The human cost of communism : from Lenin to Stalin and the consequences on humanity

Abstract

Human Rights and the Communism were never considered compatible especially when one sees the terror and death promoted by communist countries. The dissertation wants to show a clear cut between theory and execution. Although most human rights literature and abuses focus on the Nazis Holocaust and Nuremberg, it is impressive to find out that what Hitler had done, was actually nothing compared to the Bolsheviks leaders. More importantly, the Bolsheviks terrorised and murdered mainly their own people. In the dissertation I am highlighting the difference between theory and practice of communism relating how Lenin and Stalin were personally responsible for millions of deaths. Besides, the dissertation intends to compare Lenin and Stalin and how they deviated from the Marxist communist plan. By using existing literature and works of writers like Medvedev, Figes, Nove, Deutscher and many others, I have tried to portray their point of view on the subject to generate my argument. An important input as regards to literature was taken from the Black book of communism which I regard as an important feature in the research due to its complete and detailed work on the subject. Human Rights and Humanitarian Law will also be imperative as besides the various communist constitutions described and compared in the dissertation, we will also explain in legal terms what Crimes against peace, War Crimes, Crimes against Humanity and Genocide are. These four will then be used to describe various case studies where Lenin and Stalin were involved. The findings in the thesis were in my opinion atrocious and inhuman as T never thought that anyone's madness could be responsible for such horrors.