Stéphane Courtois

Stéphane Courtois (born November 25, 1947) is a French historian, an internationally known expert on communist studies, particularly the history of communism and communist genocides, and author of several books. The Black Book of Communism, a book edited by Courtois, has been translated into numerous languages, sold million of copies and is considered a standard work on communist genocides.

Courtois is a research director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, in the Géode (group of study and observation of democracy) at Paris West University Nanterre La Défense, as well as a Professor at the Catholic Institute of Higher Studies – ICES. He is editor of the journal Communisme, which he co-founded with Annie Kriegel in 1982, and part of the Cercle de l'Oratoire think tank.

As a student, from 1968 to 1971, Courtois was a maoist, although he later became an outspoken anti-communist and a strong supporter of democracy, pluralism, human rights and Rechtsstaat.^[1]

Courtois argues that Communism and National Socialism are slightly different totalitarian systems, and that communism is responsible for the murder of around 100 million people in the 20th century. He also argues that the National Socialists adopted their repressive methods from Soviet methods. According to Courtois, "a single-minded focus on the Jewish genocide in an attempt to characterize the Holocaust as a unique atrocity has [...] prevented the assessment of other episodes of comparable magnitude in the Communist world".^[2]

Publications

• Le PCF dans la guerre, De Gaulle, la Résistance, Staline..., Ramsay, 1980
• with Marc Lazar, Le Communisme, MA éditions, Paris, 1987, 276 p. ISBN|978-2866762445
• with Adam Rayski (ed.), Qui savait quoi ? L'extermination des juifs, 1941-1945, La Découverte, Paris, 1987, 235 p. ISBN|978-2707117052
• with Adam Rayski and Denis Peschanski Le sang de l'étranger - les immigrés de la MOI dans la Résistance, Fayard, 1989. Traduction allemande L'Affiche rouge, Immigranten und Juden in der französischen Résistance, Verlag Schwarze Risse, Berlin, 1994
• with Shmuel Trigano and Marc Lazar, Rigueur et passion. Hommage à Annie Kriegel, Éditions Cerf, Paris, 1992. ISBN|978-2204049474
• with Marc Lazar, Histoire du Parti communiste français, PUF, Paris, 1995, 480 p. ISBN|978-2130470489|978-2130510635
• (ed.), Le Livre noir du communisme. Crimes, terreur, répression, Robert Laffont, Paris, 1997, 923 p. ISBN|978-2221082041|978-2266086110|978-2221088616
  • Published in English as The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression, Harvard University Press, 1999, 858 p., ISBN 0-674-07608-7
• with Annie Kriegel, Eugen Fried, le grand secret du PCF, Seuil, Paris, 1997 ISBN|978-2020220507
• with Ernst Nolte and Jean-Marie Argelès, Guerre civile européenne 1917-1945, Éditions de Syrtes, 2000 ISBN|978-2845450134
• (ed.), Quand tombe la nuit. Origines et émergence des régimes totalitaires en Europe, 1900-1934, L'Âge d'Homme, 2001, 415 p. ISBN|978-2825116104
• (ed.), Regards sur la crise du syndicalisme, L'Harmattan, 2001 ISBN|978-2747514620
• (ed.), Du Passé faisons table rase ! Histoire et mémoire du communisme en Europe, Robert Laffont, 2002 ISBN|978-2221095003
• Mémoires d'André Bergeron, Éditions du Rocher, 2002 ISBN|978-2268043609
• (ed.), Une si longue nuit. L'apogée des régimes totalitaires en Europe, 1935-1953, Éditions du Rocher, 2003, 532 p. ISBN|978-2268045825
• (ed.), Les Logiques totalitaires en Europe, Éditions du Rocher, 2006, 615 p. ISBN|978-2268059785
• (ed.), Le Jour se lève. L'héritage du totalitarisme en Europe, 1953-2005, Éditions du Rocher, 2006, 494 p. ISBN|978-2268057019
• with Ismail Kadare and Shaban Sinani, Le Dossier Kadaré, Odile Jacob, 2006 ISBN|978-2738117403
• Communisme en France - De la révolution documentaire au renouveau historiographique, Éditions Cujas, Paris, 2006 ISBN|978-2254076048
• Memento Goulag - Mémoire et jugement du communisme, Éditions Cujas, Paris, 2007 ISBN|978-2254076055
• (ed.), Dictionnaire du communisme, Éditions Larousse, Paris, 2007 ISBN|978-2035837820

References