Cheka - Conflicts

Conflicts

The Civil War intensified due to the Czechoslovak invasion May 1918 that was supported by the Entente powers,. Massive White Terror against the Soviet forces intensified. The total number of victims of the White Terror in Central Russia at the hands of the Czechoslovaks and the SR-led Komuch regime amounted to more than 5000 people killed in the summer and autumn of 1918. After the White Cossacks led by Krasnov seized control of the Don Province, more than 40,000 people were killed by Krasnov's regime. In the Samara region on May 5, 1918, Dutov's Cossack forces killed 675 people by execution and burying the victims alive. In the autumn of 1918, General Pokrovsky's forces killed 2500 people in the town of Maikop, while Ataman Annenkov's forces shot more than 1500 peasants in Slavgorod region. The intensification in the summer of 1918 of massive and individual White Terror inevitably led to the revision of punitive-repressive policies of the Soviet government to an increase in repression. This policy more easily asserted itself with the more frequent reports of White Terror.

In addition to White Terror, individual terrorism against the Soviet forces significantly increased as 1918 progressed. In the summer of 1918 in Petrograd, Socialist-Revolutionary cells organized plots of assassinations against leading Soviet officials Volodarsky, Zinoviev, and Uritsky, as well as Lenin, Trotsky, and other officials of the Soviet state. The situation in Petrograd after the assassination of Soviet official Volodarsky showed the willingness of the population for mass repression, as seen in the slogans of banners during his funeral. In Petrograd on June 22, a Menshevik member Vasiliev was killed, motivated by revenge over the death of Volodarsky. Individual terror against the Soviet government killed 339 people. The end of August 1918 marked a new surge of individual terrorism directed against the Soviet state.

St Petersburg University Professor studies the subject in his book The Red Terror in Russia in 1918

During the Red Terror that began in early September 1918 and ended particularly after the issuing of an amnesty to prisoners on 7 November 1918, executions amounted to amounted to 8000 people. 2000 executions occurred from August 30 to 5 September 1918, and another 3000 during the remaining days of September. 3000 more were executed during October–November 1918. There were several stages of the Red Terror during the autumn of 1918. The first stage includes the period from 30 August 1918 to 5 September 1918, beginning with the attacks on Lenin and Uritsky and ending with the publication of the Red Terror decree. During this uncontrolled wave of repression, there were more than 3 thousand executions, especially in provincial towns and the frontier provinces. More organized repression took place during the remaining days of September. The total number of victims of the policy of Red Terror in this period was up to 2 thousand.

Starting in October 1918, Red Terror policy experienced a crisis. With victories at the front and the growth of the revolutionary movement in Europe, the need for the previous policy of suppressing counter-revolution subsided. Against this backdrop, Communist Party leaders changed the repressive policies. The main outcome of this was the redistribution of powers between the Chek and Revolutionary Tribunal. The Cheka in early 1919 were denied the right to sentencing. The county Chekas were eliminated. On 6 November 1918, an amnesty to prisoners was issued, which according to Ratkovsky meant the end of the Red Terror. The result was a decrease in repression, with the executions in the RSFSR in 1919 numbering a third of those in 1918

Leading Cheka official Martyn Latsis stated that in the period 1918-July 1919 in Russia, there were 9,641 executions and 12,733 in the 1918-1920 period. W. H. Chamberlin claims "it is simply impossible to believe that the Cheka only put to death 12,733 people in all of Russia up to the end of the civil war." Chamberlin provides the "reasonable and probably moderate" estimate of 50,000, Author Robert Conquest claims that the number of executions at about 250,000, while Leggett puts the number at 140,000 and an equal number killed during armed revolts.