DictatorshipsÂ’ death toll: 262 million murdered in the 20th century -- and not by war
R.J. Rummel at the Democratic Peace blog has been keeping track of the damage dictatatorships do, and the indispensability of democracy to building a lasting peace.
Rummel has come up with estimates for the millions of people killed by dictatorships -- "mortacracies" -- in the 20th century. These deaths are not from the battles of war. They are murders through executions and intentional mistreatment of unarmed civilians.
Check out the horrifying death totals:
MORTACRACIES
The Deka-Megamurderers ... 219.634 million
China (PRC) 1949-87 .... 76.702 million
U.S.S.R. 1917-87 ........ 61.911 million
Colonialism .............. 50.000 million
Germany 1933-45 ....... 20.946 million (including 5.291 million Jews)
China (KMT) 1928-49 ... 10.075 million
The Megamurderers .... 19.180 million
Japan 1936-45 ............ 5.964 million
China (Mao Soviets) 1923-48 ... 3.468 million
Cambodia 1975-79 ........ 2.035 million
Turkey 1909-18 ........... 1.883 million
Vietnam 1945-87 .......... 1.647 million
Poland 1945-48 ........... 1.585 million
Pakistan 1958-87 ......... 1.503 million
Yugoslavia (Tito) 1944-87 ... 1.072 million
Fatal regimes. Add the mega-massacres with the other genocides, purges and mass killings, and Rummel comes up with a 20th century death toll by abusive governments of 262 million.
He points out that of the bloody total, 20.9 million were murdered by the Nazis, and 148 million were killed by Communist regimes. Rummel says:
"The sheer massive ignorance and denial of the 262,000,000 people murdered by government is revealed by these facts: this total is over 6-times those killed in combat in all domestic and foreign wars (including WWI and WWII, and the Korean and Vietnam Wars) over the last century, and laid head-to-toe the corpses of all these murdered would circle the earth about 10-times."
Lethal legacy. ItÂ’s enough to make you push for the rapid end to all despotic regimes. The fact is, dictatorship is war. Dictatorships kill, and at their whim, totalitarian dictatorships can kill by the tens of millions.
Leaving tyrants alone is not pacifism. It is callous indifference to the suffering of others.
Frank Warner
* * *
Meanwhile, the 15 bloodiest wars:
1. World War II, 20 million dead (1937-45).
2. World War I, 8.5 million dead (1914-18).
3. Korean War, 1.2 million dead (1950-53).
4. Chinese civil war, 1.2 million dead (1945-49).
5. Vietnam War, 1.2 million dead (1965-73).
6. Iran-Iraq War, 850,000 dead (1980-88).
7. Russian civil war, 800,000 dead (1918-21).
8. Chinese civil war, 400,000 dead (1927-39).
9. French Indochina war, 385,000 dead (1945-54).
10. Mexican Revolution, 200,000 dead (1911-20).
11. Spanish Civil War, 200,000 dead (1936-39).
12. French Algeria war, 160,000 dead (1954-62).
13. Afghanistan war, 150,000 dead (1980-89).
14. Russo-Japanese war, 130,000 dead (1904-05).
15. Riffian war (Morocco), 100,000 dead (1921-26).
15. First Sudanese Civil War, 100,000 dead (1956-72).
15. Russo-Polish War, 100,000 dead (1919-20).
15. Biafran War, 100,000 dead (1967-70).
Total 20th century war death toll: 35 million to 40 million.