Red Terror and the Military - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Red Terror and the Military

Victoria RamseySlide2

Contents

What was the red terror and why did it come about?

Red terror within the military

Red terror used for military objectives

Terror in the

Arkhangel’sk

Province

ConclusionSlide3

What was the red terror and why did it come about?

Red terror was a campaign of mass killings, torture, and systematic oppression conducted by the Bolsheviks.

Introduction of terror has been widely attributed to an assassination attempt on Lenin in the summer of 1918Slide4

The Cheka were the secret police during the start of the Bolshevik regime.

‘Establishment of the Cheka’

The

Commission is to be called the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for the Struggle with Counter-Revolution and Sabotage and is to be attached to the Council of People’s Commissars.

The duties of the Commission are to be as follows:

1. To

investigate and nullify all acts of counter-revolution and sabotage throughout Russia, irrespective of origin.

2. To

bring before the Revolutionary Tribunal all counter-revolutionaries and saboteurs and to work out measures to combat

them.

3. The

Commission is to conduct the preliminary investigation only, sufficient to suppress (the counter-revolutionary act)...Measures to be taken are confiscation, imprisonment, confiscation of cards, publication of the names of the enemies of the people. Etc

.

Signed by Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars, Lenin Slide5

Red Terror within the military

Before the terror was unleashed Lenin was still advocating use of violence and repression against the military. He understood the necessity of terror as a policy.

An extract from

Steinburg’s

memoir of Lenin’s reaction to the abolition of the Kerensky Decree in October 1917:

“What nonsense”, he exclaimed, “Can you make a revolution without executions? Do you think you’ll defeat your enemies by disarming yourselves? Soft, too soft is the Russian,” he declared. “He is not capable of applying the harsh measures of revolutionary terror.”Slide6

After the assassination attempt on Lenin the policy of Red Terror was legalised and unleashed on the population. The powers of the Cheka grew rapidly.

Ex-Tsarist officers were specifically targeted by the Cheka and terror.

‘

The Strategy of the Cheka’

In

view of the threatening and exceptional circumstances of the time the following resolutions are submitted:

1.To employ secret agents.

2.To withdraw from circulation the prominent and active leaders of the Monarchist-

Kadets

, Right SRs and Mensheviks.

3.To register and have shadowed the generals and

officers

, to put under surveillance the Red Army, the officer staff, clubs, circles, schools, etc.4.To execute prominent and clearly exposed counter-revolutionaries, speculators, robbers and bribe-takers.

From:

Kozlov

In view of changed circumstances, a certain section of the officer class is displaying its readiness to work in the service of the Soviets. On this I propose the following: in those cases where there are no direct, serious charges against the arrested officers, that the question be put to them: do they agree to serve the Red Army and the Red Fleet. That, in the event of an affirmative answer, they be put at my disposal.

That, at the same time, their family position be ascertained and they be warned that, in the event of treachery or desertion to the enemy’s camp on their part their families will be arrested, and that a signature to this effect be obtained from them.

By this means we shall lighten the load on the prisons and obtain military specialists, of whom there is great need. Please communication instructions accordingly to all the commissions under your orders.

Chairman of the Military Revolutionary Council, TrotskySlide7

Red Army faced huge problems during the civil war- desertion, ill-discipline just two of these issues.

Order

Of the Chairman of the Revolutionary War Council of the

Republic to the troops and Soviet institutions

on the Southern Front.

24 November 1918. No, 65

Krasnov

and the foreign capitalists which stand behind his back, have thrown on to the Voronezh front hundreds of hired agents who have penetrated, under various guises, Red army units and are carrying on there base work, corrupting and inciting men to desert. In a few shaky units on the Voronezh front one can actually observe the marks of demoralisation, cowardice and self-interest. While, on all other fronts, in all other armies, Red troops are chasing the enemy and advancing, on the Voronezh front often senseless, criminal retreats and the break-up of whole regiments are taking place constantly.

I declare that from now on an end must be put to this by using merciless means.

1. Every scoundrel who incites anyone to retreat, to desert, or

not to fulfil a military order, will be shot.

2. Every soldier of the Red Army who voluntarily deserts his military post, will be shot.

3. Every soldier, who throws away his rifle or sells part of his equipment, will be shot.

4. Military police detachments to arrest deserters will be stationed in the whole front line strip.

Every soldier who offers resistance to these detachments, must be shot on the spot.

5. ...Deserter patrols are to be carried out twice every 24 hours

Death to self-seekers and to traitors!Slide8

Clear that terror was directed against all members of the Red Army regardless of rank, this is seen in the case of General

Teodori

.

Terror was mindless, executions carried out for no reason.

“There

are not enough command staff for the active service units...we are losing command staff in large numbers

...

From all sides accusations pour out that they have their price, that they are counter-revolutionaries or saboteurs. Recently everyone has been especially upset by the sudden arrest of

Teodori

of GHQ, who all knew to be a faithful and highly conscientious person, working for Soviet power in a highly responsible position...In spite of the fact that all charges against him have been proved null and void,

Teodori

still remains under arrest

... In the last few days Comrade Selivachev has also been arrested, whom it was intended to appoint to command the Eastern Front. Selivachev...was never a monarchist; quite the opposite-under the monarchy he was one of those who was

persecuted...

Comrade

Kedrov

...ordered

the arrest of the Commander of the 2

nd

Army, Comrade

Blokhin

, and the whole staff of the 2

nd

Army- adding in his telegram that if need be they should be shot

...

In the headquarters of the Ural District the entire HQ staff were arrested without any due cause whatsoever...On 1 April in the headquarters of the 1

st

Army...the

assistant

head of the radio-telegraph (section), was shot without trial or

investigation.”Slide9

Red Terror as a means to achieve military objectives

Terror wasn’t just used within the military to ensure order and discipline in the Red Army. It was also used to achieve military objectives, primarily the defeat of the Whites.

Telegram from Lenin to the Soviet city of

Nishni

-Novgorod (9 August 1918)

In

Nishni

-Novgorod

an open uprising of White

Guardists

is clearly in preparation.

You must mobilise all forces, establish a triumvirate of dictators,

introduce immediately mass terror, shoot and deport hundreds of prostitutes who ply soldiers and officers with vodka. Do not hesitate for a moment. You must act promptly: mass searches, executions for hiding arms; mass deportations of Mensheviks and security risks.

Your LeninSlide10

Need to destroy the Whites in order to achieve military success in the civil war portrayed clearly in two articles published in August 1918.

Izvestya

(23 August 1918)

‘There are No Laws in Civil War’-

Latziz

In

almost all periods, among almost all nations, the established customs of war were formulated in written laws...But when you turn to our civil war, you will see nothing of this sort...

Slaughter all who were wounded in the battle against you

- that is a law of the civil war. The bourgeoisie has accepted it; but we have not yet mastered it.

This is weakness... The laws of the civil war are not yet written; only now, in this mad struggle, are they being adumbrated...

They shoot us by the hundreds, by the thousands. We

still

shoot them singly, after long deliberations in commissions and tribunals. In civil war there must be no trials for the enemy. If you don’t break him, the enemy will break you. So smash him before he smashes you.

Petrograd

Krassnava

Gazeta (August 1918)

The

foe is pitiless...we too shall be without mercy. Terror on the living!

Comrade sailors, workers and soldiers!

Destroy to the end the remnants of the White

Guardists

and the bourgeoisie.

Let

death to the bourgeoisie

be the slogan of the day.Slide11

The Cossacks proved to be a hindrance to the Bolsheviks throughout the civil war, thus a military objective was to destroy them.

This is seen in a document titled ‘The Red Terror’, dating from September 1918:

f) Red Terror and the Cossacks

“Taking into consideration the experience of a year of civil war with the Cossacks, we have to face the fact that the only way is a pitiless fight with all the wealthy Cossacks by destroying them one by one.

No compromise or half measures are possible and therefore we must:

1)Institute

a wholesale terror against wealthy Cossacks and peasants, and having destroyed them altogether, carry out a pitiless mass terror against the Cossacks in general

who took any direct or indirect part in the fight against the Soviet government.

5) Carry out complete disarmament, shooting anyone who has any arms after the date of surrender.

7) Arm detachments to be posted in Cossack villages until complete order is restored.Slide12

Terror was also used to dissuade people from standing against the Bolsheviks and to assist in grain requisitioning.

Lenin advocated the policy of taking hostages in population groups who failed to deliver their surplus grain.

A petition

from 300 Tambov Hostages to the All-Russian Cheka

:

We

, peasants of

Kirsanovskii

,

Tambovskii

, and

Kozlovskii

districts, were arrested in June this year. It has been six months now...we have no understanding whatsoever of why we were arrested...What is our guilt, why were we seized: as hostages? Because of the onslaught of Antonov’s gangs or as scapegoats for the guilt of others? We really cannot understand any of this.Slide13

Terror in the

Arkhangel’sk

Province

During first months of Soviet rule in

Arkhangel’sk

province Bolshevik power relied on terror to secure their political domination, they used Red guards and military units to conduct

violence.

Report

of

Stavrov

at

the first

Arkhangel’sk provincial Communist party conference, 13-14 July 1919

):

“

using our own discretion we executed worthless elements from among the population. On the orders of the committees of the poor 18 or even 20 people were shot in each village”Slide14

Conclusion

Terror helped towards military

objectives. Violent

raids of Red units on White territory were frequent and

successful

due to the fact that they received support from the

population,

who were scared their neutrality could be interpreted as sympathy for the

whites.

Lenin: “If

we are not ready to shoot a saboteur and White

Guardist

, what sort of revolution is that?”