable sources. Communist terrorism is a similar article, yet I see no one clamoring to get that article deleted. --Martintg (talk) 00:03, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

That's nonsense - I was clamoring to get that article deleted about a year ago, and it only remained because a cabal of editors wouldn't let it go. That article is even worse of an abuse of Wikipedia than this one, frankly, and I will gladly jump on board if anyone else wants to start the AfD process, and I will again explain exactly why that article is a complete and ineluctable WP:SYN violation. csloat (talk) 00:41, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

(out)User:Martintg defended this article at the AfD claiming that there was a concept of "Communist genocide"/"communist genocide" (he never explained which it was). However, no one has explained the concept of Communist genocide in this article. I ask Martintg why after valiantly defending this article he does not edit the article in order to explain his theory of Communist genocide that he defended in the AfD. This is surprising becaue Martintg discussed his theories extensively. In case they are forgotten, allow me to quote Martintg's reasons for keeping this article. If Martintg has now abandoned his previous beliefs about "Communist genocide" then the article should be deleted. I will now list Martintg's reasons for keeping this article and note that the article in no way reflects any of the reasons he gave.

Explanation of the theory of Communist genocide, below
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.
"communist genocide" is a specific concept, for example Rebecca Knuth treats it as such in the chapter Understanding Genocide: Beyond Remembrance or Denial The Holocaust is also a "democide" according to Rummel's definition, by your reasoning the Holocaust was not genocide? Quite a number of authors such as Stéphane Courtois, Benjamin Valentino, John Gray, Eric Weitz, Ronit Lenṭin and Rebecca Knuth have made the connection between mass killing in a number of communist regimes, the connection being that communist ideology was used as the justification for the killing See the works by Stéphane Courtois, Benjamin Valentino, John Gray, Eric Weitz, Ronit Lenṭin and Rebecca Knuth. Actually the concept is not synth, noted British political philosopher John N. Gray publisged the concept of "Communist genocide" here. The concept of "Communist genocide", linking the genocides committed by various communist governments and attributing the phenomenon as a feature of Communist policy is published here. Communists certainly intended to destroy national groups, hence they committed genocide, as the literature shows This is simply not true. Many books do make a link between communist ideology and genocide, see Eric D. Weitz's book A century of genocide for example Indeed if you read further the paragraph states it was a combination of reactions similar to what moved the Nazi system from discrimination to genocide, so the author seems to be implying that Nazi ideology alone is an insufficient explanation too. Either way, ideology is a factor, the question is to what degree. Communist ideology promotes the destruction of national groups, no question about that, and destruction of national groups is genocide according to Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. It is well known that Karl Marx was a racist. In "On the Jewish Question" Marx spoke of the Jews as a nationality in highly abusive and venomous language, heaping abuse on their religion, calling the Jews a "chimerical nationality" which he saw destined to disappear as a spiritual and cultural entity. Marx was against the Czechs and Southern Slaves too, stating:"Because the Czechs and the Southern Slavs were then 'reactionary nations', 'Russian outposts' in Europe, outposts of absolutism … to give support to the national movements of the Czechs and Southern Slavs at that time would have been to give indirect support to Tsarism, a most dangerous enemy of the revolutionary movement in Europe." Not synth, noted British political philosopher John N. Gray discusses the concept of "Communist genocide" here. Comment - Ellen Frankel Paul in the book Totalitarianism at the crossroads discusses the general concept of "communist genocide":"Again, it must be observed that the political creation of an artificial terror-famine with genocidal results is not a phenomenon restricted to the historical context of Russia and the Ukraine in the Thirties, but is a feature of Communist policy to this day, as evidenced in the sixties in Tibet and now in Ethiopia. The socialist genocide of small, "primitive" peoples, such as the Kalmucks and many others, has been a recurrent element in polices at several stages in the development of Soviet and Chinese totalitarianism. Once again, communist policy in this respect faithfully reproduces classical Marxism, which had an explicit and pronounced contempt for small, backward and reactionary peoples - no less than for the peasantry as a class and a form of social life" There is nothing in John N. Gray's bio that suggests that this British political philosopher and former Professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics is a fringe theorist. He appears to have published extensively and in fact there is a book written about him: The Political Theory of John Gray, which states "He is much cited and discussed within political and social theory, but he also has a much wider audience, being one of those quite rare creatures in British academic life, a public intellectual, writing regularly for the quality press and appearing on both radio and TV". So I don't see where you get the idea his views are "largely ignored outside the National Review and libertarian circles". What ever your personal view is of John Gray, it cannot now be said that the concept of "Communist genocide" is WP:SYNTH Genocides have particular characteristics, Nazi genocide was derived from an explicit and pronounced contempt for Jewish people, while Communist genocide was derived from an explicit and pronounced contempt for any small, "backward" and reactionary peoples. How so? The line "Communist genocide was derived from an explicit and pronounced contempt for any small, "backward" and reactionary peoples" is from a published source, the comparison to Nazi genocide is not made in the article, but merely a response to User:Multixfer. I'm not sure what you are exactly arguing for here, when you state "should we have 50,000 short POV fork articles and stubs about every instance of genocide committed", this article does the opposite and aggregates a number of genocides into one article, an aggregation that is supported in the literature because of its particular features related to Communist ideology that makes it stand apart from regular genocide. This has already been mentioned several times above. However the article has since been significantly expanded by several other editors of good standing. So what? "Communist mass killing" [16] also gets tons of hits. This is a naming issue which is a content issue that should properly be discussed on the article talk page rather than here. "Zionist mass murder" only gives me 1,060 hits. Indeed Google searches throw up some strange results, and only covers stuff that is online in any case. I think we are straying off topic here, what we name a topic is a content issue, to be discussed else where, we don't go deleting an article because we don't like the name Claiming "A passing reference as part of a controversial discussion of political liberalism by John N. Gray is not a substitute for significant scholarly work" mis-interprets of the previous discussion, please provide a published source that contends John Gray's chapter "Totalitarianism, Reform and Civil Society" published in the book "Totalitarianism at the crossroads" is in any way "controversial". There is nothing in John N. Gray bio that suggests that he is a fringe theorist or controversial, yet we have Wikipedians here who have asserted that without providing any evidence what so ever. It is the quality of sources, not quantity, that determines reliability, and by all accounts John Gray is a scholar of the highest order. Now you are engaging in WP:SYNTH, taking the comments from a publisher about an unrelated book written by somebody else and applying it to John Gray's particular chapter "Totalitarianism, Reform and Civil Society" in "Totalitarianism at the crossroads". You really need to find a published scholarly review on John Gray's specific views about "Communist genocide" before you can claim it is "controversial", without it no controversy exists. As for this claim of "POV fork", what is the name of the article that this is supposedly a fork of Again, this is just a naming issue which should be addressed as a content issue on the talk page, some names are used more often than others in various contexts, but they all point to the same underlying topic, the mass killing of people by totalitarian communist regimes around the world. What is "inherently POV" about this topic? What is the alternate POV this article is suppose to fork, that communist regimes didn't kill anyone? Has anyone provided any sources that articulate the claim that no one was killed? "Communist genocide" is a specific term discussed in books, memorial days proclaimed for and courts prosecuting alleged perpetrators because of it. It is a notable and worthy topic no matter how you want to name it. Probably more likely a case of WP:IDONTLIKEITitis. We have people here asserting it is "inherently POV", but seem unable to articulate what the actual POV issue is. I don't see anywhere in the article that makes the judgment that Communism is "something totally evil", it is for the reader to judge. Is it a fact that these regimes engaged in mass killing, many eminent scholars contend in published sources that these mass killings were genocidal and a common feature of totalitarian communist policy in multiple regimes, and discuss it in terms of "communist genocide". Would you be comfortable if the article was renamed to Communist mass killings, or would you also contend that was POV too, disputing even that fact? *Sorry, but this comes across as personal opinion, you need to find published sources that make these claims and add it to the article per WP:YESPOV. Plenty of published sources associate mass killings with Communism have been provided, you need to find reliable sources that assert there is no connection between mass killing and totalitarian Communism. Easy, see the book Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century, chapter 4. Some seem to hold the view that there is no causal link between communist ideology and mass killings. The view seems to be that the mass killings in the former USSR, the Democratic Kampuchea, in the People's Republic of China and Ethiopia were all independent events where the ideology of government was just co-incidental, not a root cause. The problem is that no evidence is presented from published sources that supports the case that this view of no causal link is held by any significant author, we are just left with the unqualified opinion of some Wikipedians that this is the case. When presented with books that make that causal link, like Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century, the author who has published extensively in academia is immediately dismissed as a crazy fringe theorist by the AfD nominator. So have you published your theory of no causal link between totalitarian communism and mass killing in some journal? One eminent scholar (fringe theorist according to our AfD nominator) has stated "it must be observed that the political creation of an artificial terror-famine with genocidal results is not a phenomenon restricted to the historical context of Russia and the Ukraine in the Thirties, but is a feature of Communist policy to this day, as evidenced in the sixties in Tibet and now in Ethiopia. The socialist genocide of small, "primitive" peoples, such as the Kalmucks and many others, has been a recurrent element in polices at several stages in the development of Soviet and Chinese totalitarianism. Once again, communist policy in this respect faithfully reproduces classical Marxism, which had an explicit and pronounced contempt for small, backward and reactionary peoples - no less than for the peasantry as a class and a form of social life". How about you provide evidence for your assertion "As far as I can tell his theory has received no recognition either from the academic community" by providing a published paper that refutes the causal link between the communism and mass killing. Seems all you can offer is "common sense", i.e. OR, and a personal attack. How about trying to contribute to the debate by supplying a peer-reviewed paper that claims that ideology was not a factor in mass killings in the various Communist regimes. With regard to the POV fork argument, the nominator seems the believe this article is a direct POV fork of the article Communism, when in fact is is simply a valid sub article of a notable topic in need of coverage (and there is a vast range of sub topics in this space, see Template:Communism), (I note also that Wikipedia does not have an article Totalitarian communism either). Whether we call it Communist genocide, Communist mass killing, Totalitarian Communist mass killing, Communist inspired mass murder or something else is really just a naming issue, but the underlying topic is a valid one and is covered extensively in the literature [24] There is no escaping the fact that there is a significant body of literature that does discus and make the link between mass killing and the implementation of communist ideology, no matter how much we would want to paint prominent scholars and authors that hold that view as "fringe theorists" The argument "Communist" and "genocide" is not a meaningful intersection of topics" is as meaningless as the argument "Islam" and "terrorism" is not a meaningful intersection of topics", yet we have the article Islamic terrorism precisely because it is a meaningful intersection. You argument appears to be equivalent to claiming that since there is nothing inherently "evil" or inhuman in the Koran, the article Islamic terrorism should be deleted. It the issue is one of labeling the entire theory as genocidal, why would you object to renaming to Totalitarian Communist genocide? Would you consider Totalitarian Communist mass killing? Surely nobody here disputes that mass killing was a defining feature of Totalitarian Communist regimes, even if some of us claim the mass killing wasn't genocide. How can you claim it is SYNTH, then acknowledge "that there is a historic linkage between events, roughly along the arguments of the Black Book". If the author of the Black Book, Stéphane Courtois, writes about this linkage in his book, as Benjamin Valentino, John Gray, Eric Weitz, Ronit Lenṭin and Rebecca Knuth also do in their respective books, then it is no longer SYNTH. No body has provided authors that have contended that there is no linkage, so how can you speak of a "wider historical debate" Synthesis is advancing a new position, how is what is in the lead new from what has already been published by Peter A. Zuckerman, Benjamin Valentino and Benjamin Wiker, who are essentially saying the same thing? In fact, the Black Book appears to be only cited within the body in regard to numbers of deaths, So I don't quite understand what you mean when you say "Copypasting a summary of a highly politicized document like the Black Book". "even though there are plenty of sources claiming the link is merely coincidental at best", care to post these sources that claim that Communist ideology was not a factor in mass killing in these regimes? Indeed, not withstanding the question whether or not the mass killing was genocide, the fact that mass killing was inspired by Communist ideology is not in question. It is interesting to note that the Dictionary of Genocide has an entry for "Communism", characterizing it as an intolerant, repressive and genocidal political force in the modern world. In fact in the same book states that mass killings along the lines of genocide are often motivated doctrinally. Genocide scholar Helen Fein contends such genocides are justified by an articulated social goal that enjoins the destruction of the victims. It goes on to state that the notion of "class struggle" was used as a guideline for aggressive policies that has led to regimes using genocidal means to destroy the "enemies of the working class", leading to the destruction of millions of lives. So Communist mass killing is certainly a valid topic. Please don't get personal, I wasn't alone in supporting keeping this article. Evidently you still seem to be a bit upset that the article was not deleted, given your lengthy response. You want the article split yet you haven't supplied on single source that supports the notion of "genocide committed by Communist regimes that was unrelated to Communist ideology". --Martintg (talk) 01:08, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

Didn't you just post this all before? Seems rather pointy. Given that the first term in a title (or sentence) is usually capitalized, what on earth are you on about with big "c" and little "C" communism? --Martintg (talk) 00:43, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

You are of course aware of this but I will explain it none the less for people who are not aware. The term communist can mean many things, some people have called communes communist because of their communal organization. The term "Communist" with a big "C" refers to the CPUSA and associatied political parties. I re-posted this because you provided considerable evidence of the fringe theory of "Communist/communist" genocide. Since most readers do not live near a John Birch Society or British National Party bookstore, then I thought it would be helpful to provide them with a heads up to right wing publications that would assist them in developing the lead to the article. Since you know a lot about the theory of Communist genocide, it would be helpful if you could assist in writing a lead for this article. The Four Deuces (talk) 01:06, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

"No one has explained the concept of Communist genocide in this article"? And the article still lacks the definition of the concept "Communist genocide"? Why does this keep coming up again an again? But never mind, feel free.. the answer is still the same The article defines Communist genocide according to the sources more than clearly enough. In case anybody has not taken tme to read the sources nor the article, no problem, here is how Communist genocide is defined: Mass killings of some 60-100 million people committed by Communist regimes. It can't get more straight forward than that.--Termer (talk) 02:31, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Now all is needed is a source which says something like A genocide according to the UN convention is mass killings etc etc. A genocide is considered to be a communist genocide if ...... If that condition does not hold then the genocide is not communist but rather... ummm some other kind of genocide?. Fill the dots please. (Igny (talk) 03:10, 3 September 2009 (UTC))

This is about the tenth time the UN convention has been brought up. The answer is still the same, who has said that Communist genocide refers to the UN convention? Nobody, exactly like the Armenian genocide doesn't refer to a crime of Genocide according to the UN convention.--Termer (talk) 03:18, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Well I just used that as an example of what a source might say. You see, I found plenty of sources using the term. Yet when I searched for the phrase "communist genocide is" I found no source which actually defines the term. (Igny (talk) 03:20, 3 September 2009 (UTC))

No kidding? an internet search for "communist genocide is" needs to bring in a definition in your opinion? I would cite Peter jackson from Wikipedia:Peer review/Communist genocide/archive1 instead in case anybody wants to improve the article: The Historiography of Genocide, edited by Dan Stone (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), includes chapters on Stalin, Mao & Cambodia, discussing various scholarly views on whether genocide was involved. Looks like a useful starting point for anyone wanting to improve the article.--Termer (talk) 03:35, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

It is not a problem to determine whether a genocide was involved, what a problem is clarify when the communist genocide was involved. Could, for example, Hussein say "I do not like regular genocides, they are too mundane. I want to do a communist genocide to them kurds" (Igny (talk) 03:58, 3 September 2009 (UTC))

Sorry Igny but I'm missing the sense of logic behind "I want to do a communist genocide to them kurds" one could as easily say "I want to do a Armenian genocide to them kurds". What are you talking about? Communist genocide refers to mass killinsgs by Communist regimes, Armenian genocide refers to mass killings of Armenians. etc. Nazi genocide to mass killings done by Nazis etc. And what is a "regular genocide" in the first place? Sorry but your post above just didn't make any sense to me.--Termer (talk) 04:03, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

I'm missing your sense of logic myself, since you have two polar opposite ways of phrasing things when you equate "Armenian genocide" - mass killings of Armenians - with "Communist genocide" - which you define as "mass killings by Communist regimes." Shouldn't we then speak of "Turkish genocide" or "Capitalist genocide" then? Or, perhaps, if there was a people slaughtered by Communists in a manner approaching genocide, we could speak of, say, "Cambodian genocide" rather than "communist" genocide? csloat (talk) 17:16, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

I didn't come up with either Communist genocide nor Armenian nor Nazi genocide. Why do the sources call it this way, you'd need to take those questions to the relevant addressees.--Termer (talk) 01:07, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Igny may have a point here, we should search for the term "Soviet war crimes", because we need a definition of this concept too, since for example, Hussein may say "I do not like regular war crimes, they are too mundane. I want to do a Soviet war crime against them kurds". ;) --Martintg (talk) 05:59, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

The word "Soviet" has the virtue of referring to a specific regime. "Communist" does not. So when you speak of "Communist genocide" then it appears you are speaking of a kind of genocide, not genocide by a particular regime. csloat (talk) 17:16, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

I noticed that you, Martin, do have a sense of humor. Thank you for ridiculing my attempt to ridicule you. (Igny (talk) 04:03, 4 September 2009 (UTC))

The word 'Communist' refers to a specific regime just fine, exactly like Fascist- or Nazi. which all include political movements/political parties whose goal has always been the elimination of democracy, an establishment of a single party system where all opposition is meant to be eliminated.--Termer (talk) 01:38, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Reliable sources for lead

I deleted the first sentence of the lead because it does not agree with the sources given. User:Smallbones has reverted the deletion and I therefore have set up a query on the RS noticeboard.[5] The Four Deuces (talk) 17:38, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Definition of Communist (or communist) genocide

What is Communist (or communist) genocide? Editors are unable to find a source for a definition in the article Communist genocide. The Four Deuces (talk) 15:28, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Some time ago while searching web for "communist genocide" I came across the term "Law on Communist Genocide" and created the corresponding article. Afterwards it was renamed to On Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity Committed in Albania during the Communist Regime for Political, Ideological and Religious Motives, which is a full translation of the title of the Law. I would suggest to stop time-wasting hair splitting here and rename this article into Genocides and politicides committed by Communist regimes. (adding all "crimes against humanity" into the title would greatly broaden the scope of the subject.) - Altenmann >t 16:16, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Unfortunately that would be WP:SYN:

Synthesis of published material that advances a position

Do not combine material from multiple sources to reach a conclusion not explicitly stated by any of the sources. Editors should not make the mistake of thinking that if A is published by a reliable source, and B is published by a reliable source, then A and B can be joined together in an article to reach conclusion C.

The Four Deuces (talk) 16:27, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Which "position" exactly? The suggested title is a descriptive title, it does not introduce any new idea or new term. Are you saying there was no genocides and politicides under communist regimes and nobody described them? Or do you want two separate articles,Genocides committed by Communist regimes and Politicides committed by Communist regimes? - Altenmann >t 17:45, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Can we have something descriptive and just go with Misery committed by communist bastards? PasswordUsername (talk) 19:04, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

PasswordUsername, please be WP:CIVIL. Your sarcasm denigrates your fellow editors. VЄСRUМВА  ♪  20:56, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

I wasn't being sarcastic with my suggestion. Since this is the essential point anyway, why not? A reasonable suggestion. This would keep things much easier than having some of us editing this mess trying to fit atrocity x into this fork. PasswordUsername (talk) 21:03, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

This is not a fork, it is a subject of sufficient substance to have its own article. It can easily be referenced from a more general article on genocide. That's how an encyclopedia works. And please don't be facetious on top of being sarcastic. VЄСRUМВА  ♪  00:42, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

If Communist genocide is not intended to be a concept then the article is merely a collection of genocides or alleged genocides that occurred in countries that happened to be Communist. But then there would be no reason for this article, since all the events should already be covered in other articles. The Four Deuces (talk) 20:25, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

If there is a need for this article, it should say merely the following.

"Communist genocide" is a term used by some sources (ref) to describe mass killings perpetrated by various communist regimes. Whether the term is appropriate is subject to debate among the historians and politicians (refs). Its usage is considered to be politically motivated in some cases.(refs)

See? Very concise. No need for the current bloat, no need for the definition for a non-existing concept anymore... Everyone finally admitted (see the section above) that there is no such concept as communist genocide, it is merely a phrase used for "genocide by the communist regimes". (Igny (talk) 20:47, 3 September 2009 (UTC))

"Communist genocide" is quite (and more) aptly descriptive of genocide by (self-professed) communists leading (declared to be so) communist regimes including such genocide extolled to advance the communist cause. "Communist genocide" is much shorter. "Communist genocide" is not a term with various meanings and just political anyway. (Seems I've heard this argument about more than one topic at least with regard to the former Soviet Union and its less glorious aspects.) VЄСRUМВА  ♪  20:56, 3 September 2009 (UTC) VЄСRUМВА  ♪  20:56, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

The term Communist Genocide is actually a concept used by the far right Christian Identity movement, and one of their writers, Willie Martin, wrote about it in his book Communism a Jewish Talmudic Concept Know your enemy.[6] This is the only systematic use of the concept I can find. The Four Deuces (talk) 22:05, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Is this a joke? The term Communist Genocide is used only once in the source you provided, then you claim "This is the only systematic use of the concept I can find". --Martintg (talk) 23:06, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

I must say I genuinely admire your (The Four Deuces') tracking down a crackpot anti-Jewish supremacy tome (I think the title says it all) and your sheer gall in suggesting it's a scholarly source—and that it's the only one you can find on "communist genocide." VЄСRUМВА  ♪  00:47, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

(out) That's just the preface to the book and it does connect Communist genocide to an underlying agenda. The Four Deuces (talk) 23:11, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

You think I don't know how to use a search tool? The term Communist Genocide is used exactly once in the entire book you cited. --Martintg (talk) 23:17, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

That's just the preface to the book. The rest of the book is not available on line. As for your google search, if any of those books contain a definition of Communist genocide then please add it. So far I can only find the concept defined in far right publications. The Four Deuces (talk) 23:49, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

By your logic, "Communist nationalization" would also require a definition to not be WP:SYNTH. It's quite clear what communist genocide is from the plethora of sources which discusss historical instances of it as well as its use as a tool of oppression and control. "Please show me an exact definition" is just one big red herring. VЄСRUМВА  ♪  00:37, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Communist nationalization would in fact be WP:SYN if there were no reliable sources that discussed the topic. But with a simple google search I find "Another fundamental communist principle was the nationalization of the means of production".[7] This is in the book Building capitalism published by the Cambridge University Press. The book explains why Communists nationalized linking it to Communist theory but there are certainly better sources for this subject that relate to the implimentation of Communism rather than its dismantling. But when I look for Communist genocide I do not find it in mainstream sources. The Four Deuces (talk) 01:07, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

You are not likely to find a "definition" for "Polish bank robbery" stated as such either (to use an analogy already used...). It's clear from sources discussing communist genocide what is included in communist genocide regarding acts and polity. (And no, that's not facetious per my comments to PasswordUsername.) VЄСRUМВА  ♪  01:43, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

That's not a good analogy. A better one would be Communist bank robbery. The Four Deuces (talk) 03:56, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

The Four Deuces has been generous enough to include sources which discuss this matter. However, that is not required of those who seek to exclude information from Wikipedia. The burden of proof lies with those seeking inclusion, as you can see in the very first section of WP:V, 'Burden of evidence].

Please show that "Communist genocide refers to mass killings of particular categories of the population carried out by communist regimes, which may be considered genocide".

Note that although the two sources following this very first sentence in the article do use the phrase in a sentence, they in no way define it, nor show how killings carried out by communist regimes are therefore communist genocide.

If this cannot be shown, may I suggest that another title which can be verified be used for this article. Anarchangel (talk) 07:41, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

RFC Comment: RCF Requesters should not be making comments in RFC sections, the point of an RFC is to elicit external commentary. Fifelfoo (talk) 15:36, 14 September 2009 (UTC)

RFC Comment: There is no definition of Communist genocide as the humanities and discourse analysis based social sciences define major terms only when used and definitions are only applicable to the work they are defined within; there are a series of events labelled or prosecuted as genocide by other governments or historians which were conducted by communists. Article is full of Synthesis and OR. Article is a mess. Section on "Soviet Famines" is ¶10 long, despite having a main article. Split content on prosecutions into existing article or new article "Prosecutions of communists for genocide." Rename this article to Communist genocides (lower case, plural). Use this article title for: systematic academic thesis regarding the relationship of Communism in general and genocide, only accepting sources in peer reviewed journals and monographs / edited collections from scholarly publishing houses; a one para list of "Main article" sections at the very end, being no more than "where, when, which government; when labelled / accused of genocide by a court or modern government"; restrict non-scholarly works to a section "In Polemic" equivalent to an "In Popular Culture" Fifelfoo (talk) 15:36, 14 September 2009 (UTC)

Discussions of communist genocide

1. "Eradication of the Middle Class," St. Petersburg Times, Saturday, August 11, 1951

Editorial discussion of discussions of communist genocide

Comments below, please. VЄСRUМВА  ♪  01:04, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Well at least it uses the term and says it is a policy. So we can use this source for the lead. The Four Deuces (talk) 01:13, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

This definitely has to be included as a nice example of how the term was used in an anti-communist propaganda at the beginning of the Cold War and peak of McCarthyism. Who was the author of this brilliant piece? (Igny (talk) 01:39, 4 September 2009 (UTC))

That's interesting indeed, something that may have looked like an anti-communist propaganda piece back in the 50's turned out to be an underestimated fact of life since Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn published his The Gulag Archipelago, that literally shocked the western world. Just that it's not the 50's any more and the facts are well available in a number of modern scholarly sources already provided in the article.--Termer (talk) 02:04, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

something that may have looked like an anti-communist propaganda . Of course it looked like propaganda. Because it was propaganda. (Igny (talk) 02:44, 4 September 2009 (UTC))

Says who?--Termer (talk) 02:51, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Well, I am not inclined to search for rebuttals or criticism of this article, or some deep analysis published in peer-reviewed journal literally calling that piece an anti-communist propaganda. I merely apply WP:SPADE here. How would you call an anonymous editorial filled with hateful agenda? Are you really going to use this propaganda as a source? What's next? You will allow me to present the Krokodil articles as news reports? (Igny (talk) 03:04, 4 September 2009 (UTC))

an anti-communist propaganda? The idea of the article right from the beginning is to urge the US ratify the genocide convention. And the first in line are the Nazi crimes against Jews and then second on the list are the Soviet crimes: The Washington Jewish Community Council declaring that the Communist genocide policy is aimed at eliminating the entire middle class- " a socially hostile element etc.. So the bottom line again, the article urges the US to ratify the UN genocide convention and complains that "the US holds back this action". And you're calling it an anti-communist propaganda? Why only anti-communist propaganda, it addresses also the nazi crimes, so perhaps this is an anti Nazi-Communist propaganda in order to get the US ratify the UN convention? --Termer (talk) 03:09, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Somehow you neglect to mention the reasons for delay of the US ratification. You thought because of love towards the Soviet Union? No. A quote:The long delay in U.S. ratification of the Genocide Convention reflected continued disagreements among lawyers and politicians about the concept of genocide. Some U.S. senators were concerned, especially during the Korean War and the Vietnam War, that U.S. officials might come under frivolous accusations of genocide.(Igny (talk) 03:17, 4 September 2009 (UTC))

So what is it now, an anti-American propaganda piece?--Termer (talk) 04:03, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Israeli opinion

From [8]

Some countries of the Eastern Europe and the CIS, following the instructions from Washington and PACE, insist that 'both totalitarian regimes are equally responsible for unleashing the war'. Here I should quote Efraim Zurov, director of the Israeli branch of Simon Wiesenthal Center, who said that by equating crimes committed by Hitler to those of the Communists, the governments of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have practically invalidated the former. “The idea is the following: by talking about Communist genocide to distract public attention from the extermination of the Jews by the Baltic armies during the Nazi occupation... When the EU, US, Israel and all the Jews living worldwide failed to make the Baltic states take responsibility for the Holocaust, the Baltic governments launched their campaign of equating Nazism to Communism”, Zurov says.

Any comments? (Igny (talk) 02:56, 4 September 2009 (UTC))

Sure: Please see Resolution on Stalin riles Russia at BBC: "OSCE parliamentary resolution has condemned both Stalinism and fascism for starting World War II and called for a day of remembrance for victims of both Stalinism and Nazism on August 23. The Russian representatives in response to the resolution threatened the OSCE with "harsh consequences"."--Termer (talk) 03:18, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for the off-topic comment. Any comment on the israeli position?(Igny (talk) 03:48, 4 September 2009 (UTC))

The source you gave above was no "israeli position" but an opinion piece called "World War II History: Weapon of Informational War Against Russia" by Nikolai Dimlevich. And please stop posting off-topic questions.--Termer (talk) 03:59, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Nice attempt to hijack and stall the discussion by posting off-topic comments. Regarding your false counter-accusation of me being off-topic... stop being childish. (Igny (talk) 04:08, 4 September 2009 (UTC))

How exactly is an opinion piece "Weapon of Informational War Against Russia" that you managed to turn into an "Israeli opinion" claiming nonsense about "extermination of the Jews by the Baltic armies during the Nazi occupation" related to the current article? In case you feel this "extermination of the Jews by the Baltic armies during the Nazi occupation" is a fact, why don't you start an article about it and then I can comment this at the Afd.--Termer (talk) 04:13, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Well this article directly blames Baltic states (do not take it too personally) for waging the informational war against Russia, specifically for popularization of the term "Communist Genocide", citing the Holocaust in Baltic states as a reason. The Holocaust in Baltic states did take place, as it took nearly everywhere under the rule of Nazi Germany, I do not understand why you are arguing against that, are you a Holocaust denier? It is also a common knowledge why Israel does not recognize Holodomor as a genocide for example. That is for the same reason, equating USSR with Nazi Germany is wrong. (Igny (talk) 04:22, 4 September 2009 (UTC))

OK, let me put it this way, the above is nothing more more less that your other similar edits elsewhere claiming that the symbol of the Latvian Air Force during World War II was a swastika and They largely ignore the key role of the Latvians in the establishment and defense of Soviet power during the Russian Civil War etc.[9]. Other than that, wrong or right: equating USSR with Nazi Germany question should be taken to OSCE for example.--Termer (talk) 04:30, 4 September 2009 (UTC)
PS. and hope I don't need to explain the difference between "The Holocaust in Baltic states did take place, as it took nearly everywhere under the rule of Nazi Germany" vs. "extermination of the Jews by the Baltic armies during the Nazi occupation".--Termer (talk) 04:34, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Well unfortunately, you do not understand what the primary mission of "Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe" was when it was created. It clearly had no authority over judging USSR's actions during WW2. Neither does the EU parliament for example. They all can make politically motivated accusations of course. But they lack the authority for the accusations to stick. (Igny (talk) 04:47, 4 September 2009 (UTC))

My understanding or not is irrelevant in the context including on the presumed authority of the OSCE or the EU parliament etc. Our job here is to cite the facts the way they appear in the published sources, and not to comment on it in our opinions.--Termer (talk) 05:01, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Encyclopedia of Genocide

A quote:

Of course, saying that a state or a regime is a murderer is a convenient personification of an abstraction. Regimes are in reality people with the power to command a whole society. It is these people who have committed the kilo- and mega- murders of our century and we must not hide their identity under the abstractions of "state", "regime", "government", "communism".

Then it proceeds discussing Stalin, Hitler, Mao. (Igny (talk) 03:57, 4 September 2009 (UTC))

So what are you suggesting, that this article be split into Stalinist genocide, Maoist genocide, etc, etc? --Martintg (talk) 06:19, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Not necessarily, but I definitely want the quote to be included here. Don't you see that the coverage of this topic is lopsided here? Oh wait, what else to expect from a POV-titled article? (Igny (talk) 17:29, 4 September 2009 (UTC))

Proposed lead

Combining two sources to make it fair and balanced I have come up with the following:

According to an op-ed in the Aug 11, 1951 St. Petersburg Times "information seeping from beneath the Soviet Iron Curtain indicates that genocide is an official policy of the Red governments". It quoted a Washington Jewish Community Council memorandum published the previous month in the Washington Post that "declared that the Communist genocide policy is aimed at eliminating the entire middle class - 'a socially hostile' element." However in 2009 Efraim Zurov, director of the Israeli branch of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, claimed that equating crimes committed by Hitler to those of the Communists invalidated his crimes.

Any comments on using this for the lead?

The Four Deuces (talk) 04:29, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Basically this variant is mixing two opposite opinions into one paragraph. Both should be mentioned but for different reasons further down the article and not in the lead. (Igny (talk) 04:54, 4 September 2009 (UTC))

Agree with Igny. The only thing, any quotes from Efraim Zurov would need to come from a more reliability place than an article claiming ridiculous things like "the West is using all means to diminish the role of the Soviet Union in the WW II" etc.--Termer (talk) 05:18, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Well this is a reliable source nonetheless (in contrast to the anonymous propaganda piece from St.Petersburg Times), and we can always attribute the claim to the specific person (Dimlevich), and you just argued about not voicing our opinion about the sources. Unfortunately I could not get the full text of Zuroff's original article in Jerusalem Post to quote him directly (I do not want to pay for the article), but I read quite a lot of other articles which generally regard Zuroff as an established Holocaust historian, and one article had an extensive review of the whole Zuroff controversy over the Holocaust denial in Baltic states and harboring the Nazi collaborators there. (Igny (talk) 07:12, 4 September 2009 (UTC))

The closest I got to Zuroff's opinion was here. Does not mention the communist genocide, but does say about diverting the attention from Balt's collaboration with Nazists. (Igny (talk) 07:17, 4 September 2009 (UTC))

Ok, here it is (found from Efraim Zuroff). Quotes:

Since 1991, in meetings with senior Baltic officials, in response to our demands that they acknowledge the extensive scope of Baltic collaboration in Nazi crimes, prosecute local Nazi war criminals and rewrite the history textbooks to accurately reflect this reality, they always tried to divert the discussion to their suffering under the Russian occupation and the role of Jewish communists in Soviet crimes.

Another related phenomenon was that Baltic leaders consistently repeated the historically inaccurate mantra that communist crimes were genocidal.

(Igny (talk) 07:27, 4 September 2009 (UTC))

here is a full story that also addresses the claims above by presenting alternative POV-s: Estonia Accuses Ex-Official of Genocide "Many countries formerly in the Soviet sphere have tried to force an assessment of the crimes and privations of Communist times. The Russian government has generally resisted.Many Russians have been critical of these efforts at reassessment, however, and have accused countries once under the Kremlin’s sway, including Estonia, of not pursuing a full account of some of their citizens’ collaborations with the Nazis. Mr. Arpo, the Security Police Board superintendent, disagreed, saying that Nazi cases are more difficult to pursue in lands formerly occupied by the Soviet Union because the K.G.B. had already disposed of many cases."Both regimes were criminal and committed criminal acts and brought suffering to the Estonian people,” he said. “But the local K.G.B. couldn’t find any more evidence against the Nazi collaborators.","We haven’t found it either,” he added. “And the K.G.B. was a much larger organization than we are and had powers and methods, shall we say, that are not available to a Western democratic country."--Termer (talk) 13:45, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Clearly it is not a full story at all as it does not mention Zuroff at all, let alone rebut his statements. (Igny (talk) 13:50, 4 September 2009 (UTC))

Zuroff has also written elsewhere how evidence of Nazi atrocities by Baltic states' citizens - provided by Jewish groups in the 1990s and 2000s - was conveniently "lost" by "incompetent officials" from what I read months ago. PasswordUsername (talk) 14:44, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

In the context of "prosecute local Nazi war criminals" + anything cited above, Zuroff's claims have never been any different than the ones coming from the Kremlin. But sure, in case you're after a source that addresses claims made by Zuroff directly, those going to be added as well.--Termer (talk) 13:57, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Sure, even though it sounds like a threat in order to convince me not to include his opinion. By the way you just pointed to one of the biases of the current article. Somehow it lacks Kremlin's opinion on the matter. Or you think it does not deserve coverage? (Igny (talk) 16:37, 4 September 2009 (UTC))

Here's another version for the lead:

Communist genocide refers to the alleged policy of Communist governments to eliminate the entire middle class as a "socially hostile" element. The use of the term genocide has been criticised for invalidating genocide by Nazi Germany.

The Four Deuces (talk) 14:54, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

"Suspected" Nazi collaborators

I do not understand why this term is under debate. It is taken from the source where it is used not to blame someone specifically but rather to describe a certain class of people, "suspected Nazi collaborators" are just that a group of people who were believed to be the Nazi collaborators. Why is it so important to say who believed that? Essentially it is the same as used the who template on the phrase "jailed criminals", jailed by whom? Who cares, the criminals were jailed, so they are now "jailed criminals". (Igny (talk) 04:38, 4 September 2009 (UTC))

In democratic societies there is something called Presumption of innocence: In case you want to accuse somebody, feel free, but you can't go around and claim things out of the thin air , especially on an encyclopedia unlike some editorials may do it. So what criminals, who convicted and jailed them for doing what? And on "suspected Nazi collaborators", who exactly suspected someone being a "Nazi collaborator"? Otherwise one can declare anybody a "Nazi collaborator" or a "suspected Nazi collaborator" , and that is exactly what has been happening with this in the article.--Termer (talk) 04:47, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

Didn't Stalin deport entire nations like the Chechens and the Crimea Tatars on the pretext of them being "Nazi collaborators"? It is a fact that demonizing the target people is a feature of genocidal regimes, we all know how the Nazis demonized the Jewish people. --Martintg (talk) 06:25, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

That has no bearing on what we're talking about. It simply the given fact that all reputable sources (from TerrorismCentral to the BBC) describe the class of victims as "suspected Nazi collaborators." The sources are all given. PasswordUsername (talk) 08:30, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

For wikipedia purposes it still needs to clarify exactly suspected them.--Termer (talk) 13:48, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

You just made up a Wikipedia rule, didn't you? (Igny (talk) 14:46, 4 September 2009 (UTC))

I would say the people who arrested them. The word suspected, assumes that there are charges against you that have yet to be proven. Here's a Google Search on the term's usage: http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q=%22Suspected+Nazi+War+Criminals%22+&aq=f&aqi=&oq=&fp=6d02e072335ea48a HistoricWarrior007 (talk) 21:42, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Merging article

I note that an editor has removed the merge templates without discussion with the notation No consensus to merge despite lengthy discussion. Please note the policy for closing a merger discussion:

To provide clarity that the merger discussion is over and that a consensus has been reached, it may be important to close and then archive the proposal discussion. To close a merger proposal discussion, indicate the outcome at the top. If the merger is particularly controversial, one may take the optional step of requesting closure by an uninvolved administrator at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard.[10]

This procedure has not been followed. A consensus must be reached before the tags may be removed. In this case an administrator should be involved. I will therefore replace the tags.

The Four Deuces (talk) 14:20, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

User:Peltimikko has now removed the merger tag and I have reported this incident to the Administrators' noticeboard.[11] The Four Deuces (talk) 16:02, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

(out) This notice is now archived.[12] The Four Deuces (talk) 23:10, 5 September 2009 (UTC)

The proposal has now been up for a month. I have put a note on the admin board requesting that an admin remove it, so we can move on with other ways to improve this article: Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard#Close gridlocked merger discussion. --Anderssl (talk) 18:14, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

New title proposal

I suggest that this article be retitled "Genocides under communist regimes".

This would help to keep both sides happy. One side does not like the concept of "communist genocide", as it implies something inherently communistic about the mass murders under various regimes, which would be as inadmissible as "capitalist colonialism" and thereby "capitalist genocide", although there's lots of academic work analysing the connection between capital and the expansion of European empires around the world.

There is also the problem of which regimes are actually communist. Many argue that Stalin was no more a genuine communist than North Korea is a People's Republic; a good number of third world regimes were "communist" because that's how they got money and expertise out of the Soviets.

The other side is correct in that communist government as a historical, rather than a theoretical phenomenon, has often resulted in mass murder. You cannot ignore the cultural revolution or Stalin's purges, or Pol Pot.

The only objection would be that "communist genocide" is a concept in acadaemia. It really isn't, not amongst decent academics, any more than "capitalist atrocity", although you'll find that in google books as well. You also find "sad fish" 210 times. What there is, in acadaemia, is an analysis of why (at least nominally) communist regimes so often resulted in mass murder and death. Such analyses could be a section in the article.

This seems to me the most honest way of moving forward (although I personally don't like "genocide" as I think the term really only applies to the killings of ethnic groups). Detach genocide from the theory of communism (in the title anyway), but keep the link to its practice in history. Any thoughts? VsevolodKrolikov (talk) 03:44, 5 September 2009 (UTC)

There are already articles about genocides, so if the theory of Communist genocide is omitted then this article becomes redundant and should be deleted. Otherwise the theory should be explained, even if it is fringe. The Four Deuces (talk) 04:40, 5 September 2009 (UTC)

I don't like the idea that Stalin and North Korea aren't really Communist. Who else isn't Communist? Lenin? Trotsky? Derzhinsky? Marx and Engels?? "Red terror" seems to be a fundamental idea of many Communists, starting with Lenin, if not before. Smallbones (talk) 05:04, 5 September 2009 (UTC)

There already is an article about Red terror. And a disambiguation page: Red Terror (disambiguation).

PasswordUsername (talk) 07:24, 5 September 2009 (UTC)

We should merge this article with the Red Terror then. Btw VsevolodKrolikov did not say they were not Communist but that they were not communist. We need to decide which this article is about. The Four Deuces (talk) 07:27, 5 September 2009 (UTC)

Should we? The article (or the main article, rather) is about a specific period. And we have more articles for the other atrocities. What this article attempts to do is aggregate them all under one place, somehow linking each to genocide because they were communist. We are here, of course, because it was initially argued that "communist genocide" is a meaningful scholarly term. (Not least because "communist genocide" occured in tons of Google hits, as VsevolodKrolikov noted.) PasswordUsername (talk) 07:36, 5 September 2009 (UTC)

Passwordusername misses my point by (sorry, but) about 180 degrees. There are lots of non-notable phrases that get lots of hits on google books. That is no grounds for there to be an article. The following phrases all receive more hits than "communist genocide": "inscrutable Chinese", "sins of capitalism", "British intransigence". Someone needs to produce an academic text that develops the concept properly.

Reviewing the discussion above, it appears that people do not agree that this article is a historical account of mass killings that happened under regimes calling themselves communist. Yet the article as it stands is about nothing else, and in a manner which is just a big content fork (notably about the holodomor) mixed up with a bit of WP:SYNTH trying to shoe-horn the concept of genocide in. Nowhere is there representation of established academic analysis of the concept of "communist genocide", and there is no attempt to give sources that analyse how the mass killing that happened under the regimes as distinctly communist as opposed to the sort of mass killings that went on under Saddam Hussein, the Argentinian junta, Pinochet or any others. The Holodomor isn't even established as a "genocide" (without taking away the horror of what happened). It even lists regimes that are only dubiously communist, and without irony mentions the communist Vietnamese removal of the communist Pol Pot to halt genocide. The inclusion of the invasion of Tibet in this article is unjustified. There is nothing communist, and everything about Han Chinese imperialism in that action. Without a coherent principle tying this article together, there are no clear criteria for what deaths should or should not be included. It's simply not encyclopaedic.

As for Smallbones' surprise that many don't consider Stalin's regime communist in terms of the actual political theory, I would refer to the great schism in the communist movement across the world after the invasion of Hungary and Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin (i.e. that once it was clear what Stalin had been up to, many communist movements rejected the Soviet Union). Nor should the hereditary succession in North Korea particularly be considered a case of the workers' control of the means of production, or the dictatorship of the proletariat. Again, there is an argument that communism will always degrade into oppressive military dictatorship, but far from all communist societies that did so indulged in genocide, and many non-communist ones did commit genocide. The crucial point is that there is nothing particularly in communism to suggest that genocide is necessary per se, but everything in maintaining an anti-democratic regime in power.VsevolodKrolikov (talk) 15:52, 5 September 2009 (UTC)

Under WP policy, this article should not exist. However in the AfD discussion[13] it was defended on the basis that Communist genocide was an accepted term in academic literature. Please read my comments in the following section. The Four Deuces (talk) 16:40, 5 September 2009 (UTC)

VK makes some good points here. I still think this article should be deleted, or merged into other articles. In present form it should not be allowed to stay. Offliner (talk) 09:02, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

(od) To VsevolodKrolikov, whether we believe these were "dubious" in relationship to classical Marxist communist regimes is immaterial. They claimed roots in Marxism and called themselves communist/socialist. To claim communist genocide is not communist genocide because these were "dubius" communists is the WP:OR and WP:SYNTH here. VЄСRUМВА  ♪  13:27, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

So I presume you consider the DDR to have been democratic, or for that matter the 1936 Soviet Constitution. Claims and reality are not the same.VsevolodKrolikov (talk) 05:14, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Articles for deletion policy

This article is one of countless examples of WP:SYN articles in Wikipedia, and I would suggest that editors who are concerned about this should contribute to the discussion at WP:Areas for Reform#Can our deletion policy be clearer, and the process more efficient?. I commented there before I even heard about this article:

Many new users will create articles that represent original thought, e.g., fascist cooking, which is not currently an article. In the hypothetical article they will explain their views and other writers will add details so that the result will be a fully sourced article but with no central definition so that it becomes pure WP:SYN and WP:OR. However if anyone applies to delete the article, there is a hardcore that follows WP:AfD who will provide no end of argument why the article should be kept. A Google search for fascist cooking returns 215 hits.[14] What about the Soup Nazi? We now have a large number of articles about subjects for which there is no clear meaning in the academic world, although often used as neologisms in academic books. The Four Deuces (talk) 21:21, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

Others may of course see this differently. But it would be helpful to develop the types of guidelines that would avoid the types of discussion we have had on this page.

The Four Deuces (talk) 15:26, 5 September 2009 (UTC)

I came here from the main RFC page asking for comments from users with no involvement in the subject. That's me. I would class the term Communist genocide as a neologism which only exists to promote a point of view. On the same page is a request for comments on the article Islamofascism. That article looks almost perfect to me if we are allowing articles on terms which are inherently slanted.

If policy disallows such articles, these should both be deleted. If they are to be allowed, they should follow the pattern of Islamofascism: a description of how the term is used, who uses it, their reasoning, and the reasoning of critics. The current 'Communist genocide' goes beyond this by describing in detail specific historical events which the author claims (POV here) are capable of being covered by the term. A brief list of examples would be tolerable, if justified by sources which attach the term to the events, but the description of the events themselves should be in the specific articles relating to those events.

By the way, I would suggest that in the mainstream English language, "communist" and "Communist" mean the same thing and have done for 60 years or more. Sussexonian (talk) 14:14, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

"Communist genocide" is not a WP invented neologism if it is used as a term to refer to communist genocide (!) in hundreds of scholarly books. Please explain how this article is inventing a term never used before. At a more fundamental level, "communist genocide" is not a "term," it is an "act." With regard to my own ethnic background, there were Lativans who collaborated with the Nazis in the Holocaust. "Latvian genocide against Jews" in that instance is not a neologism, it is the simple description of an act. "Communist genocide" in the context of this article is no different. There are other parts of the puzzle, that is, in how Marxist theory was co-opted into the service of genocide, that belong in the article as well to construct the whole. There is absolutely no basis for deleting this article or contending it's about a vapid meaningless "term." VЄСRUМВА  ♪  13:37, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Notice that there is no article called Latvian genocide, instead the article is called The Holocaust in Latvia, because there is no assumption that genocide is a defining feature of being Latvian. But Latvia is just one country, while Communism held power in various countries. There is no synthesizing article that connects Latvia with other countries, e.g., Christian genocide, Lutheran genocide, capitalist genocide. The Four Deuces (talk) 15:17, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Here is the distinction between "Communism" and "communism" from Sara Diamond's book about the radical right, Roads to Dominion (1995):

Here I adopt the distinction Joel Kovel made in his insightful book Red Hunting in the Promised Land between Communism and communism. Following Kovel, I use uppercase "C" Communism to refer to actually existing governments and movements and lowercase "c" communism to refer to the varied movements and political currents organized around the ideal of a classless society.[15]

Essentially big "C" Communism refers to parties that were associated with the Communist International.

The Four Deuces (talk) 15:44, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for finally giving the source on this, but the fact that some authors use this distinction doesn't make it universally true (just as if some authors use the term "Communist genocide", that doesn't make it a universally accepted concept). Capital letter is generally used in English for proper nouns, as well as certain other cases. 'Communism' is not a proper noun. --Anderssl (talk) 21:22, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Vecrumba, I cannot find any books that discuss or define Communist genocide and it is not in any political dictionaries I have seen. I know that the two words are sometimes strung together but it always refers to genocide actually or allegedly committed by specific Communist regimes. The only souce I could find that describes the concept is from Christian Identity writing. The Four Deuces (talk) 17:52, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

"no communist country or governing body has ever been convicted of genocide"

OK, someone keeps adding this ridiculous statement to the article: "no communist country or governing body has ever been convicted of genocide". OK, in case anybody knows of any countries or "governing bodies" that have been "convicted of genocide", please let me know. So far it has been possible to convict in crimes only on individual-, not on collective or institutional basis. to spell it out, it is possible to convict a person in crime, not a "body" of any kind. But since my attempts to remove or tag this nonsense for a citation needed has failed, I hope that someone else takes care of this absurd statement and removes it ASAP. Thanks!--Termer (talk) 06:53, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

I do not believe that it is merely a function of relative points of view that I also find the focus of this article, the lead sentence, and attributions throughout the article referring to "communist genocide", all assuming that it is a scholarly term established by a solid definition and good use, ridiculous. The uses of this term in the article are based on assumption and no good evidence, and I have provided an argument to the contrary. Scoff if you like, but an impartial observer will surely find that reason beats assumption every time. Also, see the RFC above, and my note on the premature closure of the previous RFC by archiving below, for more serious issues which I do not want this reply to derail. Anarchangel (talk) 07:41, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

Considering the Soviet Union forced their genocidal acts out of the definition of genocide adopted by the United Nations under threat of vetoing the whole thing, that merits inclusion as well and, at least to my mind, is quite frankly an admission of guilt (and has been seen as such in scholarly sources). VЄСRUМВА  ♪  13:41, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Archiving of ongoing RFC

RFC started 13 Aug archived 1 Sept Anarchangel (talk) 07:41, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

AKA Aristocide

Aristocide As a Force In History by Nathaniel Weyl (A member of the Communist Party of the United States from 1933 until 1939) published by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute has following to say on the subject:

Communist genocide in the Soviet Union has gone though several stages. The avowed policy of the Bolsheviks was to liquidate the propertied classes and all their auxiliaries. Thus, the revolution and the ensuing civil war destroyed or dispersed the vast majority of the nobility, the bureaucracy, the officer corps and the intellectuals. The second stage of aristocide was a series of purges executed by both Lenin and Stalin, which liquidated those left wing and socialist intellectuals and politicians who opposed the Bolshevik demand for total power. A third stage was the elimination of the kulaks and the petit bourgeoisie who had flourished briefly under Lenin's New Economic Policy (NEP). While these last victims were certainly not a part of the intellectual elite, they were superior to the rural and industrial proletariat who were the supposed beneficiaries of their demise. The last stage to date was the great Stalinst purges of the 1930's, which decimated the entire Soviet military, political and economic establishment and destroyed those Bolshevik cadres whse total loyalty to Stalin was in doubt. Toward the end of Stalins dark tyrannical rule a through liquidation of Jewis intellectuals occurred and the deportation of Russia's two and a half million Jews to Siberia en masse was apparently contemplated.

--Termer (talk) 04:37, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Just keep googling and you will find even more neologisms (new=forgotten old applies here). How about classicide? It is said it was coined in 2005 by some guy but clearly that guy just wanted the credit. Here is another one - middleclassicide, wait, there are more how about kulakicide...(Igny (talk) 05:12, 9 September 2009 (UTC))

You mention Weyl's communist party membership, but omit his later campaigning anti-communism.(And indeed his opposition to miscegenation and support for segregation and eugenics etc. etc.)VsevolodKrolikov (talk) 05:17, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

All of this shows that Communist genocide is a major concept in conspiracy theories. The Four Deuces (talk) 10:32, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Any fact Weyl has pointed out can be confirmed by any source on the subject. In case you you don't like the fact that Weyl calls the mass killings 'Communist genocide', that's another story and I have always agreed that the article could be called "mass killings by Communist regimes" or anything similar instead. Just that my attempt to rename the article was instantly reverted [16].
RE: VsevolodKrolikov, what are you after, someone needs to be a communist for life in order to have a say on the subject?
RE:The Four Deuces, why don't you refer to secondary sources claiming that 'Communist genocide' is a conspiracy theory and such things can be added to the artcle pr. WP:YESPOV--Termer (talk) 13:03, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

[17], [18]. What's about Israeli position regarding the "Jew-Communist genocide" ([19]). Read about Chomsky versus communist genocide too. Is it all covered in this article? (Igny (talk) 13:36, 9 September 2009 (UTC))

An interesting quote:

This reality, of the unbelievable terror that the Nazis practiced in the Soviet Union, against the first socialist country, against the Communists, is almost systematically covered up or minimized in bourgeois litterature. This silence has a clear goal. Those who do not know of the monstrous crimes committed against the Soviets are more likely to believe that Stalin was a "dictator" comparable to Hitler. The bourgeoisie covers up the real anti-Communist genocide to better publicize what it has in common with Nazism, the irrational hatred of Communism, the class hatred of socialism

(Igny (talk) 13:43, 9 September 2009 (UTC))

Good choices on the sources Igny! here is more about the book ::His book, published by the pro-Communist "Progress Publishers in Toronto, appeared practically at the same time Ukrainian Communist party leader Volodymyr Shcherbytsky publicly acknowledged the Famine, in December 1987. As a result the book was subsequently withdrawn from circulation. Nevertheless, the book is available on the internet, and continues to be cited as an "invaluable" and "important" book by groups such as the Stalin Society in Great Britain, author Jeff Coplon, and others." Please see Douglas Tottle FFI.--Termer (talk) 03:00, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Termer, if you omit that someone became an avid anti-communist, and furthermore, don't see it as a source of bias that someone became an avid anti-communist campaigner, then you need your judgement recalibrated. For those who do not like the title and focus of this article, it is not a question of WP:IDONTLIKEIT on our part. There has still not been found a proper academic source that employs the concept of communist genocide. The definition part of this article doesn't even attempt to pretend that such a concept has common currency. Now, no one is denying that there were mass killings under communist regimes. Several editors, myself included have suggested a retitling to that effect. It was, alas, rejected by those pretending that there is a serious academic concept of "communist genocide" as part of communist theory, a fact which has not been established. It's actually a case of you falling foul of WP:ILIKEIT. I suspect you know that yourself.VsevolodKrolikov (talk) 14:34, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Actually, that is not quite correct. The renaming of the article has been blocked by a few users who think this article should rather be deleted or merged, and who do not want to compromise. As far as I have noticed, all or nearly all of the "supporters" of this article have declared themselves willing to compromise on a new title. Although I agree with a lot of the criticism of the article, it is actually a few of the critics who are the main obstacles to improving it. --Anderssl (talk) 15:19, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

"Communist genocide" is no more a "concept" as "Polish fishing." "Communist genocide" is a simple descriptive phrase of an act. What is a concept is the conceiving of genocide as an instrument of the state, which is a sub-plot. VЄСRUМВА  ♪  15:13, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

No, it is not "a simple descriptive phrase". If it were it would be easy for us all to agree on what it meant - and that is clearly not the case, judging by the ongoing debate. --Anderssl (talk) 15:19, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Vecrumba, it's not me that's way off the track here. If it was only descriptive, then it would be acceptable to change the title to "mass killings under communist regimes". However, if you look at the discussions on the topic, there are those who oppose this because they want to put forward the idea that there is something inherent in communism that leads to these killings. There isn't the RS to back this up of course, and you'll see that the definition section in the article is OR, but AfDs have reached stalemate, and thus the status quo.VsevolodKrolikov (talk) 15:22, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

RE:that there is a serious academic concept of "communist genocide" as part of communist theory, a fact which has not been established -who says that wikipedia articles need to be based on "academic concepts as part of communist theory"? Please see Wikipedia:Five pillars FFI. Now, on Communist genocide, it's a term used by a number of secondary published sources cited also in the article and an encyclopedia as Wikipedias job is to describe the term to it's readers what it means exactly. Now, in case anybody feels the sources are too much anti-communist, why don't you add simply the pro-Communist POV pr WP:YESPOV to the article so that the article could be balanced better if you think it's not?--Termer (talk) 02:41, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

PS. on there is something inherent in communism that leads to these killings... There isn't the RS to back this up of course. Every serious RS on the subject tells the same story: All Communist regimes have physically eliminated the cultural and economical elite, political opposition etc. anybody opposing the Communist demand for total power in their societies and that's been justified by the theory of class struggle.--Termer (talk) 02:41, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

It is impossible to balance an article with inherently POV title. Your suggestion to fill it with claims and counter-claims is not balancing POV either. Following your suggestion I too could create an article on Baltic fascism for example and ask you to just add YES/NO POV claims. (Igny (talk) 02:56, 10 September 2009 (UTC))

Please take the complaint about POV title to User:PasswordUsername who reverted my attempt to rename the article [20]. On Baltic fascism , how is your desire to make such an article related to current discussion, I have no idea.--Termer (talk) 03:08, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

I would side with PU on the issue of renaming the article because I have already used this article as a grotesque example in political debates here to illustrate the Wikipedia's participation in Information warfare. Attempts to rename it could weaken my position. With Baltic fascism I just gave an example of an article with inherently POV title. How did you translate that into my intent to create one is beyond me. (Igny (talk) 03:21, 10 September 2009 (UTC))

Did I get it right, you don't think the article has a neutral title enough, yet you don't want to rename it? Sorry but in order to get a WP:consensus, you'd need to make up your mind first how would you like to improve the article exactly? Posting anything else to this talk page, sorry to remind you could be considered a violation of WP:TALK. Please follow the guideline in the future. Thanks!--Termer (talk) 03:26, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

That is such a nice and polite remark. And such profound knowledge of Wikipedia policies. I am in awe. Is there a barnstar for that? (Igny (talk) 03:32, 10 September 2009 (UTC))

User:Termer commented: "Every serious RS on the subject tells the same story: All Communist regimes have physically eliminated the cultural and economical elite." Kindly provide a source that states this and we can end the discussion. The Four Deuces (talk) 04:14, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

This statement is plain false. Some of elite was physically eliminated, some exiled, some was "reeducated through labor" in gulag, laogai, etc. But again, this was not about "elite", this was about perceived political enemies, which were a good mix of both elite and non-elite. - Altenmann >t 04:23, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Termer, if you are interested in renaming the article, perhaps we can have another go at doing that. My preferred term is "Mass killings under communist regimes", as that diffuses the problems of the term genocide being used to describe killings other than cultural/ethnic, and the presumption in the title of a tie to communist ideology, a matter for analysis in the page itself. It is true that the phrase "communist genocide" turns up in google books, but it has not been established that this is typically no more than shorthand for mass killings that took place under communist regimes. As noted above, lots of word combinations can be found in google books.btw, not all communist regimes committed mass killings; those in Central Europe did not. Not that they were nice places, of course.VsevolodKrolikov (talk) 04:34, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Sounds reasonable, but I suspect that Igny and The Four Deuces would oppose the move to "Mass killings by communist regimes". The stalemate comes from editors who oppose the existence of Communist genocide but also oppose moving the article to Communist mass killings or Mass killings by communist regimes. --Martintg (talk) 04:44, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

The problem is that we cannot have articles based on WP:SYN. If Communist genocide is a subject then it deserves its own article with a clear definition. If it is not then it should be deleted. There is no middle ground. However, User:Martintg cannot provide a clear definition although he stated that it was a clearly understood concept defined in academic literature during the AfD. If this is not the case, the article should be listed for deletion. The Four Deuces (talk) 05:26, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Why do you oppose renaming the article to either Communist mass killings or Mass killings by communist regimes as VsevolodKrolikov suggested? --Martintg (talk) 05:52, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

I would very much prefer Mass killings under communist regimes, for extra neutrality.VsevolodKrolikov (talk) 06:00, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

I may be wrong, but I think The Four Deuces would even oppose this title. Perhaps he could clarify his position. --Martintg (talk) 06:22, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Why would you have an article about Mass killings under Communist regimes if there was no connection between Mass killings and Communism? Why not just have an article called Mass killings? I propose therefore that the article be re-named Mass killings.The Four Deuces (talk) 11:53, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

My rationale for not renaming yet is here. Now could you please explain what that article would be about? Same content? Same genocide claims as here? Same ideological claims as you and your buddies are trying to push here? What is going to be the difference, only in the title? It would still remain to be a synthesis if you keep pushing the idea of that communism causes genocides/mass killings. Or is it just going to be the list of the articles like it should be? (Igny (talk) 12:07, 10 September 2009 (UTC))

I believe the definition of mass killing is a single event where four or more persons are killed by a person or persons. (There may be disagreement over the numbers but it is in this order of magnitude.) The concept is NPOV. The article would not be limited to Communist regimes and would not be limited to killings by government. However it appears that Mass killing re-directs to Mass murder. The Four Deuces (talk) 12:27, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

FourDeuces asks "Why would you have an article about Mass killings under Communist regimes if there was no connection between Mass killings and Communism?" You fail to make the distinction between big and small c communism that you made higher up the page. That there has been a historical pattern of mass killings under quite a few communist regimes is certainly the subject of historical analysis. However, it is quite simply not established that the scale of killings that happened in quite a few countries is because of communist ideology or pragmatics per se. Communist regimes can be understood as ideologically driven, or driven by circumstance and accident, or technology (the ability to monitor and kill that many people was barely possible previously), or outside threats (and the page can assemble the academic analyses). As a comparison (and I don't mean this in an "other stuff exists" way) not all foreign relations of the US have been clouded by state terror, but there is a perfectly justifiable page called United States and state terrorism.VsevolodKrolikov (talk) 15:22, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

(out) The analogy does not work. There is no article called Republics with presidential systems and state terrorism, Member nations of NATO and state terrorism, Republics with two party systems and terrorism. You must have some reason for wanting to group mass killings in Communist countries. In what way do they differ from mass killings in other countries? You stated "However, it is quite simply not established that the scale of killings that happened in quite a few countries is because of communist ideology or pragmatics per se." That statement is true. But it implies that there is a theory that killings occurred because of Communist ideology. If there is then it should be added to the article. If there is no theory then this article merely duplicates information contained in other articles. The Four Deuces (talk) 15:51, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

You are creating a false dichotomy: that the killings were either nothing to do with the particular type of government, or everything to do with the ideology.VsevolodKrolikov (talk) 15:59, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

No I am not. I am saying that either the killings had nothing to do with the ideology or had something to do with them. If they had something to do with them then there should be no problem in finding a reliable source that discusses this. Wikipedia should not be the first to draw the connection. Please see WP:SYN. The Four Deuces (talk) 16:17, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

So you are saying that the Soviet Union, Mao etc. were driven by communist ideology and nothing else? That historical circumstances that led to communist governments could have no bearing on also on the conflicts thereafter? You need to argue this (and do your own pile of SYNTH, eliminating a good deal of established scholarship) to argue that the title "Mass killings under communist regimes" can only refer to communism as an ideology and not communism as a historical phenomenon.VsevolodKrolikov (talk) 16:29, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Communism as a phenomenon would have been named something different were it not for communism the ideology, and communism the phenomenon (or incarnation if you will) could not quote communism the ideology to justify genocide as an instrument supporting the betterment of the state were it not for communism the ideology, so I would not expect these—communism as phenomenon and ideology—to be mutually exclusive in the pursuit of genocide. VЄСRUМВА  ♪  16:40, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Who said they were exclusive? By comparison: ethnic groups have been massacred in the name of Christianity, and the American way, and Islam, and Atheism. There may be some kind of connection in each of the ideologies to the killings, but it's hardly an all or nothing connection. A title should not pretend that it is.VsevolodKrolikov (talk) 17:04, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Vsev, I am not saying that Communist governments were driven by ideology and nothing else. You are now using the concept of communism as a historical phenomenon, which I think is the same as big "C" Communism. Whether these governments engaged or allegedly engaged in mass killings because of communist ideology or because of some common aspect that had non-communist origins, that common factor should be identified and sourced in the article to avoid WP:SYN. The Four Deuces (talk) 17:14, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

one of the common aspects between the genocidal goverments were the totalitarianism. I do not think anyone would argue with Mass killings under totalitarian regimes or some such. (Igny (talk) 18:24, 10 September 2009 (UTC))

The common factor has already been sourced previously in this chapter Communist mass killings in the book Final solutions: mass killing and genocide in the twentieth century By Benjamin A. Valentino, so it certainly is not WP:SYN. Rummel also makes the connection, as does Gray and several other authors. I found another paper that discusses the work of Valentino, Rummel and others in regard to the connection with communist regimes here. --Martintg (talk) 20:35, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

(od) To Igny's (was typing up in response to the outdented version...) : Mass killings under totalitarian regimes can certainly be a summary parent article. That doesn't substitute for this one, given the connections between communist ideology and communist practice leading to acts of genocide. If you're fine with the parent article, what is the problem with the child? That some editors will fight tooth and nail (my perception) not to have an article appearing on WP which links communism and genocide in the title? Consensus will be elusive if we're dancing in circles on unspoken agendas. VЄСRUМВА  ♪  21:06, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Third opinion requested

Please comment in Talk:On Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity Committed in Albania during the Communist Regime for Political, Ideological and Religious Motives#"communist genocide" law. - Altenmann >t 19:38, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Followup to merge discussion/ possible rename

I closed the merge discussion as no consensus to merge. I am sympathetic to the SYNTH and POV concerns, but merging wasn't the way to fix the problem. My suggestion would be to 1) rename this article so the title is less POV and 2) stick to discussion of historical events rather than trying to tie (mostly) unrelated event together to draw (implied) conclusions about communist governments in general.

A couple a suggested titles would be:

• Genocides committed by communist regimes
• Genocides that occurred under communist governments

Please feel free to add to this list and hopefully we can come up with a better title. --ThaddeusB (talk) 22:06, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

The alternative to renaming & editing to eliminate POV would be to split/merge the info into many articles on the individual events. This, of course, is more complicated and more work. --ThaddeusB (talk) 22:15, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for your input ThaddeusB. Previously we have had near consensus on Mass killings under communist regimes (since in many cases it is controversial whether the mass killings should be termed genocides or something else). The main argument against was that the merge debate hadn't been settled. Now that merge is not an option, do anyone still oppose the name change, or can we try to find a compromise here, in the interest of getting on to actually improving the article content? --Anderssl (talk) 22:24, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

"Communist genocide" is used in enough scholarly sources that we can concentrate on the article without merging, splitting, or renaming. Perhaps we can take a break from questions which do nothing to improve content and expend some editorial energy toward content. VЄСRUМВА  ♪  01:12, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

If so, why have you failed to produce these sources in any convincing way during this lengthy debate? For instance, in the current version of the article there is a lengthy section about China, but no explanation of what the events described have to do with 'Communist genocide'. (In stead, it actually states that scholars decline to call this genocide.) If you are having problems improving the article, is it because you are having problems finding these sources, or is the problem presenting them in a way that other people understand what you mean? There are some editors with no will to compromise here, but there is also a good bunch of open-minded people who are not convinced about these elusive sources. If you have them, then bring them into the article! --Anderssl (talk) 02:27, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Renaming the article Genocides committed by communist regimes and/or Genocides that occurred under communist governments would be a move to the wrong direction simply because it would already clearly refer to the Genocide according to the UN convention. But as we all should know, the Communist regimes worked hard and succeeded with excluding social groups from the convention. So what Genocides committed? ...unlike 'Communist genocide' that is a term used by numerous WP:RSources for the mass killings committed by the Communist regimes. And again, in case the title 'Communist genocide' bothers anybody despite the overwhelming evidence provided by the books in the reference section, I can always support a compromise: ..instead of "Communist genoside refers to mass killings committed by Communist regimes rename and rephrase it to the Mass killings committed by Communist regimes also referred to as Communist genocide... etc.--Termer (talk) 02:31, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

I have no objections to changing it to "Mass killings..." - I was merely offering up some choice to get the discussion started. --ThaddeusB (talk) 02:52, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

So lets have another requested move then, that's the only way...--Termer (talk) 02:54, 11 September 2009 (UTC)
PS. Since there is Anti-communist mass killings, perhaps Communist mass killings would be still a cleaner title than somewhat clumsy "Mass killings committed by Communist regimes...in Soviet Union, China, Cambodia etc.". Also, the phrase "Communist mass killings" is supported by sources out there [21].[22]--Termer (talk) 03:01, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Personally, I am optimistic a solution can be reached without the need of a RM. There are certainly sufficient eyes on the article for it to at least be a possibility. --ThaddeusB (talk) 03:19, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

I've been observing this discussion for a while and as far as I can tell (correct me if I am wrong) only opposition appears to be from User:The Four Deuces and User:Igny. --Martintg (talk) 04:20, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict) I don't see why some people insist on Communist~ rather than ~under communist regimes, the latter clearly being more neutral. The attestation in the literature has not been produced. Collocations in a google scholar search are not enough, as has been pointed out countless times. For the hard of understanding, "communist success", "communist dog", "communist wind", "communist sex", "communist love" and "communist food" all get more hits than "communist mass killings". You have to produce actual texts that show a discussion of the idea.VsevolodKrolikov (talk) 04:35, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

I did produce an actual text that discusses "Communist mass killings". As far as I am concerned "Communist mass killing" is just short hand for "Mass killings by/under Communist regimes", just like "Marxist ideology" is the same as "Ideology by/under Marx". --Martintg (talk) 05:13, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

No, you are wrong. I have been participating in this discussion for quite a while and haven't met any opposition from either me nor from The Four Deuces. You got it the other way around, most of the opposition comes from you and your buddies. (Igny (talk) 04:50, 11 September 2009 (UTC))

So you would agree to a move as well?VsevolodKrolikov (talk) 05:01, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Well, considering that I was one of the first who suggested the rename, what do you think? But obviously I prefer mass killings by communist regimes, which should be a list. But I guess martin's team would like to push the genocide/ideology claims into that article as well. (Igny (talk) 05:22, 11 September 2009 (UTC))

Please AGF. mass killings by communist regimes is okay with me too. Now we have to hear from The Four Deuces. --Martintg (talk) 05:26, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

I would really prefer "under" instead of by, as it has a less accusatory tone.VsevolodKrolikov (talk) 05:40, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

That is a minor detail, the real question is whether User:The Four Deuces will agree to the move at all. --Martintg (talk) 05:48, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

(out) Genocide and mass killing are not the same things. Genocide is considered to be illegal, while mass killings may be legal. For example, the American bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaka may or may not have been genocides, but they were mass killings. There may be an argument for American mass killings or American genocide, but there is no argument for Democratic genocide or Democratic mass killings. The Four Deuces (talk) 06:11, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Which is why the issue of legality and the application of the term "genocide" can be something in a renamed article (the originator of the term genocide intended it for a very broad meaning, and certainly latterly had the Soviets in his sights). VsevolodKrolikov (talk) 06:21, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

So is User:The Four Deuces agreeing or disagreeing to moving the article to Mass killings by/under communist regimes? --Martintg (talk) 06:44, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Well The Four Deuces please feel free to start an article legal mass killings and/or democratic mass murder or American mass killings etc. this talk page however is meant for a discussion about improving the article called Communist genocide. what are your suggestions?--Termer (talk) 06:45, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

It's not really important whether TFD agrees or not, the point is whether s/he has any good arguments against the move. So far I am hearing "Genocide and mass killing are not the same things", which is obviously irrelevant - the point of moving is that a lot of the content of the article doesn't fit uncontroversially under the 'genocide' tag. If TFD doesn't have any better argument against the move, we can just go ahead and declare consensus. It's not a vote. --Anderssl (talk) 15:46, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Summing up: TFD has entered the debate below without commenting on the title discussion, so I think we may freely assume s/he doesn't have any objections (if so, please come forward with them!). Also, the argument over whether the current title is adequate seems also to have settled on the conclusion that it is not (summing up: Yes the term is widely used but lacks a clear definition, and is too controversial to work as a descriptive phrase). There appears to be wide acceptance of "Mass killings under communist regimes" as an appropriate descriptive phrase. (Some have suggested that the 'under' be replaced with 'by', but 'under' seems to be the form everyone can compromise on - correct me if I'm wrong.)

If anyone has any remaining objections to renaming the article Mass killings under communist regimes please speak up now! Otherwise, let's just declare consensus and get on with it. --Anderssl (talk) 17:41, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

Done. Obviously there is some editing needed to match the new title, but I don't want to do too many controversial things at once...--Anderssl (talk) 18:23, 13 September 2009 (UTC)

One step at a time: is current title good

I see this discussion drags for a long time with various digressions and ramifications. I suggest, let us first reach a consensus on whether the current title is good or bad.

The question about a better title must be decided later, and not in this section.

Please continue debate in the structured way, without personal or political digressions. Timurite (talk) 15:50, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Arguments that it is good

• It is widely used.
  • Contra 1: Wide usage does not always mean preferred usage. If an article "whore" were written, it would most surely have been renamed or merged to "prostitute". Timurite (talk) 15:50, 11 September 2009 (UTC)
  • Pro 1, comment on VsevolodKrolikov's rescinded: I don't mean to be recalcitrant, but I really do fail to see where the google books argument has been "debunked." Either "communist genocide" appears or it does not. If some sources discuss it as ideologically based and some as simply another totalitarian action, that all belongs in the article here. That is not an excuse to contend "communist genocide" is a neologism, doesn't mean anything, only means this or only means that, etc. An article exists to explore a topic—any topic of substance will have more than one aspect to it. Arguing what the exact (implied single) definition is of "communist genocide" as a term (and for what it stands) is completely misdirected. (And I'll WP:AGF that such argumentation isn't just part of continued attempts to kill anything by the title Communist genocide.) VЄСRUМВА  ♪  16:14, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

It's very simple - perhaps you don't realise how simple. Two words appearing together in a text on google scholar does not necessarily mean that the author means those two words to form an analytical concept worthy of academic attention. "British intransigence", "communist success", "dirty money" and "inscrutable Chinese" all get more hits than "communist genocide". So does "difficult time" (lots there), "disingenuous strategy" and "pretending not to understand". That no one has produced this raft of RS texts that do use the phrase in the way they claim is quite telling.VsevolodKrolikov (talk) 16:30, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

It is even simpler, see my "Contra" below. What "not produced"? The texts (close to 500 the last time I checked) all exist. The problem is all those editors who claim that those texts don't contain a "definition." A "definition" is irrelevant. I'm sure "Blue sky" gets more hits than "communist genocide" as well in books. Again, irrelevant. VЄСRUМВА  ♪  16:37, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

If there is no definition gleanable from the sources, then there can be no article with that title. Good. You're on side.VsevolodKrolikov (talk) 16:39, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Contra-Pro 1: The fact that the term is in items/section titles and some events are described as "communist genocide" implies that the concept did get academic attention. However this Pro 1 thread is irrelevant: it adds nothing to the fact that "it is widely used". The "Pro 1" does not say why wide usage is a solid argument to use it as a title. Timurite (talk) 16:40, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Arguments that it is bad

• There is no formal definition of the term "communist genocide" cited, even in the references given in the intro section.
  • Contra 1: It is a descriptive phrase. We don't demand a reference for the definition for title, e.g., "Star Wars characters".
    • C-C 1. Unlike "starwar characters", the title in question has an unclear and what is more, disputed scope. Therefore we need a definition to have clear criteria for inclusion of content: there was plenty of various killings by Communist regimes, and this article intends to describe a certain category of them. Timurite (talk) 15:50, 11 September 2009 (UTC)
  • Contra 2: The article scope is defined by the use and discussion of "Communist genocide" in scholarly sources. The article content is a structured narrative of same. Any attempt to "limit" or "define" otherwise is by definition WP:OR and WP:SYNTH. VЄСRUМВА  ♪  16:28, 11 September 2009 (UTC)
    • C-C 2: "is defined by the use and discussion ... in scholarly sources" - and the inference of the definition by wikipedians (e.g.,to put it into the intro section) is OR. If there is no single definition, and each scholar has something else in mind, then it is WP:SYNTH, an introduction of an umbrella notion by wikipedians. Timurite (talk) 16:43, 11 September 2009 (UTC)
  • Contra 3: And so, seeking the precise definition of what subset of what is to be included in this article is completely the wrong tack and doomed to failure. What is to be included in this article is all aspects of "Communist genocide" as it is discussed in scholarly sources, supposedly "debunked" for... WAIT!... the reason that they don't contain a precise definition—as near as I can tell from the arguments put forth. The precise definition argument, ultimately, is self-referential syllogism, nothing more. VЄСRUМВА  ♪  16:22, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Vecrumba, can you clarify this argument. How does this relate to the topic of this thread, that "Wide usage does not always mean preferred usage."? Timurite has done a great job here in trying to set up a neutral structure to organize everyone's arguments for and against. If the argument you want to express doesn't fit in this thread, can you please start a new thread and explain it there? --Anderssl (talk) 18:55, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

I moved it in proper section now. Timurite (talk) 19:19, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Ok, but it still needs clarification. Vecrumba, what is a 'self-referential syllogism' - do you mean that the argument is circular? If so, could you set it up in the form of a syllogism, or a structured argument, making it clear how it is circular? My best interpretation is:

• P1: There is no formal definition of the term 'communist genocide'.
• P2: Such a definition should be used to determine what should be included in this article.
• P3: The scholarly sources proposed for inclusion so far do not contain a formal definition of the term.
• Conclusion: The term 'communist genocide' is inadequate as title for the article.

This is not a circular argument. It is true that P3 is basically identical to P1, but that doesn't make the argument circular. That would be if the conclusion was used as proof of one of the premises, which I cannot see that it is. --Anderssl (talk) 19:38, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Correction: P3 and P1 is not identical - what I meant was that P1 follows from P3, so if P1 is assumed to be true, P3 is redundant. (Of course one can also dispute the truthfulness of P1, 2, and 3, but please do that in separate threads - this is about the circular/self-referential claim.) --Anderssl (talk) 19:58, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

To Anderssl's question regarding circular. "Self-fulfilling" may be more apt.

• P1: The argument has been made there is no "definition" of the "term" "communist genocide". — Pre-supposes that "communist genocide" is a "term" requiring "definition".
• P2: Such a definitions should be used to determine what should be included in this article. — Presupposes that "communist genocide" is a "term" requiring "definition".
• P3: The scholarly sources proposed for inclusion so far do not contain a formal definition of the term. — Presupposes that "communist genocide" is a "term" requiring "definition".
• Conclusion: The term 'communist genocide' is inadequate as title for the article. — This is where the reasoning is circular, syllogistic, and self-fulfilling. The a priori notion of the existence of a "definition" and the opinion posed as a self-evident fact that "communist genocide" is a "term" together lead to the contention, based only on the initial assumptions which allowed for the contention in the first place, that the title is "inadequate."

The scope and content are defined by the coverage of "communist genocide" in scholarly sources, not presuppositions that it is a term requiring definition which then delineates scope and content. I hope this clarifies. VЄСRUМВА  ♪  17:37, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

Vecrumba, you are using a lot of these words wrong. That creates confusion, makes it hard to understand what you mean, and might make it hard for you to convince other editors that you are right. The argument outlined above would be circular if, and only if, one (or more) of the premises was based on the conclusion. You haven't showed that that is the case. As far as I can see, your main points are that P2 is wrong - i.e. that no definition is needed - and that 'communist genocide' is not a term but a phrase. This is a fair position to take of course, and a relevant argument which Tirumbite has discussed right at the top of this thread. The counter-argument is that the phrase is too unclear and slanted to work as title for the article. These are claims that can be discussed, but either way the argument is not circular. It may be considered a syllogism perhaps, but why would that be negative? As for "self-fulfilling" I'm not sure what you mean, but I guess it's another word for circular, so see the above. --Anderssl (talk) 17:57, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

• Contra 4: An assumption that there is no formal definition of the term "communist genocide" cited, even in the references given in the intro section is nothing more or less than simply ignoring the sources. The term Communist genocide is more than well enough defined by the references given. The only question there is, there are editors here who don't agree with the definition given by the sources. So a compromise has been suggested above, renaming the article, and there is nothing more to it.--Termer (talk) 02:16, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

I took the liberty of tagging your argument 'Contra 4', and adjusting indents in this thread, to try to preserve the structure of this section. See separate section below for my take on the substance of your argument. --Anderssl (talk) 04:34, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

Termer, you said "The term Communist genocide is more than well enough defined by the references given." Please be helpful and insert a definition of "Communist genocide", properly sourced into the article. The Four Deuces (talk) 03:40, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

I took out all of the problematic wording of the first sentence and it now reads: "Communist genocide refers to genocide carried out by Communists". That is actually a tautology. The Four Deuces (talk) 03:46, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

I re-read the thread. Not one definition of "communist genocide" other than to refer to killings that took place under communist regimes. No explicit link made to communist theory that necessitated the killings. Indeed, Igny produced an RS quote that emphasised how phrases like "communist genocide" are misleading and unjustified. Furthermore, if we are to invoke genocide as a legal concept (which the article does), communism cannot logically be held as perpetrator, but individual regimes and people.

• Argument 2 The title is POV pushing. It implies that these genocides were part of a deliberate communist strategy, foreseen and desired by communists per se. While some sources hold such a view, it is completely inappropriate for an article title to take sides in a serious, mainstream academic and political debate.VsevolodKrolikov (talk) 03:54, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

The only theory of Communist genocide I have been able to find is from Christian Identity which is that Communism genocide was part of a conspiracy to kill Christians and establish an atheist state. The theory is tied to the Illuminati and the New World Order. The Four Deuces (talk) 04:07, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

To be fair, John Gray's quote that's in the article also tries to make the connection with "classical marxism".VsevolodKrolikov (talk) 04:14, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

Actually he wrote about socialist genocide. That is a much wider theory than Communist genocide because it includes not only Joe Stalin and Pol Pot but Tony Blair, Benazir Bhutto, and Morgan Tsvangirai. The Four Deuces (talk) 04:56, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

Even people who criticise Tony Blair for his Iraq policy do not blame it on his socialist ideology. The Four Deuces (talk) 05:00, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

Comment: This argument is incompatible with the one Timurite has called C-C-1 above: That the title is unclear. You guys are giving a very extensive interpretation of the title, which presupposes that it actually has a clear meaning. I can easily understand why, given the current focus of the article, but if you try to just look only at the title in itself, it doesn't seem so obvious that it necessarily implies all the things you say above. Rather - IMO - it just lacks any clear meaning. It still is a bad title, but I can see why some people object to the idea that it is inherently POV. --Anderssl (talk) 05:06, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

Definitions of 'communist genocide'

It has repeatedly been claimed in the discussion of this article that there are a number of scholarly works which provide definitions of the concept 'communist genocide'. However, since the discussion is so extensive, it is hard to get an overview over the sources suggested. Please use this section to collect the proposed sources which give clear, explicit definitions of the concept. If we collect them in one place like this, people don't have to restate their definitions over again later, but can just refer back to this section if the question comes up again.

To help making a clear overview, please use the following format, and provide links when possible:

Definition 1: (Quoted definition)

Page: X Title: "Title here" Author: N.N. Publisher: Bla bla University Press Year: ?

If anyone want to object to any of the definitions, create a thread below that definition and present your arguments. But please do not discuss other topics in this section, to keep it tidy and readable. --Anderssl (talk) 04:59, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

Meta-discussion about this section

We been through this many times including the Afd, there is no reason to start it all over again, please read the previous discussion and the sources provided in the article.--Termer (talk) 05:37, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

No, it is worthwhile. The Four Deuces (talk) 05:42, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

Termer, there is no sourced definition of the concept 'communist genocide' in the article. Such a definition would need to take the form 'By "communist genocide" is meant X according to the following source (ref)' - or something equivalent. In the 'definitions' section of the article there is a discussion of various definitions of genocide, but not of communist genocide, which is the disputed concept. The first sentence in the lead (in its current version) reads like a definition, but it does not appear to be a direct quote from one of the sources - if so, it should have quotation marks around it, and make clear which of the sources it is taken from. Finally, I have not seen any directly quoted definition here on the talk page. It may well be that I've missed it though, because this discussion has been quite messy and it is easy to miss something. That's why I want to collect the proposed definitions here, so we can have a clear discussion of them. If you don't want to take part in that discussion that's fine of course. --Anderssl (talk) 06:06, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

No kidding? any serious source on the subject is very clear about it. Communist genocide refers to mass killings of about 60-100 million people by/under the Communist regimes. Another question is that the article has been spammed with nonsense and absurd statements that would need to be cleaned up.--Termer (talk) 06:13, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

Right, but since I am not a genocide scholar you need to help me out a little. Can you give me a direct quote from one of these serious sources? --Anderssl (talk) 06:17, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

So you're asking for to paste all the direct quotes together here from the article references, from this talk page and from the AfD? Because? And again, the article title "Communist genocide" the term coined by Raphael Lemkin doesn't have a priority here. Call it whatever you like, this article is about the 60-100 million people killed by Communist regimes for political and economical reasons.--Termer (talk) 06:26, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

If there is a lot you don't have to paste in all of them. Start with just the most important one, the one written by the most important author and which most clearly defines the concept. If it is really good we don't really need more than that one. --Anderssl (talk) 06:38, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

All right, few citations on the subject.--Termer (talk) 07:36, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

• Valentino, Benjamin (2005). "Communist mass killings: The Soviet Union, China, and Cambodia". Final solutions: mass killing and genocide in the twentieth century. Cornell University Press. pp. 91–151. ISBN 0801472733.

  Communist regimes have been responsible for this century's most deadly episodes of mass killing. Estimates of the total number of people killed by communist regimes range as high as 110 million

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• Lenṭin, Ronit (2004). Re-presenting the Shoah for the twenty-first century. Berghahn Books. p. 220. ISBN 1571818022.

  Israeli historian Yehuda Bauer: The notion of genocide has originally been confined to the physical annihilation, or intention to do so, of members of whole nation. If it were to have remained confied within these boundaries, the Communist genocide would, prhaps be arguably applicable to massive deportations and annihilation of a large number of Ukrainians, Balts and other Soviet nationals, but it would leave out the massive extermination of own-nationals etc.

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• Nathaniel, Weyl. Aristocide As a Force In History (PDF). pp. 243–245.

  Communist genocide in the Soviet Union has gone though several stages. The avowed policy of the Bolsheviks was to liquidate the propertied classes and all their auxiliaries

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• White, Weyl (2007). Fear of persecution: global human rights, international law, and human well-being. Lexington Books. ISBN 0739115669.

  ...The scale of communist genocide is overwhelming, and it will be years before all the information about these atrocities is processed and disseminated. this is a critical task, because communist regimes like N Korea's continue to justify genocidal practices in pursuit of their ideological vision

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• Lenṭin, Ronit (1997). Gender and catastrophe. Zed Books. p. 3. ISBN 1856494454.

  Soviet and communist genocide and mass state killings, sometimes termed politicide, occurred in the Soviet Union, Cambodia, and the People's Republic of China

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Thank you. On first glance some of these do appear to be interesting examples of scholars using the term 'communist genocide'. However, none of them takes the form of a definition, so they are not relevant to the discussion in this section, which is specifically focused on the question of a definition of the concept 'communist genocide'. As Timurite has pointed out above it is certainly possible to argue that a clear definition is not needed (see his argument 'Contra 1' under 'Arguments that it is bad') - but that is not the topic for this section. It is really important to try to stay on topic here, since there are so many differing opinions on every aspect of this article. Can you find any 'definitions' of communist genocide in your sources? --Anderssl (talk) 07:53, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

The definition of this article is given just fine, unless you're claiming that it's completely unclear and you have no idea what are all those sources talking about. But never mind, more sources are on the way.--Termer (talk) 08:02, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

All right, just for clarity, if you have any that actually define the concept, please put them in the main section above, and not this "meta"-section. --Anderssl (talk) 08:08, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

here is one more citation that defines the subject.--Termer (talk) 08:15, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

Kent, Allen (2002). Encyclopedia of library and information science, Volume 72. CRC Press. p. 235. ISBN 0824720741.

Evidence of Communist genocides engineered by Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot strengthened the theory of an ideological connection, and revealed a flaw in the U.N. definition: the omission of political groups as certifiable victims. Scholars then moved to address this issue. For example , in Frank Chalk and Kurt Jonassohn's 1990 study, The History and Sociologyof Genocide, genocide is defined as "a form of one sided mass killing in which a state or other authority intends to destroy a group, as that group and membership in it are defined by the perpetrator"

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This appears to be a discussion about the definition of the concept 'genocide'. I don't think there is anyone here who disagrees that there is a quite legitimate disagreement around whether that definition should include political groups. But the current discussion is about the definition of communist genocide, which presumably is something more specific than just 'genocide'. Can you find such a definition? --Anderssl (talk) 08:25, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

The last citation directly addresses the definition of 'Communist genocide'. Please read the sources FFI and stop ignoring the spelled out definitions above.--Termer (talk) 08:29, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

Sorry Termer, but that is simply not correct. As I explained above, a definition of a concept takes the form 'By "concept" is meant X according to the following source (ref)', or something equivalent to this. The source above does this (in a quote from another source) for the concept 'genocide', but not for the concept 'communist genocide'. 'Communist genocide' is mentioned in the first sentence, but is not explicitly defined. --Anderssl (talk) 08:49, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

Thank you Termer, for those "most important" examples you have given. If I were someone defining and/or discussing a concept in a book or article, I would very likely mention the concept far more than once. However, in every single one of the citations you give, the phrase "communist genocide" appears exactly once. Not ten, or eight times, but only once each. In the "most important" sources. This is not enough, and I believe you are aware it is not enough.VsevolodKrolikov (talk) 13:03, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

In nowhere says WP:NAME that an article title needs to be mentioned in a secondary published source from eight to ten times, nor does it say anywhere that an article title needs to be "explicitly defined". The sources are more than clear about it what do they mean by Communist genocide and that's enough to have our article called so. However the question about an 'explicit definition' still remains to be a red herring since what is this article named exactly, I don't really care. But in case you insist, please feel free to find an 'explicit definition' for Mass killings under communist regimes from a secondary publish source if you like. And I can once again support the rename--Termer (talk) 14:48, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

This is not a debate about whether or not mass killings that could be called genocide by some took place. It is about whether the article should be called "Communist genocide", a term which many feel loaded, and in the case of at least one of your sources, is meant to be. If you agree that this name is not suitable, it would help if you don't muddy the waters by appearing to support it.VsevolodKrolikov (talk) 15:00, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

I think this name is suitable and I do support it, however editing Wikipedia is based on WP:Consensus not on what do I think, and in that respect we moved beyond this question long time ago and I insisted right in the beginning of this thread that there should be no reasons to return to this. Especially because I didn't think another round on it would bring up any new arguments. And I was right. So there is no point to keep circling around this 'explicit definition' and return to the discussion about rename that was distracted by this demand for defining the current title once again.--Termer (talk) 15:16, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

(od) One again, the article scope is the topic of "communist genocide" as discussed in scholarly sources and article content: a fair and accurate narrative summary representing the same. Definitions and everything else that are being argued here to kill the article, change the name, et al. are all quite immaterial WP:OR and WP:SYNTH. VЄСRUМВА  ♪  16:10, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

Guys, this section is about one specific topic: Whether there are sources that give an explicit, clear definition of the concept 'communist genocide' (as opposed to examples of sources using the concept). As far as I have seen, there are two editors who have claimed this: Termer and Vecrumba. Both of these have contributed to the discussion in this section without being able to provide quotations to document their claims.

Unless actual sources are brought forward, the only logical conclusion is that the concept of 'communist genocide' lacks a clear definition, as stated in the title discussion above. Let's close this discussion for now and return to the title discussion. If any of you find a definition later, you can always enter it here and re-open the debate. --Anderssl (talk) 17:27, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

Correction: Vecrumba has stated below that he never meant that there is a clear definition. May be a misunderstanding. Either way, that just helps settling the case. --Anderssl (talk) 18:02, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

Please stop Anderssl posting your original conclusions on this talk page like concept of 'communist genocide' lacks a clear definition, that's what WP:SYN and WP:OR is all about, not listing the sources and citations that all clearly define the Communist genocide.--Termer (talk) 00:00, 13 September 2009 (UTC)

Termer, WP:SYN and WP:OR are guidelines for the content of articles, not for discussion pages. What would be the meaning of a discussion page if one couldn't argue and draw conclusions? Of course I am not suggesting that the article itself should state that there is no definition of the concept. The conclusion above is just for use here on the discussion page. As I've explained above, the quotes you have provided give examples of the concept 'communist genocide' being used or mentioned, not defined in any clear way. Continue to assert this if you want, but don't expect to be taken seriously if you can't actually provided a source which contains a definition. --Anderssl (talk) 08:52, 13 September 2009 (UTC)

That is just hilarious. You can't find a definition of "communist genocide," and so instead of finding a definition, you claim that saying you can't find a definition of "communist genocide" is original research? csloat (talk) 09:02, 13 September 2009 (UTC)

RE: Anderssl I do not understand why do you keep repeating your arguments? But in case you insist I can repeat myself as well: In nowhere says WP:NAME that an article title needs to be "explicitly defined" by secondary published sources. It has been WP:Verified that the term Communist genocide is in use, and the sources are more than clear about it what do they mean by referring to it. The only thing left to do is keep the article in sync with the sources.--Termer (talk) 16:49, 13 September 2009 (UTC)

Termer, I created this section to work out the specific question of whether there is a definition or not. If you have decided to abandon that position and now want to return to the name discussion that's fine by me, but please take that to the appropriate section above so that those who follow that section can review your arguments. --Anderssl (talk) 17:16, 13 September 2009 (UTC)

Denial of communist genocide

I think it's time to move on , instead of repeatedly listing sources that define the term we should start a chapter in the article called 'Denial of Communist genocide'. Fear of persecution By James Daniel White, Anthony J. Marsella, chapter Denial pp.246-250 has some on it:

genocidal communist regimes have often escaped detection and comment. Until recently, few people knew that for political and economic reasons, communist elites ever since the Russian Revolution have sanctioned the genocide of between 85-100 million people (Courtis 1999). Until relatively recently, intellectuals and politicians with socialist leanings, including French communists such as Sartre, have refused to address the occurrence of genocide in communist activities because this fact would challenge their ideological commitments.

--Termer (talk) 05:58, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

Go ahead. For a start I have created a section here on the talk page where you can discuss it, to prevent the definitions discussion from becoming cluttered up and unreadable. --Anderssl (talk) 06:06, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

PS.Genocidal communist regimes like it's put by the source above would be also an appropriate alternative title to the article currently named Communist genocide.--Termer (talk) 06:08, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

What you appear to be stating is I have no idea what Communist genocide is, so lets talk about denial of Communist genocide instead. But there is no concept of denial of Communist genocide either. The Four Deuces (talk) 15:31, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

If we base the article on what sources discuss as "communist genocide", the historical denial or justification (I've read that too, that Stalin was "forced" into dekulakization) of same will be incorporated in the natural scheme of events. Unfortunately since this example does not use "communist genocide" it only serves to fuel syllogistic arguments that (a) it's not the same thing, or (b) that proves there's no such "thing" as "communist genocide." Let's try to stay away from that until we've exhausted specific scholarly reference to "communist genocide" where it is clearly shown to encompass (sub-component) genocidal communist regimes. Otherwise we put the cart before the horse. VЄСRUМВА  ♪  16:06, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

Vecrumba, I would be interested in your clarification of the "syllogism" argument, that I commented on above: [23]. Could you give an explanation? --Anderssl (talk) 17:08, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

I responded inline to your inquiry. If you'd like to discuss further please feel free to continue here. Also, to your thread closure above, I have not claimed there is a clear definition, I have claimed there is a clear topic, whose scope and content are governed by the treatment of that topic in scholarly sources. VЄСRUМВА  ♪  17:45, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

I responded above before I saw this, and would like to finish the debate there - the whole point of that section is to have a structured overview of the arguments, so if the discussion spills over into new sections on entirely different topics (such as this one) it would defeat that purpose. As for the definition claim, apologies if I have misunderstood you, but at least we can treat that specific question as settled then. --Anderssl (talk) 18:06, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

Do the Communist genocide denial laws make it a crime to deny that local Communist governments committed genocide or do they make it a crime to deny that genocides were committed as a result of Communist ideology? In other words, is it a crime to deny the validity of the concept of Communist genocide? The Four Deuces (talk) 16:33, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

Again The Four Deuces, please keep your postings on this talk page limited to suggestions how to improve the article. Thanks!--Termer (talk) 16:51, 13 September 2009 (UTC)

A modest proposal

When I first became interested in Moldova because of its early independence movement links with Latvia and because Transnistria was home to Soviet Black Berets who shot and killed freedom demonstrators in Riga (the Baltic OMON all transplanted to Transnistria by Alksnis to be the power behind the throne) and subsequently shot and killed Transnistrians and blamed it on the Moldovans, I did some research regarding the best scholarly sources and came up with a short list of Charles King's The Moldovans, which I purchased and read from cover to cover and Charles Upson Clark's Bessarabia (which was available electronically but no longer appears to be on a recent search), which I skimmed/read, but also cover to cover. Only then did I even editorially opine on Moldova or Transnistria on WP, shortly thereafter also purchasing/reading Robert Magocsi's Historical Atlas of Central Europe, which I read cover to cover, first edition, subsequently also obtaining his second edition which covered current conflicts in more depth.

And so, let's just cut through the pontificating and postulating. Below, please list scholarly texts you have read in their totality which deal with "communist genocide" and provide a brief summary on their treatment of the topic. If you haven't read anything from cover to cover, then regardless of whatever side of the arguing here you are on, whatever you are contending here is based on personal bias or materials which do not specifically address the topic. VЄСRUМВА  ♪  17:44, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

What does the book actually say about Communist genocide? Does it say that Communists committed genocide in Latvia or does it explain how Communist ideology caused genocide? Are you not aware that Latvia was part of the Russian empire and that Soviet policy toward Latvia probably was a continuation of Russian imperialism rather than Marxist ideology? The Four Deuces (talk) 22:37, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

Apologies if I was unclear. My example was to indicate that the proper course is for editors dealing in a potentially controversial topic is to first go out and read one or more sources before contributing on that topic. So my suggestion here is to read one or more sources discussing "communist genocide" and summarize their reading below. That will allow us to start building a true encyclopedic article. The more editors that contribute summaries of different sources, the more complete content we can build. As I have stated ad nauseum, the scope and content of the article Communist genocide can only be NPOV and synthesis-free based on representing the compendium of references specifically dealing with topic of "communist genocide," those two words together. One can not gain an informed understanding without reading at least several sources in their totality, otherwise we just pick and choose tidbits in a "he said/she said" litany as opposed to constructing an informative narrative. VЄСRUМВА  ♪  00:51, 13 September 2009 (UTC)

Books discussing "communist genocide" I have read cover to cover and my synopsis thereof

TITLE	Title
AUTHOR	Author
PUBLISHED	Published by whom, where, year, ISBN
SYNOPSIS	Summary of content Key point on "communist genocide" Key point on "communist genocide" ...
SIGNED	~~~~

Discussions of synopses

• Title — comments, etc. ~~~~

Requested move

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section. A summary of the conclusions reached follows.

No consensus for move to "Communist politicide" - discussion about alternate titles continues below at #Requested move II --ThaddeusB (talk) 13:16, 16 September 2009 (UTC)

---

Communist genocide → Communist politicide — Since there is a substantial opposition to the current title Communist genocide , and in order to reach a WP:CONSENSUS I suggest renaming the article Communist politicide. Unlike already suggested "Communist mass killings under/by Communist regimes", the alternative name Communist politicide for the subjece in the twentieth century By Manus I. Midlarsky] or Gender and catastrophe By Ronit LenṭinTermer (talk) 17:57, 13 September 2009 (UTC)

• Note: other suggested name changes include Mass killings under Communist regimes, Genocides under Communist regimes, & Communist mass killings. Please be specific about which, if any, chooses you are supporting. --ThaddeusB (talk) 20:07, 14 September 2009 (UTC)

Termer, there already is consensus for a name change, see the appropriate section above, where discussion has been ongoing for nearly a week.--Anderssl (talk) 18:25, 13 September 2009 (UTC)

Anderssi moved this page without consultation to Mass killings under communist (sic) regimes. I have moved it back. Please obtain consensus for name changes and give more than 3 hours notice for changes.

The comment above was written by User:The Four Deuces, who reverted the move. TFD, there is a clear consensus for the move. Please see the section #Followup to merge discussion/ possible rename further up on this page, where your input has been requested repeatedly, the last time more than one day before I did the move. You had commented several times on this page in other discussions in the meantime, so I assumed you had decided not to say anything. If you want to make statements about what is and what is not consensus, then please pay attention to the discussion on this page. --Anderssl (talk) 02:31, 14 September 2009 (UTC)

I agree that Mass killings under Communist regimes is the best title suggested so far. --ThaddeusB (talk) 02:49, 14 September 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, I think everyone involved here have already stated their opinions, and per WP:What is consensus?#Not unanimity there is no reason we should allow TFD to filibuster this any further. (This is a detail, but did you use capital C on purpose? Don't want to split any hairs, but it's not really correct English as far as I can see...) --Anderssl (talk) 02:54, 14 September 2009 (UTC)

Yes the capitalization was on purpose. I believe in this context it is a proper noun (and thus capitalized) since it is referring to regimes' political party rather than the general economic\political system of the country. I could certainly see it going either way though. --ThaddeusB (talk) 03:08, 14 September 2009 (UTC)

All right, I thought of it as an adjective but I'm not a native English speaker so I'll happily concede that point. :) ThaddeusB, you're an admin right - if you agree that we can declare consensus on the move now, can you delete the empty page Mass killings under communist regimes so that I can re-do the move? --Anderssl (talk) 04:36, 14 September 2009 (UTC)

It certainly is an adjective but that doesn't mean it can't be a proper one (I shouldn't have used the term "noun"). For example, in "Communist Party" Communist is an adjective. I believe the sense here is the same sense as that one & thus should be capitalized. I checked and book usage appears to be fairly evenly split between "Communist regimes" and "communist regimes" so either should be fine.

I am an admin, but I'll let the discussion run a bit. The RM tag will draw in some uninvolved editors which should lead to a more solid consensus. --ThaddeusB (talk) 20:07, 14 September 2009 (UTC)

I agree there appears to be consensus for the move here, TFD actions appears to be disruptive at this point. I also agree with Termer below, that the SYNTH and OR tags should be removed along with the move, since that was one of the points this move was supposed to be addressing. (TFD appears to have salted Mass killings under communist regimes, that is a sanctionable offense according to Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/AndriyK) --Martintg (talk) 04:39, 14 September 2009 (UTC)

No the move would address the POV in the title only. There is still a question of POV and SYNTH in the content. TFD was warned about the moving trick, there was no need to threaten him with sanctions. (Igny (talk) 02:13, 15 September 2009 (UTC))

(out) Could you please strike through that personal attack. Here is what happened:

If you look at my edits to Mass killings under communist regimes, I

(1) moved the article back to Communist genocide, with the notation moved Mass killings under communist regimes to Communist genocide over redirect: No censensus for move - please look at talk page[24]

(2) explained the move back at Talk:Communist genocide[25]

(3) removed the re-direct with the notation No agreement for re-direct[26]

(4) listed the now blank page for speedy deletion[27]

While I have no knowledge about how these edits would affect the ability to revert Communist genocide back to Mass killings under communist regimes I believe that if the page had been deleted that it would then have no history and therefore nothing to prevent the article being moved in the future. In any case it was not my intention to create a history, merely to revert the article and to delete the redirect page.

So I would request that you take back your comments by striking through them and in future that you not make unfounded accusations against me.

The Four Deuces (talk) 19:50, 14 September 2009 (UTC)

What is the personal attack? It sounds like what you are saying is that you weren't aware of the disruptive consequences of your edits. That is perfectly fair, but in that situation it seems more appropriate to apologize than to complain about being attacked. --Anderssl (talk) 20:42, 14 September 2009 (UTC)

Please read the comments that you and Martintg made which were personal attacks and should be redacted. The Four Deuces (talk) 20:54, 14 September 2009 (UTC)

There is no personal attack here, nobody called you a %#$^@. I merely made the observation that your subsequent edits to the redirect effectively salted it. I made no claim either way in regard to it being deliberate or not. --Martintg (talk) 22:10, 14 September 2009 (UTC)

So now I attacked you as well? I'm at a loss, but if anyone can see anything I wrote that was out of line, let me know. --Anderssl (talk) 00:03, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

I discussed that on your talk page. However, I think that it is best that we move forward and if you have anything you want to ask or tell me, please do so. The Four Deuces (talk) 01:55, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, actually I'd like you to quote me on my 'personal attack'. In full, with the context, so that it is legible to everyone not familiar with the events. --Anderssl (talk) 05:25, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

Comment: Even though Mass killings under Communist regimes would be completely WP:OR-is title, no secondary published source has ever referred to, unlike the Communist genocide, or the Communist politicide or the Communist mass killings so. And since numerous sources speaking about the subject have been accused of not giving an "explicit definition" of the term, how are you going to find sources to WP:Verify and "explicitly define" the Mass killings under Communist regimes? So I'd still think it would be better to use a title that can be WP:Verified. But hey, in case by using a WP:ORish title a WP:Consensus can be achieved, I can support it as long as the Synth and OR tags go with it. Otherwise the WP:OR-sh title that has not seen any print on black and whte yet can be used further to accuse this article of WP:OR and WP:Syn. So what's it going to be?--Termer (talk) 03:41, 14 September 2009 (UTC)

• Oppose communist politicide - WP:OR title gets a total of 4 ghits. 76.66.196.139 (talk) 04:49, 14 September 2009 (UTC)

• Oppose There is no established concept of mass killings under Communist regimes so the article would violate WP:OR. The Four Deuces (talk) 11:15, 14 September 2009 (UTC)

It is not OR, here is a published source on Communist mass killing. --Martintg (talk) 11:30, 14 September 2009 (UTC)

Valentino's theory is that radical communist regimes killed people because it was the only way they could create a radically different and better society. Less radical communists did not engage in mass killings. The theory was presented in a chapter of his book Final Solutions (2005).

If it can be established that this theory has become established within academic literature, even if it is not the majority opinion, then there is an argument for its separate article. If however it is a neologism used in the book, then it belongs in an article about Valentino or a separate article about his book. Incidentally as you point out the term used is communist mass killings not mass killings under Communist regimes. It would still be WP:OR to use a title not found in the sources.

The Four Deuces (talk) 12:09, 14 September 2009 (UTC)

• Mass killings under communist regimes is a descriptive name, not a concept. It is no more OR than a title such as Anti-communist mass killings, which is also not taken from sources. The problem with other proposals such as Communist politicide or the current title, Communist genocide, is that they neither work as concepts (no definition - see #Definitions of communist genocide) or as a descriptive name (no clear meaning - see C-C-1 under #Arguments that it is bad and the following debate). When discussing this, please try to engage with the points that have already been made in the preceeding debate, otherwise this is going nowhere. --Anderssl (talk) 15:17, 14 September 2009 (UTC)
• Oppose - a rather uncommon term, and sounds as a rather uncommon term, too. "Mass killings" may be too broad: the term would include, e.g., Katyn Massacre, I am not sure this was intention of the original scope. I am slowly starting to accept the opinion that the scope of the article is rather vague and piling killings by communist regimes into one article is an arbitrary collection of information, akin to long ago deleted list of songs about suicide and other similar cross-sectional collections. Timurite (talk) 16:39, 14 September 2009 (UTC)

Timurite, above you seem to be arguing that the current title is not good. In the paragraph directly above you seem to be arguing against the term 'mass killing' in the title. Does that mean you are arguing in favor of the other proposal, Communist politicide? Or is that what you oppose? Could you clarify which option you favor? --Anderssl (talk) 18:18, 14 September 2009 (UTC)

Correction: I notice there is another proposal way above, Genocides under communist regimes. I don't really have anything in particular against this proposal either, I'd just note that this would narrow the scope of the article considerably - there is currently a lot of stuff in there that don't fit easily into most definitions of genocide. But we could always keep genocide in the title and then start fighting over the content... --Anderssl (talk) 18:33, 14 September 2009 (UTC)

Genocides under communist regimes will simply be forced to be a "list of.." which will then be attacked as a coatrack and then nominated for deletion. Communist genocide is a far richer topic. Again, I see no compelling reason to change the title or topic. VЄСRUМВА  ♪  00:23, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

• Oppose— My concern is that all this will do is open the door to the argument that only two sources in Google books apply as opposed to the current nearly 500. Absolutely no one has refuted my contention that an article on the topic of "communist genocide" has as its scope whatever it is that reputable sources discuss with reference to "communist genocide", and that our content here should be a fair and accurate representation and narrative thereof. Therefore, I see only "opposition" to the juxtapositioning of "communist" and "genocide" to form an article title. That hardly merits renaming an article when editors in opposition:
  • can't offer a concrete definition of the scope and content of the article; instead
  • keep requesting a "definition" of the "term" "communist genocide"; and
  • to date, have absolutely no comment regarding my definition of scope and content, which only states what it ought to be, by the very definition and nature of being an encyclopedia article based on reputable secondary sources, not what we cook up between us regardless of what any of us personally believe about "communist genocide" and whether or not we agree; and
  • the list of what scholarly references editors have read which discuss "communist genocide" remains empty. VЄСRUМВА  ♪  20:29, 14 September 2009 (UTC)

You know, you might want to start of that list with those books you have read yourself. Just a suggestion. --Anderssl (talk) 01:46, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

If Communist Genocide is the only acceptable alternative, then I would move for deletion. For the millionth time, it is not actually discussed in many of the sources given (the phrase just appears, and is almost always used to mean acts of "genocide" committed by specific communist regimes - a shorthand, rather than an analysis). Let's not forget that there aren't many communist regimes that have performed genocide. There are also far more cases of non-communist regimes doing much the same thing, in addition to established genocides of the Armenians and Jews. Here are a few that appear similar as politicide or genocide:

• the dirty war in Argentina
• Operation Condor across South America
• England under Mary I
• The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in France (huge numbers there),
• The Destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, The expulsion of the Jews from England, from France and many other places
• The Spanish Inquisition in its worst moments,
• the destruction of the Zaporozhian cossacks
• The decimation of Native Americans has also been argued as genocide

What is the value added by a page entitled, specifically, "Communist genocide"? That the regime's ruling ideology was used as a justification is not exactly a stunning insight. Ideology covers up brutal pragmatism all the time. Vercrumba argues that alternative titles would just be a list. That's what the article is now - a content fork with a garnish of OR. If the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan is a genocide, then so was WWI and American action in Vietnam. I suspect that a suggested title, up-page, of Misery caused by Communist bastards is really what some editors here want. There appears to be nothing special in the literature, apart for a few polemicists, about Communist genocide to distinguish it from other forms of genocide, and nothing in historical communism to distinguish it as more genocidal than any other militarised regime.VsevolodKrolikov (talk) 04:57, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.