There are still millions of admirers of Lenin and Stalin around the world, as well as people nostalgic for the former Soviet Union. In fact, in the Russian Federation the Communist Party is the second most voted-for. This represents a threat that the harm caused by that regime could be repeated.

Read LET US AVOID HARM!: Let us look at the evil behind communism

Read LET US AVOID HARM!: Beware of the seed of evil contained in Marx’s writings

So that we do not stumble over the same stone again, the following easily verifiable figures from the USSR should never be forgotten:

• 18 million innocent people were sent to the Gulags, slave forced-labor camps, of whom 2.7 million died. In some gulags they lived in tents, despite being in Siberia at temperatures below 40 degrees below zero. In other camps there were barracks, but to optimize costs they crammed the slaves into three-tier bunks right next to each other, similar to those in Nazi concentration camps. Not even on plantations in the Americas did slaves live in tents or packed in like that,

• Between 6 and 7 million innocent people were deported, and many of them died along the way.

• Between 5.5 and 7 million innocent peasants starved to death in the 1930s because the regime confiscated the harvests they had produced with the sweat of their brow. Communist exploitation was worse than in slave systems, since slaves were given enough food to survive. Why were their harvests stolen? To develop the arms industry with which Communist politicians could consolidate their fragile power and expand it around the world (and they succeeded, as the USSR became one of the two great military powers, along with the USA—but at what cost), and to buy machinery from the West in exchange for grain.

• Another 3 million innocent peasants also lost their lives for lack of food in Lenin’s time because he imposed a mass famine on peasants who rebelled against the Communist regime.

• Between 1 and 1.5 million deaths from starvation in the 1946–47 famine.

• Between 0.7 and 1.2 million innocent people were murdered in Stalin’s purges, especially during the Great Terror. The dictator set quotas of people to be killed in each province, and provincial authorities, in order to meet those quotas, sought out suspects thought to be opposed to the regime. But since that was not enough to meet the extermination targets, they took lists of residents and selected names from them at random. Why was it done this way? To generate terror that would prevent new rebellions by the population against the “dictatorship of the proletariat,” since Communism had only 24% support among the population and was imposed through a violent revolution not to overthrow the tsars’ regime (as most people believe), but a liberal democracy that had been taking shape for 8 months and was governed first by a coalition of liberals and socialists and then by the socialists. These mass purges took place at every level of society, from the poorest peasants to the highest-ranking officials.

• Between 0.1 and 0.5 million innocent people were murdered by Lenin for being suspected of not supporting the regime.

Each of the figures above has been a severe blow to humanity, but there is more, because some of those killed in the various purges were first tortured in the Chekas. And with horrific torments such as impalement, flaying (ripping off the skin while alive), crucifixion, slowly lowering the victim into boiling water, or inserting rats into their entrails—practices openly publicized by the Communist press, such as Pravda or Izvestia. The Communists were far more cruel than the tsarist regime, at least from 1863 onward, the year the liberal-minded Tsar Alexander II abolished torture.

HOW MUCH SUFFERING COMMUNISM HAS CAUSED!

According to some estimates, around 62 million died in the various Soviet genocides. That enormous mountain of victims is greater than the combined population of several countries. But do not go yet, because there is still more:

LIVING CONDITIONS RANGING FROM TERRIBLE TO MEDIOCRE

Per capita consumption equivalent to 28% of per capita consumption in the USA. In other words, the purchasing power of an average American citizen was more than three times higher than that of a Soviet citizen. Those privileged people residing in the cities (not in tents or barracks in the gulags, or literally starving to death in the countryside) lived in communal apartments, with each entire family in one room (and those bedrooms were also subdivided so that more families could fit into an apartment—for example, 6 families), sharing everything else. The different families in each commune watched and informed on one another, which created a culture of mistrust among neighbors that still endures today.

Under Khrushchev this system was replaced by tiny family apartments in shabby, low-quality buildings without heating (despite how cold it is there), such as, for example, a little 40 m2 apartment for a family made up of three generations.

Of course, not everyone lived with such a low standard of living, since a double standard was applied: those who preached equality the most (party members and, above all, the nomenklatura and, most of all, the leaders) were the ones who lived most unequally. They were more counterfeit than the trinkets you can buy at imitation-brand market stalls.

Without going into details, we will highlight the spectacular Lenin’s mansion in Gorski Léninskie, which he had expropriated from some aristocrats, and his Rolls-Royce. And Stalin’s more than 20 large houses (most of them in the privileged Black Sea area), such as the Sochi dacha, which had nothing to envy of upper-bourgeois mansions, as well as his fancy cars and other luxuries. There was the exception of Brezhnev, who gave up a luxurious residence to live in an apartment of only 54 m2 (an exception up to a point, since he also enjoyed a large luxury villa), but the norm has been a privileged lifestyle for the Communist Privileged Caste.

Read LET US LIVE WITHOUT HARMING! Let us be impartial and not apply double standards

Meanwhile, tens of millions of workers—the vast majority—were exploited. The Communists not only abused the envied and hated bourgeoisie, but also the people as a whole, especially the peasants, who made up most of society. Workers were considered, at least during the first decades, mere commodities like iron or cement, necessary for the Revolution. They were simply pawns, used as slaves in major public-works and industrial projects, like the pharaohs used the Egyptian people to build their pyramids, giving them only the bare minimum to survive.

Obviously, under those conditions their mortality rates were considerably higher than normal. For a long time, the implementation of Soviet Communism was based on slave labor. To maximize the level of exploitation, anyone who did not meet their productivity target had their food ration taken away and died.

Read LIVING WITHOUT HARM: Let us rebel against slavery, including hidden slavery

But the story does not end here:

PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACT OF SOVIET COMMUNISM

Average scores for subjective well-being (what people report they have) in the Soviet Union were much lower than in liberal democracies. This is no surprise: even those who survived the famines and purges, those who did not go through the Chekas or gulags, were victims of a generalized climate of terror, intimidation, surveillance, and denunciations (even among neighbors, friends, and relatives) and a stifling collectivist way of life that suffocated individuality. Any complaint or criticism of the government, any phrase that was not “politically correct,” could mean prison, torture, and/or death. Therefore, a climate of constant fear prevailed at all hours, both at work and at home.

Read “Happiness-Oriented Policy”

Read “Happiness-Oriented Economics”

Deep dissatisfaction led to uprisings, especially by peasants, which were ruthlessly crushed by the regime.

Therefore, let us not lower our guard in the face of this threat. Let us not allow the lords of the scythes to return to repeat the abuses caused by all communist regimes without exception.

Read LET US AVOID HARM!: Let us understand the suffering caused by communism and similar ideologies

Read LET US AVOID HARM!: Let us reject the barbarities perpetrated by Asian communism

Read LET US AVOID HARM!: Let us be aware of the harm caused by Chavismo so that it does not spread to other countries

Read LET US AVOID HARM!: Let us warn about the harmfulness of the contemporary far left

Read HOW TO LIVE WITHOUT HARM? Let us reform the harmful part of communism

Thank you for sharing to protect humanity,