Men’s savagery had been manifested many times all throughout history. Due to differences on political and religious views and beliefs, hundreds, thousands and even millions of people died. Here are the most horrifying political mass murders or killings of a particular political group in history.

The Tlatelolco Massacre

Every Mexican will always remember the Tlatelolco Massacre, also known as The Night of Tlatelolco (from a book title by the Mexican writer Elena Poniatowska). This horrifying incident in Mexican history took place on the afternoon and night of October 2, 1968, in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in the Tlatelolco section of Mexico City, ten days before the 1968 Summer Olympics celebrations in Mexico City, when the military and armed men shot student demonstrators. The death toll remains controversial: some estimates place the number of deaths in the thousands, but most sources report between 200 and 300 deaths. The exact number of people who were arrested is also controversial. A memorial was built to commemorate this tragic incident.

The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre

Another manifestation of man’s cruelness is the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, alternatively known as the Amritsar Massacre. It was named after the Jallianwala Bagh (Garden) in Amritsar City in India. The incident happened on April 13, 1919 when British Indian Army soldiers under the command of Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer opened fire on an unarmed gathering of men, women and children. The firing lasted about 10 minutes and 1650 rounds were fired or 33 rounds per soldier. Official British Raj sources placed the fatalities at 379. According to private sources there were over 1000 deaths, with more than 2000 wounded, and Civil Surgeon Dr. Smith indicated that there were 1,526 casualties. A memorial was erected for the victims of this horrible event in India’s history.

The Hama Massacre

One of the most recent political mass murders in modern history is the Hama Massacre. This act of man’s cruelty occurred on February 2, 1982 when the Syrian army bombarded the town of Hama in order to quell a revolt by the Muslim Brotherhood. An estimated 7,000 to 25,000 people were killed, including about 1,000 soldiers.

The Partition of India

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The Partition of India which led to the creation in 1947 of the Pakistan and Bangladesh led to massive population exchanges between the two states in the months immediately following Partition. Once the lines were established, about 14.5 million people crossed the borders to what they hoped was the relative safety of religious majority. About 7,226,000 Muslims went to Pakistan from India while 7,249,000 Hindus and Sikhs moved to India from Pakistan immediately after partition.

The newly formed governments were completely unequipped to deal with migrations of such staggering magnitude, and massive violence and slaughter occurred on both sides of the border. Estimated number of deaths range around roughly 500,000, with low estimates at 200,000 and high estimates at 1,000,000

Mao’s Suppression of Counterrevolutionaries

Mao’s first political campaigns after founding the People’s Republic were land reform and the suppression of counter-revolutionaries, which centered on mass executions, often before organized crowds. These campaigns of mass repression targeted former KMT officials, businessmen, former employees of Western companies, intellectuals whose loyalty was suspect, and significant numbers of rural gentry. The US State department in 1976 estimated that there may have been a million killed in the land reform, 800,000 killed in the counterrevolutionary campaign. Mao himself claimed that a total of 700,000 people were executed during the years 1949-53. However, because there was a policy to select “at least one landlord, and usually several, in virtually every village for public execution”, 1 million deaths seems to be an absolute minimum, and many authors agree on a figure of between 2 million and 5 million dead. In addition, at least 1.5 million people were sent to “reform through labor” camps. Mao’s personal role in ordering mass executions is undeniable. He defended these killings as necessary for the securing of power.

Great Purge

One of the most unforgivable men in history is Stalin. The term “Great Purge” was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union he orchestrated from 1937 to 1938. Also described as a “Soviet holocaust” by several authors, it involved the purge of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, repression of peasants, deportations of ethnic minorities, and the persecution of unaffiliated persons, characterized by widespread police surveillance, widespread suspicion of “saboteurs”, imprisonment, and killings. Estimates of the number of deaths associated with the Great Purge run from the official figure of 681,692 to nearly 2 million.

The Red Terror

Another horrifying incident in history that took place in Soviet Russia is the so-called “The Red Terror”. It was the campaign of mass arrests and executions conducted by the Bolshevik government. An average of 300 people was executed everyday during this time of Russia’s dark history. Hundred thousands were executed, imprisoned and tortured. And thousands were deported.

The Killing Fields

A commemorative stupa filled with the skulls of the victims.

Another unforgettable and horrible event in history is Pol Pot’s Killing Fields. These were a number of sites in Cambodia where large numbers of people were killed and buried by the authoritarian Khmer Rouge regime, during its rule of the country from 1975 to 1979. At least 200,000 people were executed by the Khmer Rouge (while estimates of the total number of deaths resulting from Khmer Rouge policies, including disease and starvation, range from 1.4 to 2.2 million out of a population of around 7 million). In 1979 Vietnam invaded the country, which at that time was officially called Democratic Kampuchea, and toppled the Khmer Rouge regime.

(All photos are courtesy of Wikipedia)

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