1. Russian Revolution – The Terror
Ms Perfect, 23/3/2007

2. Overview
Bolsheviks employed instruments of terror to control workers and peasants
Organisations central to this terror – The Red Army and the CHEKA
Through these organisations the Bolsheviks were able to monitor and control the general populace and forcibly promote loyalty to the regime
This control was imperative for Bolshevik success during the Civil War period

3. The Red Army Revision from Mr Sweeney’s previous lecture:
Comprised of workers and peasants
Central aim of defending the revolution
More specifically, a defence against the pressing international forces and bourgeoisie or ‘White’ elements in Russian society

4. The Red Army
Conscription of workers into the Red Army or industrial workforce
Red Army members swore the Oath of the Red Warrior – of loyalty and dedication to strict discipline, prevention of criminal acts and essentially to defend the areas under Bolshevik control against all invaders

5. The CHEKA Russian acronym for:
‘All Russian Extraordinary Commission to Fight Counter-Revolution, Sabotage and Speculation’
Essentially set up to monitor the actions of ex-tsarist officers in the Red Army, to ensure absolute loyalty to the cause and to prevent counter-revolutionary activity

6. The CHEKA
Under the control of Felix Dzerzhinsky

7. Felix Dzerzhinsky Polish aristocratic heritage An intellectual
History of revolutionary activity, arrests and imprisonment for this activity
Participated in 1905 revolution, jailed by Okhrana as a result
Released in 1912 and rearrested soon after
Either escaped or was released in March 1917 (Pravda suggests he escaped) and immediately joined the Bolshevik Party

8. Felix Dzerzhinsky Absolute devotion to the revolutionary cause
Nickname ‘Iron Felix’
Lenin regarded Dzerzhinsky as a revolutionary hero
Appointed to organise and lead CHEKA in 1917
As the Civil War developed, Dzerzhinsky also began organising internal security troops to enforce the CHEKA's authority

9. Purpose of the CHEKA
Implemented against ‘White’ Armies and their supporters
Used to control workers and peasants – ensure they remain loyal to the cause
Use of terror central to the success of the revolution

10. Purpose of the CHEKA
Directions given to Felix Dzerzhinsky by the ruling
cabinet, the Council of People’s Commissars
(Sovnarkom):
1. To investigate and liquidate all attempts or actions connected with counter-revolution or sabotage, no matter from whom they may come, throughout Russia.
2. The handing over for trial by Revolutionary Tribunal of all saboteurs and counter-revolutionaries, and the elaboration of measures to fight them

11. Resources for Success
The CHEKA received substantial resources to enable success
Lenin gave the organisation far-reaching powers to combat the opposition
CHEKA became known for ruthlessly pursuing any perceived counterrevolutionary elements

12. CHEKA Activities
By April 1918, the Cheka had set up its own three-man courts, known as troikas, to carry out extra-judicial reprisal
This gave the Cheka the power to perform investigation, arrest, interrogation, prosecution, trial and execution of the verdict, including the death penalty
Execution of the ex-tsar and his family in July 1918 – without trial

13. The Red Terror
Summer 1918, three key events that led to the Red Terror period:
1. The assassination of the German ambassador to Russia following Treat of Brest-Litovsk
2. The attempted assassination of Lenin by members of the Left Social Revolutionaries
3. The murder of the head of the Petrograd CHEKA by a member of another socialist faction that were rivals to the ruling Bolsheviks

14. Features of the Red Terror
Mass executions (due to specific counterrevolutionary actions and for their beliefs and class origins)
In response to the assassination of the German ambassador, the CHEKA executed 350 Social Revolutionaries and 512 hostages were shot by the Secret Police after the assassination attempt on Lenin
Estimated that between 100,000 and 500,000 people were executed by the CHEKA during the Red Terror

15. Features of the Red Terror
Slave labor camps introduced to imprison people based on counterrevolutionary activity/sympathies and class origins (especially the bourgeoisie)
By the end of 1920 Soviet Russia had 84 concentration camps with approximately 50,000 prisoners
This prison system continued to grow rapidly after the Russian Civil War
By 1923 the number grew to a total of 315 camps

16. Red Terror and the Kulaks
Executions and forced starvation of peasantry during Civil War
Period of War Communism ( ) in reaction to economic crisis
Peasants forced to produce grain for the benefit of the state
Many peasants refused to sell grain to the state for the fixed price
Lenin responded by sending the CHEKA to execute speculators who purchased grain from the peasants and then sold it on the black market

17. Red Terror and the Kulaks
This only forced grain prices up
CHEKA was ordered to forcibly seize the grain from the peasants (August 1918 onwards)
Regardless of financial situation, many peasants were branded as rich kulaks, against the revolutionary cause
CHEKA ordered to terrorise peasants into compliance
Not only were individual peasants executed but entire families and whole villages as well

18. After the Civil War
CHEKA was despised by most of the populace by the end of the Civil War in 1921 (including even many Bolsheviks) due to brutality
Lenin removed CHEKA’s authority over ordinary crimes and limited its jurisdiction to only prosecution of state crimes
CHEKA was officially abolished on February 6, 1922

19. After the Civil War
Replaced with a new security organization called the State Political Administration or GRU (Gosudarstvennoe Politicheskoe Upravlenie)
In 1924 organisation renamed OGPU or Unified State Political Administration
Dzerzhinsky and most of the leaders of the old Cheka remained in the new GPU

20. After the Civil War
The GPU was made a part of the Ministry of the Interior (similar to the Okhrana)
Over the next few years the GPU (OGPU) regained most of the powers of the old CHEKA
For the next seven decades this continued - the titles continued to change but the duties and powers of this organization did not

21. Parallels to Tsarist Russia
Origins date back to the earliest tsarist times
Ivan the Terrible, Russia’s first tsar, established the Oprichniki in 1565
Members dressed in black and rode atop black horses while carrying emblems of a dog’s head and a broom, symbolising their mission - to sniff out treason and sweep it away

22. Parallels to Tsarist Russia
Similar to the Okhrana
Perhaps better organised and more efficient? (Lynch)
Almost identical in purpose and practise?

23. Historiography - Volkogonov:
“The question is, how clearly did Lenin and his followers distinguish, in their won minds, between the force and coercion required to combat their armed enemies, and that which they used against their purely political foes, real and potential? The promise to create a new society without oppression, political rule and terror… was swallowed up by the imperatives of Bolshevik survival and never retrieved.”

24. Historiography - Lynch
“It is doubtful whether, even without that threat [to the Bolsheviks survival] Bolshevism could have developed other than an oppressive system. Its dogmatic Marxist creed made it as intolerant of other political creeds as tsardom had been.”

25. Historiography - Service
“Lenin, Trotsky and Dzerzhinsky believed that over-killing was better than running the risk of being overthrown.”

26. Historiography - Figes
“The Red Terror did not come out of the blue. It was implicit in the regime from the start… The Bolsheviks were forced to turn increasingly to terror to silence their political critics and subjugate a society they could not control by other means.”