When we think of genocide and evil, our minds seem to automatically go to Hitler and the stories we looked at from the holocaust in the last few episodes in this series. But if we measure evil simply by the number of deaths a ruler inflicted upon a people, Hitler is not even close to the top. In episode 6 of our series on the history of genocide, Never Again, Again, we look at Evil Men, specifically, Mao Zedong of China and Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union. When evil is measured by the number of deaths alone, these two are the evilest men in history.
Evil Men looks at the insane rise of Stalin and Mao and the number of deaths each of these rulers inflicted upon their own people. These evil men implanted political identities upon their enemies or perceived enemies and then proceeded to wipe them out from the face of the earth.
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Stalin invented kulaks where there were none and then pursued the destruction of the kulaks. Mao invented counter-revolutionaries where there were none and then proceeded toward their destruction. Both men upended their society and the nations they were charged to rule. Both men relied upon a cult of personality and fear to maintain their grip on power. Both men, along with Hitler were contemporaries who helped add to each other’s power and evil.
Additional Reading
- Mass Killings During the Cultural Revolution
- Mass Killings Under Mao
- The Great Terror
- Stalin’s Mass Murders
