Hitler and Stalin: Who really killed more?

So there's a truism that Stalin killed more than Hitler, having killed 20 million.

However, according to historian Tim Snyder...

Quote:

Today, after two decades of access to Eastern European archives, and thanks to the work of German, Russian, Israeli, and other scholars, we can resolve the question of numbers. The total number of noncombatants killed by the Germans—about 11 million—is roughly what we had thought. The total number of civilians killed by the Soviets, however, is considerably less than we had believed. We know now that the Germans killed more people than the Soviets did.....

He goes on....

Quote:

The total figure of civilians deliberately killed under Stalinism, around six million, is of course horribly high. But it is far lower than the estimates of twenty million or more made before we had access to Soviet sources.

and finally.

Quote:

All in all, the Germans deliberately killed about 11 million noncombatants, a figure that rises to more than 12 million if foreseeable deaths from deportation, hunger, and sentences in concentration camps are included. For the Soviets during the Stalin period, the analogous figures are approximately six million and nine million. These figures are of course subject to revision, but it is very unlikely that the consensus will change again as radically as it has since the opening of Eastern European archives in the 1990s.

http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2011/01...who-was-worse/

I have heard from other sources that the death figures given for Stalin have gone down since 1991. Though there are questions as to how complete the Soviet archives are. In addition, we know that the Soviets released prisoners that were in poor condition or were on the brink of death. Their death toll has not been recorded.

via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/2FPQNba