Red Terror Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
The
Red Terror was a program of repression conducted in
Russia by the
Bolsheviks in
1918, shortly after the
Russian Revolution, in which approximately eight hundred perceived and real opponents of the Bolsheviks were summarily shot without trial. The decree for the "Red Terror" was issued shortly after the simultaneous successful assassination of
Petrograd Cheka head
Moisei Uritsky, and attempted assassination of Bolshevik leader
Vladimir Lenin on
August 30,
1918. These events convinced the Bolsheviks that they were facing severe infiltration by
White agents, and that measures needed to be taken to combat this infiltration. Meanwhile, the Whites also believed they had enemy infiltrators among their ranks, which prompted them to initiate the somewhat similar
White Terror.
Further reading
- Nicolas Werth, Karel Bartosek, Jean-Louis Panne, Jean-Louis Margolin, Andrzej Paczkowski, Stephane Courtois, Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression, Harvard University Press, 1999, hardcover, 858 pages, ISBN 0674076087. Chapter 4: The Red Terror
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