Russian Revolution 1917-1927 Historical Inquiry: Red Terror

The Red Terror was a Bolshevik-ordered campaign of intimidation, arrests, violence and executions. It began in mid-1918 following an assassination attempt on Vladimir Lenin and was carried out chiefly by the Cheka, the Bolshevik secret police.

Collaborative Doctoral student Mike Carey looks at the ideologies of violence and violent practices driving the Russian Revolution and the civil war.

Council of People’s Commissars, Resolution on Red Terror. September 5, 1918

Order for Intensified Red Terror. September 4, 1918

Article by S.Melgunoff.
Paragraph headings include:
Declaration of "Red Terror"
Cheka - Cynicism and Terrorism
Abuses of the Terror
Intelligentsia and Peasants Victims
Continued after Death Penalty abolished

The Red Terror evoked protests from all quarters of society. Within the party there were also critics of its excesses, Kamenev and Bukharin among them. But the 'hard men' in the party - Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky - stood by the Cheka.