The Red Terror in Russia was a set of punitive measures that the Bolsheviks used during the Civil War of 1917-23. This regime was applied against those social groups that were proclaimed class enemies, as well as against those who were accused of counter-revolutionary activity. The Red Terror was an integral part of the repressive state policy pursued by the Bolsheviks. In practice, the application of this complex of punitive measures was carried out both with the use of legislative acts and with the implementation of various provisions that are not included in the framework of any legislation. The Red Terror was a means of intimidating not only the anti-Bolshevik movements, but also the civilian population.
Today, the applied set of measures has two definitions.
Some historians believe that the Red Terror includes the entire policy of repression and lynching in 1917. In their opinion, this set of measures continued in some way the October Revolution. Historians point out that the White and Red Terrors began at different times. At the same time, the second developed earlier than the first. The Red Terror was considered logically inevitable and was associated with Bolshevik violence directed not so much against the existing resistance as against entire social classes that were outlawed. These, in the first place, included nobles and Cossacks, fists and priests, officers and landowners.
Another part of historians considers the Bolshevik terror a forced and extreme measure, a reciprocal and protective reaction against the White Terror.
The leadership of the Communist Party in general and Lenin in particular opposed "softness" in reaction to the actions of the counter-revolutionaries. At the same time, Vladimir Ilyich in every possible way encouraged the "massiveness and energy of terror", calling it "the initiative of the masses is quite correct." At the same time, in some statements of Lenin, there was a need to avoid "cruel, unfair and unmotivated sentences."
Many thinkers and historians, in particular Kautsky, criticized the behavior of the new government, its policies and measures. It was noted that before the revolution, the Bolsheviks were against the use of the death penalty. After the seizure of power, the government began to use mass executions. Lenin, disputing this point of view, in turn declared that the Bolsheviks were not against execution. The question, in his opinion, was different. Pointing out that not a single revolutionary government can do without execution, only the issue with the class against which this measure will be taken should be resolved.
After the seizure of power, the Bolsheviks in large cities began to introduce Marxist economic reforms. At the same time, the transformations were reduced to confiscation of the property available to citizens, mobilization of human resources in order to ensure the earliest possible building of a socialist regime.
Lenin believed that it was necessary to take tough measures regarding elements that were foreign to the proletariat. All of these elements, in his opinion, should be re-educated using different methods.
The official date of the declaration of Red Terror was September 5, 1918. It was discontinued on November 6 of that year.
The repressions were carried out by the Cheka’s organs to combat counter-revolutionary manifestations, crimes and profiteering in office, as well as by “Party’s responsible comrades” (under a special Decree).
The focus of the punitive bodies was formulated quite accurately in the "News of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee." According to Danishevsky (the first chairman of the Military Revolutionary Council), military tribunals should not be guided by absolutely no legal rules, since they were created (tribunals) in the midst of intense revolutionary confrontation.