Outline of the Red Terror (Russia)

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Not to be confused with Outline of the Great Purge (Soviet Union).
Red Terror
Part of the Russian Civil War
Propaganda poster in Petrograd, 1918: "Death to the bourgeoisie and its lapdogs – Long live the Red Terror!!"[a]
Native name Красный террор (post-1918 orthography)
Красный терроръ (pre-1918 orthography)
DateAugust 1918 – February 1922
LocationSoviet Russia
MotivePolitical repression
TargetAnti-Bolshevik groups, clergy, rival socialists, counter-revolutionaries, peasants, and dissidents
Organized byCheka
DeathsMainstream estimates range between 50,000 and 600,000[1][2]
Red Terror

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to English Wikipedia articles about the Red Terror.

The Red Terror (Russian: красный террор, romanized: krasnyy terror) was a campaign of political repression and mass executions in Soviet Russia carried out by the Bolsheviks, mainly through the Cheka, their secret police force. It began officially in September 1918 and continued until 1922. The Red Terror was launched after assassination attempts on Vladimir Lenin and the killings of Petrograd Cheka chief Moisei Uritsky and party editor V. Volodarsky. Inspired by the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution, its goal was to crush political opposition and secure Bolshevik control.[3] Bolshevik leader Leon Trotsky defended the use of terror, arguing it was a necessary response to the White Terror that began in 1917.[4]

Overview

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Events

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  • Murder of the Romanov family – Execution of Tsar Nicholas II and his family by Bolsheviks in 1918, considered part of the broader Red Terror.
  • Tagantsev conspiracy – Alleged anti-Soviet plot in Petrograd in 1922 used by the Cheka to justify mass arrests and executions.
  • Tartu Credit Center Massacre – Execution of hostages by retreating Bolsheviks in Estonia in 1919, as part of the Red Terror.
  • Yaroslavl Uprising – Anti-Bolshevik rebellion in July 1918, violently suppressed by the Red Army with mass reprisals.
  • Nikolayevsk incident – 1920 massacre of Japanese citizens and White Russians by Bolshevik partisans in the Russian Far East.

Locations

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  • Ipatiev House – Location in Yekaterinburg where the Romanov family was executed.
  • Ganina Yama – Burial site of the Romanov family after their execution.

Individuals

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Perpetrators

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Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Lenin (c.1922)
Leon Trotsky (c.1920)
Felix Dzerzhinsky (c.1920)
Grigory Zinoviev (c.1920)
Genrikh Yagoda, Vyacheslav Menzhinsky, Felix Dzerzhinsky (c.1924)
Members of the presidium of VCheKa (left to right) Yakov Peters, Józef Unszlicht, Abram Belenky (standing), Felix Dzerzhinsky, Vyacheslav Menzhinsky, (c.1921)
Petrograd Cheka, Urizky Boky, (c.1918)
  • Georges Agabekov – Soviet intelligence officer who defected to the West in 1930.
  • Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko – Bolshevik leader who directed the storming of the Winter Palace during the October Revolution.
  • Georgi Atarbekov – Cheka official known for his brutal methods during the Russian Civil War.
  • Vsevolod Balitsky – Head of the NKVD in Ukraine, involved in political repression during the 1930s.
  • Alexander Beloborodov – Bolshevik revolutionary involved in the execution of the Romanov family.
  • Yan Karlovich Berzin – Head of Soviet military intelligence (GRU) and participant in the Red Terror.
  • Georgy Blagonravov – Soviet security official who played a role in suppressing opposition during the Civil War.
  • Gleb Bokii – Senior Cheka officer involved in implementing the Red Terror and early Gulag system.
  • Yevgenia Bosch – Bolshevik revolutionary and one of the first female Soviet leaders.
  • Semyon Dukelsky – Cheka officer who enforced Bolshevik policies and suppressed dissent.
  • Felix Dzerzhinsky – Founder and head of the Cheka, instrumental in orchestrating the Red Terror.
  • Aleksandr Eiduk – Cheka official involved in political repression and executions.
  • Mikhail Frunze – Red Army commander who led Bolshevik forces during the Civil War.
  • Filipp Goloshchyokin – Soviet official who played a role in the execution of the Romanov family.
  • Mikhail Kedrov – Cheka officer known for his extreme methods during the Red Terror.
  • Sergei Kirov – Prominent Bolshevik leader whose assassination led to the Great Purge.
  • Nikolay Komarov – Soviet official involved in the administration of the Cheka.
  • Grigory Kotovsky – Bolshevik military leader who commanded Red Army units during the Civil War.
  • Nikolai Krylenko – Soviet legal official involved in show trials and executions.
  • Ivan Ksenofontov – Deputy head of the Cheka who played a role in internal security.
  • Béla Kun – Hungarian communist revolutionary who participated in Soviet political activities.
  • Kārlis Landers – Latvian Bolshevik involved in revolutionary activities.
  • Martin Latsis – Senior Cheka official who advocated for class-based repression.
  • Vladimir Lenin – Leader of the Bolshevik Revolution and head of the Soviet state; authorized the use of terror against political opponents.
  • Mikhail Artemyevich Muravyov – Red Army commander known for harsh measures during the Civil War.
  • Sergo Ordzhonikidze – Bolshevik leader who played a significant role in the Soviet government.
  • Yakov Peters – Deputy head of the Cheka involved in implementing the Red Terror.
  • Grigory Petrovsky – Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet statesman.
  • Yakov Sverdlov – Bolshevik party administrator and key figure in the early Soviet government.
  • Joseph Stalin – Bolshevik revolutionary who later became the leader of the Soviet Union; involved in the Red Terror.
  • Pyotr Stuchka – Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet official.
  • Leon Trotsky – Bolshevik revolutionary, Lenin's number two, and Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs.
  • Yakov Tryapitsyn – Red Army commander responsible for the Nikolayevsk incident.
  • Moisei Uritsky – Head of the Petrograd Cheka, assassinated in 1918.
  • Varvara Yakovleva – Bolshevik revolutionary and deputy head of the Petrograd Cheka.
  • Genrikh Yagoda – Head of the NKVD who oversaw political repression and purges.
  • Leonid Zakovsky – Soviet security official involved in the Great Purge.
  • Rosalia Zemlyachka – Bolshevik revolutionary nicknamed "Demon" and "Bloody Rosa", who promised Wrangel's white troops amnesty in 1920 before massacring them.
  • Andrei Zhelyabov – Russian revolutionary and member of Narodnaya Volya.
  • Grigory Zinoviev – Bolshevik revolutionary and head of the Communist International.
  • Felix Dzerzhinsky – Bolshevik revolutionary and founder of the Cheka, the Soviet secret police.
  • Peter Ermakov – Bolshevik revolutionary who participated in the execution of the Romanov family.
  • Alexey Georgievich Kabanov – Bolshevik revolutionary involved in the execution of the Romanov family.
  • Fyodor Lukoyanov – Bolshevik revolutionary and member of the Ural Regional Soviet.
  • Mikhail Medvedev-Kudrin – Bolshevik revolutionary who claimed to have shot Nicholas II.
  • Pavel Spiridonovich Medvedev – Bolshevik revolutionary and head of the guard at the Ipatiev House.
  • Grigory Petrovich Nikulin – Bolshevik revolutionary who participated in the execution of the Romanov family.
  • Yakov Sverdlov – Bolshevik revolutionary and head of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.
  • Nikolay Tolmachyov – Bolshevik revolutionary and member of the Ural Regional Soviet.
  • Stepan Vaganov – Bolshevik revolutionary and member of the execution squad.
  • Pyotr Voykov – Bolshevik revolutionary who facilitated the disposal of the Romanov bodies.
  • Yakov Yurovsky – Bolshevik revolutionary and chief executioner of the Romanov family.
  • Alexander Beloborodov – Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet politician; played a key role in ordering the execution of Nicholas II and his family; executed during the Great Purge in 1938.
  • Boris Didkovsky – Soviet revolutionary and member of the Ural Regional Soviet; involved in the decision to execute the Romanovs; executed during the Great Purge.
  • Filipp Goloshchyokin – Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet official; instrumental in the execution of the Romanov family; executed during the Great Purge.
  • Gavril Myasnikov – Bolshevik revolutionary; participated in the execution of the Romanovs; later became a dissident and was executed in 1945.
  • Yevgeni Preobrazhensky – Bolshevik economist and politician; although not directly involved in the execution, he was associated with the regime; executed during the Great Purge.
  • Georgy Safarov – Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet official; involved in the early Soviet government; executed during the Great Purge.

Victims

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Red terror victims
Czechoslovak victims of the Bolsheviks near Vladivostok

Whites

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Anarchists

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  • Fanya Baron – Lithuanian-born anarchist and member of the Anarchist Black Cross; executed by the Cheka in 1921.
  • Lev Chernyi – Russian individualist anarchist and theorist; executed by the Cheka in 1921.
  • Yosif Gotman – Ukrainian anarchist; executed during the Red Terror.
  • Petro Havrylenko – Ukrainian anarchist and military commander in the Makhnovist movement; executed during the Red Terror.
  • Semen Karetnyk – Ukrainian anarchist and military leader in the Makhnovist movement; executed during the Red Terror.
  • Foma Kozhyn – Ukrainian anarchist and Makhnovist commander; executed during the Red Terror.
  • Savelii Makhno – Brother of Nestor Makhno and participant in the anarchist movement; executed during the Red Terror.
  • Dmitry Ivanovich Popov – Russian anarchist and military leader; executed during the Red Terror.

Organizations and groups

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  • Cheka – The first Soviet state security organization, responsible for carrying out the Red Terror.
  • Communist Party of the Soviet Union – The ruling political party of the Soviet Union, founded by the Bolsheviks.
  • Bolsheviks – A faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party that seized power during the October Revolution.
  • Council of People's Commissars – The highest governmental authority under the Bolsheviks after the October Revolution.
  • Red Army – The military force organized by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War.
  • Revolutionary tribunal (Russia) – Special courts established by the Bolsheviks to try political opponents during the Red Terror.
  • White movement – A loose coalition of anti-Bolshevik forces during the Russian Civil War.

Documents and publications

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See also

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References

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Notes

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  1. ^ The orthography used on the poster is generally in line with the 1918 Bolshevik reform except for ея, a pre-revolutionary form of её (female pronoun).
  2. ^ "In Defence of Terrorism" was the original English title for Trotsky's work later known as "Terrorism and Communism"

Citations

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  1. ^ McDaniel, James Frank (1976). Political Assassination and Mass Execution: Terrorism in Revolutionary Russia, 1878–1938. University of Michigan. p. 348.
  2. ^ Hingley, Ronald (2021). "7. The Cheka: 1917–1922". The Russian Secret Police: Muscovite, Imperial Russian and Soviet Political Security Operations 1565–1970. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-000-37135-2.
  3. ^ Mayer, Arno J. (2000). The Furies: Violence and Terror in the French and Russian Revolutions. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  4. ^ Kline, George L (1992). "In Defence of Terrorism". In Brotherstone, Terence; Dukes, Paul (eds.). The Trotsky Reappraisal. Edinburgh University Press. "In Defence of Terrorism" was the original English title for Trotsky's work later known as "Terrorism and Communism"
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