110 million is the max estimate and is still not "hundreds of millions". "hundreds of millions" is the most baseless thing you've ever said and a complete lie.
First of all, it should be noted that the phrase ‘crimes
of communism’ can be misleading and has been
replaced in this research review with the phrase
‘crimes of communist regimes’. Ideologies are systems
of ideas, which cannot commit crimes independently.
However, individuals, collectives and states that have
defined themselves as communist have committed
crimes in the name of communist ideology, or
without naming communism as the direct source of
motivation for their crimes. Thus, the communist
ideology is not an actor that can perpetrate crimes
against humanity.
https://www.levandehistoria.se/sites/default/files/material_file/research-review-crimes-against-humanity.pdfAccording to Klas-Göran Karlsson, discussion of the number of victims of Communist regimes has been "extremely extensive and ideologically biased".[29] Although any attempt to estimate a total number of victims of Communism depends greatly on definitions,[30] several attempts to compile previously published data have been made:
It turns out people like Rummel invoke their bias into the way they ESTIMATE deaths to make the numbers as high as they can. A lot of methods involve demographic population estimates which assume a consistent birthrate, then use the population estimates to predict what the population should be at the end. They count the discrepancy as people who were murdered by the regime even though a lot of that is due to the lack of a baby boom or deaths in the war.
I have seen estimates as low as 15 million. No one knows the real totlas for sure.
Even then, RJ Rummel's research is outdated because it was done without access to the official archives.
The American historian Timothy D. Snyder summarizes modern data, made after the opening of the Soviet archives in the 1990s, and concludes that Stalin was directly responsible for 6 million deaths along with three million indirect deaths. He notes that the estimate is far lower than the estimates of 20 million or above which were made before access to the archives. He also compares this number to the estimate of 11–12 million non-combatants killed by the Nazi regime, thereby negating claims that Stalin killed more than Hitler.
Rummel also says other governments killed 38 million total which is totally lowballed. I can find sources that say the British killed 38 million in India alone. Of course, if I highballed all of the numbers they would end up pretty even but if I lowballed the Soviet union numbers to 20 million and high balled British numbers I could say the British killed twice as many in India that the Soviets killed altogether. Thats dishonest. People have used that same logic against capitalist countries and came up with totals around 250 million deaths caused by capitalism. I won't go there because that would be fighting falsities with falsities.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/india-35-million-deaths-britain-shashi-tharoor-british-empire-a7627041.htmlHere is an honest breakdown. Follow the numbers
The 1932–33 famines killed about 4 million people according to archival data provided by Steven G. Wheatcroft, allowing for some margin of error. Furthermore, I would like to point out the research of Mark B. Tauger, professor of agricultural history and russian/soviet history at West Virginia University, who points out that there were significant natural factors that led to the famine. The exact responsibility for the famine is debated between historians is debated as being either predominantly natural factors, or the exacerbation of natural factors by soviet policy. Either way, it can’t be considered an intentional or genocidal act. Secondly, the gulags. According to the landmark 1993 paper Victims of the Soviet Penal System By Getty, Rittersporn and Zemskov, there were a total of 1.053 million deaths in the soviet prison system (gulags, settlements, etc.) during the Stalin era, with approximately half being during the second world war. It is also worth noting that the vast majority of those imprisoned in the soviet union were at any given time non-political inmates, and even the so-called “political” category of inmates was extremely broad. Vandalism and Arson could be considered political offenses, for example. The highest proportion was 33.9% in 1938 at the height of the great purge, and this number declined significantly as thousands of people falsely accused were released after the purge wounded down. It is also worth noting that the gulags were highly unexceptional for their time, and as conditions in the USSR improved as a result of industrialisation and economic, social and cultural development, the gulag mortality fell significantly. In fact, post-war gulag mortality averaged at 0.725%, compared to the 0.56% in modern russian prisons. Now, thats not to deny the gulags or downplay them, but If we used the same logic to mention american prisons, we would consider the US government responsible for the approximately 100,000 deaths in the penal system over the last 25 years. Just a quick side-note here, there are more people, both proportionally and in absolute numbers in the american penal system today then there were in the soviet penal system at its height Finally executions
The same paper we used earlier can be applied to this section quite well, as it documents the soviet judicial system in its entirety. Getty records a total of 799,455 execution sentences during the entire 1921–53 period (including executions of criminals). Now, the distinction between execution sentences and executions seems small, but its of the utmost importance to note, especially considering vast numbers of people were released on amnesty after the purge, during the war and in many other cases. Furthermore, according to Sarah Davies’s 1997 “Popular opinion in Stalins' Russia”, slightly fewer then 300,000 arrests for anti-soviet activities during the 1937-38 period, when according to Getty, 85% of executions took place. I could also go into the specified execution ratios and many, many other data points implying a significantly lower number, but for the sake of argument lets continue and assume the 800,000 figure is correct
I could go into much, much more detail about various ways these estimates could be reduced significantly, but just for the sake of argument, lets take the absolute highest estimates for every issue and assume the soviets bear full responsibility for every catastrophe, and the absolute highest reasonable estimates are correct, we get approximately the following 800,000 executions
1.053 million penal deaths
4 million famine deaths (this one in particular should NOT be included for the reasons discussed above)
and we get a total of 5.85 million, much less then 20, 60 or 100 million
Using other estimates and assigning proper responsibility, we can assume approximately 250,000 people, if we exclude prison deaths as unavoidable, along with the famine, and use more reasonable estimates for the number of executions. Now, thats not to discard the former estimates, but it is worth pointing out that lower estimates exist
In regards to totalitarianism, I would highly suggest reading “Life and Terror in Stalin’s Russia” by Robert Thurston, a professor at Miami University which sheds more light on the topic
Nothing i'm saying here is controversial, this all comes from highly-respected historians and researchers, but just as a matter of historical record, please be honest with your numbers! Bibliography:
Wheatcroft:
http://www.melgrosh.unimelb.edu/....
Tauger:
http://carlbeckpapers.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/cbp/article/view/89/90Getty:
http://www.cercec.fr/materiaux/doc_membres/Gabor%20RITTERSPORN/Victims%20of%20the%20Gulag.pdfPrison Mortality In the USSR (the source is in russian)
http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/2007/0313/tema06.phpPrison Mortality in Modern Russia
https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/2013/02/28/russian-prisons-getting-more-lethal/Prison Mortality in the USA
https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/msp0114st.pdfAny other sources are internally cited