Good food for thought, everyone.
Yes, A_Wanderer, war generally is total disregard of human life , I guess we can all agree to that (even if at times, some of us seem to be proud in mentioning they aren´t pacifists).
Communism was cruel sometimes. It did offer the possibility that (nearly) everyone had basics like food and a roof, but was very strict with opposition. McCarthyism too, but not to that point.
Arguably, under the historical circumstances, the Communists had to be very strict. Imagine that, a new state system, emerged from a revolution during a war. Plus the Russian civil war, red against white. Plus all the Western countries that were suspicious about Communism from the start.
This is not to excuse any of the cruel action Communism did to the people. I remember reading about how the family of the Czar was killed; they killed the children too, everyone. Later, it became clear to me that in that revolution, they probably did not see any other possibility - what could they do if the children grew up and declared their monarchic right on Russia? Another civil war?
Stalinism must have been a horror. I would not have liked to live under a system that forbids intellectuals to speak and imprisons them.
But there is one big thing all the Wetsern world should have to acknowledge (even if it doesn´t)- Communism didn´t plunder other, developing countries as the Western (historically mainly European) countries obviously did.
We could (and can still) afford our luxury and our high standards because we steal (nowadays, sometimes "buy") the raw materials and human resources from others. Communism did not. For example, Poland was a communist country, but the Polish (mainly) worked for improving their very own meagre standard, not the standard of a few millions of Russians, while the Polish were dying like flies of hunger (yes, there was hunger, but nothing compared to Africa, India etc.).
You see, and this high moral value is what made many people believe in Communism. Like Angela Harlem said, it is difficult to determine how many were "true communists" and how many were out of fear (about any army in the world trials soldiers that are not loyal to the current political system). But undoubtedly, many, many millions believed in the ideals of Communism. And many millions still do!
My respect goes to those Communists, and the Russians who weren´t Communists, but fought against the Nazis anyway.