Spring of Tears (Pacifica)
| Spring of Tears | |
|---|---|
| Part of Pelinese Civil War (1979-1982) | |
| Location | Belogora |
| Date | 1976-1982 |
| Target | Pelinayaka Orthodox Christians |
Attack type | Genocide |
| Deaths | 1.3-2.2 million |
| Perpetrators | Revolutionary Security Service, Belogoran People’s Army |
The Spring of Tears (Pelinese: 涙の泉, Namida no Izumi) was the systematic persecution and mass killing of Pelinayaka Orthodox and other Christians in Pelinai, then ruled as the Socialist Republic of Belogora. It was primarily perpetrated on a relatively limited scale by the Revolutionary Security Service on behalf of the Belogoran Socialist Workers’ Party with the goal of intimidating the majority Christian population of Belogora into abandoning their faith before significantly expanding in scope and pace after the July Revolution and the beginning of the Pelinese Civil War.
Name
Background
February Revolution
Progression
Onset
1976-1979
1979-1982
Aftermath
Death toll
The total death toll of the Spring of Tears is estimated to be between approximately 1.3 and 2.2 million, with broader estimates ranging from 800,000 to 3.4 million depending on inclusion criteria and other factors. The official death toll remains contentious among academics in Pelinai due to confounding circumstances such as the destruction of corpses as a side effect of some killing methods used, the difficulty of distinguishing genocide sites from non-genocide mass graves created during the Pelinese Civil War, and the difficulty of accurately differentiating between victims of the Spring of Tears, the Red Terror, and the White Terror on a consistent basis. There also exists significant disagreement on what criteria should be used to designate massacres perpetrated after the July Revolution as a part of the Spring of Tears as opposed to other types of anti-civilian attacks perpetrated by the Revolutionary Security Service and the Belogoran People’s Army during the Pelinese Civil War.
| Researcher(s) | Estimated death toll | Publication date |
|---|---|---|
| State Special Investigative Committee for Belogoran and Conflict Documentation | 800,000-1,400,000 | 1988 |
| Georgovic et al. | 950,000-1,200,000 | 1995 |
| Kagi et al. | 1,400,000-2,600,000 | 1996 |
| Junovich & Maraika | 1,200,000-2,700,000 | 2003 |