The Red Terror in Soviet Russia was a campaign of mass arrests, executions, and atrocities conducted by the Bolshevik government. In Soviet historiography, the Red Terror is described as having been officially announced on September 2, 1918 by Yakov Sverdlov and ended about October 1918. However, many historians, beginning with Sergei Melgunov, apply this term to political repression during the whole period of the Russian Civil War, 1918–1922. The mass repressions were conducted by the Cheka (the Bolshevik secret police), together with elements of the Bolshevik military intelligence agency (the GRU).
The term "Red Terror" was originally used to describe the last six weeks of the "Reign of Terror" of the French Revolution, ending on July 28, 1794 with the execution of Maximilien Robespierre, to distinguish it from the subsequent First White Terror. (Historically this period has been known as the Great Terror (French: la Grande Terreur).)
Read more about Red Terror: Purpose, History, Atrocities, Interpretations By Historians, Historical Significance
Famous quotes containing the words red and/or terror:
“We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“We see daily that our lives are terrible and little, without continuity, buyable and salable at any moment, mere blips on a screen, that this is the way we live now. Memory marketed as nostalgia; terror reduced to mere suspense, to melodrama.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)