Anti-communist mass killings

Quick Facts: Who was Anti-communist mass killings?

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Anti-communist mass killings

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Systematic, violent political cleansing targeting communists and alleged sympathizers.

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2Day Chrono-Wiki & Primary Historical Archives

Origins & Early Life

Anti-communist mass killings, anti-communist genocides or genocides against communists are forms of political cleansing of population involving violence such as genocide and mass killings of communists, alleged communists, or their alleged supporters which were committed by anti-communists and political organizations or governments which opposed communism. The communist movement has faced opposition since it was founded and the opposition to it has often been organized and violent. Many anti-communist mass killing campaigns waged during the Cold War were supported and backed by the United States and its Western Bloc allies. Some U.S.-supported mass killings, including the Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66 and the killings by the Guatemalan military during the Guatemalan Civil War, are considered acts of genocide. Academic scholarship has increasingly applied the label of genocide to specific anti-communist mass killings.

Career & Major Achievements

The 1965–1966 Indonesian massacres, in particular, have been explicitly classified as genocide by a range of scholars, with some analyses framing the violence as a genocide perpetrated against a political group. In Nazi Germany and the countries occupied by it during World War II, anti-communism was one of the motivations for the Holocaust, the extermination of the Jews, who were perceived as creators of the "Jewish Bolshevism"; during the revolutions after World War I, the "Jewish Bolshevism" conspiracy theory justified the antisemitic violence carried out by anti-communist counter-revolutionary troops in the former Russian Empire and Hungary. White Terror is a term that was coined during the French Revolution in 1795 in order to denote all forms of counter-revolutionary violence, referring to the solid white flag of the loyalists to the French throne. Since then, historians and individual groups have both used the term White Terror in order to refer to coordinated counter-revolutionary violence in a broader sense. In the course of history, many White Terror groups have persecuted, attacked, and killed communists, alleged communists and communist-sympathizers as part of their counter-revolutionary and anti-communist agendas.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

Historian Christian Gerlach wrote that "when both sides engaged in terror, the 'red' terror usually paled in comparison with the 'white'", and cited the crushing of the Paris Commune, the terrors of the Spanish Civil War, and the Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66 as examples. Latin America was ravaged by many bloody civil wars and mass killings during the 20th century. Most of these conflicts were politically motivated, or they revolved around political issues, and anti-communist mass killings were committed during several of them. From 1976 to 1983, the military dictatorship of Argentina, the National Reorganization Process under Jorge Rafael Videla, organized the arrest and execution of between 9,000 and 30,000 civilians suspected of communism or other leftist sympathies during a period of state terror. Children of the victims were sometimes given a new identity and forcibly adopted by childless military families.

Chronological Milestones & Life Events

1. 1795: 1795 Milestone — White Terror is a term that was coined during the French Revolution in 1795 in order to denote all forms of counter-revolutionary violence, referring to the solid white flag of the loyalists to the French throne.
2. 1965: 1965 Milestone — -supported mass killings, including the Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66 and the killings by the Guatemalan military during the Guatemalan Civil War, are considered acts of genocide.
3. 1976: 1976 Milestone — From 1976 to 1983, the military dictatorship of Argentina, the National Reorganization Process under Jorge Rafael Videla, organized the arrest and execution of between 9,000 and 30,000 civilians suspected of communism or other leftist sympathies during a period of state terror.

Notable Quotes by Anti-communist mass killings

“when both sides engaged in terror, the 'red' terror usually paled in comparison with the 'white'”

Historical Fact-Check Quiz: Anti-communist mass killings

True or False: “The term 'White Terror' was first coined to describe counter-revolutionary violence during the French Revolution.”

Answer (FALSE ❌): While used in that context, the concept of anti-communist mass killings is a broader historical phenomenon spanning multiple continents and eras.

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Frequently Asked Questions about Anti-communist mass killings