Movement Document Under The Sheep And Goats: Fill & Download for Free

This answer may contain sensitive images. Click on an image to unblur it.No, it's probably the largest certified fake news in human history.By communism I allow myself to understand Marxism Leninism.Marxism-Leninism is the practical application of Marxism to the modern world. It’s the adaptation of Marxism by the writings and theories of Vladimir Lenin. It’s a universally applicable ideology and is by far the most widespread and historically significant version of Marxism. It involves:VanguardismOne-party stateCritique of ImperialismDemocratic CentralismAbolition of private propertyDictatorship of the proletariatBut where does this meaningless number come from?From the black book of communism, which attributes these deaths to communism:65 million” in the People's Republic of China“20 million” in the Soviet Union“2 million” in Cambodia“2 million” in North Korea“1.7 million” in Ethiopia“1.5 million” in Afghanistan“1 million” in the Eastern Bloc“1 million” in Vietnam“150,000” in Latin America“10,000 deaths "resulting from actions of the international Communist movement and Communist parties not in power"What's the problem?The problem is that the book, in addition to contradicting itself, also considers deaths in the war.The author had this huge obsession with reaching 100 million, so after shooting completely random numbers, he added 5 million deaths to reach 100 million.Moreover, the Black Book of Communism is considered by many historical propaganda.Whereas chapters of the book, where it describes the events in separate Communist states, were highly praised, some generalizations made by Courtois in the introduction to the book became a subject of criticism both on scholarly and political grounds. Moreover, two of the book's main contributors—Nicolas Werth and Jean-Louis Margolin—as well as Karel Bartosek publicly disassociated themselves from Courtois' statements in the introduction and criticized his editorial conduct. Werth and Margolin felt Courtois was "obsessed" with arriving at a total of 100 million killed which resulted in "sloppy and biased scholarship"and faulted him for exaggerating death tolls in specific countries. They also argued that based on the results of their studies, one can tentatively estimate the total number of the victims at between 65 and 93 million. In particular, Margolin, who authored the Black Book's chapter on Vietnam, clarified "that he has never mentioned a million deaths in Vietnam.” Historians Jean-Jacques Becker and J. Arch Getty have criticized Courtois for failing to draw a distinction between victims of neglect and famine and victims of "intentional murder". Economic historian Michael Ellman has argued that the book's estimate of "at least 500,000" deaths during the Soviet famine of 1946–1947 "is formulated in an extremely conservative way, since the actual number of victims was much larger", with 1,000,000–1,500,000 excess deaths. Regarding these questions, historian Alexander Dallin has argued that moral, legal, or political judgments hardly depend on the number of victims. Many observers have rejected Courtois's numerical and moral comparison of Communism to Nazism in the introduction. According to Werth, there was still a qualitative difference between Nazism and Communism, saying: "Death camps did not exist in the Soviet Union". He further told Le Monde: "The more you compare Communism and Nazism, the more the differences are obvious". In a critical review, historian Amir Weiner wrote: "When Stalin's successors opened the gates of the Gulag, they allowed 3 million inmates to return home. When the Allies liberated the Nazi death camps, they found thousands of human skeletons barely alive awaiting what they knew to be inevitable execution". Historian Ronald Suny remarked that Courtois' comparison of 100 million victims of Communism to 25 million victims of Nazism "[leaves out] out most of the 40-60,000,000 lives lost in the Second World War, for which arguably Hitler and not Stalin was principally responsible". A report by the Wiesel Commission criticized the comparison of Gulag victims with Jewish Holocaust victims as an attempt to trivialize the Holocaust. Historian Peter Kenez criticized the chapter written by Nicolas Werth: "Werth can also be an extremely careless historian. He gives the number of Bolsheviks in October 1917 as 2,000, which is a ridiculous underestimate. He quotes from a letter of Lenin to Alexander Shliapnikov and gives the date as 17 October 1917; the letter could hardly have originated at that time, since in it Lenin talks about the need to defeat the Tsarist government, and turn the war into a civil conflict. He gives credit to the Austro-Hungarian rather than the German army for the conquest of Poland in 1915. He describes the Provisional Government as 'elected'. He incorrectly writes that the peasant rebels during the civil war did more harm to the Reds than to the Whites, and so on". Historian Mark Tauger challenged the authors' thesis that the famine of 1933 was largely artificial and genocidal. According to journalist Gilles Perrault, the books ignores the effect of international factors, including military interventions, on the communist experience. Social critic Noam Chomsky has criticized the book and its reception as one-sided by outlining economist Amartya Sen's research on hunger. While India's democratic institutions prevented famines, its excess of mortality over China—potentially attributable to the latter's more equal distribution of medical and other resources—was nonetheless close to 4 million per year for non-famine years. Chomsky argued that "supposing we now apply the methodology of the Black Book" to India, "the democratic capitalist 'experiment' has caused more deaths than in the entire history of [...] Communism everywhere since 1917: over 100 million deaths by 1979, and tens of millions more since, in India alone". Le Siècle des Communismes, a collective work of twenty academics, was a response to both François Furet's Le passé d'une Illusion and Courtois's The Black Book of Communism. It broke Communism down into series of discrete movements, with mixed positive and negative results. The Black Book of Communism prompted the publication of several other "black books" which argued that similar chronicles of violence and death tolls can be constructed from an examination of colonialism and capitalismDebunking: “Communism killed more people than naziism!”USSRStalin was hit hard by anti-communist propaganda, especially by Robert Conquest, a British "historian" who was paid by the British Information Research Department (IRD) to create false propaganda.Robert Conquest dies – but his lies live on!But how many people really killed Stalin?About 1 million.death toll 2.pdfIt seems like a lot if we don't consider the fact that most of these people weren't innocent.HolodomorThe Holodomor was not caused by Stalin, that is a lie created by Joseph Goebbels, Third Reich propaganda minister.“It is a matter of some significance that Cardinal Innitzer’s allegations of famine-genocide were widely promoted throughout the 1930s, not only by Hitler’s chief propagandist Goebbels, but also by American Fascists as well.It will be recalled that Hearst kicked off his famine campaign with a radio broadcast based mainly on material from Cardinal Innitzer’s “aid committee.” In Organized Anti-Semitism in America, the 1941 book exposing Nazi groups and activities in the pre-war United States, Donald Strong notes that American fascist leader Father Coughlin used Nazi propaganda material extensively. This included Nazi charges of “atrocities by Jew Communists” and verbatim portions of a Goebbels speech referring to Innitzer’s “appeal of July 1934, that millions of people were dying of hunger throughout the Soviet Union.”-Tottle, Douglas -Fraud, Famine, and Fascism. Toronto: Progress Books,1987, p. 49-51Stop Spreading Nazi Propaganda: on HolodomorHolodomor was caused by the Kulakis, the climate, the Golden Blockade (western economic block) and various diseases.“During the 1932 harvest season Soviet agriculture experienced a crisis. Natural disasters, especially plant diseases spread and intensified by wet weather in mid-1932, drastically reduced crop yields. OGPU reports, anecdotal as they are, indicate widespread peasant opposition to the kolkhoz system.These documents contain numerous reports of kolkhozniki, faced with starvation, mismanagement and abuse by kolkhoz officials and others, and desperate conditions: dying horses, idle tractors, infested crops, and incitement by itinerant people. Peasants’ responses varied: some applied to withdraw from their farms, some left for paid work outside, some worked sloppily, intentionally leaving grain on the fields while harvesting to glean later for themselves.”-Tauger, Mark. “Soviet Peasants and Collectivization, 1930-39: Resistance and Adaptation.” In Rural Adaptation in Russia by Stephen Wegren, Routledge, New York, NY, 2005, Chapter 3, p. 81.Stalin needed to industrialize the USSR as fast as possible to be ready for a potential war, but had to import the necessary materials from the west. (WWII) The west imposed a "golden blockade" on the USSR, whereby the Western powers refused to accept gold as payment for industrial equipment they delivered to Russia. They demanded that the Soviet government pay for the equipment in timber, oil and grain. These sanctions were not removed the following years, and was a major reason as to the extremity of the Famine. The leadership of the USSR was forced to play by the wests rules.In April 17, 1933, the British government declared an embargo on up to 80% of USSR’s exports.During this time, the Great Depression began. In the US ,in response to the overproduction of grain, in particular, the government destroyed grain in large quantities, and immediately took grain from the USSR in payment for its machines instead of gold, oil and other much more necessary raw materials. Roosevelt, continued the policy of destroying agricultural products and reducing crop areas in order to raise prices to lower the severity of the depression:“Probably most deaths in 1933 were due to epidemics of typhus, typhoid fever, and dysentery. Waterborne diseases were frequent in Makeyevka; I narrowly survived an attack of typhus fever. “- Blumenfeld, Hans. Life Begins at 65. Montreal, Canada: Harvest House, c1987, p. 153“Their (kulak) opposition took the initial form of slaughtering their cattle and horses in preference to having them collectivized. The result was a grievous blow to Soviet agriculture, for most of the cattle and horses were owned by the kulaks. Between 1928 and 1933 the number of horses in the USSR declined from almost 30,000,000 to less than 15,000,000; of horned cattle from 70,000,000 (including 31,000,0000 cows) to 38,000,000 (including 20,000,000 cows); of sheep and goats from 147,000,000 to 50,000,000; and of hogs from 20,000,000 to 12,000,000.Soviet rural economy had not recovered from this staggering loss by 1941. […] Some [kulaks] murdered officials, set the torch to the property of the collectives, and even burned their own crops and seed grain. More refused to sow or reap, perhaps on the assumption that the authorities would make concessions and would in any case feed them.”- Russia Since 1917, Four Decades Of Soviet Politics by Frederick L. SchumanHere you can see Russian peasants who find wheat stolen from kulaki.But who were the Kulakis?The Kulaki were a peasant class born in 1906 due to the agrarian reform of Petr Stolypin.A horrendous reform, which did nothing but increase the gap between rich and poor.The Kulaks rebelled against collectivization with violence, the same collectivization that brought Russia out of thisto this.AMERICAN AND SOVIET CITIZENS EAT ABOUT THE SAME AMOUNT OF FOOD EACH DAY BUTFor more information, I recommend reading the books of Mark B Tauger, a historian specializing in famine.https://newcoldwar.org/wp-conten...https://www.newcoldwar.org/wp-co...The Great Famine-Genocide in Soviet Ukraine (Holodomor)I would also recommend Dougles Tottle's book Fraud, Famine, and Fascism which also exposes the origins of the famine-genocide myth that is now propogated by many Nazis.Stalin, due to the Western economic blockade, had to remove Ukraine from large amounts to help the worst affected territories.Agricultural Adjustment Act - WikipediaHowever Stalin helped Ukraine.№ 144. Decree of Politburo of the CC VCP(b) [Central Committee of the All‐Russian Communist Party] concerning foodstuff aid to the Ukrainian S.S.R. of June 16, 1932:a) To release to the Ukraine 2,000 tons of oats for food needs from the unused seed reserves;b) to release to the Ukraine ∼3,600,000 ℔ of corn for food of that released for sowing for the Odessa oblast' but not used for that purpose;c) to release ∼2,520,000 ℔ of grain for collective farms in the sugar‐beet regions of the Ukrainian S.S.R. for food needs;d) to release ∼8,280,000 ℔ of grain for collective farms in the sugar‐beet regions of the Ukrainian S.S.R. for food needs;e) to require comrade Chubar' to personally verify the fulfilling of the released grain for the sugar‐beet Soviet and collective farms, that it be used strictly for this purpose;f) to release ∼900,000 ℔ of grain for the sugar‐beet Soviet farms of the Central Black Earth Region for food needs in connection with the gathering of the harvest, first requiring comrade Vareikis to personally verify that the grain released is used for the assigned purpose;g) by the present decision to consider the question of food aid to sugar‐beet producing Soviet and collective farms closed.-Голод в СССР: 1929-июль 1932Голод в СССР: 1929-июль 1932“The Political Bureau believes that shortage of seed grain in Ukraine is many times worse than what was described in comrade Kosior’s telegram; therefore, the Political Bureau recommends the Central Committee of the Communist party of Ukraine to take all measures within its reach to prevent the threat of failing to sow [field crops] in Ukraine.”-Joseph Stalin - From the Archive of the President of the Russian Federation. Fond 3, Record Series 40, File 80, Page 58.“In view of the importance of grain stocks to understanding the famine, we have searched Russian archives for evidence of Soviet planned and actual grain stocks in the early 1930s. Our main sources were the Politburo protocols, including the (“special files,” the highest secrecy level), and the papers of the agricultural collections committee Komzag, of the committee on commodity funds, and of Sovnarkom. The Sovnarkom records include telegrams and correspondence of Kuibyshev, who was head of Gosplan, head of Komzag and the committee on reserves, and one of the deputy chairs of Komzag at that time.We have not obtained access to the Politburo working papers in the Presidential Archive, to the files of the committee on reserves or to the relevant files in military archives. But we have found enough information to be confident that this very a high figure for grain stocks is wrong and that Stalin did not have under his control huge amounts of grain, which could easily have been used to eliminate the famine.”-Grain Stocks and the Famine of 1932-1933 by R. W. Davies, M. B. Tauger, S.G. Wheatcroft.Slavic Review, Volume 54, Issue 3 (Autumn, 1995), pp. 642-657.Soviet archives also show that Holodomor was natural.“Recent evidence has indicated that part of the cause of the famine was an exceptionally low harvest in 1932, much lower than incorrect Soviet methods of calculation had suggested. The documents included here or published elsewhere do not yet support the claim that the famine was deliberately produced by confiscating the harvest, or that it was directed especially against the peasants of the Ukraine.-Koenker and Bachman, Eds. Revelations from the Russian Archives. Washington: Library of Congress, 1997, p. 401Here is a quote from the preface of R. W. Davies and Stephen G. Wheatcroft's collaborative work The Years of Hunger Soviet Agriculture 1931-1933"In our own work we, like V. P. Kozlov, have found no evidence that the Soviet authorities undertook a programme of genocide against Ukraine.It is also certain that the statements by Ukrainian politicians and publicists about the deaths from famine in Ukraine aregreatly exaggerated. A prominent Ukrainian historian, Stanislas Kul’chitskii, estimated deaths from famine in Ukraine at 3–3.5 million and Ukrainian demographers estimate that excess deaths in Ukraine in the whole period 1926–39 (most of them during the famine) amounted to 3 1⁄2million."Thesis also confirmed by the journalist Anna Louise Strong, who worked in Russia and China.Q: “Is it true that during 1932-33 several million people were allowed to starve to death in the Ukraine and North Caucasus because they were politically hostile to the Soviets?”A: “Not true. I visited several places in those regions during that period. There was a serious grain shortage in the 1932 harvest due chiefly to inefficiencies of the organizational period of the new large-scale mechanized farming among peasants unaccustomed to machines. To this was added sabotage by dispossessed kulaks, the leaving of the farms by 11 million workers who went to new industries, the cumulative effect of the world crisis in depressing the value of Soviet farm exports, and a drought in five basic grain regions in 1931.The harvest of 1932 was better than that of 1931 but was not all gathered; on account of overoptimistic promises from rural districts, Moscow discovered the actual situation only in December when a considerable amount of grain was under snow.”-Anna Louise Strong - Searching Out the Soviets. New Republic: August 7, 1935, p. 356Anna about the harvest of 1933.“The conquest of bread was achieved that summer, a victory snatched from a great disaster. The 1933 harvest surpassed that of 1930, which till then had held the record. This time, the new record was made not by a burst of half-organized enthusiasm, but by growing efficiency and permanent organization … This nationwide cooperation beat the 1934 drought, securing a total crop for the USSR equal to the all-time high of 1933.”-Anna Louise Strong- The Stalin Era. New York: Mainstream, 1956, p. 44-45That's why the victims of Holodomor should not be counted.And the Soviets managed to put things right a year later, this to give you an idea of the strength of the USSR.This newspaper was published by Hearst as part of his deal with Goebbels to promote the Nazis. Hearst was also a Nazi supporter. The photos were found to be from other famines, one of them 10 years earlier. The “reporting” was fabrication. Other reporters that actually looked into it report that while there was a famine it was not intentional.“The CIA believed that Ukrainian nationalism could be used as an efficient cold war weapon.While the Ukrainian nationalists provided Washington with valuable information about its Cold War rivals, the CIA in return was placing the nationalist veterans into positions of influence and authority, helping them to create semi-academic institutions or academic positions in existing universities.By using these formal and informal academic networks, the Ukrainian nationalists had been disseminating anti-Russian propaganda, creating myths and re-writing history at the same time whitewashing the wartime crimes of OUN-UPA.“In 1987 the film “Harvest of Despair” was made. It was the beginning of the ‘Holodomor’ movement. The film was entirely funded by Ukrainian nationalists, mainly in Canada. A Canadian scholar, Douglas Tottle, exposed the fact that the film took photographs from the 1921-22 ‘Volga famine’ and used them to illustrate the 1932-33 famine. Tottle later wrote a book, ‘Fraud, Famine, and Fascism: The Ukrainian Genocide Myth from Hitler to Harvard,‘ about the phony ‘Holodomor’ issue,”Professor Furr elaborated. “https://mltheory.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/khrushchev-lied.pdf“In the last 15 years or so an enormous amount of new material on Stalin … has become available from Russian archives. I should make clear that as a historian I have a strong orientation to telling the truth about the past, no matter how uncomfortable or unpalatable the conclusions may be. … I don’t think there is a dilemma: you just tell the truth as you see it.(“Stalin’s Wars”, FPM February 12, 2007. At http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/35... )The Soviets managed to put things right a year later, this to give you an idea of the strength of the USSR.Maybe many of you want to attack me by saying that other historians say otherwise, well they are wrong.Apart from the fact that many of those who say that the Holodomor was a famine are not even historians but professors of economics, so I wouldn't trust that much.Many others, however, were bribed, one of them being Robert Conquest, who was paid by the British Informatio Research Department (IRD) to create anti-communist propaganda.Many others, however, are contradictory, like Stephen Koktin, who said that the famine was caused by Stalin but the deaths were not intentional.As anyone can understand this sentence it doesn't make much sense.He then says he has the documents confirming Stalin's involvement in the famine, which is absolutely false as I have already shown.The only thing Stalin did was to remove some wheat from Ukraine, that's true, I don't deny it, there are many people who say they saw the men of the NKVD take away some wheat.Too bad they didn't do it to eliminate 7 million people, but to save Russia from the Golden Blockade.As I have already explained, the USSR suffered a huge economic blockade, and if it had not paid a much greater famine would have erupted.And as I have already shown Stalin ordered to help Ukraine, those are his words, not those of a historian.When there are the archives themselves that confirm the theses there is no more to discuss, period.GulagStalin did not create the Gulag, they also existed during the Russian Empire under the name of Katorga.Katorga - WikipediaThey were created by Tsar Alessio.I'll tell you one thing right away, don't take Gulag Archipelago seriously, that book is simply propaganda.The Gulag Archipelago shouldn’t be taken seriouslyAccording to Solzhenitsyn's wife, the book was simple folklore.“In her 1974 memoir, Sanya: My Life with Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn”…, she wrote that she was ”perplexed” that the West had accepted ”The Gulag Archipelago” as ”the solemn, ultimate truth,” saying its significance had been ”overestimated and wrongly appraised.”Pointing out that the book’s subtitle is ”An Experiment in Literary Investigation,” she said that her husband did not regard the work as ”historical research, or scientific research.”She contended that it was, rather, a collection of ”camp folklore,” containing ”raw material” which her husband was planning to use in his future productions.”Natalya Reshetovskaya, 84, Is Dead; Solzhenitsyn's Wife Questioned 'Gulag'The Truth about the Soviet Gulag – Surprisingly Revealed by the CIAAccording to historians J. Arch Getty, Gabor T Rittersporn and Viktor Zemskov the victims of the gulags were around 1,053,829.http://sovietinfo.tripod.com/GTY...number of gulag.pdfHowever, this number also takes into account the sentences not carried out and, according to the historian Austin Murphy, the victims were about 160,000.“Like the myths of millions of executions, the fairy tales that Stalin had tens of millions of people arrested and permanently thrown into prison or labor camps to die in the 1930-1953 interval (Conquest, 1990) appear to be untrue.In particular, the Soviet archives indicate that the number of people in Soviet prisons, gulags, and labor camps in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s averaged about 2 million, of whom 20-40% were released each year, (Getty, Rittersporn, and Zemskov, 1993). This average, which includes desperate World War II years, is similar to the number imprisoned in the USA in the 1990s (Catalinotto, 1998a) and is only slightly higher as a percentage of the population.It should also be noted that the annual death rate for the Soviet interned population was about 4%, which incorporates the effect of prisoner executions. Excluding the desperate World War II years, the death rate in the Soviet prisons, gulags, and labor camps was only 2.5%, which is even below that of the average "free" citizen in capitalist Russia under the czar in peacetime in 1913 (Wheatcroft, 1993).This finding is not very surprising, given that about 1/3 of the confined people were not even required to work (Bacon, 1994), and given that the maximum work week was 84 hours in even the harshest Soviet labor camps during the most desperate wartime years (Rummel, 1990). The latter maximum (and unusual) work week actually compares favorably to the 100-hour work weeks that existed even for "free" 6-year old children during peacetime in the capitalist industrial revolution (Marx and Engels, 1988b), although it may seem high compared to the 7-hour day worked by the typical Soviet citizen under Stalin (Davies, 1997).In addition, it should also be mentioned that most of the arrests under Stalin were motivated by an attempt to stamp out civil crimes such as banditry, theft, misuse of public office for personal gain, smuggling, and swindles, with less than 10% of the arrests during Stalin's rule being for political reasons or secret police matters (Getty, Ritterspom, and Zemskov, 1993). The Soviet archives reveal a great deal more political dissent permitted in Stalin's Soviet Union (including a widespread amount of criticism of individual government policies and local leaders) than is normally perceived in the West (Davies, 1997). Given that the regular police, the political or secret police, prison guards, some national guard troops, and firefighters (who were in the same ministry as the police) comprised scarcely 0.2% of the Soviet population under Stalin (Thurston, 1996), severe repression would have been impossible even if the Soviet Union had wanted to exercise it. In comparison, the USA today has many times more police as a percentage of the population (about 1%, not to mention prison guards, national guard troops, and firefighters included in the numbers used to compute the far smaller 0.2% ratio for the Soviet Union)."-Austin Murphy: ‘The Triumph of Evil. Chapter 1, pg 78–79In the gulags most of the criminals were not political opponents, but very normal criminals.Source: CIA “Forced Labor Camps in the USSR: Transfer of Prisoners between Camps”Here you can read American propaganda about gulags.http://gulaghistory.org/nps/down...Among other things, the Gulag were not extermination camps, but prison camps.The penal system administered by the NKVD (Peoples' Commissariat of Internal Affairs) in the 1930s had several components: prisons, labor camps, and labor colonies, as well as "special settlements" and various types of non-custodial supervision. Generally speaking, the first stop for an arrested person was a prison, where an investigation and interrogation led to conviction or, more rarely, release. After sentencing, most victims were sent to: one of the labor camps or colonies to serve their terms. In December 1940, the jails of the USSR had a theoretical prescribed capacity of 234,000, although they then held twice that number. Considering this-and comparing the levels of prison populations given in the Appendixes for the 1930s and 1940s one can assume that the size of the prison system was probably not much different in the 1930s.Second, we find a system of labor camps. These were the terrible “hard regime” camps populated by dangerous common criminals, those important politicals the regime consigned to severe punishment, and, as a rule, by other people sentenced to more than three years of detention. On March 1, 1940, at the end of the Great Purges, there were 53 corrective labor camps (ispravitel’no-trudovye lageri: ITL) of the GULAG system holding some 1.3 million inmates. Most of the data cited in this article bear on the GULAG camps, some of which had a multitude of subdivisions spreading over vast territories and holding large numbers of people. BAMLAG, the largest camp in the period under review, held more than 260,000 inmates at the beginning of 1939, and SEVVOSTLAG (the notorious Kolyma complex) some 138,000.Third came a network of 425 “corrective labor colonies” of varying types. These colonies were meant to confine prisoners serving short sentences, but this rule varied with time. The majority of these colonies were organized to produce for the economy and housed some 315,000 persons in 1940. They were nevertheless under the control of the NKVD and were managed-like the rest of the colony network-by its regional administrations. Additionally, there were 90 children’s homes under the auspices of the NKVD.Fourth, there was the network of “special resettlements.” In the 1930s, these areas were populated largely by peasant families deported from the central districts as “kulaks” (well-to-do peasants) during the forced collectivization of the early 1930s. Few victims of the Great Purges of 1936-1939 were so exiled or put under other forms of non-custodial supervision: in 1937-1938, only 2.1 percent of all those sentenced on charges investigated by the political police fell into this category. This is why we will not treat exile extensively below.Finally, there was a system of non-custodial “corrective work” (ispravitel’no-trudovye raboty), which included various penalties and fines. These were quite common throughout the 1930s-they constituted 48 percent of all court sentences in 1935-and the numbers of such convictions grew under the several laws on labor discipline passed on the eve of the war. Typically, such offenders were condemned to up to one year at “corrective labor,” the penalty consisting of work at the usual place of one’s employment, with up to 25 percent reduction of wage and loss of credit for this work toward the length of service that gave the right to social benefits (specific allocations, vacation, pension). More than 1.7 million persons received such a sentence in the course of 1940 and almost all of them worked in their usual jobs without deprivation of freedom. As with resettlements, this correctional system largely falls outside the scope of the Great Terror.Taken from this article which everyone should read if they want to know more about the Soviet Penal system.Great PurgesThe purges were not made to eliminate dissidents, but to save Russia from sexists, tsarists, Nazis etc.The workers themselves voted to condemn people, not the government.Stalin was a person with pure ideals, he was in fact against anti-Semitism and racism.“National and racial chauvinism is a vestige of the misanthropic customs characteristic of the period of cannibalism. Anti-Semitism, as an extreme form of racial chauvinism, is the most dangerous vestige of cannibalism. Anti-semitism is of advantage to the exploiters as a lightning conductor that deflects the blows aimed by the working people at capitalism.Anti-Semitism is dangerous for the toilers, for it is a false track which diverts them from the proper road and leads them into the jungle. Hence, Communists, as consistent internationalists, cannot but be irreconcilable and bitter enemies of anti-Semitism. In the U.S.S.R., anti-Semitism is strictly prosecuted as a phenomenon hostile to the Soviet system. According to the laws of the U.S.S.R. active anti-Semites are punished with death.”-Joseph Stalin“Still others think that war should be organised by a "superior race," say, the German "race," against an "inferior race," primarily against the Slavs; that only such a war can provide a way out of the situation, for it is the mission of the "superior race" to render the "inferior race" fruitful and to rule over it. Let us assume that this queer theory, which is as far removed from science as the sky from the earth, let us assume that this queer theory is put into practice. What may be the result of that? It is well known that ancient Rome looked upon the ancestors of the present-day Germans and French in the same way as the representatives of the "superior race" now look upon the Slav races.It is well known that ancient Rome treated them as an "inferior race," as "barbarians," destined to live in eternal subordination to the "superior race," to "great Rome", and, between ourselves be it said, ancient Rome had some grounds for this, which cannot be said of the representatives of the "superior race" of today. (Thunderous applause.) But what was the upshot of this? The upshot was that the non-Romans, i.e., all the "barbarians," united against the common enemy and brought Rome down with a crash.The question arises: What guarantee is there that the claims of the representatives of the "superior race" of today will not lead to the same lamentable results? What guarantee is there that the fascist literary politicians in Berlin will be more fortunate than the old and experienced conquerors in Rome? Would it not be more correct to assume that the opposite will be the case?”-Joseph StalinStalin was not a dictator, he was simply the secretary general of the CPSU and could be removed from the party.Nicolò Piva's answer to Was Joseph Stalin above the law?ChinaMao did not kill 65 million people.Monthly Review | Did Mao Really Kill Millions in the Great Leap Forward?Reassessing the Great Leap ForwardApart from the fact that the Great Leap Forward was a natural famine (which did not kill 65 million people but 15 million, as the Chinese government of Deng Xiaoping and historian Leslie Holmes testify).This is nonsense invented by Dikotter which was highly criticized."Dikötter looks at China under Communist rule in a narrow vacuum, thus dispensing with the inconvenient fact that famine in this part of the world has been a recurring phenomenon, which Mao did not invent or even magnify."-Aaron LeonardPeople ignore the fact that China suffered terrible catastrophes at that time, about 100 million acres became unusable and in 1961 many typhoons hit southern China.China has a great history of famines, and it was Mao who ended this bad story.1810181118461849-of which 45 million died.1850–1873 - 20–30 million1876–1879 - 9.5–13 million1907, 1911 - 25 million1920–1921 - 500,001928–1930 - 3 million1936–1937 - 5 million1942–1943 - 2–3 millionMao increased life expectancy and decreased annual deaths.If you want to know more about Mao's reforms, I recommend Comrade Alexander Finnegan's answer.Alexander Finnegan's answer to What were some of Mao's best ideas?Godfree Roberts Archive - The Unz ReviewNicolò Piva's answer to What did the Great Leap Forward accomplish?CambodiaPol Pot, he was not a communist, he was just a madman.Pol Pot, unlike other leaders like Mao Zedong, was not a patriot, but a nationalist, and nationalism is incumbent on communism.Nicolò Piva's answer to What does nationalism mean?Patriotism is the love of one's homeland, nationalism is the holding of one's superior homeland.And since communism wants a society without a state, the two values are incompatible.Marx in his writings speaks of what is called proto-communism, that is, the period in which countries and money did not exist, in practice the Paleolithic period.What did that Pol Pot genius do?He attempted to deindustrialize the nation, so as to return to proto-communism lol.As to be able to see clearly this was not good.By the way the Khmer Rouge was founded by the USA.FRONTLINE/WORLD . Cambodia - Pol Pot's Shadow . Chronicle of Survival . 1980-1991: Back to square oneNorth KoreaThe deaths attributed to North Korea come from the Korean War, so the concept itself is wrong.Then it is wrong to say that those deaths were caused by North Korea as it was the US that gave Syngman Rhee a leading role.EthiopiaIt was practically a fascist dictatorship.VietnamSame speech as in North Korea.Those are the deaths from the war, caused inter alia by the USA.I will not speak of Latin America because I admit that I am totally ignorant of the matter.ConclusionCommunism did not kill 100 million people, but around 8/9 million.

First, I’m apolitical person and I don’t associate to any political favoritism towards whichever party you take.So coming to this year Karnataka budget, all I can say is it certainly have good but mostly inclined to be Demagoguery budget often happening across India, preplanned to fit for the coming elections, neatly crafted. Often done by every political parties which they see their popularity is hurt or seeing a loss of vote share or fear of defeat. Ever political party does it across country. If not this other political parties would have done the same.However they are certain great things happening for sure in this budget.Based on this article: Karnataka Budget 2018 : Siddramaiah ends 4-hour long speechI will respond with what could have be done.1. Mukhyamantri Anila Bhagya to benefit 30 lakh ppl in a concrete step towards Smoke free KarnatakaIt’s good step, however I would have brought solar energy based home cooking projects which covers every Karnataka house holders. And association with few industries to make this happen. As well as Solar energy production houses in Hospet, Ranebennur, Kolar2. Progressive steps towards building a Digital KarnatakaDistributed web portal for most of the cases on single platform and decentralized app based services.3. Encouragement to sheep and goat rearing through financial assistance from National Co-operative Development Corporation (N.C.D.C.). Establishment of 25,000 sheep and goat rearing units. Government guarantee for Rs.187.50 crore loan to be given by N.C.D.C.I would have established Nomadic, farming centers for every cattle, sheep, goal, Honeybee, silkworm rearing and milk, wool federations to help them more as a direct job market to profit. More like monitored farming centers.4. New Logistics policy will soon be announced to ensure seamless movement of goods from production point to consumers. Development of a multi -modal logistic park in an area of 400 acres near Bengaluru and in an area of 50acres at Hubli.I would have got an initiation to establish for SupplyChain Management with BlockChain with a decentralized system. And 4 centers as Karwar, Kolar, Hubli, Belgaum.5. Excise rate: CM proposes to increase the existing rates of Additional Excise Duty on IML by 8 per cent from 2nd slab to 18thslabs. The revenue target of Rs.18,750 crores fixed for the financial year 2018-19.Increase of Excited duty by 9%6. Opening of 25 new Morarji Desai Residential Schools, 5 pre-matric Women Hostels, 2 Model Residential Schools, 25 student hostels, 10 working women hostels, 4 B.Ed. and D.Ed. English medium, girls. Residential Colleges and Resource Centre.Re-etablishment of the government school(infrastructure to high standards) with allocation process for guest teachers, promotion of free education for all students till Pre University. And salary structuring for teachers. And a new open teacher forum for aspiring teachers and students under Government monitoring.7. CM Siddaramaiah waives off loans of all BPL families by Karnataka Khadi BoardCollaborations with point 3. already made8. 17000 crore for Special purpose rails, towards world class sub-urban rail connectivity to Namma Bengaluru, a special purpose vehicle for the project will soon be set upEstablishment of Railway Engineering for Cost efficient Rural Urban, Semi Urban rail connectivity project to bring new semi-electric trains.9.Digitisation of records and documents of Gram Panchayats on pilot basis at a cost of Rs.5 crore.Already covered in point 210. Skilled Karnataka is the new KarnatakaNew grading system for every students based on State driven contribution to the governance projects.Establishment of Karnadu University throughout whole Karnataka which covers both Technical, Medical, Art, Commerce and every different streams in one wing. And no other universities anymore. Fully out of control from religious, political, or any institutions for profit. And rest can be private. Centralized highly secure unique grading system for each student based on individual performance metrics across different skills, streams, digitization of text books, Zero Home work, State & Nation building project driven grading system across students and teachers. 4 Indian languages and 3 Foreign Languages. Student Parva would be organized for upliftment promotions of student contributions to state and national projects , scholarships and research papers.11. The front part of Karnataka Bhavan-1, New Delhi will be demolished and a new Bhavan will be constructed in the next two years at cost of Rs.30 crore.No more Bhavans. Only Decentralized systems12. It is decided to implement a scheme to waive off the loan of upto one lakh rupees taken by a farmer member from a primary agricultural credit co-operative society on his death. The expenses under the scheme will be met under the co-partnership of Apex Bank and DCC Bank.Within 5 month establishment plans for modern Agricultural step/greenhouse irrigation, drip sprinkler irrigation, water harvesting, conversation, underground water upliftment, food processing units are established which will be under each farmer registrations and connected to Supply Chain and Logistics market for fair markets and exports directly billed to the farmers and buyers. Zero water wasting and resurgence throughout Karnataka for agriculture. No more farmer death movement.13.Formation of Basava Research centre in Mysuru University announcedSince it’s Karunadu University. There is will be Cultural Studies Branch which does Research on every different religious aspects across the state.14.New scheme:Rs.70 crore, Rs. 55 crore and Rs. 25 crore will be provided to Malnad Development Board, Bayaluseeme Development Board and Karavali Area Development Board respectively.Environment and Oceanography Food and Cultivation across Coastal and Malnad belts to grow Inhouse natural Fisheries and Sea food projects, with Horticulture and Medicinal plant cultivation projects across these areas within 1 year15.‘Live Silk Museum’ will be established in Channapatana for the development of tourism in stateAlready covered in 3. Tourism programs will be handled by the Karunadu University with monthly Art performance across states for Student talent promotion and Tourism marketing.16. Indira Canteens to be set up in all districts and taluks of the stateFood Processing Units across all states and taluks. And reasonable priced rations are provided based on the centralized citizen food and supply monitor system .17. Priority in sanctioning loan and subsidy under Land Purchase and Ganga Kalyana schemes to landless Devadasis identified by Women and Child Development Department.Upliftment programs for Woman and child8. State to support central government’s UDAAN scheme by reducing tax on jet fuel by 5 per cent: SiddaramaiahAlready covered in Solar energy and scientific studies for alternative energy19. CM Siddaramaiah announces Rs 5-lakh insurance coverage for state journalists under 'Madhyama Sanjeevini scheme'Every Insurance schemes will be made and decentralized according to their profession.20. Information Technology: To promote startups establishment of an Incubation Center in Kalaburagi in association with the Deshpande Foundation at a cost of Rs.5 crore. In a major thrust to higher education for girls, GoK will provide free education to girls studying in PUC, degree &PG courses in govt colleges, with a budgetary allocation of Rs. 95 cr for 2018-19. 3.7 lakh girl students to benefit.Already covered in Karunadu University establishment21. Revenue Department: A system, “E-Kshana” launched to issue caste, income and residence certificate online and over the counter immediately; Extension of the same in all areas of the State including urban areas.Already covered22. Housing: Goal of construction of 20 lakh houses during the next 5 years in rural and urban areas.23. Minorities Welfare, Haj & Wakf: A new scheme to provide loan and subsidy under the Professional Incentive Scheme of Minority Development Corporation in collaboration with banks at a cost of Rs.30 crore.24. Social Welfare: Reservation of 25 per cent seats for Backward Classes and Minority Students in SC/ST Post-matric Hostels to develop secular and competitive spirit among college studentsA economic report is made based on the each citizen of Karnataka which would be audited and based on the financial conditions of families,financial upliftment is provided. No Reservations or funds for any religious events are given to any caste, creed. Only based those below the poverty line and marginal needs can be submitted to the state government to get financial aid. All the reoccuring money will be given as free health care and insurance for whole Karnataka people25. Commencement of 250 new Anganwadi Centers in urban areas at a cost of Rs. 17.50 crore. Rs.10 crore grant to set up 100 mobile Anganwadi Centers/Crèches in areas of working of construction labourers to take care of their children.Everything within the Karunadu University. Which also includes Humanitarian and Social reform projects for laborers across different sectors, training of government employers too for smooth work ethics, and even for government vehicle drivers, transport drivers etc.26. Construction of 1,000 bedded additional ward in Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute. 27. Setting up of 571 Health and Wellness Centers by upgrading the existing Sub-Centers for every 5000 population to provide high quality comprehensive primary health care services.Free and subsidized HealthCare for people according to their income data and 5 new small government clinic across every village, town, district with appointment of new doctors. And best of world’s hospital across each district with capacity over 5000+.28. Government to launch 'Aarogya Karnataka' scheme in February 01:02 pm CM Siddaramaiah announces Rs 5 lakh reward for the inter-caste marriages involving dalits1 Child policy and child adoption programs and immunity for intercaste marriages across every religion, caste, creed by judicial and police protection. Lokayukta, And a new audit process for each governance to act as vigilant and easy processing.29. CM allocates Rs 5,371 crore for women and child development, Rs 237 crore for youth empowerment and sports department, Rs 2,281 crore for the welfare of minoritiesThis is good.30. Siddaramaiah allocates Rs 5 crore for the construction of permanent memorial for the slain policemen, Rs 20 crore to construct Karnataka guesthouse in Tirumala for the benefits of pilgrims from the stateA subsidized Health and Food card is provided to every policemen under service and in memorial for their families. A camp in Universities for protection and safety camps for woman and children.30. New scheme to empower 70 lakh dry land farmers across Karnataka31. With a Budgetary Allocation of Rs. 5849 crore for the Dept of Agriculture in 2018-19, the Govt of Karnataka is committed to empower farmers in the state with a host of programmes. Compensation amount increased to Rs 2 lakh if a farmer dies of snakebite while harvesting crops, Rs 20000 compensation if farmer loses haystack due to fire accident . Farmers can get Rs 10 lakh loan at 3 per cent interest rate, Rs 24 crore announced for minor millets and Rs 600 crore for Krishi Bhagya scheme . CM Siddaramaiah allocates Rs 15,929 crore for water resource department, Rs 5,080 crore for agriculture sector, Rs 2,099 crore for minor irrigation sector in the state . To resolve garbage crisis in Bengaluru city, 13,000 tonnes of waste has been supplied to farmers to prepare compost. 5.88 lakh farmers have been provided subsidy for micro irrigation http://systems.Rs 203 crore spent to incorporate organic farm products into marketing system. The government has waived-off Rs 8,165 crore farmer loan. Rs 1898 crore spent on construction of the agricultural pond, pali House.Comes under point 12and many more was mentioned in that article.I have covered almost every points. There are many more I thought to include. Left many points to detail them, since it’s not necessary to cover all. And I know hardly anyone cares in India. I even shared few ideas to few political parties, and few use it and claim it as their own leaders and feeling proud of it. I think in India political system as many call is Gutter/Sink/Drainage is true. So it won’t change much if anyone have idea or work towards it.So the second part of questionWill it be advantageous for the INC in the upcoming assembly elections?Yes, Ofcourse. They have given a good budget which is clearly visible to opposition parties too. It do have many loopholes, but mostly the budget was addressed to draw attention of farmers and covering soft corners of minority groups. That’s what been happening across every other state. Either for the poor or for the corporate or minority or majority caste driving politics.Unfortunately many Indians live in falsehood and either would say “Congratulations on insulting your country in front of a foreigner who thinks otherwise.”

Yes, but only partially. That conclusion is what the latest genetic studies suggest.An early-stage 2018 study that focused on the Iberomaurusians (the Northern Moroccan Taforalt specimens to be exact) claimed that there was 12.5 ± 1% Taforalt-related ancestry detected in the Yoruba. The Taforalt population (c. 15,000 years ago) had 55% ancestry derived from a Western Eurasian source resulting from a back-migration from the Middle East into North Africa around 20,000–25,000 years ago. The remaining 45% is derived from a population native to North Africa dubbed “Ancestral North African,” which is a hypothetical lineage that was closer to Eurasian populations, but did not participate in the Out-of-Africa migration. Thus, the lineage remained in and diversified within the continent. [1]The Ancestral North African lineage appears to be distantly related to East African hunter-gatherer-derived populations, like the Hadza and Omotic-speaking populations (cf., the Mota site specimen and its strong ties to modern Omotic-speaking peoples). [2][3][4] This lineage also appears to have been the source of the Iberomaurusian Y-DNA, which was overwhelmingly E1b1b, which itself is ultimately of post-Out-of-Africa East African origin.The specimens had genes for dark eyes and dark skin, but also straight hair, which was likely inherited from the West Eurasian part of their ancestry. [5] During the Paleolithic in Western Eurasia, the genes for light skin hadn’t yet arisen, and since agriculture hadn’t yet developed, the selective pressure for lighter skin was likely minimal or at least not significant enough to see the wholesale development of very light skin that is now widespread Western Eurasian populations.Seeing as all Iberomaurusian individuals (Taforalt specimens included) sampled only had West Eurasian mtDNA, I believe a good proxy for what the West Eurasian ancestral migrants into the North Africa at the time looked much like is the following:Above: Reconstruction of the Pataud Shelter (Abri Pataud) Woman (c. 17,000 years ago, Magdalenian Culture, Southwestern France) by Élisabeth Daynès. [6]This combination of Ancestral North Africans and West Eurasian migrants resulted in the Iberomaurusians, as shown below:Above: →→→ Photos 1 & 2 = Iberomaurusian fossils from Alafou and Taforalt, respectively; [7][8] Photo 3 = Bare reconstruction of a specimen from Alafou; [9] Photo 4 = Full reconstruction of the Alafou specimen in photo 1 (foreground) compared to a reconstruction of an Early European hunter-gatherer (aka Cro-Magnon). [10]Note A: When the full reconstructions were made, it wasn’t yet discovered that the Iberomaurusians didn’t have the genes for light skin, let alone brown hair. The maker based the full reconstructions partly on the similarity that the skulls had to Pleistocene Early European hunter-gatherers (aka Cro-Magnon). It’s unlikely the Iberomaurusians’ hair was as straight as in the full reconstructions, either, given that straighter hair textures arose from Eurasia, where only slightly more than half their ancestry came from on average. So, the bare reconstruction (3rd Photo) likely represents a better example of what they looked like.It may seem rather odd that the Yoruba would have inherited DNA from an Iberomaurusian population, but the archaeological and archaeobotanical patterns seem to point to an interesting set of human migrations over the last 10,000 years or so in Africa’s northwest quadrant.Due to shifts in the Earth’s axis, the Sahara has gone through wet phases. From 21,000 years ago until about 12,000 years ago (the Ogolian Hyperarid period), the Sahara was very large, with its southern bounds reaching 450–500 km farther south today into what’s now northern Nigeria. [11] By 12,000 years ago, a wet phase began (dubbed the “Green Sahara” or “African Humid Period”), thus allowing populations formerly localized in refugia along the coastal areas of North Africa and West Africa to expand deeper into the African interior. [12]Above: Iberomaurusian, Capsian, and other migrations deeper into Africa’s north-central interior. [13]Above: Prehistoric Sahara during the latest wet period. [14]The Sahara was filled with lakes, rivers, and wetlands in its wettest areas and grassland and residual semi-deserts in dryer areas. Even fairly small lakes like Lake Chad were about the size of the Caspian Sea. [15] So, the Sahara became a more hospitable environment.This is partially evinced from rock art of large animals like giraffes, elephants, hippos, bovids, and people, such as in Tassili n’Ajjer in southern Algeria.Above: Some evidence of the old wildlife from Tassili n’Ajjer in Southern Algeria. [16][17][18][19][20][21][22]As for the population expansions, there have been a number of human remains found in the region. For example, Iberomaurusian populations migrated southward. In physical anthropological circles, the physical features common to Iberomaurusians are often referred to as “mechtoid,” a name rooted in “Mechta,” as in “Mechta-Alafou.” [23] Thus, an example of a “mechtoid” and therefore strongly Iberomaurusian-linked population has been identified in the central part of northern Mali at a site called Hassi El-Abiob (7,000 years ago). [24]Above: Four Hassi El-Abiob craniums and the location of the site. [25][26]Interestingly, a skeleton was found in Northern Mali dated to 6,400 years ago, which has been identified as most morphologically similar to West African-derived populations. Dubbed “Asselar Man,” it is, as of yet, the oldest full skeleton found in West Africa with the skull in good condition.Above: →→→ Photos 1 & 2 = Asselar Man (“Homme d’Asselar”) in the first two photos. The map marks a site called the In-Ourhi site. The Asselar fossil was discovered 20 km northeast of there in 1927. [27][28][29]Thus, there is evidence of West African populations expanding northward. Unfortunately, neither fossils have had their DNA sequenced, so their genetic relationships to modern populations and to each other are unknown. Nevertheless, for Asselar Man, the geographic proximity and temporal similarity to the more southerly Iberomaurusian populations (Hassi el Abiob specimens, especially) may have facilitated intermarriage between two ancient populations: one that was West African and another that was closest to late Paleolithic North African hunter-gatherers. [30] So with the then-verdant Sahara region permitting trans-Sahara movements, it’s quite plausible that the populations could have met.Now we turn to a site in central Niger called Gobero. At Gobero, there have been two very distinct cultures identified: The Kiffian and Tenerian cultures.Above: Map of Niger with the location of Gobero. [31]The earlier of the two was the Kiffian culture (8,000 B.C.E. - 6,000 B.C.E.), with the representatives being robust and well-fed hunter-gatherers, with some specimens being upwards of 6′8 (203.2 cm ~ 2.03 m) in height.Above: “The People of Gobero” by University of Chicago and Project Exploration, which shows a Kiffian man and a [presumably Tenerian based on her necklace?] Tenerian woman. [32][33]Above: Another reconstruction of a Kiffian man (evinced from the tool in hand) by University of Chicago and Project Exploration. [34][35]Above: National Geographic Magazine artist’s impression of the Kiffians and their everyday lives (click for greater clarity). [36]Craniometrically, the Kiffians were very similar to Iberomaurusian specimens found farther afield in Mali and Algeria, especially those in Mechta el-Arbi, Algeria. You can see the striking similarity between the Kiffian specimen and a Mechta el-Arbi specimen below. Thus, the consensus is that the Kiffians represented a southerly migration of Iberimarusians into Niger.Above: A Kiffian skull from Gobero. Pay no mind to the yellow dots. [37]Above: Two Iberomaurusian skulls from Mechta el-Arbi, Algeria. Note the strong similarity that the Kiffian skull has to the skull on the left. [38]Bear in mind that Gobero is only a few hundred kilometers north of the Nigerian border. Since there’s evidence of West African populations in the Sahel and southern Sahara during the wet period, it is likely that there was also intermixing with the Kiffians or a population like them in Northern West Africa, who themselves were strongly linked to Iberomaurusians.In the middle of the Green Sahara period (6,200–5,200 B.C.E.), there was a dry spell. By that point, the Iberomaurusian period came to an end, and the Kiffians in Gobero disappeared as well. We know that Iberomaurusian DNA has persisted, such that Saharawi Berbers in North Africa have 37% Iberomaurusian ancestry, [39] but for the southerly Kiffians, it’s not been determined to what extent they or related populations contributed to other neighboring populations in the region. Considering that the Yoruba have Taforalt-related ancestry, that speaks to peoples like the Kiffians being absorbed by neighboring West African populations to some extent.Anyway, By about 2,000 years later, however, the rains returned. That lasted for a few thousand more years until about 4,500 years ago, at which point the Sahara began desiccating again. This pressured the populations in the Sahara to seek land elsewhere once again. Importantly, there were population expansions into the forest belt of West Africa from what’s today the Sahel and Southern Sahara, which is where the Kiffians lived.By this point, there had been a gradual espousal of incipient agriculture amongst the West African populations that had expanded into the Southern Sahara and Sahel (northern West Africa). The hunter-gatherer lifestyle was still very much present, but people there began experimenting with horticulture and animal husbandry (specifically pastoralism), or agropastoralism if you will.Above: A comparison of the prehistoric climate and the archaeological record of West Africa. [40]Now, during the wet period, the tropical zone of West Africa was significantly farther north, and the lands in the tropical zone were often swampy and tsetse fly-ridden. These flies were particularly problematic, since they transmit the deadly trypanosomiasis (sleep disease). [41] However, with the desert and Sahel beginning to expand again rapidly by the 2nd millennium B.C.E., the flies were less numerous, and lands farther south were increasingly more conducive to the growth of a variety of crops, such as pearl millet. Additionally, animals like cattle, which, too, were negatively affected by the tsetse fly (Glossina morsitan), [42] now developed a tolerance to them, thus allowing the migrants to take livestock with them and further facilitating pastoralism.These migrants, naturally, also had strong ties lifestyle-wise to contemporaneous populations in the Sahel and Southern Sahara. Thus, the archaeological record shows Saharan and Sahelian cultural traits began accumulating farther south, a pattern that has been identified throughout West Africa.Above: West and Central African Neolithic (Late Holocene). [43]Map Legend:1 = Southern limit of agriculture (pearl millet). 2 = Southern limit of herding. 3 = Pit sites in Central Africa. 4 = Exploitation of oily fruit trees. 5 = Zones with little or no documentation. A = Saharan cultural influences. B = West–east Sahelian cultural current. C = East-west Sahelian cultural current. D = Sudanian cultures. E = Cultures of the Late Neolithic in Central Africa.Note B: Linguistically, this southward migration is associated with the South Volta-Congo subfamily (aka Benue-Kwa subfamily or even East Volta-Congo subfamily) of the Volta-Congo languages, of which Yoruba is part. The subgroups of each member of Benue-Kwa is roughly as diverse as what’s seen in Indo-European and represent diversification from a widespread dialect continuum.Note C: The maps above correspond well to the linguistic landscape of West Africa. For example, the green portions in each of the three frames roughly correspond to the spread of the Benue-Kwa languages from a homeland originally in the Sahel, as Africanists have previously hypothesized.Note C1: For the light blue portions in the second and third photos, I believe that corresponds very well to the time of and previous range of the Bantu languages, which itself is part of the Benue-Kwa lineage.Note C2: The blue portion on the maps (including the red portions in photos 2 and 3) correspond well to the Gur-Adamawa (aka “Savanna”) continuum, which was eventually split by the entry of the Chadic languages. In the third photo, the western blue/red portion correlates with the Gur languages, while the eastern portion correlates with the Adamawa languages. Bear in mind again that these are considered part of a continuum, so some languages that fall under “Gur” are now thought to be closer to Adamawa languages.Above: A visualization of the southward migrations and their associated agricultural patterns (ultimate book source as of yet unidentified). [44]As for horticulture, besides pearl millet, some newer crops that were being grown in West Africa were yams, sorghum, oil palms, raffia palms, cowpeas (black-eyed peas), kola nuts, and, to a lesser degree, African rice (Oryza glaberrima). [45] As for animals, as alluded to before, cattle, goats, and sheep appeared on the scene, which were not originally native to West Africa. [46] Polished stone axes also started appearing as well, which were being used to clear forests. [47]Probably the best example of this shift toward incipient agriculture and the accompanying migration is the Kintampo Complex. The Kintampo Complex (2600 B.C.E. - 1400 B.C.E. ~ 4600–3400 years ago) was a culture that appeared in Ghana and parts of eastern Côte d’Ivoire that was associated with a significant change from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a sedentary agricultural lifestyle amongst the local inhabitants of the inhabitants.Above: The Kintampo Complex. [48]Above: Terracotta “cigars” from Birimi in northern Ghana, where there is clear evidence of pearl millet cultivation. These cigar artifact forms are particularly diagnostic of the Kintampo culture. [49]Note D: With the migrants came cultural traits of Saharo-Sahelian origin, namely bifacial armatures and pivoted comb decorations on ceramics, such as the terracotta “cigars” above.The pre-existing population that the Kintampo culture superseded and with which it also partially overlapped was the Punpun culture, a culture that only engaged in hunting and gathering.Above: Excavated Kintampo sites and approximate limits of modern ecological zones in Ghana. [50]As the Kintampo migrants began moving even farther south, the wetter conditions were less conducive for crops that were originally cultivated farther north, like pearl millet. However, the conditions were more conducive to the cultivation of yams and oil palms. The pre-existing hunter-gatherers appear to have been consuming both yams and oil palms, but, by virtue of their hunter-gatherer lifestyle, did not cultivate it. The new migrants, on the other hand, who were growing more accustomed to yams and oil palms, did cultivate the, and they actively tried to detoxify, for example, wild yam varieties. [51]What appears to have been the case across West Africa was that there were residual hunter-gatherer populations in the more southerly parts of West Africa. It is also very likely that these northern migrants intermarried to a degree with these residual West African hunter-gatherers.Now, when looking at Western Nigeria, where the Yoruba live, one sees very similar changes as with the Kintampo Complex. This is evinced from a site in northeastern Yorubaland called Itaakpa dated to 2,800 years ago. Evidence of oil palm and yam cultivation has been identified there as well, most notably from burned oil palm kernels. Since these crops, especially yams, don’t always leave fossilized forms very well, archaeobotanists have turned to palynological methods to identify the pollen of these crops. This method has indicated that closed forests were slowly being transformed into a more open forest with growing concentrations of patches of savanna vegetation and oil palms. Interestingly, archaeobotanists believed that the intensified cultivation likely helped to make the savanna that characterizes the region today. [52][53]Now, oil palms (E. guineensis) are technically only partially domesticated, so distinguishing the pollen of the wild variety from the semi-domesticated variety is difficult. However, there were unprecedented increases in the oil palm pollen and weed pollen and dramatic decreases in tree pollen, which indicates that oil palms were being protected and grown while the trees of other forests were being cleared, possibly using slash-and-burn agriculture, which is still practiced today. Fossils from Itaakpa also show incidences of dental caries, which shows that the population at the time had a starch-heavy diet.Above: Plan of the inside of the Itaakpa rock shelter. Note the grinding stone, palm nut waste, pot, and mortar. [54]The agricultural transition in the area (what’s now Nigeria) has other pieces of direct evidence, such as ground stone adzes, grinding stones, sickles, pottery, and even rock art of domesticated animals, like cattle. [55] For Itaakpa, the date of 2,800 years ago likely isn’t the first incidence of agriculture in Nigeria. Itaakpa is fairly inland, but there have been similar signs of agricultural production along the coast in Badagry, Nigeria and is dated to a similar age. [56] With this evidence, though, what this speaks to is the population directly ancestral to the Yoruba, especially when considering the homeland of the Yoruboid languages is what is now northern Yorubaland at 500 B.C.E., [57] which is where the Itaakpa site is.After all these migrations and intermixing, when focusing on the Iberomaurusian genetic impact, as said before, in the Yoruba, one sees 12.5% ± 1% contribution, but, truthfully, this ancestry is also varyingly seen throughout West African populations, West-African derived populations, and even many East African populations (see below). Visually, a study called Heterogeneity in Palaeolithic Population Continuity and Neolithic Expansion in North Africa (November 2019) shows this rather well.Above: Principal Component Analysis and ADMIXTURE Analysis for K = 6 that are inclusive of Sub-Saharan African populations, such as the Yoruba.The orange component is representative of Iberomaurusians (Taforalt in this case), with that component expectedly making up a minority of the ancestry in the Yoruba, which, again, plausibly results from Kiffians and similar peoples intermingling with Native West Africans. Almost all the rest of the ancestry of the Yoruba comprises Sub-Saharan African ancestry (in this case West African). However, at least according to this study, there’s something else detected. The sky blue color in the Yoruba is ancestry associated with ancient Natufians and Levantine Neolithic peoples (percentage not calculated in the study). Considering this ancestry has not been detected in other studies, where could it have come from? Is it an error? Maybe not.While the Kiffians in Niger eventually disappeared by 8,000 years ago, as previously alluded to, they were eventually, though not immediately, followed by the Tenerians (also called Tenereans (5,200–2,500 B.C.E.)). The Tenerians also engaged in hunting and extensive wild grain gathering, but unlike the Kiffians, the Tenerians were not hunter-gatherers, but were instead mainly pastoralists, too. [58][59][60][61] While there was apparently some cultural overlap, [62] between the two cultures, the Kiffians and Tenerians were physically very unalike, as can be seen when comparing their fossils. Craniometrically, Tenerians are rather distinct from Iberomaurusians in general, who generally cluster closely with one another.Above: Principal components analysis of craniofacial dimensions among Late Pleistocene to mid-Holocene populations from the Maghreb and southern Sahara. [63]Note E: Ater = Aterian; EMC = eastern Maghreb Capsian; EMI = eastern Maghreb Iberomaurusian; Gob-e = Gobero early Holocene (Kiffian); Gob-m = Gobero mid-Holocene (Tenerian); Mali = Hassi-el-Abiod, Mali; Maur = Mauritania; WMC = western Maghreb Capsian; WMI = western Maghreb Iberomaurusian.Above: Kiffian skull (9,500 years old) on the left and Tenerian on the right (5,800 years old). [64]Above: Other Tenerian skulls, with the Tenerian skull in the first photo designated as “C” in this photo. [65]Above: National Geographic Magazine artist’s impression of the Tenerians and their everyday lives (click for greater clarity). [66]Above: A reconstruction of a Tenerean individual by University of Chicago and Project Exploration. [67]The Tenerians somewhat more closely resembled Holocene Western Eurasian populations from the Mediterranian than the Kiffians did. [68] You can see the closer resemblance when looking at some other Tenerian skulls and comparing them to later Holocene Capsian skulls from North Africa (not early Capsian like mentioned in the photo above, which is close to Iberomaurusians), to whom the Tenerians have been thought to have some relationship. [69] Broadly, anthropologists consider Capsian to resemble Mediterranean populations. [70][71][72][73] Considering the ubiquity of Natufian-related ancestry throughout North Africa and even Eastern Africa going back many thousands of years, [74] it helps to buttress the possibility of this associated ancestry showing up in the Yoruba by way of Green Sahara migrations.Above: In the first photo, one sees the previously mentioned Mechta el-Arbi Iberomaurusian skull contrasted with a Capsian skull on the right. The second photo shows another Tenerian skull. [75][76][77]The Capsian culture is commonly thought to be linked to a possible later migration into Northern Africa over 10,000 years ago from the Levant or thereabouts and may have some links with the Natufian culture. [78][79] Again, within that time frame, the fossil record also begins to show cattle, sheep, and goats coming into Africa (first North Africa) from the Middle East. [80][81]After the end of the second green period of the Sahara, the Tenerian culture came to an end, and they likely had to migrate elsewhere after the latest Sahara desiccation (4,000 years ago). So, it is plausible that they and similar populations intermixed with and were maybe eventually absorbed by neighboring West African populations, like the West African populations who would soon begin migrating southward. Interestingly, a 2020 study claims to have detected 8.6%±3% Eurasian ancestry in Yoruba. That buttresses the finding of an earlier study from 2015 that claims to have identified [though not calculated] Eurasian ancestry in the Yoruba, with an admixture date between 10,500 and 7,500 years ago, which corresponds to the dating of the Kiffian and Tenerian cultures in Niger. [82]Additionally, the same study identifies Eurasian ancestry with very similar admixture dates in other peoples in West Africa, such as the Mossi of Burkina Faso (admixture event ~7,000 years ago) and peoples classified as “Niger-Congo” speakers from Mali and Gambia. [83]Now, with only about 12% Taforalt-related ancestry in the Yoruba, and with only about 6% of it being from a Western Eurasian source population, and with the remainder being from a native African population, then the phenotypic influence on the Yoruba, especially after thousands of years, would be minimal; the influence is small enough to be rather imperceptible. If adding on top of that the other smaller proportion of later West Eurasian ancestry (sky blue portion as seen above), it would make sense of little phenotypic impact.That makes even more sense when considering the many cases of West Africans (and Sub-Saharan Africans in general) who have small percentages of non-African ancestry that do not show phenotypic signs of admixture. Take, for example, the South Sudanese-Australian Nikki Thot (sister of model Duckie Thot).After taking a DNA test by AncestryDNA, her results show 13% Middle Eastern ancestry, which she says she inherited from her grandfather, in addition to 5% North African ancestry. In spite of that, she looks very Sub-Saharan African and resembles other people from South Sudan.Edit: I formerly wrote that her grandfather was Saudi Arabian, but that was a mistake. She did say she inherited her Middle Eastern ancestry (and presumably her North African ancestry, too) from her grandfather, but she hasn’t specified his ethnicity.There are other examples of this, such as the woman below, who is Senegalese-American, but has known European ancestry, which is reflected in her MyHeritageDNA test results.More rarely, some can have even much larger non-African ancestry, yet still look rather unadmixed, such as the woman below who has only about 74% Sub-Saharan African ancestry:Of course, the reverse can be the case as well, such as people who otherwise resemble Europeans, yet have appreciable percentages of Sub-Saharan African ancestry, like the woman below, who has 20% Sub-Saharan African ancestry:To conclude, the Yoruba appear to have a small deal of Iberomaurusian ancestry (and possibly later Natufian-related ancestry) from West African populations migrating into the Sahara and absorbing populations linked to North Africa. After the desiccation of the Sahara, the West African populations that had once spread northward were forced to spread southward. These southward migrants into tropical West Africa were incipient agropastoralists, and some of them were early Benue-Kwa speakers, who spoke a language ancestral to Yoruba. After these people migrated deeper into the forest belt of West Africa, they encountered residual hunter-gatherers who had not participated in the earlier northward migration into the Sahara. The two broadly West African groups gradually intermixed, thus giving rise to populations that were not only ancestral to the Yoruba, but also many other West Africans and West-African derived populations.Now, as for the genetic signature of the West African migrants who went north into the Green Sahara before eventually migrating southward and across West Africa, I have a strong hunch that they derived most of their ancestry from a genealogical pool/genetic cluster originally localized to the Western portion of West Africa.Above: Principal Component Analysis and ADMIXTURE Analysis for K = 3 to K = 11 of various world populations. [84]Note F: “K = “ is used when roughly determining how many inferred ancestry components a population is assumed to have. So, for K = 3, the study identifies three ancestry components, for example. The higher the number, the more separation of the groups there is into components. However, if too high, it can give extraneous information due to the potential growth of noise.If looking at the photo above from the study Tales of Human Migration, Admixture, and Selection in Africa (April 2018), amongst West African-derived populations (bottom portion), in K = 6, one sees a major bifurcation of the ancestries. Ancestry associated with peoples from Western West Africa is shaded light green, while ancestry more associated with peoples from Eastern West Africa is shaded dark green. According to the study, the best representatives of this Western West African pool are peoples like the Fula, various Mande-speaking peoples, and especially the Wolof and Jola.Benue-Kwa-speaking peoples like the Yoruba, Igbo, and Fon are very intermediate between these two genealogical pools. When expanding to look at Volta-Congo-speaking populations at large that are farther west, populations like the Ahizi tend more strongly toward this Western genealogical pool than those farther east. Most notably, the most Westerly populations of this Western genealogical pool have little to no ancestry at all that is form this Eastern (dark green) genealogical pool. So, this points to a kind of Western West African superstrate population that had intermixed heavily with or even somewhat replaced Eastern West African populations.As for the genetic signature of the hunter-gatherers who hadn’t participated in the northward migration into the Sahel before migrating back south, I believe they may have formed part of this Eastern West African genealogical pool, with today’s Bantu peoples, especially Eastern and Southern African Bantus, absorbing the biggest share of this ancestry. As for who these Eastern West African peoples who effectively formed a substrate were, I believe they may have been populations that had a relationship to modern the Ijoid-speaking population and maybe even the now likely extinct Jalaa-speakers, as they now appear to be largely relic populations of the original pre-Benue-Kwa diversity. [85][86][87][88]One sees almost the same dynamic when looking at another study (Mozambican genetic variation provides new insights into the Bantu expansion (July 2019)) In the study below (this time using K = 8), one sees that ancestry associated with this Western group this time is represented by a beige color, while ancestry associated with this Eastern group is represented by green and light blue, which itself shows a kind of bifurcation.Above: Genetic structure in selected African populations using K = 8. [89]As for Iberomaurusian ancestry, this likely couldn’t have been recognized in either of the aforementioned studies due to the recency of the Iberomaurusian genomic study that identified the Iberomaurusians’ genetic relationships to both Sub-Saharan African and Western Eurasian populations. Additionally, Iberomaurusian ancestry was simply not included in the studies above.To recap, what the data seemingly tell is that ancient West African populations, including ones that were once in the Sahel and Southern Sahara, had once absorbed Iberomaurusian-like populations before finally migrating south and eventually becoming varied populations today, including the Yoruba.Footnotes[1] The phylogeography of Y chromosome binary haplotypes and the origins of modern human populations[2] https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/suppl/2018/03/14/science.aar8380.DC1/aar8380_vandeLoosdrecht_SM.pdf[3] Ancient human DNA in sub-Saharan Africa lifts veil on prehistory[4] Pleistocene North African genomes link Near Eastern and sub-Saharan African human populations[5] https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/suppl/2018/03/14/science.aar8380.DC1/aar8380_vandeLoosdrecht_SM.pdf[6] Early human,Stone Age culture[7] La morphologie externe et interne de la région supra-orbitaire est-...[8] Grotto tafoughalt: Date of ancient man[9] Mechta-Afalou head model - Stock Image - C014/6148[10] Mechta-Afalou hunter model - Stock Image - C014/6147[11] Page on sci-hub.tw[12] устраняя преграды на пути распространения знаний[13] Incisor avulsion, social identity and Saharan population history: New data from the Early Holocene southern Sahara[14] Ancient Lakes of the Sahara[15] Tracing Language Movement in Africa[16] Green Sahara[17] The Prehistoric Rock Art of Tassili N'Ajjer, Algeria[18] Rock paintings of Tassili N'Ajjer, Algeria[19] Tassili n'Ajjer National Park - Natural World Heritage Sites[20] Rock Paintings Of Tassili N`Ajjer, Algeria Stock Image - Image of painting, drawing: 119518773[21] Rock engraving in Sahara Desert[22] The Prehistoric Rock Art of Tassili N'Ajjer, Algeria[23] https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1444476/1/U591781.pdf[24] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282630708_Under_the_rocks_reconsidering_the_origin_of_the_Kintampo_Tradition_and_the_development_of_food_production_in_the_Savanna-ForestForest_of_West_Africa[25] L'homme de Taforalt au Sahara, ou le problème de l'extension saharienne des Cromagnoïdes du Maghreb[26] L'homme de Taforalt au Sahara, ou le problème de l'extension saharienne des Cromagnoïdes du Maghreb[27] Index of /IMG[28] L’Homme fossile d’Asselar (actuel Mali). Étude critique, mise en perspective historique et nouvelles interprétations[29] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259085157_L'Homme_fossile_d'Asselar_actuel_Mali_Etude_critique_mise_en_perspective_historique_et_nouvelles_interpretations[30] устраняя преграды на пути распространения знаний[31] https://sci-hub.tw/10.1016/j.ijpp.2011.06.001[32] Gobero People | ARCHAEOLOGY[33] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GSlgaNdd7c[34] Mike Hettwer Photography 2006 2[35] Lakeside Cemeteries in the Sahara: 5000 Years of Holocene Population and Environmental Change[36] Stock Photo - Painting of Kiffian hunters, farmers and fishermen[37] Facial Reconstruction of Early Human[38] Ibéromaurusien[39] Heterogeneity in Palaeolithic Population Continuity and Neolithic Expansion in North Africa - PubMed[40] https://sci-hub.tw/https://www.jstor.org/stable/27850711[41] https://sci-hub.tw/https://www.jstor.org/stable/27850711[42] https://sci-hub.tw/https://www.jstor.org/stable/27850711[43] West and Central African Neolithic: Geography and Overview[44] https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/how-expansion-sahara-affect-diffusion-agriculture-502939[45] Nigeria's Diverse Peoples[46] African cattle originated in Middle East[47] Africans[48] Kintampo Complex - Wikipedia[49] https://sci-hub.tw/https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511978807.019[50] https://sci-hub.tw/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2010.12.004[51] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282630708_Under_the_rocks_reconsidering_the_origin_of_the_Kintampo_Tradition_and_the_development_of_food_production_in_the_Savanna-ForestForest_of_West_Africa[52] https://sci-hub.tw/https://doi.org/10.1017/9781107587656.002[53] https://sci-hub.tw/https://doi.org/10.1179/0093469012Z.00000000017[54] https://sci-hub.tw/https://doi.org/10.1179/0093469012Z.00000000017[55] Ogundiran - Four Millennia of Cultural History in Nigeria[56] https://sci-hub.tw/https://doi.org/10.1017/9781107587656.002[57] African Cultural Astronomy[58] https://sci-hub.tw/10.1016/j.ijpp.2011.06.001[59] North and Saharan Africa: Geography and Chronology[60] https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5788/88dc7ed47b9778a25b22f1548d712eecb38e.pdf[61] African Herders[62] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GSlgaNdd7c[63] Lakeside Cemeteries in the Sahara: 5000 Years of Holocene Population and Environmental Change[64] Stone Age Graveyard[65] устраняя преграды на пути распространения знаний[66] Stock Photo - Painting of Tenerian hunters near a lake in the Sahara Desert[67] Tenerean | ARCHAEOLOGY[68] In the Sahara, Stone Age graves from greener days[69] Methodology and African Prehistory[70] Page on sci-hub.tw[71] http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~dlubell/Sahara_Sheppard%20&%20Lubell.pdf[72] Skeletal robusticity in the Epipaleolithic of North Africa and the Levant[73] https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1444476/1/U591781.pdf[74] https://sci-hub.tw/10.1016/j.cell.2017.08.049[75] Avertissement[76] Mike Hettwer Photography 2006 2[77] Lakeside Cemeteries in the Sahara: 5000 Years of Holocene Population and Environmental Change[78] The Last Civilized Place[79] Archaeology and Language: Correlating archaeological and linguistic hypotheses[80] The Last Civilized Place[81] African cattle originated in Middle East[82] https://researchonline.lshtm.ac.uk/id/eprint/4650111/1/The-African-Genome-Variation-Project-shapes-medical-genetics-in-Africa.pdf[83] https://sci-hub.tw/10.1093/hmg/ddy161 [84] https://www.gwern.net/docs/genetics/selection/2018-schlebusch.pdf[85] Lecture 3 : « Language contact as an alternative to assumed genealogical relationships »[86] https://streaming-canal-u.fmsh.fr/vod/media/canalu/documents/cnrs_ups2259/lecture.3.language.contact.as.an.alternative.to.assumed.genealogical.relationships._50149/2019.03.paris.lecture.3.pdf[87] The Languages and Linguistics of Africa[88] Archaeology and Language: Correlating archaeological and linguistic hypotheses[89] Mozambican genetic variation provides new insights into the Bantu expansion