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Details on Essay #1

Thesis: Stephane Courtois was an active member of the Communist party, but later became a renowned critique of Communism because of the way in which he experienced the harmful side effects of the regime type.

1. I plan to analyze the following two passage selections from the Black Book of Communism:
   1. “This book is one of the first attempts to study Communism with a focus on its criminal dimensions, in both the central regions of Communist rule and the farthest reaches of the globe… Communism has committed a multitude of crimes not only against individual human begins but also against world civilization and national cultures.” (Page 3. This quote continues onto page 4-8, detailing and defining some of the crimes, which I will also refer to when using this passage.)
   1. “On the other hand, I personally feel that there is a difference between criticizing people for having accepted Stalin’s policy, which many Communists did not do, and blaming them for not having prevented his crimes… An analysis of terror and dictatorship—the defining characteristics of Communists in power—is no easy task…” (Page 12-15).

• The 3 subsections of my paper will go as follows:
  • About Stephane Courtois’ life
  • Courtois’ Views on Lenin
  • The Black Book Project

• The following are my sources:
  • The Totalitarian Legacy of The Bolshevik Revolution
  • Alexander Dallin’s Book Review of the BB
    • Dallin, Alexander. Slavic Review, vol. 59, no. 4, 2000, pp. 882–883. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2697429. Accessed 19 Feb. 2020.
  • Part II, Chapters 16 & 17 of the BB