----- Original Message ----- From: "Gautam Mukunda" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "David List (Brin-L)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2002 4:32 PM Subject: RE: Scouted: Commentary: Why Europe Sides Against the Jews / time.com
> I used to be in graduate school in Russian studies in the 1970s and 1980s, > and although I was not studying the Soviet period, I had many friends who > were, and who were simply trying to compile the facts. It was a big > controversy back then, with people coming out with the lower numbers being > screamed at as "Stalinists". > > The fact is, the demographic data compiled by independent, non-partisan > researchers do not show a population deficit of 20 million for the 1930s. > This is not a political statement, it's a scientific one. The only people > using the larger figure are doing so because for them the bigger the number, > the worse the crime, and the worse Stalin is. But look, even if it's "only" > 5 > million, that's still unimaginably horrible! > > Tom Beck > > Tom, > But, first, our numbers have gone up _a lot_ since then, because we've got > much better information now than we did in the 1970s and 1980s. But, > second, I never claimed a population deficit of 20 million for the 1930s. > We're talking about an almost 30-year period, here, and if you just focused > on the 1930s you'd miss: > The Ukrainian famine > The various genocides in the "istans" that made up the USSR's southern tier, > and which have never really been fully documented. > The mass executions conducted during the Second World War. > The wave of purges that _followed_ the Second World War. > The purges that were beginning when he finally died and > 20 years of the incidental killing that was an everyday part of Stalinist > rule. I've got a selfish request. Could both of you provide some source material for the arguements you are making? It would be interesting to see the foundation of how each arguement is made. Dan M.
