Global Communist Genocide - Introspection

by Larry Pfeffer © Jerusalem, 2004

Many historians state that Hitler’s one time partner, Stalin, planned a major pogrom, perhaps another Holocaust, for 1953 in the CCCP and also in its colonies. The pretext was going to be the "Soviet people" incensed by what they "learned" from the "Doctor’s Trial" – yet another Stalin invented and instigated sinister purge of innocent people. Historians wrote that a document was prepared and signed by many Soviet "Jewish" leaders, condemning the "treacherous doctors" and appealing to Stalin to "save" the Jews from the "people’s fury". Stalin was kindly going to "protect" us by shipping us to temporary safety in Siberian camps. Apparently the list of all Jews with addresses, the busses, trains and gulags were ready for us. According to some opinions the "incensed proletariat" were going to "spontaneously" attack the trains on the way to the camps. Those of us who survived such pogroms were destined to die in the camps - due to the elements, cruelty, malnutrition, diseases and the other deadly factors which decimated the unfortunates sent to gulags. It would be fitting to remember Purimfest 1953 during future Purim celebrations.

Some historians write that Stalin was also looking for a final showdown with the West and may also have been trying to provoke a world war in 1953 to attempt to impose a Stalinist "Utopia" on the rest of the world. If so, Purimfest 1953 is indeed a source for joy to all people, not just to us Jews.

Almost a half century ago Stalin’s regimes in the CCCP, its colonies and "affiliates" (e.g. mainland China) were exposed as Hell on Earth, torturing and murdering significantly more people than Hitler, Stalin’s one time partner. It is fascinating that even long after Stalin’s death and after exposure of the Soviet Unions’ long-term bloodthirsty genocide there was a significant Communism centered secular religious cult in many places in the World, including the advanced and prosperous countries in free West. Even today many people around the world see Stalin and Communism in a positive light.

It is also interesting that whereas Nazi Germany was and is almost universally seen very negatively, the CCCP and colonies were perceived very positively, especially by humanist liberal intellectuals. It is puzzling that so many bright and often idealist people couldn’t or wouldn’t see that despite rhetoric to the contrary Russia was THE imperialist and colonialist of the twentieth century, and was the worst abuser of human rights and greatest threat to peace in the past century. One must question the motives and intellectual capabilities of "intellectuals" who saw Communism and the Soviet Union and its empire in a positive glow and who deified Stalin.

The widely enforced intolerance for independent thinking and enforced rigid pro-Soviet conformity of some intellectual circles in the free West is quite disconcerting. So is the hypocrisy of today’s "idealistic" and "revolutionary youth" violently protesting "globalism" and not even bothering to realize that the aggressive and blood-thirsty "globalist" of recent history was Communism - with the Internacionale anthem declaring the strategic revolutionary aim: establishing thru global war an ultimate internationalized world … Fortunately that nightmare did not turn into reality. Still, up until a few decades ago there was a real danger of much of the world being destroyed thru violent Communist expansionism. Khrushev declared the Communist system’s strategic aim when he banged his shoes on the table at the New York UN headquarters screaming "We will bury you!"

The puzzles continue. How did humanist intellectuals dismiss the huge numbers of Communism’s victims (current estimate is 85-100 million killed globally – possibly much higher) with statements like "When you make an omelet you must break the egg shell" and "When you cut down the tree there is inevitably sawdust". The fact that the humanist intellectuals could so easily dismiss the rivers of tears and blood on the altar of Communism is enlightening. Perhaps these are the true effects of persistent brain washing and extreme pressure to conform and the persistent danger facing intellectuals that their ideas and ideals may be disconnected from reality.

It is of interest to understand why intelligent people in the free West became Communist or viewed Communism in such a positive light. After all, they were not forcibly converted by Communist Crusades and Inquisitions, as were multitudes in the CCCP and colonies. Was it the madness of crowds, a typical consequence of intense group think, and skillful image making by the CCCP to make it look like Heaven on Earth whereas, in reality, it was Hell on Earth? Did people in the free West glimpse the horrible reality behind the lively songs of Communist dictatorships, or did their secular religious fervor and group identity in effect render them deaf, dumb and blind as well as intellectually impotent to reality? Did any of them realize that the red colored flag was an eloquent, crisp and fitting statement about the constant flow of blood required by the blood thirsty altar of the Communist Empire? What events made some ardent Communists "wake up" to reality and why were so many others unable to do so? What is the fundamental difference between those who could wake up and the sleepwalkers? These questions beg for answers.

How is it that even after the tragedy of the Holocaust some political groups in Israel, in fact the country’s elite, cancelled Purim celebrations in March 1953 and deep in mourning for the great loss flew the red flag at half mast when Stalin died? Did the leaders of such political movements of those days understand and communicate to their movement’s membership the implications of the Prague Trials and the "Doctors’ Plot", to be followed by a massive planned pogrom throughout the Soviet Empire? At a more basic level, how did the idealists in the free West, especially in Israel, cope with the fact that Stalin was Hitler’s ally and co-rapist of Poland with innumerable war crimes against Poles, Ukrainians, Russians and many other nationals? It is hoped that these questions will soon be addressed with all the seriousness they require.

Admittedly it is somewhat difficult to peel away an aura of charisma from the Communist system and look at it objectively. After all, it stated objectives were almost Utopian, its red flag and songs were inspiring and its written constitution seemed positive. The packaging was very skillfully designed and apparently the mind finds it difficult to look beyond that and see and smell the ugly and decaying reality within the nice illusion in which it is wrapped. It is an insult to Stalin’s memory that Goebbels is considered to have been the great propagandist of the twentieth century. Stalin was a far more skillful propagandist and marketeer, and that was only one of his skills. He was also an inspired script writer and director of a reality show played on the grand stage to be seen by the whole world. Stalin conceived, scripted and directed waves of large numbers of interlocking purges and staged trials taking huge tolls - yet he was able to project toward Western Communists and many intellectuals a positive and even charismatic image.

Even cursory reading of the history of the Communist empire since the Bolshevik Revolution is overwhelmed by the magnitude of atrocities and the inability to perceive in human terms the immense suffering and murders. Who can really imagine and emotionally understand what it means that the Communist movement around the world killed an estimated 85-100 million or more lives? Who can really understand in emotional terms all the suffering, degradation and huge loss of human potential due the gulags, prisons, torture and execution chambers which were the foundation stone of all Communist systems around the world?

Despite the many clear facts it is difficult to clearly see that the Nazi and Communist systems were almost mirror images of two sinister and destructive worlds. Once again, the packaging blinds the eye and dulls the mind. One’s mind oscillates between the facts clearly stating that the two systems were parallel universes and the contradictory illusion showing Nazism as evil and Communism in a positive light. The architects of the Communist system’s international public relations and marketing campaign did an excellent job and disrupted the minds of huge numbers of intellectuals and opinion shapers thru the world.

Perhaps the primary conclusion is that we seem to lack the ability to juggle in our collective mind "complex reality", to reconcile a beautifully wrapped package with the vile substance it contains, to be alert to danger signals indicating that a compelling "idealistic vision" is in fact a hallucination or nightmare, etc. Even after the vision shatters we don’t seem to engage in meaningful soul searching and have difficulty learning from our mistakes. Perhaps this is the reason why far too often we irresponsibly embark on half-baked "good ideas" turned into Ideology de Jour, which we force on our fellows without any analysis of potential consequences, open debate, graduated feasibility tests, independent auditors and other rational safeguards. If fact, calls for mindful analysis and insistence on safeguards are often perceived as "reactionary", "Fascist" and "fundamentalist". We seem to maintain the same abstract modus operandi and plunge with abandon into the next potentially destructive collective "good idea" and illusion. We seem to lack a collective immune system protecting us from the ravages of destructive and parasitic ideas masquerading in nice looking packages. There is much to learn from the pharmaceutical industry – where new "good ideas" and "visions" in medicine can’t be so irresponsibly thrust on others.

Far too often "history" is presented as an accumulation of mindless facts. Generally overlooked is the fact that perhaps the most important aspect of history is that it contains important patterns in time. Events of the past seem to exhibit possibly a large number of patters, just as the realm of mathematics and science are richly patterned. In the latter domain the "instance" (e.g. a specific number of a given falling objects) is rarely of interest because innumerable instances can be subsumed by a simple pattern (e.g. a "formula"). "Patterns in time" can be powerful ways of viewing the past, and can probably also be used to better predict likely scenarios in the history of the future.

Even cursory reading of Communist history indicates that in many ways it is repetition, amplification and fusion of previously observed patterns.

The most recent major parallel is Nazism and Fascism. They too had a world capital as center, derived from socialism, had at their helm an all powerful man with insatiable appetite for blood, sought world domination, were intent on creating a new man and eliminating various types of people, and operated large numbers of concentration and death camps.

The Church in another parallel. As Communism, it too preached noble ideas and worships a man. For almost two millennia it too engaged in double-talk - preaching love and kindness, and in reality practiced large-scale torture and murder (e.g. Crusades, Inquisition, Church instigated antisemitism). It too tortured and murdered "heretics". Both religions had highly ritualized practices and revered icons (e.g. Communism’s images of past and current gods and saints, the red flag, red star, hammer and sickle) and holy liturgy (e.g. Internacionale, Soviet anthem, Stalin Cantata, etc.). Communist systems world-wide had a God (usually Stalin) and venerated prophets (e.g. Marx, Engels) and great saints (e.g. Lenin). It too had a Vatican (Moscow), and holy works (Stalin’s works, Das Kapital).

Another parallel is the French Revolution. It too started with a noble slogan and executed the royal family. It too rapidly degenerated into an orgy of murder (under the guillotine). Its murder machinery too started consuming its own (e.g. Robespierre).

Probably there are many other historic parallels.

An unusual feature of the Holocaust was that in many cases it was possible to stand up to the evil of Nazism and save people. Among non-Jews there were many who hid Jews and courageous diplomats like Raoul Wallenberg, Carl Lutz, Sugihara and Perlasca who were able to save large numbers of Jews. There were also amazing Jewish rescuers like Rabbi Michael Ber Weissmandl, Mrs. Gizi Fleischmann and others in the Bratislava "Working Group", Hillel Kook and his group and others who were able to save many Jews. This phenomenon does not seem to have a parallel in the tragic history of the genocide perpetrated by Communist regimes. It is important to understand why there is disparity.

A fundamental and universal pattern in time is that once a powerfully marketed "meme" (mind virus) is disseminated it tends to take root in large numbers of minds, hops from mind to mind, often gets amplified in host minds and as any parasite seems to take it over. After a mind is seduced by a meme, it seems to develop a blind spot for reality. Even if the mind perceives a dissonance between the powerful idea with which it was infected and reality a variety of "workarounds" are invented to justify the dissonance. This way the mind can justify to itself continued belief in the idea, in spite of contrary evidence.

The notion of "Peace" is one such powerful idea. That nice word was often heard in the CCCP and colonies stated in many languages and was a permanent part of Communist propaganda. Stalin was a very astute propagandist and strategist (evil men are not necessarily stupid or unskilled). While the Communist system was preaching that it was seeking world peace it was murdering on an unprecedented scale and was apparently getting ready for a world war (Stalin may have felt the timing is right because he had a limited head start with the H-bomb). Who was portrayed as anti-Peace? The "Capitalist, Imperialist war-mongers and their Titoist and Zionist lackeys". This type of double talk seemed to work well, and serves many current murderous dictators - perhaps the best known of whom is Arrafat, who was skillfully marketed as a Peace lover. The Nobel Peace Prize helped with this image making, but severely diminished the prize’s meaning and value. In parallel, propagandists keep painting Israel as aggressor, even as a Nazi state creating another "Auschwitz" in Jenin. Facts apparently don’t count and are easily swept away by skillful propagandists. The large numbers of pro-Arafat "Peace supporters" are not bothered by the propaganda clashing with reality - for example Arafat constantly sabotaging peace talks, wanting the elimination of Israel vs. a workable settlement, or that he has a long record of brutality to his own people and is extremely corrupt. Such concerns apparently can’t counteract the fixation that "he is for Peace" and for "human rights" and the Israelis are for War and Occupation. A "don’t confuse me with facts" attitude seems to have set in world-wide, helped by a powerful substrate of antisemitism.

Communism as a secular religion had an amazingly fast growth rate, an even more spectacularly rapid decline and the number of murdered is almost impossible to understand in human terms. It must be asked who was guilty. Murder was apparently not the isolated work of a few deranged individuals, but was widespread and was a permanent part of the Communist milieu - just as permafrost is an indivisible part of the Soviet Union’s northern region. Whereas there were many evil sadists and inhuman people in the Communist systems, there were also "normal" and even highly idealistic people who eventually bloodied their hands and were often, in turn, consumed by the permanent murder machine of the Soviet Union, its colonies and affiliates. It is almost certain that many of those who murdered their fellow men and women would have led normal lives, were they to live in different times and different cultures. It is certain that there was a widespread and sustained phenomenon of the "madness of crowds", where enforced and unconstrained conformity, as in trances and certain extreme religious rites, swept into its murderous maelstrom huge numbers of people who became the regimes’ torturers and executioners.

This, however, does not excuse actions of the torturers and murderers. Knowing the difference between good and evil is an individual responsibility and even in an evil society one must choose good over evil, and be held accountable if that choice is not made. It is not an excuse to blame one’s evil on an evil milieu or an evil system.

Another question which must be asked is how an individual can protect himself from being swept away into an evil milieu or evil system. The teachings of the Rabbi from Kotsk, the "Kotsker", come to mind. He taught that one must not only avoid imitating others, but must also avoid imitating oneself. He said that one must have one and only one unrelenting life-long adversary: and that adversary must be oneself. This is not a hate relationship, but actually a life-long inner friend, one who constantly forces self-examination, critical thinking, a necessary dose of doubt to be mixed with one’s firm beliefs. One’s inner friend-adversary is like an inner study hall in a yeshiva study hall, a Beith Ha Midrash (also called "A House of Questioning"). A person with a lively inner Beith Ha Midrash is immunized against the madness of crowds and is assured of being able to maintain his humanity even if immersed in an evil milieu. Perhaps that is one of the true meanings of Judaism’s fundamental concepts of man crated in God’s image, Be Tzelem Elokim.

There were huge numbers of atrocities during World War II - including, but not restricted to the Shoah (e.g. the Katyn forest and subsequent massacre of about nine thousand Polish officers by the Russians.) It was perfectly logical that the mass murderers responsible for such monumental suffering be tried and punished. Also, many Holocaust museums and Holocaust centers sprung up and "Holocaust Study" was made a mandatory part of the curriculum in many countries, but there is a glaring void of museums showing the huge human tragedy resulting from Communism. This imbalance needs to be corrected.

It defies explanation how perpetrators of an even greater crime than the Holocaust were not fittingly punished, and how the immense suffering due to that terror is not given appropriate weight in terms of museums and research centers, and why it not an important part of curricula world-wide.

The thoughts in this note call for much collective soul searching.