Remembering Communism

Here is a link to an interesting website: The Global Museum on Communism. Many people today seem to be rather uninformed and naive about the horrifying impact Communism has had on our world. 100 million victims in the 20th century caused by a totalitarian system that preaches "scientific socialism" and "equality" is an astonishing outcome. I challenge you with the idea that no matter how bad you think Communism was and is, you probably underestimate how purely evil it actually is.

This site is a good resource for homeschoolers.

A great book on Communism, for those who want a short introduction to its history by a leading historian is: Richard Pipes, Communism: A Brief History.

A longer book which documents the horrors of Stalin's Russia is Robert Conquest, The Great Terror: A Reassessment.

Of course, the books by Alexander Solzhenitsyn are essential. A good one to start with is his short novel, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denesovich.

Also essential is Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago. The original three-volume work is abridged in an abridged, one-volume paperback edition.

Finally, I would recommend a book by a team of French scholars entitled: The Black Book of Communism. (I have the paperback edition; I think it is available from Amazon.com.) This book continues Solzhenitsyn's work by covering not merely Russia or the Soviet Union, but the whole world. It is an act of remembrance which refuses to let the victims go unknown, unlamented and unheeded.

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." 
- George Santayana