The Black Book of Communism

The Black Book of Communism brings to light the appalling toll of more than seven decades of communist regime history: large-scale massacres, deportations of entire populations to regions without the slightest means of survival, murderous purges that eliminated even the slightest hint of opposition, hunger and poverty that indiscriminately decimated millions of people; in short, the annihilation of men, women, children, soldiers, peasants, religious figures, political prisoners, and all those who, for the most diverse reasons, found themselves in the path of implementing what, paradoxically, was born as a promise of redemption and hope.

The authors, historians who remain or have been linked to the left, do not hesitate to use the word genocide, as approximately 100 million people died. This frightening number surpasses, for example, the number of victims of Nazism and even those of the two world wars combined. Genocide, a Holocaust, is therefore confirmed by the numerous accounts of survivors and, especially, by the revelations of the archives accessible today.

The Black Book of Communism does not attempt to justify or find causes for such atrocities. Nor does it aim to be another chapter in the left-right polemic, discussing Marxist foundations and theories. It is, above all, about giving names and voices to the victims and their tormentors. Victims hidden for too long under the propaganda machine of Communist Parties spread across the world. Tormentors often celebrated and received with great fanfare by Western democracies.

All who in any way took part in the communist adventure in this century are, from now on, obliged to reconsider their certainties and convictions.

This is one of the main virtues of this book: in light of the facts revealed here, the Red Terror must be present in the consciousness of those who still believe in a future for communism.

A veritable mine of detailed information that records the perversity of a system that will always be violent because it understands no other way to impose itself, especially in times of peace.

This edition includes numerous testimonies, maps of the "Gulags" and deportations, and 32 pages of photographs.