The Most Horrifying Political Mass Murders in History

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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