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— CH. 1 · ORIGINS AND BACKGROUND —

Red Terror

~6 min read · Ch. 1 of 7
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  • The Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets issued a decree on the 8th of November 1917 that abolished the death penalty. Vladimir Lenin's government did not issue a single execution sentence during the first three months of its rule. This period of restraint ended as pressure mounted from White Armies and international intervention forces. Bolshevik sailors from the Black Sea Fleet killed some 300 victims at Yevpatoriya on the 14th of January 1918. They broke limbs and threw men from the steamship Romania into the water. In Odessa, officers were thrown from the Russian cruiser Almaz in mid-January. A colonel was roasted alive within the engine of a locomotive according to one account. Workers in Taganrog surrounded fifty officer cadets after the Bolshevik takeover of Rostov in November 1917. The cadets surrendered with an understanding their lives would be spared but were instead thrown into a blast furnace one by one. General Nikolai Dukhonin surrendered himself to the Bolshevik Krylenko in Mogilev on the 20th of November 1917. He was lynched by a mob of Baltic Fleet sailors despite Krylenko's efforts to defend him.

  • Felix Dzerzhinsky was appointed director of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission known as Cheka in December 1917. On the 5th of September 1918, the Council of People's Commissars issued a decree prescribing mass shooting without hesitation. Chekists killed approximately 1,300 bourgeois hostages held in Petrograd and Kronstadt prisons immediately following assassination attempts on Vladimir Lenin. State-controlled media launched the repressive campaign through incitement of violence on August 31st. One article appearing in Pravda stated that the time had come to crush the bourgeoisie or be crushed by it. The newspaper Krasnaia Gazeta declared that only rivers of blood could atone for the blood of Lenin and Uritsky. In Kharkiv, scalpings and hand-flayings became commonplace where skin was peeled off victims' hands to produce gloves. The Voronezh Cheka rolled naked people around in barrels studded internally with nails. Victims were crucified or stoned to death at Yekaterinoslav. Chinese Cheka detachments placed rats in iron tubes sealed at one end with wire netting and heated them until they gnawed through the victim's body.

  • Among the first victims of the Terror were Socialist Revolutionaries over whom more than 800 members were executed. Industrial workers who failed to meet production quotas also faced execution after strikes took place in Tula, Oryol, Tver, Ivanovo, and Astrakhan during spring 1919. Starving workers sought food rations matching those of Red Army soldiers and demanded free elections. In Astrakhan, a revolt led by White Guard forces broke out on the night of March 9th to 10th 1919. More than 184 were sentenced to death including monarchists and representatives of British and American intelligence services. Members of the clergy were subjected to particularly brutal abuse where priests were crucified or thrown into cauldrons of boiling tar. An estimated 3,000 clergy members were put to death in 1918 alone. Peasants formed another major target group as deserters from the Red Army numbered around 1 million in 1918 and almost 4 million in 1921. During the suppression of the Tambov Rebellion between 1920 and 1921, around 100,000 peasant rebels and their families were imprisoned or deported.

  • There is no consensus among Western historians regarding the number of deaths from the Red Terror period spanning December 1917 to February 1922. James Ryan writes that there were at lowest estimates an average of 28,000 executions per year during this time. Estimates for the whole period range from 50,000 executions to an upper figure of 200,000 people plus an additional 400,000 killed in prisons. Robert Conquest calculated a total of 140,000 people shot between 1917 and 1922 while Jonathan D. Smele suggests considerably fewer numbers. Some contemporary historians present figures exceeding one million victims with Sergei Melgunov citing Professor Charles Saroléa's count of 1,766,188 executions in 1924. Ronald Hingley attributed the exaggerated claim of 1,700,000 to a quoted statement from White Army leader Anton Denikin. W. Bruce Lincoln stated that best estimations for the number of executions in total put the figure at about 100,000.

  • Leon Trotsky argued in his book Terrorism and Communism that the reign of terror began with the White Terror under White Guard forces. Karl Kautsky pleaded with Lenin against using violence as terrorism because it was indiscriminate and included taking hostages. Martin Latsis chief of the Ukrainian Cheka stated in the newspaper Krasny Terror that they were destroying the bourgeoisie as a class. Lenin responded mildly criticizing Latsis determination but did not stop the campaign. Grigory Zinoviev described the Red Terror succinctly from the Bolshevik point of view in mid-September 1918. Left SR leader Maria Spiridonova condemned the Red Terror in her Open Letter to the Central Executive while awaiting trial in November 1918. Leszek Kołakowski noted that Lenin defined dictatorship of proletariat as unlimited power based on force rather than law. Trotsky wrote that revolutionary supremacy presupposed political supremacy of the single party governing by dictatorship.

  • Historians such as Richard Pipes contrasted the Red and White Terrors claiming Red Terror was a political strategy while White Terror was restorative and arbitrary. The Bolshevik policy of terror was more systematic better organized and targeted at whole social classes. It had been thought out and put into practice before the outbreak of civil war. The White Terror was never systematized in such fashion and was almost invariably work of detachments out of control. Peter Holquist argued that White violence may have been less centralized but did not lack ideological underpinnings. Joshua Sanborn stated that terror carried out by Russian Imperial Army and Whites was as revolutionary as their Red counterpart. The Cheka and Troops for Internal Defense were structured instruments of repression with support at highest level from Bolshevik regime. If one discounts pogroms which Denikin himself condemned, White Terror most often was series of reprisals by police acting as counterespionage force.

  • The Red Terror was significant because it was first of numerous communist terror campaigns waged in Soviet Russia and many other countries. Menshevik Julius Martov wrote about the beast licking hot human blood and the growth of bitterness in civil war. The term Red Terror later used reference to other campaigns including Finnish Red Terror executions during 1918 Civil War in Finland. Hungarian Red Terror involved executions of up to 590 people accused in counter-revolutionary activities against Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919. Red Terror in Bavaria included assassinations of 12 men during German revolution of 1918, 1919. Spanish Red Terror covered actions of violence during Spanish Civil War by Republican groups. Chinese Red Terror refers to campaign in Maoist China beginning with Red August of 1966 according to Mao Zedong himself. Ethiopian Red Terror describes repression waging by Derg during rule of Mengistu Haile Mariam.

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White Terror (Russia)

Common questions

When did the Red Terror begin and end?

The Red Terror period spanned from December 1917 to February 1922. This timeframe covers the initial executions following the Bolshevik takeover through the conclusion of major civil war campaigns.

Who issued the decree for mass shooting during the Red Terror?

The Council of People's Commissars issued a decree on the 5th of September 1918 prescribing mass shooting without hesitation. Felix Dzerzhinsky directed the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission known as Cheka which carried out these orders starting in December 1917.

How many people died during the Red Terror according to historical estimates?

Estimates for total executions range from 50,000 to 200,000 people plus an additional 400,000 killed in prisons. Some contemporary historians present figures exceeding one million victims while W. Bruce Lincoln states best estimations put the figure at about 100,000.

What specific methods were used by Chekists during the Red Terror?

Chekists employed brutal methods including scalpings hand-flayings crucifixion and stoning to death. Chinese Cheka detachments placed rats in iron tubes sealed with wire netting and heated them until they gnawed through the victim's body.

Which groups targeted by the Red Terror faced execution or deportation?

Socialist Revolutionaries over whom more than 800 members were executed formed among the first targets. Industrial workers clergy peasants and White Guard forces also faced execution or deportation during campaigns like the Tambov Rebellion between 1920 and 1921.

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All sources

58 references cited across the entry

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