The term Communist genocide ^[1] refers to the claim that mass killings carried out by the communist regimes in the former USSR,^[2] Democratic Kampuchea, the People's Republic of China^[3] and Ethiopia^[4] should be considered genocide or politicide.^[5] In Slovenia mass graves from the end of World War II continue to be unearthed.^[6][7]

Among historians, estimates of the mass killings by communist regimes vary between 60 to 100 million people.^[8]

While precise definition varies among genocide scholars, a legal definition of genocide is found in the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG). Article 2 of this convention defines genocide as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."^[9]

During the Russian Civil War, there was intense conflict between the Russian Government and the "Don Army" of General Krasnov. White Cossacks initiated a civil war in the Don Region in late 1917. After the German occupation of Rostov on May 8, a puppet regime headed by Krasnov was formed in Rostov. Krasnov's forces then invaded Tsaritsyn, but were defeated. In the period that Krasnov's regime controlled the Don province, more than 40,000 people were executed.^[10] Cossacks rebelled against the Krasnov regime, which helped the Red Army advance in the region in January 1919. The Soviet forces then retaliated against their defeated enemies through a policy of decossackization: the systematic elimination of the Cossacks of the Don and the Kuban as social groups.^[11] The policy was established by a secret resolution of the Bol'shevik Party on January 24 1919, which ordered local branches to "carry out mass terror against wealthy Cossacks, exterminating all of them; carry out merciless mass terror against any and all Cossacks taking part in any way, directly or indirectly, in the struggle against Soviet power."^[12] The Southern Front published instructions stating, "The main duty of stanitsa and khutor executive committees is to neutralize the Cossackry through the merciless extirpation of its elite. District and Stanitsa atamans are subject to unconditional elimination, [but] khutor atamans should be subject to execution only in those cases where it can be proved that they actively supported Krasnov's policies (having organized pacification, conducted mobilization, refused to offer refuge to revolutionary Cossacks or to Red Army men)" Before the White Cossacks seized power again in March 1919, revolutionary tribunals executed thousands of alleged counter-revolutionaries. In mid-March 1919 alone, Cheka forces executed more than 8,000 Cossacks.^[13] Another 6,000 were put to death in October 1920.^[13] In addition, entire villages were burned to the ground and the survivors deported.^[14] After the revolt, the Soviet Government concluded that the decossackization was an error that contributed to counter-revolution. The Government then cancelled the policy later in 1919. Several historians, among them Orlando Figes^[15], Donald Rayfield^[16], Alexander Nekrich^[17], R.J. Rummel^[18], Shane O'Rourke^[19], and Stéphane Courtois^[20], conclude that decossackization amounted to genocide and involved numbers in the hundreds of thousands. But others, such as Peter Holquist and Andrei Venkov, conclude that they did not constitute an "open-ended program" of genocide. ^[21][why?] However, Holquist does claim that it shows the Soviet regime's "dedication to social engineering" and was a "ruthless" and "radical attempt to eliminate undesirable social groups."^[22] Historian Robert Gellately states: "the most reliable estimates indicate that between 300,000 and 500,000 were killed or deported in 1919-20."^[14]

Various Ukrainian politicians and historians in the West characterize the 1930s famine as genocide against Ukraine. Many Ukrainians refer to this event as the Holodomor, which translates as "murder by hunger."^[23] While some experts on the famine do not characterize the famine as genocide^[24][25], others suggest that the famine was used as a weapon against certain segments of the population (i.e. "kulaks," "counterrevolutionaries," "idlers," and "thieves,") and therefore could be classified as genocide, according to a more relaxed definition, which is favored by some specialists in the field of genocide studies.^[26] Allegations that the famine was genocide has provoked controversy in Russia, where the Government concludes that Russia the famine affected the entire country, not just Ukraine. ^[27] Scholars conclude that the famine was not genocide because there was no purpose to exterminate Ukrainians as a people. Some attribute the famine go government policies. ^[28] One professor trace the causes of the famine to natural disasters which contributed to a genuine shortage in food and a significant decrease in agriculture. ^[29] As of March 2008, the Ukraine and nineteen other governments^[30] have recognized the actions of the Soviet government as an act of genocide. The joint declaration at the United Nations in 2003 has defined the famine as the result of cruel actions and policies of the totalitarian regime that caused the deaths of millions of Ukrainians, Russians, Kazakhs and other nationalities in the USSR. On 23 October 2008 the European Parliament adopted a resolution^[31] that recognized the Holodomor as a crime against humanity.^[32]

During the the second world war, Crimean Tatars were deported to eastern parts of the Soviet Union. The deportation was justified by the collaboration of tens of thousands of Crimean Tatars with the Nazi occupation regime during the war. Amir Weiner of Stanford University writes that the policy could be classified as "ethnic cleansing". But it is concluded that the policy was not genocide because there was no intent to kill off the Crimean Tatars in an attack. ^[33]

Cambodia's ethnic minorities that constituted 15 percent of the population in Cambodia. Of the 400,000 Vietnamese who lived in Cambodia before 1975, some 320,000 were expelled by the previous Lon Nol regime. When Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge came to power, there remained about 100,000 Vietnamese left. Almost all of them were repatriated by December 1975. Some argue that that the Khmer Rouge had no intent to cause serious mental and physical harm to the Vietnamese during the repatriation process. ^[34]

The Chinese community about 425,000 people in 1975 was reduced to 200,000 during the next four years.^[35] In the Khmer Rouge's Standing Committee, four members were of Chinese ancestry, two Vietnamese, and two Khmers. Some observers argue that this mixed composition makes it difficult to argue that there was an intent to kill off minorities.

Democratic Kampuchea experienced serious hardships due to the effects of war and disrupted economic activity. According to Michael Vickery, over 650,000 people in Cambodia in a population of about 7 million died due to disease, overwork, and political repression. Other estimates suggest approximately 1.7 million and it is described by the Yale University Cambodian Genocide Program as "one of the worst human tragedies of the last century."^[36] Pol Pot is sometimes described as "the Hitler of Cambodia" and "a genocidal tyrant".^[37] Martin Shaw described the Cambodian genocide as "the purest genocide of the Cold War era".^[38]

Vietnam, backed by the Soviet Union, invaded Cambodia, removing Pol Pot from power.^[39] U.S. analyst Lawrence LeBlanc has suggested that the United States bowed to Chinese and ASEAN interests and voted for a UN seat for the Pol Pot regime– however the USA claimed that the issue of seating a delegation was purely technical and legal, and that its support of seating the Pol Pot regime did not imply approval of that regime's policies, although key Jimmy Carter aide Zbigniew Brzezinski has admitted that the U.S. encouraged the Chinese to support Pol Pot, remarking in 1979 that "I encouraged the Chinese to support Pol Pot... Pol Pot was an abomination. We could never support him but China could."^[40][41]

Communists have been accused of orchestrating a genocide after World War II, where mummified remains and massacre sites of are still being discovered to this day.^[6][7] A Slovene historian, commenting when 540 such sites had been located throughout Slovenia, has said that communist executions have made Srebrenica look like "an innocent case" by comparison–although those executed were mostly soldiers.^[42]

Former Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam was convicted of genocide by an Ethiopian court for his role in the Red Terror of the late 1970's.^[43] Amnesty International estimates that a total of half a million people were killed during the Red Terror of 1977 and 1978^[44][45][46] During the terror groups of people were herded into churches that were then burned down, and women were subjected to systematic rape by soldiers.^[47] The Save the Children Fund reported that the victims of the Red Terror included not only adults, but 1,000 or more children, mostly aged between eleven and thirteen, whose corpses were left in the streets of Addis Ababa.^[44] Mengistu himself is alleged to have killed political opponents with his bare hands.^[48]

Remembrance Day for the Victims of Communist Genocide is celebrated in Latvia on June 14.^[49]

In 2005, Slovenia charged Mitja Ribicic, a chief in the security forces under Yugoslavia's communist leader Josip Broz Tito, with genocide against suspected Nazi collaborators, Ribicic having carried out summary executions in 1945-1946.^[50][51] The charges were later dropped due to lack of evidence.^[7]

In August 2007, Arnold Meri, a cousin of former Estonian president Lennart Meri, faced charges of genocide by Estonian authorities.^[52] The trial was halted when Meri died March 27, 2009, at the age of 89. Meri denied the accusation, characterizing them as politically motivated defamation: "I do not consider myself guilty of genocide.", he said.^[53]

To prevent the denial of communist genocide, several Central European countries enacted laws which state "endorsing or attempting to justify Nazi or Communist genocide" will be punishable by up to three years of imprisonment.^[54]

The Czech Republic has a law including a provision against denial of communist genocide. Article 261a of the amended constitution of December 16, 1992 states "the person who publicly denies, puts in doubt, approves or tries to justify Nazi or communist genocide, or other crimes against humanity of Nazis or communists will be punished by prison of 6 months to 3 years."^[55]

In Ukraine, a draft law "On Amendments to the Criminal and the Procedural Criminal Codes of Ukraine" submitted by President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko for consideration by the Verkhovna Rada, envisages prosecution for public denial of the Holodomor Famine of 1932–1933 in Ukraine as a fact of genocide of the Ukrainian people, and of the Holocaust as the fact of genocide of the Jewish people. The draft law foresees that public denial as well as production and dissemination of materials denying the above shall be punished by a fine of 100 to 300 untaxed minimum salaries, or imprisonment of up to two years.^[56]

• Crime against humanity
• Nazi genocide
• Foundation for the Investigation of Communist Crimes
• Red Terror
• Great Purge
• Zhen Fan
• Vasili Blokhin
• Polish operation of the NKVD

• Valentino, Benjamin A (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. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); External link in |chapterurl= (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help)
• WEISS-WENDT, ANTON (2005). "Hostage of Politics Raphael Lemkin on "Soviet Genocide"" (PDF). Journal of Genocide Research (7(4)): 551–559. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Deker, Nikolai (1958). Genocide in the USSR: studies in group destruction. Scarecrow Press. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

• Communist Genocide in Cambodia
• The Communist Genocide in Romania, by Gheorghe Boldur-Latescu, Nova Science Publishers, 2006, ISBN 9781594542510
• Murder of A Gentle Land, The Untold Story of Communist Genocide in Cambodia, by Barron, John & Paul, Anthony, NY Reader's Digest Press 1977, ISBN 0-88349-129-X

• Genocidecurriculum.org
• Global Museum on Communism