Specific intent (dolus specialis) in the Armenian genocide, the Holodomor and the Holocaust: comparative analysis

Abstract

Although comparative genocide as the second generation of genocide studies has developed over the past two decades, the Holodomor as a crime of genocide committed by Stalin’s regime has not been examined in comparative perspective. In this article, the author traces the reasons for that and offers a comparative analysis of the Holodomor with examples of genocide in the first half of the 20th century – namely, the Armenian genocide of the Ottoman Empire and the Holocaust of Nazi Germany. The author compares the three genocides as crimes under international law in terms of the mental (mens rea) elements of genocide that characterize each of them, noting the dissimilarities and similarities in specific intent (dolus specialis) of those crimes.  The author draws to the conclusion that the key common element in the genocides perpetrated in the Ottoman Empire, the Soviet Union, and the Third Reich is that state organization was substituted by hegemony of a ruling party: the Ittihadists, the Communists, and the Nazis. The importance of comparing cases of genocide is evident: if lessons from the past are not heeded and genocide is not punished, history will repeat itself as can be seen in the east and south (Crimea) of Ukraine, where the successor state to the Soviet Union – the Russian Federation – continues an attack on the Ukrainian nation. Article received 28.02.2019