Edit: Why downvotes? Idea of communism does not propose violence, Nazis and ISIS on the other hand do.
Edit: Why downvotes? Idea of communism does not propose violence, Nazis and ISIS on the other hand do.
> on top of the estimated 20 million Soviet troops and civilians who perished in the Second World War
What does it have to do with Stalin? It was a war and people perish during a War.
> estimated that the death toll directly attributable to Stalin’s rule amounted to some 20 million lives
Just think about it, Stalin was in power for 30 years, so he had to "directly attribute" to a death of 2000 people every single day? Sounds quite bizarre to me. No official data of the 20Mln of "dead by Stalin's attributing", if you want to down vote me - at least show me official data.
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stalin#Calculating_the_...
[2] - http://www.theguardian.com/education/2002/sep/12/highereduca...
Remember, Stalin didn't go in for executions; he preferred slave labor. Deaths in the GULAG -- which could be as high as in the non-death-camp Nazi concentration camps, or higher -- should be counted as well as executions. (Remember how part of Stalin's price for peace with Japan was 300,000 Japanese slaves, none of whom ever returned to Japan after the war.)
Also, some deaths in the war should be attributed to Stalin -- at the very least, deaths in the punishment brigades. If you force someone to march through a minefield, and he hits a mine and dies, it's your fault.
That's a war, Nazi Germany attacked USSR, people had to fight them, Stalin is not a field officer to force solders to march through a minefield, people die in a war, I don't think you are right here equating people who died fighting for their country with those who were executed for whatever reason.