You turn to the white, the question arises - did he exist at all? If “terror” is defined as a centralized, mass phenomenon, as part of the general policy and state system, then the answer will definitely turn out to be negative.
The White Guards were not "angels". Civil war is a terrible, cruel war. There were reprisals against the enemy, and violence. But such cases are completely incomparable with the Red Terror, neither quantitatively nor qualitatively. I’ll make a reservation right away - everything that has been said refers to the areas of operation of the regular white armies, and not the independent “ chieftains”, where both sides destroyed each other “on an equal footing”. But the "ataman" did not obey the orders of the supreme white power, doing cruelty in spite of them.
As for other areas, it can be noted that the vast majority of the atrocities of the so-called white terror falls on the "partisan" phase of the White Movement. For example, start ice hike when they didn’t take prisoners - where were they to go if Volunteer army had no rear, no shelter. But already during the retreat from Yekaterinodar in April 18, the situation began to change - even many prominent Bolsheviks were released on the condition that they protect the non-transportable wounded left behind from reprisals. Cases of extrajudicial reprisals were repeated later. But they were strictly forbidden by the command and were in the nature of spontaneous excesses. Yes, and they usually treated only commissars, Chekists and Soviet workers. Often they did not capture "internationalists": Germans, Hungarians, Chinese. They did not favor former officers who were in the service of Red Army They were treated like traitors. And the bulk of the prisoners just became one of the main sources of replenishment of the white armies. On the red side, massacres of prisoners were observed both in the 19th and in the 20th.
The main outbreaks of repression against the Reds took place during the anti-Bolshevik uprisings in the Kuban, on the Don, in the Urals, in the Volga region, being especially fierce where social strife was supplemented by ethnic (Cossacks against non-residents, Kyrgyz against peasants, etc.). Again, we are dealing with a "guerrilla" phase. With spontaneous explosions, when the hatred of the population splashed out on the Bolsheviks. But even during such outbreaks, the degree of red and white massacres turned out to be by no means unambiguous. Remember Serafimovich's "Iron Stream". Taman army, slaughtering villages in its path, sparing neither women nor children, in order to raise combat anger, is forced to turn off the path and make a detour of 20–30 versts in order to look at five hanged Bolsheviks. Veshensky rebels almost immediately after their victory (after the genocide!) they decided to cancel executions. In 1947, a trial took place Shkuro, Krasnov, Sultan-Girey Klych and other White Guards who collaborated with Germany, and in the materials of the process there is no mention of massacres against civilians. Everywhere we are talking only about "commanders and commissars" listed by name. But these were the acts of the most "brutal" white units!
In the summer of the 18th, A. Stetsenko, wife Furmanova, went to Yekaterinodar and fell into the clutches of Denikin's counterintelligence. The whole city knew that she was a communist, the daughter of a prominent Yekaterinodar Bolshevik who was shot. Rada. And she arrived from the Soviet of Deputies ... Convinced that she was not a spy, but simply came to visit her relatives, she was released. During the uprisings on the Volga and in Siberia, prominent communists who managed to avoid spontaneous popular reprisals, as a rule, remained alive. Red leaders in Samara were gradually exchanged or jailbreaks arranged for them. The leader of the Vladivostok communists, P. Nikiforov, sat quietly in prison from June 1918 to January 1920 - both under the government of Derber and under Ufa Directory, and under Kolchak - and without much difficulty led the local party organization from there. In 1919-1920. was in Kolchak prison and the Bolshevik Krasnoshchekov- the future chairman of the government of the Far East. And the Cossacks Mamontova from the raid, hundreds of kilometers away, they took with them the captured commissars and security officers for trial in Kharkov - and many of them later also remained alive.
On the Soviet side terror during the years of the Civil War was introduced centrally. The "White Terror" manifested itself in the form of spontaneous excesses, suppressed in every possible way by the authorities as the "elements" were organized. AT full assembly essays Lenin there are many documents demanding merciless and wholesale reprisals, and you will not find excerpts from such orders on the White armies anywhere - although many enemy documents in the "liberated" cities fell into the hands of the Reds. and Soviet historical literature she made allegations about the “white terror” of the Civil War either unfounded or based on “terrible” documents, such as a telegram from the Stavropol governor dated 08/13/19, demanding that in order to fight the rebels ... lists of partisan families and their eviction outside the province. Often, the order of the gene is given as an example. Rozanov, who, with reference to Japanese methods, proposed "strict and cruel" measures in the suppression of the Yenisei uprising. It is only silent that Rozanov was removed by Kolchak for this. And Wrangel, declaring the Crimea a besieged fortress, threatened mercilessly ... to expel opponents of the authorities behind the front line.
Based on the materials of the book by V. Shambarov "White Guard"
... "White terror" is a rather generalized term that includes phenomena that took place under various "political signs", both the white movement itself and the anti-Bolshevik resistance in general, including the right-wing socialist regimes of the "democratic counter-revolution" in the summer of autumn 1918.
These regimes themselves, such as the Samara KOMUCH, despite the predominance of the "socialist element" in the leadership, relied in their practical activities on volunteer white military formations, often even asserting itself with the direct participation of the officer underground.
Thus, the basis of the anti-Bolshevik terror, even of socialist governments, was often white terror. The difference between “right-wing socialist” and “white” regimes is all the more not fundamental, since white regimes cannot be unambiguously opposed to “people's Socialist-Revolutionary regimes” in the matter of choosing a future form of government.
It should also be added that the scale of terror of the "Socialist-Revolutionary" state formations was by no means connected with their political rhetoric. So, in the Volga region during the period of the "SR" state building in the summer and autumn of 1918, at least 5 thousand people became victims of the anti-Bolshevik terror.
White (anti-Bolshevik) terror during the Civil War in Russia also includes the terror of the White Finns, White Czechs, White Poles, German and other occupying troops (for example, Japan), since their actions extended to large areas of Russia and solved one problem: the establishment of anti-Bolshevik principles on controlled their territories. A number of these foreign formations were directly subordinate to the White authorities, others acted in concert with them, or with the "popular socialist regimes" or local "national regimes" of anti-Bolshevik orientation.
Under the white terror during the Civil War, one should also understand such diverse phenomena as individual anti-Bolshevik terror and armed counter-revolutionary actions, during which lynchings of Soviet workers were recorded (in this study, they are considered more briefly than "massive white terror").
Thus, a variety of violent actions directed against the Bolshevik authorities in the territory Soviet republic(or her former territory), which have signs of terror, can ultimately be classified as manifestations of white (anti-Bolshevik) terror. Such a formulation of the question, perhaps not entirely justified, expands the concept of white terror in relation, in particular, to the peasant movement.
However, in a simplified version and when compared with the red terror and repressions (in the same broad interpretation), in their confrontation, mutual causality, mutual influence, it seems acceptable to consider white terror as an integral phenomenon (including this aspect).
Quantitative indicators of victims of insurgent actions and victims of individual white terror in the territory Soviet Russia is quite difficult to install. There is generalized statistics only for individual periods. So, in 22 provinces of Central Russia in July 1918, 4141 Soviet workers were destroyed by counter-revolutionaries. The general figures of the Bolshevik victims are more often estimated and subjective. So, according to the research of M. Bernshtam (a researcher critical of the Soviet government), during the Civil War, 100 thousand supporters of Soviet power and Soviet employees were killed only by the rebels and the "greens".
This "internal" anti-Bolshevik terror should be taken into account when analyzing white (anti-Bolshevik) terror in general, despite its more complex socio-political characteristics. This seems all the more admissible because the Red Terror itself did not exist in the sense that it is presented in the publications of the period of the Civil War.
Both white state terror (the terror of "white governments") and red terror (the terror of the central government) have clear boundaries - spatial and temporal. Terror, white and red in general, are more vague terms, expressing rather a simplified reduction of the opposing sides to reds and whites, revolutions and counter-revolutions ...
The first information about the massive White Terror is often attributed to April June 1918. This period can be characterized as the beginning of the frontal stage of the Civil War and, therefore, as the beginning of a new round of mutual bitterness and repression. First of all, the bloody suppression of the communist revolution in Finland should be noted.
If during the Finnish Civil War the military and civilian casualties on both sides amounted to 25 thousand people, then after the suppression of the revolution, about 8 thousand people were shot by the White Finns and up to 90 thousand participants in the revolution ended up in prisons. These data are confirmed by modern Finnish studies.
According to a well-known Finnish historian, 8,400 Red prisoners were executed by the Whites in Finland, including 364 underage girls. Already after the end of the Civil War, 12,500 people died from hunger and its consequences in Finnish concentration camps. A study by Marjo Liukkonen from the University of Lapland provides new details of the executions of women and children in one of the largest concentration camps in Hennala. Only women were shot there without trial 218 .
Such a “white experience” in Finland is important because it preceded the Russian experience of large-scale white terror and was one of the reasons for the bitterness of the Civil War in Russia on both sides. It is also important that it was a consequence of the establishment of a new Finnish white statehood in the territories liberated from Finnish revolutionaries.
The fact that these events took place in a neighboring country did not reduce their impact on the situation in Russia, especially since there were a large number of Russian citizens among those shot in Tammerfors and Vyborg. As events unfolded in Finland, the population (and still more leadership of the country) could compare them with the situation in Russia and draw certain conclusions and forecasts on the development of the situation already in Russian conditions, in particular on the possible behavior of the victorious counter-revolution.
Subsequently, this cruelty during the suppression of the Finnish revolution was indicated as one of the reasons for the introduction of the Red Terror in Soviet Russia in the autumn of 1918. The experience of the “Finnish appeasement” was also considered by the white side. The influence of the factor of Finnish terror on Russian events is not limited to this. It should also be noted that in the future, from the side of the Finnish lands, numerous military formations will penetrate into the territory of Russia, asserting on the ground the practice of destroying Bolshevism in the broadest sense.
The beginning of a wave of mass "Czechoslovak repressions" also belongs to the same period. The line of the Eastern (Czechoslovak) Front at the beginning of the summer of 1918 was rapidly rolling back to the west, and along with the movement of troops Czechoslovak Corps here comes the anti-Bolshevik terror. The Czechoslovak events largely duplicated the Finnish ones.
In Kazan alone, during the relatively short stay of the Czech and White detachments (a little over a month), at least 1,500 people will become victims of terror. The total number of "Bolshevik victims" of the advancement of the Czechoslovak corps in the summer of 1918 was close to 5 thousand people. Thus, the uprising of the Czechoslovak corps contributed not only to the establishment of anti-Bolshevik regimes in the East of Russia, but also to the deepening (toughening) of the Civil War in general.
Terror in the Volga region was accompanied by similar actions in the territories of the Orenburg and neighboring Ural Cossacks, as well as in the region of Izhevsk and Votkinsk. The scale of these repressions varied. But even in Izhevsk and Votkinsk, the anti-Bolshevik "workers' territories", in the autumn of 1918 terror became a reality.
The total number of victims of the punitive policy in this working-class region in the autumn of 1918 is in the range of 500-1000 people. The Cossack terror of 1918 in the above regions was not inferior to the Czechoslovak terror, even outstripping it in terms of frequency of use. At the same time, the actions of the Cossacks and the Czechoslovak units often complemented each other in repressive practices, as was the case in Chelyabinsk.
It can be argued that the white terror in the summer of 1918 is already becoming systemic, being one of the components of the new stage of the frontal Civil War, accompanying the formation of an alternative Soviet system statehood.
Similar manifestations of punitive policy during this period also occur in the North Caucasus, where the white statehood acquired territorial independence in the summer, until that moment being an extraterritorial “invited” phenomenon in the Don and Kuban. Getting under your control initially two provinces in the North Caucasus, and then large territories, determined intense white state building and related punitive practices.
However, it would be erroneous to assert that there is no white terror in more early period Civil War. Manifestations of anti-Bolshevik terror, including mass terror, are recorded already during the period of the so-called "echelon" war. One can note both the emerging individual terror and the numerous excesses of guerrilla warfare.
So, pioneering was directly connected with the practice of white terror, with mass executions and hostage-taking. scarcity personnel, social and territorial isolation, caused a reaction in the form of numerous acts of terror. The repressive practice of 1917, which the leaders of the white movement had, also partly affected. Kornilov's order "Do not take prisoners!" - only an iceberg of radical moods of the partisan period of the white movement.
For example, the partisan detachment of Yesaul V. M. Chernetsov (formed on November 30, 1917) was marked by mass executions as early as 1917, and at the beginning of 1918 used the practice of terror more than once. Only two combat episodes of the detachment give about 400 people shot after the battle: the Yasinovsky mine 118 people, the Likhaya station - 250. In addition to the Chernetsov partisan detachment, a number of volunteer detachments carried out similar actions on the Don.
The well-known spring campaign of Iasi - Rostov-on-Don by Colonel M. G. Drozdovsky in 1918 was also accompanied by mass executions. Only according to documents of personal origin of the participants in the campaign, the number of Drozdovites executed during the movement was at least 700 people, moreover, these data are clearly not complete. After the connection of the Drozdovsky detachment with the Volunteer Army, the situation will not change. Only in Belaya Glina during the Second Kuban campaign by the Drozdovites various sources from 1300 to 2 thousand people will be shot.
No less repression was marked by the famous First Kuban ("Ice") campaign led by General L. G. Kornilov. In Lezhanka alone, at least 500 people were shot by the Kornilovites. However, even before this campaign, the repressive practice of volunteers knew mass shootings prisoners. So, during the occupation of Rostov-on-Don at the end of 1917, volunteer detachments carried out the first mass white executions in the region.
The first repressions during this period are also recorded in the practice of the Kuban detachments under the command of the then captain, and soon General V. L. Pokrovsky. The practice of these lynching military executions was transferred by the white movement to a later period.
A similar situation was in Cossack territories, where the explosion of violence in the first half of 1918 was caused by the confrontation between the Cossacks and non-residents, the Cossacks of the front-line soldiers and the Cossacks of the elderly. social conflict, reinforced by demobilization processes during the formation of Soviet power on the ground, became the basis of a whole series of bloody conflicts in this period. The withdrawal of the red units from Ukraine only increased tension in the region. A striking example is the bloody annihilation of the 2,000-strong Red Tiraspol detachment that surrendered in early April 1918.
Thus, if it is possible to assert with certainty about the systemic White Terror from the beginning of the summer of 1918, then in an earlier period, not yet being a system-forming (state) element, it was also a mass phenomenon. Separate cases of white terror, often individual or lynching, are still recorded. late autumn 1917
At the same time, the summer of 1918, having revealed a new round of violence on both sides, marked the onset of a period of massive white and red terror in the autumn of 1918. This was partly caused by mobilization processes (the suppression of the September 1918 Slavgorod uprising and a whole series of similar Siberian and Volga peasant uprisings), partly by the need for greater control over new occupied territories (the North Caucasus, where the "Maikop Massacre" stands out).
Played an important role and the military factor, the movement of the front line. The “echelons and barges of death” with political prisoners transferred to them became widely known. Only in the course of such transportation in the autumn, winter of 1918 and at the beginning of 1919, at least three thousand people would die. And new territories were subjected to total cleansing ( Perm events December 1918).
Characteristic of this period is the widespread development of the system of white concentration camps. At the same time, both existing, for example, in Siberia, concentration camps for prisoners of war during the First World War, and new prisons and concentration camps were used. At the same time, the scale of new prison construction in the "white" territories exceeded that of the Bolsheviks, who had a sufficient prison base at their disposal.
The subsequent period of territorial confrontation between the two key states in the Civil War will reveal an even greater amount of mutual terror. Let us give only two summarizing figures for 1918-1919, which are widely known to specialists. Incomplete data collected by the All-Ukrainian Society for the Assistance to the Victims of Intervention give an idea of the size of the victims for 1918-1919. on the territory of Ukraine (territorially much smaller than modern).
From April 1, 1924 to April 1, 1925, he registered 237,227 claims for a total amount of material losses - 626,737,390 rubles. 87 k. Killed - 38.436 people, maimed - 15.385 people, raped - 1.048 women, cases of arrest, flogging, etc. - 45.803. In the Yekaterinburg province, according to incomplete data collected by the Chekists for the trial of 1920 over Kolchak ministers, in 1918-1919. at least twenty-five thousand people were shot by the white authorities.
Yekaterinburg and Verkhotursky counties were subjected to special repressions. “Some Kizelov mines - about 8 thousand were shot, buried alive, Tagil and Nadezhda regions - about ten thousand were shot. Yekaterinburg and other districts - at least eight thousand people.
About 10% of the two million population has been re-cut. Flogged men, women, children. Ruined - all the poor, all sympathizers of the Soviet regime. Subsequently, these data were included in many publications.
Of course, these figures should be taken critically, especially in the Kizelovsky mines, but the very fact of mass repressions in the region took place. In neighboring provinces, the level of repression was lower, but we note that only during the suppression of the Omsk December uprising in 1918, up to one and a half thousand people died. It is no coincidence, therefore, that the well-known remark of the American General W. S. Graves:
« AT Eastern Siberia terrible murders were committed, but they were not committed by the Bolsheviks, and I will not be mistaken if I say that in Eastern Siberia for every person killed by the Bolsheviks, there were 100 people killed by the anti-Bolsheviks. elements» .
S. S. Aksakov, who served in the white units in the East of Russia, later recalled: “ This is the worst, but the most terrible of all is the civil war. After all, there brother killed brother! With a shudder, he recalled how they, 19-year-old boys, were ordered to shoot prisoners. He avoided it when he could, but there was no rear and nowhere to send them. It was the same for the Reds.» .
Other generalizing data on the White Terror for 1918-1919 are also known, for example, in Udmurtia. Here, according to published archival materials 8298 people were shot and died as a result of torture, various forms 10,937 people were subjected to violence, another 2,786 people became disabled as a result of the actions of the authorities.
White repressions were large-scale this year in other regions of Russia: in the North and North West Russia, the North Caucasus, etc. Almost every month of this year gives several cases of mass casualties. Characteristic of the first half of 1919.
January marked Cossack executions in the Ural region, where 1050 people will be killed.
In February, at least 800 participants in the Yenisei-Maklakovo uprising will be shot by whites, thousands of executions take place in the North Caucasus, where 1,300 people will be executed during the pacification of the Terek region, and in Vladikavkaz the number of dead is difficult to count.
In March, mass executions take place in Ufa (670 victims), Tyumen (400-500), the destruction of the village of Semenovka by Japanese troops (at least 257 people), the pacification of the Chechen village of Alkhan Yurt (up to 1000 people).
No lesser scale of repression was in April, when participants in the Kolchugino uprising (up to 600 people), the Kustanai uprising (3,000 people), and the Mariinsky uprising (2000) were executed. Let us also point to the Jewish and Soviet pogroms, of which the Grigoriev rebellion stood out (more than 1,500 victims). The victims of ataman Grigoriev, given his successful attempts to rapprochement with the white movement, can, in our opinion, not only not be taken out of the scope of the anti-Bolshevik terror, but at a certain stage even be taken into account when counting the victims of the white terror.
The White offensive of the troops of General A. I. Denikin and the retreat of the troops of A. V. Kolchak gives no less large-scale figures for the summer executions of 1919. Just like on the faults tectonic platforms the greatest volcanic activity, in the zone of contact between red and white statehood in 1919, in the zone of fronts, there will be mass cases white terror.
Votkinsk, Kharkov, Yekaterinoslav, Bakhmach, and Tsaritsyn - each of these cities gave many hundreds of executed, sometimes thousands, and in the summer of 1919 there was also the suppression of the Semirechye uprising (at least 3,000 victims), the capture of the partisan capital Taseevo (hundreds of people died) and many other cases of white terror: Aleksandrovsk (680), Lebyazhye (357), Romny (500), Sakharnoye (700), Krasnoyarsk (600), Budarin and Lbischensk (up to 5,5 thousand victims).
During this period, numerous new evacuations of prisoners were carried out, with hundreds and even thousands of victims, it is enough to mention the evacuation of prisoners to Tyumen. A number of these figures can be disputed in one direction or another, but the explosion of white repression during this period is undeniable. The total number of victims of the White Terror in August 1919 alone is about 30 thousand people.
The autumn of 1919, with its ebb and flow of the positions of the White troops, was characterized by no lesser scale of the White Terror. A raid on Moscow, a retreat to Omsk, give new hundreds and thousands of victims.
However, it would be deeply wrong to reduce mutual terror only to military excesses. Terror in the Civil War from a social and everyday phenomenon becomes a political one, inherent in the activities of all parties. Red, pink, yellow, black, green, white terror - only symbol of the same phenomenon, the refraction of terrorist thinking in the prism of political views. Social conflicts were far behind the front lines, deep in the rear. The “internal front” often recorded no less scale of white terror than in the newly acquired territories.
At the same time, the interventionists also contributed. “Were the allies in the war with Soviet Russia? Of course not, but they killed the Soviet people as soon as they caught their eye, they remained on Russian soil as conquerors, they supplied the enemies of the Soviet government with weapons, they blockaded its ports, they sank its ships. They ardently aspired to the fall of the Soviet government and made plans for this fall, ”W. Churchill claimed. Created in 1924, the "Society for Assistance to the Victims of Intervention" collected by July 1, 1927 over 1 million 300 thousand applications from Soviet citizens, which recorded 111,730 murders and deaths, including 71,704 in the rural and 40,026 in the urban population, for which the interventionists were responsible.
Against the background of 1918-1919. the white repressions of 1920 are characterized by a smaller scale. However, this is not due to the liberalization of white regimes, but to a “smaller area” for the use of repressions in the face of the approaching defeat of the white movement. The intensity of the white repressions during this period is no less than before, and mass executions of several hundred people are documented. Thousands of executions are also known.
It is enough to look through the memoirs of only two famous Drozdovites A. V. Turkul, V. M. Kravchenko. Already according to them, during the summer-autumn offensive of the Wrangel troops of 1920, the number of captured Red Army soldiers killed by the Drozdov division alone exceeds 1,000 people. At the same time, this figure (only, we note, according to two reminiscences) clearly does not include all the "Drozdov" victims.
In the autumn of 1920, officers who did not have time to evacuate in the Crimea will become a hostage to such a shooting practice of the Drozdovites, as well as other white units in the specified period. Among the significant tragedies, one should also mention the fate of several thousand Orenburg Cossacks who became victims of the Annenkov terror, as well as the “Belarusian executions” of ataman S. N. Bulak Balakhovich in 1920. The Semenov executions of this period are also known.
The presented work deals with the chronological white terror from October 1917 to 1920 inclusive. This does not mean that the White Terror ceased to exist after the defeat of the White territorial statehood in the European part of Russia and Siberia.
However, white repressions of this period are already characteristic of a smaller part of the former territory of the Russian Empire. In this regard, it is necessary to single out the Far East, Transbaikalia, partly Central Asia and a number of border territories of Russia (for example, the Pskov province, which survived the "Savinkovsky" terror during this period).
Other regions, such as the Don, were also subject to "residual" terror. To a large extent, the white terror of this period was no longer the result of state white practices, but the revenge of those already doomed to defeat. Thus, the anti-Bolshevik terror, having changed its content, was not limited only to 1917-1920, continuing to increase the number of its victims in the subsequent period.
Wide famous phrase, the meaning of which eludes many. "Friends let me read a book about the civil war. Published in France, but in Russian. A selection of memoirs and memoirs of white officers, Cossacks, etc. A heavy book. While reading it, I came across a mention of my last name. In the context of the fact that father was from the places described in the book, assumed that they were relatives. In the end it was confirmed. Creepy. It's one thing to teach history at school, as something abstract. Yes, the civil war, yes, a lot of people died, but in the grand scheme of things, it's just a story.And suddenly read how your grandfather's brother, a Cossack officer, a veteran of the Japanese and First World War, was hacked to death in own house. They just came and killed. Him, his wife, and children. His brother, also an officer, was burned alive, before that, in front of his eyes, the whole family was killed. It was a terrible time."
American invader posing near the corpse of a murdered Bolshevik
Exactly. Civil wars at all times and in all countries have been characterized by violent cruelty. And you can and should just treat it with regret. There are no right and wrong and cannot be. What if one great-grandfather hid the local Bolshevik leader in the hospital, and the other - the deputy. police chief of the city, he was looking for. Preliminary giving 24 hours, so that he had time to escape. How to relate if he later caught bandits in the Cheka (this was depicted in Born of the Revolution, only changing proud to Peter), and the rest of the great-grandfathers were divided equally into whites and reds. And perished in the fire of the Civil War.
During the years of Soviet power, the winners made heroes of the Reds. But those times are long gone, a generation has grown up convinced that the Bolsheviks were beasts, and the whites were actually white and fluffy. Let's try to restore parity.
The Bolsheviks did not overthrow the tsar, but the Provisional Government. Which by October 1917 blew everything it could. It was only in the absolute vacuum of power that 40,000 Bolsheviks were able to take power bloodlessly in the very big country world with 150 million people. After November 7, power triumphantly passed to the Soviets everywhere. Until January 1918, no civil war was foreseen even in a terrible dream. Moreover, in the Soviets of all levels, except for the Bolsheviks, there were a lot of other parties. And not everywhere the majority belonged to Lenin's party. Do not start a massacre, the country could really win a multi-party system. But let's not guess.
In reality, for starters, the government of the UNR Grushevsky let the Germans into Ukraine. Signing by the Bolsheviks Brest Peace nothing changed - the Germans began a victorious march along former empire. 14 states (and this is only officially, about twenty in reality) began the intervention by landing on the lands of Russia. Numerous color and national movements arose with support from abroad, local separatists tried with might and main to bite off their piece. The Poles, who were immediately offered full recognition in the image and likeness of Finland, wanted more and also went to fight for Galicia and other "primordially Polish lands." During these years, historians counted up to 500 local rulers on the territory of the former empire.
Under such conditions, civil slaughter was inevitable, and it is ridiculous to blame the Bolsheviks for this.
Let me remind you right away - on September 5, 1918, after the murder of Uritsky (in St. Petersburg) and the assassination attempt on Lenin, the Council of People's Commissars adopted a resolution on the Red Terror. Then the phrase in the title was uttered. Almost a year after the revolution! If anyone has forgotten, the brutal execution of Arsenal workers in Kyiv by the Sicheviks took place six months earlier - even before Grushevsky fled to the Germans and bargained for their invasion in exchange for huge reparations. It was precisely because the Sicheviks preferred to cut the rebellious Kyiv that 182 students and high school students were thrown under Kruty. By the way, the Bolsheviks sent frostbitten students to Kharkov for treatment. But the execution of 24 students took place on the orders of the commander - the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Muravyov, who later arrived in Kruty, whom the Bolsheviks shot on July 11, 1918 for an armed rebellion. (By the way, the same Muravyov committed atrocities in Kyiv and Metropolitan Vladimir was killed, if not by his sailors-Socialist-Revolutionaries, then certainly not by the Bolsheviks, who are not in any of the versions).
If someone thinks that the atrocities of the Bolsheviks after September 5 were ubiquitous, concerned everyone and did not stop until the start of the Great Patriotic War, he is forced to grieve. There was no senseless and merciless terror (although there was terror itself and no one hid it - in those years no one hid it - all now "civilized countries of Europe" used it. And in general - they were then empires, not democracies).
One example is on February 10, 1921 (peace in the country has not really come yet) a special funeral train arrived in Dmitrov, on which the coffin with the body of the anarchist Prince Kropotkin was delivered to Moscow and set up for farewell in the Hall of Columns ( former building Moscow Nobility Assembly) on Bolshaya Dmitrovka. They said goodbye to Kropotkin within two days - hundreds of delegations came. Friends of Kropotkin also stood in the guard of honor near the coffin. anarchists, some of whom were released from prison on parole (!) to the funeral of the one whom they considered their leader. The funeral took place on February 13. P. A. Kropotkin was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery.
Isn't it strange for a causeless, senseless and unrestrained terrorist state of action? And that's not all. The Ukrainian leaders, the same Vinnichenko and Grushevsky, under whom they slaughtered the Arsenals and fought with the Bolsheviks, welcomed the Germans and handed over Galicia to the Poles, the same Grushevsky, who now adorns 50 hryvnias, were favored by the Soviet government. In the end, Vinnichenko did not like it and he returned to the West. And Grushevsky headed the Academy of Sciences and successfully survived the "holodomor", "anti-Ukrainian terror" and the general terror of the 30s, died a natural death in honor and prosperity.
Tomsk residents carry the bodies of the executed participants of the anti-Kolchak uprising
But back to the beginning. And at first the Bolsheviks showed gullibility and even carelessness. In four months, the power of the Soviets triumphantly ascended the throne, supported everywhere by the overwhelming majority of people. Many enemies of the Bolsheviks - Generals Krasnov, Marushevsky, Boldyrev, the famous political figure Purishkevich, ministers of the Provisional Government Nikitin, Gvozdev, Maslov, etc. — were released on parole, although their hostility was not in doubt. They all accepted Active participation in the armed struggle against the new government. So the naivety of some and the treachery of others turned into additional victims. What to do, even the Bolsheviks knew how to learn from their mistakes ...
Having come to power, the Bolsheviks by no means banned the activities of their political opponents. They were not subjected to arrests, they were allowed to publish their own newspapers and magazines, hold rallies and marches, etc. The People's Socialists, Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks continued their legal activities in the bodies of the new government, starting with the local Soviets and ending with the Central Executive Committee, they commanded armies. And again, only after the transition of these parties to an open armed struggle against the new system, their factions were expelled from the Soviets by a decree of the Central Executive Committee of June 14, 1918. But even after that, the opposition parties continued to operate legally. Only those organizations or individuals who were caught in specific subversive actions were subjected to punishment. An illustrative example is the same Muravyov.
The impetus for the Civil, as recognized by one of the leaders of the White movement A. Denikin, was the rebellion of the Czechoslovak corps in May 1918, largely caused and supported by the Western "friends" of Russia. Without the help of these “friends”, the leaders of the White Czechs, and then the White Guard generals, would never have achieved serious success. And the interventionists themselves actively participated both in operations against the Red Army and in terror. You can blame the Bolsheviks, referring to Trotsky's telegram about the disarmament of the White Czechs. But before this telegram, the echelons with the Czechs had already reached Vladivostok, and there began the landing of foreign troops - the same Japanese. The Entente countries declared the Czechs their troops, the Germans demanded their disarmament, and the Bolsheviks in May 1918 had no real Armed Forces there.
In order not to go into unnecessary discussions - who is more to blame, it is worth noting that the Czechs could easily make their way along the Trans-Siberian Railway to Vladivostok and leave Russia in the summer of 1918. The multi-party Soviets could not interfere with them - 63 trains of 40 wagons each, with a machine gun and an armed guard company in each, stretched from the Volga to Vladivostok, in fact controlling railway. But the corps fought in Russia until March 2, 1920, when the last Czech echelons left Irkutsk, and regular units of the Red Army entered the city. Almost two years of war. What for?
Czechoslovak Corps in Vladivostok.
The “civilized” Czechoslovak punishers dealt with their “Slav brothers” with fire and bayonet. In Yeniseisk alone, for example, more than 700 people were shot for sympathy with the Bolsheviks - almost a tenth of those who lived there. During the suppression of the uprising of the prisoners of the Alexander transit prison in September 1919, the Czechs shot them point-blank from machine guns and cannons. The massacre lasted three days, about 600 people died. And there are many such examples. What prevented them from simply leaving a foreign land?
Legionnaires at the funeral of their comrades killed in battle with the Bolsheviks near Nikolsk-Usuriysky. 1918 For some reason, some believe that these are the murdered Bolsheviks.
By the way, foreign interventionists actively contributed to the deployment on Russian territory new concentration camps for those who opposed the occupation or sympathized with the Bolsheviks. When French and British troops landed in Arkhangelsk and Murmansk, one of their leaders, General Poole, on behalf of the allies, solemnly promised the northerners to ensure “the triumph of law and justice” in the occupied territory. However, almost immediately after these words, a concentration camp was organized on the island of Mudyug captured by the invaders. 
“Several people died every night, and their corpses remained in the barracks until the morning. And in the morning a French sergeant would appear and gloatingly inquire: “How many Bolsheviks are kaput today?” Of those imprisoned on the Mudyug, more than 50 percent lost their lives, many went crazy ... ” 
Killed Bolshevik.
After the departure of the Anglo-French interventionists, power in the North of Russia passed into the hands of the White Guard General Miller. He not only continued, but also intensified repression and terror, trying to stop the rapidly developing process of “Bolshevization of the masses”. Their most inhuman personification was the Iokanga exile prison, which one of the prisoners described as “the most brutal, sophisticated method of exterminating people by slow, painful death". Here are excerpts from the memories of those who miraculously managed to survive in this hell: 
Americans and Scots guard captured Red Army soldiers in Bereznik
“The dead lay on the planks together with the living, and the living were not better than dead: dirty, covered with scabs, in torn rags, decomposing alive, they presented a nightmarish picture. 
A Red Army prisoner at work, Arkhangelsk, 1919
By the time Yokangi was liberated from the whites, out of a thousand and a half prisoners, 576 people remained, of which 205 could no longer move.
Here is what the doctor says historical sciences P.A Golub in the book "White Terror in Russia": "SYSTEM of concentration camps was deployed in Siberia and Far East Admiral Kolchak. More than 40 concentration camps contained almost a million (914,178) people who rejected the restoration of the pre-revolutionary order. To this must be added about 75 thousand more people languishing in white Siberia. More than 520,000 prisoners were taken by the regime into slave, almost unpaid labor at enterprises and in agriculture. However, neither in Solzhenitsyn's "Gulag Archipelago", nor in the writings of his followers A. Yakovlev, D. Volkogonov and others, there is not a word about this monstrous archipelago. Although the same Solzhenitsyn begins his "Archipelago" with the Civil War, depicting the "Red Terror". Classic example lies by mere silence!"
American Bolshevik hunters
In the anti-Soviet literature about the Civil War, a lot and with anguish is written about the “death barges”, which, they say, were used by the Bolsheviks to crack down on White Guard officers. P. Golub's book cites facts and documents that testify that "barges" and "death trains" began to be actively and massively used by the White Guards. When in the autumn of 1918 eastern front they began to suffer defeat from the Red Army, to Siberia, and then “barges” and “death trains” with prisoners of prisons and concentration camps stretched to the Far East.
Captured Red Army soldiers in Arkhangelsk
Kolchak frankly wrote about the “vertical of control” he had created: “The activity of the chiefs of district police, special forces, all kinds of commandants, heads of individual detachments is a complete crime.” It would be good to think about these words for those who today admire the “patriotism” and “selflessness” of the White movement, which, contrary to the Red Army, was permeated through and through with nobility.
General Grevs, commander of the 10,000-strong American corps in Siberia: “Terrible murders were committed in Eastern Siberia, but they were not committed by the Bolsheviks, as is usually thought. I will not be mistaken if I say that for every person killed by the Bolsheviks, there were 100 people killed by anti-Bolshevik elements.”
However, the frank confessions of the American general by no means relieve him of guilt for participating in the reprisals against the people who rejected the pre-revolutionary order. Terror was carried out by the joint efforts of foreign interventionists and white armies. In total, there were more than a million interventionists on the territory of Russia - 280 thousand Austro-German bayonets and about 850 thousand English, American, French and Japanese. The joint attempt of the White Guard armies and their foreign allies to inflict a Russian “thermidor” cost the people, even according to incomplete data, very dearly: about 8 million were killed, tortured in concentration camps, died of wounds, hunger and epidemics. The material losses of the country, according to experts, amounted to an astronomical figure - 50 billion gold rubles.
Belocheks in both photos.
It is certainly impossible to summarize the entire history of several years of the Civil War. But this is not necessary. It is enough to understand that the only criminals in fratricidal war there were those who brought with them (or with them, or simply selling themselves) foreign troops. Here they just didn’t give a damn who and for what to shoot, hang or drown. They were not going to restore anything - they were simple imperial conquerors. However, sorry, not only imperial. The USA, or more correctly, the USA, was even then an exemplary democracy. And if the rest of the empire was ruined by the war, then they already profited plenty - even the British and French empire the Yankees owed so much that they defaulted.
But that's a completely different story.
Terror, regardless of purpose, color and level of application, is a terrible and disgusting phenomenon. However, depending on the general point of view, the assessment of this or that terror can be modified to the complete opposite. This happened in the 20th century with the "red" and "white" terrors. Being noted in the history of the Civil War in Russia, as real phenomena, the "red" and "white" terror remain the subject of comparison and dispute over which of them is more terrible.
An attempt to compare the common and peculiar aspects of the Red and White terrors makes it possible to form an attitude towards the facts of violence. This approach leads to the conclusion that the legal policy of the Soviet government and its utilitarian implementation is very similar to the practice of white terror. Differences are noted only in particular cases of the execution of the policy of terror. Revolution and counter-revolution miraculously romanticized violence, which in itself is unnatural.
All terror is terrible
In the Soviet era, much was said about the atrocities of the White Guards and the justification in connection with this "Red Terror". During the years of perestroika and the subsequent bourgeois restoration, priorities changed dramatically and now the crimes of the Bolsheviks are condemned to a greater extent than the forced reaction of the "white" sufferers for Russia. It all depends on who and in what audience appeals to well-known facts.
One way or another, terror claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people on both sides of the conflict, because terror is a way of violence and intimidation, reprisals against political rivals. Violence was a universal way to fight against the oppressors, and an effective method of the opponents of the revolution in Russia.
Targets of the Red and White Terror
Speaking of terror, it is important to know the goals for which terror is carried out. The end, of course, does not justify the means, however, in a certain context it makes it “nobler”, if such a term is applicable to terror. Terror in the Civil War turned out to be in demand by everyone.
The "Red Terror", in essence, was directed not against some individuals, but against the exploiting class as a whole. Therefore, there was no need for a strict evidence base for the guilt of the exterminated bourgeoisie. The main thing for determining the fate of the doomed was social origin, education and profession. This is the meaning of the "Red Terror". | The "White Terror" was carried out by adherents of the overthrown ruling classes. Opponents of the revolution acted both by the method of individual terror against active troublemakers, and representatives of the revolutionary power that had gained the upper hand, and mass repression against supporters of Soviet power in the regions where the counter-revolutionaries established their control. |
At some point, both sides lost control over mass manifestations of terror, and the scope of repressions crossed all reasonable limits. On the part of the "Reds" (the VI Congress of Soviets - on revolutionary legality) and on the part of the "Whites" there were attempts to limit the rampant elements, but it was already impossible to stop the terror.
Origins of the Red and White Terror
It is fair to divide terror according to the type of origin:
Along the line of events, the comparison is confirmed by the repeated analogy of terrorist actions, which are confirmed by many documents that tell not only about murders, but also about mass and perverted sadism and violence against people.
"Red Terror" | "White Terror" |
|---|---|
September 5, 1918 - the decree "On the Red Terror" was signed, making murder and terror a state policy. | The murder of Commissar for Press, Agitation and Propaganda V. Volodarsky and Chairman of the Petrograd Cheka S. Uritsky. |
The execution of 512 generals, senior dignitaries and other representatives of the old elite in September 1918. | |
On November 3, 1918, in Pyatigorsk, by order No. 3, by the decision of the Cheka, 59 people taken hostage were shot, suspected of belonging to counter-revolutionary organizations. | Order of March 27, 1919 of the Yenisei and Irkutsk Governor S. N. Rozanov Order No. 564 of September 30, 1919 of General Maikovsky on organizing repressions in the rebellious villages of Siberia. |
According to estimates in the publication of M. Latsis, in 1918 and for seven months in 1919, the Cheka shot 8389 people: in Petrograd - 1206 people; in Moscow - 234 people; in Kyiv - 825 people; 9,496 people were imprisoned in concentration camps, 34,334 people were imprisoned; taken hostage 13111 people. and 86,893 people were arrested. | In the Ekaterinburg province, the "whites" shot over 25 thousand people in 1918 and 1919. |
The above facts are far from exhausting the huge list of atrocities committed by all participants in the civil conflict in post-revolutionary Russia. Monstrous murders in terms of the degree of sadism and violence beyond reasonable understanding accompanied both the “red” and “white” terrors.
"Red terror" - this topic is constantly exaggerated both pro-Western and pro-Kremlin, especially on the eve of a birthday or November 7th. As a rule, numerous articles come down to one thesis: “red terror”, expressed in the mass extermination of dissenters (or even everyone in a row)
, - business card domestic policy Bolsheviks during the years of the revolution and the Civil War, which, of course, were unleashed by the communists themselves, led by Lenin.
But the first known terrorist act it was not the Bolsheviks who committed the Civil War, but the Whites in 1918. Having captured the Kremlin and captured more than 500 Red Army soldiers, they put them against the wall and shot them right at the Kremlin wall.
The first concentration camps were also built not by the Bolsheviks, but by the Americans in Arkhangelsk region. Not only prisoners were driven here, but also civilians. Tens of thousands of arrested people passed through prisons on Mudyug Island, many of whom were shot, tortured or starved to death.
So are the Bolsheviks to blame for unleashing the Civil War? In making this grave accusation, anti-communists, as a rule, rely on Lenin's well-known slogan about "transforming the imperialist war into a civil war." But, firstly, this slogan had a purely theoretical meaning, since the Bolsheviks, due to their small number, had practically no political influence in the country until February. And secondly, this slogan was supposed to be used by the proletariat of all belligerent countries.
After February, this slogan was removed and replaced by a new one - "about a just world." And after October, during the German offensive, the new slogan "The socialist fatherland is in danger" was again put forward. What does it say? About the fact, first of all, that Lenin was never a dogmatist of Marxism. On the contrary, he always kept his finger on the pulse of the times and clearly reacted to the slightest changes in current events. The situation in the country changed, slogans also changed.
The facts testify that the Bolsheviks did not at all want a civil war in their country and accepted maximum effort to prevent it. It was the Bolsheviks, headed by Lenin, that up until July 3-4, 1917, proceeded from the possibility and desirability of a peaceful development of the revolution after February. Who prevented this? Provisional Government, Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries.
After the failure of the Kornilov rebellion, Lenin, in his article "On Compromises", proposed the creation of a government of Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries, controlled by the Soviets.
“Such a government,” he wrote, “could be created and consolidated quite peacefully” (T. 34, pp. 134-135). And who thwarted this possibility of a peaceful transfer of power into the hands of the working people in the person of the Soviets? Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks together with Kerensky.
In his pre-October works, V. I. Lenin repeatedly returned to the issue of intimidation of the civil war in Russia by the bourgeois press if power passes to the Bolsheviks. In response, he expressed firm confidence that if all the socialist parties unite, as was the case during the Kornilov rebellion, then there will be no civil war. But the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries remained deaf to these reasonable appeals.
Having taken power almost without bloodshed (except for the “storming” of the Winter Palace, during which 6 people were killed and 50 people were injured), the Bolsheviks tried to win over all classes to their side. All parties, the intelligentsia, and the military were invited to cooperate.
The fact that the Soviet government hoped for peaceful development is evidenced by the plans for the economic and cultural development of the country, and especially by the implementation of major programs that have begun. For example, the discovery in 1918 of 33 scientific institutes, organizing a series geological expeditions, the beginning of the construction of a whole network of power plants. Who starts such things if they are preparing for war? The Soviet government tried to create mechanisms to prevent the outbreak of civil war in the country, but it had too few forces, and too many enemies. And so the development of events took a different path.
As early as October 25, by order former head Under the Provisional Government of Kerensky, the 3rd Corps of General Krasnov was moved to Petrograd. And the so-called Committee for the Salvation of the Motherland and the Revolution, consisting of liberals, Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, revolted the Junkers. But already on October 30, the troops of Kerensky-Krasnov, and even earlier the rebellion of the junkers, were crushed. Thus began the Civil War in Soviet Russia. So who was its instigator? The answer is clear and understandable. And, nevertheless, the Soviet government at first treated its opponents quite humanely. The participants in the first Soviet rebellions and their leaders (Generals Kornilov, Krasnov and Kaledin) were released "on parole" that they would not fight the Soviet regime. No repression followed either the members of the Provisional Government or the deputies of the Constituent Assembly.
And how did the enemies forgiven by them respond to the humane actions of the Bolsheviks? Generals Kornilov, Krasnov and Kaledin fled to the Don and organized a White Cossack army there. Many royal officers after their release, they took an active part in conspiracies and counter-revolutionary actions.
Conspiracies, sabotage, and assassinations of government officials forced the Bolsheviks to take measures to protect the revolution. In May 1918 (only seven months after the October events), the Central Committee of the RCP (b) decides: “... to put into practice sentences to death penalty for certain crimes. It should be noted that in many cities, local authorities, faced with acts of terror, sabotage, torture and murder, demanded decisive action from the central government, and sometimes they themselves took retaliatory measures. Central Committee led by Lenin had to sharply condemn such "amateur". For example, a letter from the Central Committee to the Yelets Bolsheviks said: “Dear comrades! We consider it necessary to point out that we consider any repressions against the Yelets Left SRs to be completely unnecessary ”(July 1918).
And this is after the Chekists seized documents on the preparation of terrorist attacks at the headquarters of the Social Revolutionaries: “... in the interests of the Russian and international revolution, it is necessary at the very short term to put an end to the so-called respite created due to the ratification of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk by the Bolshevik government... The Central Committee of the Party (Socialist-Revolutionaries) considers it possible and expedient to organize a number of terrorist acts...”. (From the minutes of the meeting of the Central Committee of the Left SR Party on June 24, 1918).
Trying to push the Bolsheviks against the Germans, the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries kill the German ambassador Mirbach. The Soviet government is compelled to take retaliatory measures against the terrorists. But how can these measures be called "Red Terror" if the direct murderers of the German ambassador Blyumkin and Andreev were sentenced by the Revolutionary Tribunal of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on November 27, 18 to three years of forced labor. The organizers of the murder of Spiridonov and Sablin - to one year in prison. Upon learning of such a "super cruel" sentence, Blumkin voluntarily surrendered to the Chekists and was released early on May 16, 1919. But the failure of the peace treaty threatened the continuation of the war and hundreds of thousands of dead.
The terrorists considered such a policy as the weakness of the Bolsheviks, and the attacks begin to follow one after another. However, until the autumn of 1918, the terror of the Soviet government did not have a mass character, and the repressions themselves were of a mild, humane form.
Nevertheless, the anti-communists still accuse Lenin and the Bolsheviks of cruelty, and as proof they cite the “terrible” phrase said by Ilyich: “We must encourage the energy and mass character of terror.” At the same time, as usual, they take it out of context, do not explain why it was said. They seem to lead the layman to the idea that since terror is massive, it means it is directed against populace, especially against the peasants and workers.
The complete phrase is: “Terrorists will consider us rags. Archival time. It is necessary to encourage the energy and mass character of terror against the counter-revolutionaries, and, especially in St. Petersburg, whose example decides. Written by Lenin (letter to Zinoviev dated June 26, 18) in response to the assassination of Volodarsky. As you can see, Ilyich proposed directing the energy and mass character of terror against terrorists, and not against the people.
Massive and brutal "Red Terror" became after seriously injured V. I. Lenin, the murder on the same day of the chairman of the Petrograd Cheka, M. S. Uritsky, and even earlier, the prominent Bolshevik V. Volodarsky. This was a forced response of the Soviet government to the intensified terror on the part of its enemies. On September 5, the Council of People's Commissars issued a decree on the "Red Terror" and entrusted its implementation to the Cheka. Only after this did the executions of people who were imprisoned for political reasons begin.
The largest action of the "Red Terror" was the execution in Petrograd of 512 representatives of the bourgeois elite (former dignitaries, ministers and generals). According to official figures, about 800 people were shot in Petrograd during the "Red Terror". The "Red Terror" was stopped on November 6, 1918, and in fact in most regions of Russia it was completed in September-October.
Generally speaking, terror (from French word"horror") of the state is intended to suppress the actions of its internal enemies creating an environment of fear that paralyzes his will to resist. For this purpose, a brief, but very intense and demonstrative, shock-inducing repression is usually carried out. In Russia at that time the idea of terror was shared by all revolutionary parties without exception.
But the Bolsheviks failed to paralyze the resistance of Soviet power with the help of terror. It’s just that the obvious enemies of the Bolsheviks fled to the places where the White Army was formed or to areas where Soviet power was overthrown. The final demarcation of the "Whites" and "Reds" took place, and the rear was cleared of counter-revolutionaries. After that, the "Red Terror" was officially terminated, since there was no longer any sense in it.
And when, on September 25, 1919, two bombs were thrown into the meeting room of the Moscow Party Committee in Leontievsky Lane, building 18, where the party meeting was taking place, as a result of which about 40 people died and were injured, including the secretary of the Moscow Party Committee V. M. Zagorsky, no terror was declared in response. The Central Committee of the RCP (b) sent out a circular to all provincial committees: “The Central Committee decided: the assassination attempt committed in Moscow should not change the nature of the activities of the Cheka. Therefore, we ask: do not declare terror” (October 4, 1919).
Especially it should be said about the terror on the fronts during the Civil War. There is a lot of evidence that both whites and reds showed considerable cruelty towards each other. But in war as in war. Either you kill or you will be killed. And the war became a reality when a large-scale intervention of the Entente countries took place (it began with the landing of the Japanese in April 1918). And here already Lenin, as a man of action, acted decisively and mercilessly, for he had no other choice.
A lot of evidence has been preserved about the white terror among the participants in the white movement themselves. Thus, dozens of pages are devoted to white terror in Roman Gul's book The Ice Campaign. Here is a fragment from this book: “Because of the huts, 50-60 people are leading ... their heads and hands are lowered. Prisoners. They are overtaken by Colonel Nezhintsev… “Wishing for reprisals! - he shouts ... Fifteen people came out of the ranks ... Flew: pli ... Dry crackling of shots, screams, groans ... People fell on each other, and from ten paces ... they were shot at, hastily clicking shutters. All fell. Silent groans. The shots ceased... Some finished off the living with bayonets and rifle butts.”
Not all officers participated in such wild massacres, but many did. As R. Gul shows, there were those among them who experienced simply zoological hatred for the workers and peasants, for the "cattle" who dared to encroach on their private property.
An even more gloomy picture is drawn by the chief of staff of the 1st Army (Volunteer) Corps, Lieutenant General E. I. Dostovalov in his memoirs under the characteristic title “On the Whites and the White Terror”. “The path of such generals,” he writes, “like Wrangel, Kutepov, Pokrovsky, Shkuro, Slashchev, Drozdovsky, Turkul and many others, was littered with hanged and shot without any reason or trial. They were followed by many others, of smaller ranks, but no less bloodthirsty. One commander of a cavalry regiment showed the author of the memoirs in his notebook the number 172. This was the figure of the Bolsheviks shot by him personally. “He hoped,” General Dostovalov writes further, “that it would soon reach 200. And how many were shot not with their own hands, but by order? And how many each of his subordinates shot innocent people without orders? I tried somehow to do an approximate calculation of those shot and hanged by some white armies of the South and gave up - you can go crazy.
Here it is genuine, without embellishment, however, about the Civil War and the White Terror. General A.I. Denikin also writes about this in his “Essays on Russian Troubles”. He bitterly admits that it was the "white terror" that discredited the "white idea" and alienated the peasants from the whites. Blind fury towards the "cattle", who dared to raise a hand against their masters, pushed the Whites to extrajudicial executions of tens of thousands of ordinary Red Army soldiers - workers and peasants. Thus, the memoirs of the participants in the white movement, in contrast to the modern "liberal democrats", testify that it was the whites, and not the reds, who subjected the working people of Russia to mass terror. That is why the bulk of the workers and peasants supported the Bolsheviks, headed by V. I. Lenin, and not white guard Denikin, Wrangel and Yudenich.
Sholokhov devoted many pages to the white and red terror in his immortal epic Quiet Flows the Don. And if the Reds, as follows from the novel, subjected to terror, first of all, wealthy Cossacks, officers, chieftains and merchants, then the Whites mostly captured Red Army soldiers, whom they either simply shot, or starved, or hanged to intimidate the population. But the commanders and commissars were subtly mocked. This is how Sholokhov describes the death of the commander of one of the Red detachments under torture by the insurgent Cossacks.
“The next day they drove him to Kazanskaya. He walked ahead of the escorts, lightly stepping on the snow with bare feet ... He died, seven miles from Veshenskaya, in sandy, sternly frowning breakers, he was brutally hacked to death by the escorts. The eyes of a living man were gouged out, his hands, ears, nose were cut off, his face was scratched with checkers. They unbuttoned their pants and abused, defiled a large, courageous, beautiful body. They abused a bleeding stump, and then one of the guards stepped on a flimsy trembling chest, on a body that was thrown on its back and cut off its head with one blow.
How the whites excelled over the civilian population in the Far East is described in the newspaper "Duel" dated February 25, 2003 in an essay about the popular commander of the Red Cossack detachment Shevchenko Gavriil Matveyevich (1886-1942). He carried out many successful operations against the White Guards and the Japanese interventionists and rose to the position of deputy commander of the Ussuri Front. For his head, the Japanese even appointed a reward - ten thousand yen. But Shevchenko was elusive. Then the faithful dog and hired the Japanese, Ataman Kalmykov, ordered his mother to be stripped naked, along with her daughters-in-law, and drove them prisoners through the autumn slush along the main street of the city of Grodekov. Then they tracked down the commander's younger brother Pavlushka in the neighboring area, cut off his nose, lips, ears, gouged out his eyes, cut off his arms and legs with swords. Only after that they cut the body into pieces. As you can see, reader, both on the Don and in the Far East, the White Guards behaved in the same way.
Shevchenko still continued to attack the outposts of the whites and derail trains. Then Kalmykov doused the commander's hut with kerosene and burned it down with his family.
For sympathy or assistance to the partisans, the White Guards shot the peasants, and their families were mercilessly flogged with ramrods, and the huts were burned. And sometimes people without any pretexts were seized on the street or rounded up. The prey was dragged onto the "train of death", where drunken sadists mocked innocent victims. Ataman Kalmykov himself liked to watch medieval tortures. From this, he quickly went into a rage and averted his vile soul, torturing people. In the train of death, those arrested were flogged with whips with wire ends, their noses, tongues and ears were cut off, their eyes were gouged out, bloody skin straps were torn off, their stomachs were ripped open, and their arms and legs were cut with butcher's axes. This is how the Whites excelled throughout Kolchakism under the reliable protection of the Japanese invaders.
And there were quite a few such executioners in the White Guard as ataman Kalmykov: atamans Dutov and Semyonov, Baron Ungern and others, not to mention Admiral Kolchak himself. It is not surprising that the people, having experienced all the charms of Kolchakism in their own skin, went into the partisans and resisted as much as possible.
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47 comments
cat Leopold 29.09.2014 19:03
... "General A. I. Denikin also writes about this in his Essays on Russian Troubles." He bitterly admits that it was the “white terror” that discredited the “white idea” and alienated the peasants from the whites ...
Thus, the memoirs of the participants in the white movement, in contrast to the modern "liberal democrats", testify that it was the whites, and not the reds, who subjected the working people of Russia to mass terror. That is why the bulk of the workers and peasants supported the Bolsheviks, headed by V. I. Lenin, and not the White Guards of Denikin, Kolchak, Wrangel and Yudenich.
And for the "liberal democrats" lies and fraud - the only way to stay afloat. True, the limit of this method for them is almost over.
Mariana Zavalikhina 30.09.2014 13:33
Don't cheat, dear cat Leopold. If A.I. Denikin as an educated Russian officer and talented writer, who puts the personal dignity of a person at the head of his work, condemned cruelty, including his subordinates, which in those conditions was not always possible to resist, this does not mean that there was no cruelty from the opposing side. Especially available in free access archival documents testify to atrocities on both sides. And the dispute is resolved very simply. We open any search engine and look at photos of the Bolsheviks in the dungeons of tsarism, sitting in prison cells with books in their hands and guzzling "ink" from soft bread with milk poured into it and photos of "enemies of the people" in the dungeons of the NKVD, when the civil war was officially over a long time ago . And no comments are needed. And, by the way, it was not Nicholas II who urged his gendarmes to splash acid in the faces of the Bolsheviks, but V. Lenin urged his supporters to splash acid in the faces of the gendarmes.
Mariana Zavalikhina 04.10.2014 01:48
And who is this Lavrov?
Vilorik Voytyuk 29.09.2014 19:31
The history and meaning of the Civil War were distorted by Bolshevik historians. The Reds were those who voted in the elections to the Constituent Assembly for the Socialist-Revolutionary Party and for socialism, which was proclaimed by the leadership of this party that won the elections. The Whites were those who fought against the results of the February Revolution and for the revival of the monarchy and power. landowners in the country. The Bolshevik meaning in this war was not represented by anyone EXCEPT for the COMMISSIONERS AND REVKOMS HERO OF GRAVZHDANSKAYA
Mariana Zavalikhina 30.09.2014 13:49
Leave the Constituent Assembly alone. The very fact that the Bolsheviks took power from him speaks of his unviability. And I want to make a remark to you, V. Voytyuk, that before you start discussing a subject, you need to study it. And the study of A.I. Denikin gives us the discovery that both he and his associates in White movement, remaining convinced monarchists in their hearts, made the choice Russian people during the February Revolution and have already continued to serve her. And it should be noted that, in their understanding of personal dignity and honor, they turned out to be head and shoulders above the officers of the SA and the Navy, who found themselves in a similar situation after 70 years.
Vilorik Voytyuk 01.10.2014 00:31
THE WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS AND HEROES OF THE WAR IS EXPRESSED IN THE WORDS OF THE COMMANDER OF THE SECOND cavalry army MIRONOV, WHO TOGETHER WITH THE DIVISION OF Makhno liberated the Crimea from Vrankel. NOT FRUNZE AND BUdyonny, but EXACTLY MIRONOV AND MAKHNO DID IT. SO, MIRONOV SAID AT THE RALLY WE WILL DEFEAT DENIKIN - WE WILL TURN THE BAYONETS TO MOSCOW.
Vilorik Voytyuk 01.10.2014 00:47
The entire Russian history smeared with a fraudulent class approach should be washed away. So, the Pugachev uprising was not an uprising of peasants and Cossacks with landlord Russia. The popular uprising led by Pugachev was a campaign to save the Motherland.
Mariana Zavalikhina 01.10.2014 04:06
I draw the attention of V. Voytyuk and his associates that both K. Marx and V. Lenin were right when they said that one cannot understand anything in politics and economics if one does not see class interest. Another thing is that apart from the fact that K. Marx made a number of miscalculations and mistakes in his theory, which are well known, as well as the reasons that caused them, the political parties of the communist persuasion pull out parts from the theory of K. Marx to satisfy their party interests. And V. Lenin cannot be blamed for the fact that he turned out to be more dexterous than the leaders of other political parties communist orientation. Moreover, due to the fact that I already gave an example of Lenin's article, in which he got confused in his thoughts and carried nonsense, among the political opponents of V. Lenin, there was no one who would expose his demagogy on a theoretical level (as well as today). And the problem of today's communists is that they are going to continue to extract fragments from the theory of Karl Marx to satisfy their party interests, in which, in addition to the already known miscalculations and mistakes, the moral obsolescence of the political economy of the 19th century was added. Not only among the communists, but also among their political opponents from among the "left", no one is visible who would simply try to give a new principle for defining classes that fits into the logic of the developing modern political economy and the globalization of the economy.
Vilorik Voytyuk 01.10.2014 17:13
RUSSIA, THANK GOD, DID NOT LIVE TO SUCH IDIOTISM THAT SUDDENLY SOME CLASSES APPEAR IN THE NORMAL ORTHODOX HUMAN ENVIRONMENT. BUT SHE LIVED UPTO THE TIME WHEN THE SCAM-FUCKING FOREIGNERS BEGAN TO USE THIS FUCKING WORD TO DISCONNECT PEOPLE AND PICK THEM AGAINST EACH OTHER, STAYING OUT OF THEM THEMSELVES.
Vilorik Voytyuk 01.10.2014 17:21
MARX WOULD TURN IN COFFIN IF YOU KNOW THAT SOMEONE IS USING HIS THEORY IN RELATION TO RUSSIA.
Vilorik Voytyuk 01.10.2014 17:31
Fraudsters and only swindlers, explicitly or implicitly, can introduce Marxism in Russia. Russia has its own position from head to toe and its thousand-year-old socialism.
Vilorik Voytyuk 01.10.2014 17:58
Russia is a transmitting country of the world, if we take the development of the human spirit on Earth as progress and history, and not something else, albeit important. RUSSIA PROVED THIS IN THE LAST THREE Hundred Years of European History. And the rich west is the most reactionary piece of territory on this same Earth.
Mariana Zavalikhina 02.10.2014 00:50
I won’t even ask V. Voytyuk what the theory of the ruling class and the source of income of the ruling class has to do with Orthodox teaching, for the simple reason that he is illiterate in both.
Vladlen 02.10.2014 02:30
02.10.2014 07:18
Maryana, in vain you have a bad opinion about the officers. Especially about the Soviet ones. It was they who all together in the 1990s wrote dismissal reports from the then-formed Ukrainian army, and it was they, as I see from the information in the media, and under their leadership in Donbass and Luhansk, who defended the right of people to their lives.
In general, history cannot be perceived and interpreted one-sidedly and on unverified sources, it cannot be speculated without reservations. Otherwise, in Russia it will be the same as in Ukraine: a big historical lie that causes mass death of innocent people (children).
alexander chelyab.reg.asha 04.10.2014 20:15
Well, let them "knock out". You have nothing to be ashamed of: after all, they won’t give you too much anyway. If you don't remember, they won't remember.
alexander chelyabinsk region asha 02.10.2014 07:24
A big historical lie becomes in the hands of people with impure thoughts (non-humans) a political and ideological tool for manipulating people's consciousness.
cat Leopold 02.10.2014 14:36
Hello, Alexander. Haven't met in a while. Always glad to hear from you. What's up? What are the worries?
alexander chelyabinsk region asha 02.10.2014 15:28
Hello Leopold the cat! My life is full. The whole summer was very busy. Over the summer, he completely retired from political life. I followed and worried only about our "Kievan Rus".
Now the computer has broken down at home, we need to fix it. In short, there is a mess with it. Therefore, I can briefly communicate only at work. And now I'm on my way home. I wish you all the best, and I always praise the editors of the site for feedback with site fans. Such consistency will lead in the future to a qualitative change in communist agitational work.
cat Leopold 03.10.2014 10:35
All the best to you, Alexander.
Alesya Yasnogortseva 02.10.2014 21:37
The White Terror, of course, was 100 times worse than the Red Terror. It is clear why.
http://knpk.kz/wp/?p=38575
http://knpk.kz/wp/?p=48026
Another thing is not clear - why was Grevs not quoted in Soviet times? Where he says: "I will not be mistaken if I say that for one person killed by the Bolsheviks, there are 100 people killed by anti-Bolshevik elements."
Vilorik Voytyuk 03.10.2014 10:45
Alesya, you are talking about white terror, that it was worse than red. Alesya, the Civil War was one part of the Russian people against another part of the same Russian people The Third Force-the Bolsheviks did not go to the bayonet and did not participate in saber attacks, but sat in Moscow with their tail between their legs, waiting for someone to take it, and also because their interests did not coincide with the interests of the Reds and Whites.b They had their own special interest - how to defeat the Russian people, invincible for a thousand years, and create their own national state on the site of the former Russian Empire. Stalin was the first to strengthen them in 1937
Vilorik Voytyuk 03.10.2014 11:13
Stalin was the first who saw through the secret meaning of the Bolsheviks - these Kremlin pederasts / Stalin ... and destroyed all of them .. Stalin was the first. who began to build real socialism in Russia, relying on its indigenous people. I stopped calling the Communist Party Bolshevik. AND YOU ARE HERE ON this page, whatever you want, whatever you don’t like ..
Mariana Zavalikhina 03.10.2014 13:27
End the fight! I. Stalin was the only Bolshevik who consistently carried out the cause of V. Lenin. And if someone cannot understand this, then this is his personal problem. It seems that this site is declared as a Marxist-Leninist, and its readers, it is not clear what relation they have not only to Leninism, but also to Marxism in general.
Mariana Zavalikhina 03.10.2014 14:13
And about which terror was worse, white or red, I note that in the Far East, the Red Guard detachments were mainly led by representatives of the criminal world, who had a chance on behalf of the power of the working people to rob those who could give them a worthy rebuff earlier. By the way, the pogrom of the monastery, in the buildings and on the territory of which the Shmakovskiy military sanatorium is located, began with a detachment of the Red Guards that they drove a rifle bayonet into the abbot's foot with a demand to tell where the treasury was hidden. And what is curious is that the traces of valuables collected in the monastery were lost immediately outside the gates, after the departure of the Red Guards. Yes, what can I say, if it is enough to look at sites selling antiques, where countless personalized jewelry is for sale, including pectoral crosses, not even always made of precious metals, made in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Vilorik Voytyuk 03.10.2014 20:42
Maryana is talking about some business. Lenin. This man never thought about socialism in Russia. Speaking to the Chekists, where not a single person was Russian, this socialist said, 'Let 90 percent of Russian people die, if only 10 percent live to Communism'. Obviously, in order to have someone to sweep the streets and clean the toilets.
Mariana Zavalikhina 04.10.2014 02:22
Really, how stubborn you are, you think that you surprised someone with your discovery, if more than one generation of Soviet people studied from a school textbook that told how the Bolsheviks were preparing a world revolution.
Vilorik Voytyuk 05.10.2014 03:09
Marxism-Leninism in the field of sociology and philosophy is the same fraud as abstract art in painting, like tarpabarshchina in music, like the soulless ballet of Plisetskaya, Bejart, Grigorovich. the whole world of nationality in order to confuse the heads of European nations and in such a deceitful way finally establish themselves, persecuted and unfortunate from everywhere, on European soil. The Russian people especially got this Zionist cosmopolitan notion
Vilorik Voytyuk 05.10.2014 03:24
Wake up Mariana. WE NEED REAL SOCIALISM AND OUR OWN NATIONAL WORLD VIEW. We don't need to be taught how to live. We exist for a thousand years and we defeated Napoleon
Vilorik Voytyuk 05.10.2014 06:59
The case of Lenin, Sverdlov, Trotsky is the genocide of the Russian people ..; The best territory is empty space. So it was with the Indians in America, it will also be with Russia ‘Trotsky.
Mariana Zavalikhina 05.10.2014 15:04
Dear V. Voytyuk! The truth will be behind those who will be the first to present the concept of building a modern state, capable of rallying Russian society. Everything else is demagogy, which has a very specific purpose - the split of Russian society.
It is a pity for you that you advertise the absence of your own national worldview. I don’t need to wake up, because the noodles falling on my ears won’t let me sleep.
Nicholas II demonstrated real atrocity, spitting on his responsibility to Russia and handing over the reins of government to the absolutely incompetent Constituent Assembly, consisting of political punks, who did not fully realize that she stood at the head of the Great State.
Vilorik Voytyuk 06.10.2014 08:07
The real atrocities were demonstrated not by the Reds and Whites, but by a third force - hired foreigners, who were widely used by the Bolsheviks. Among the Russian people, as the results of the elections to the Constituent Assembly showed, these people, for obvious reasons, did not enjoy SUPPORT. Then they decided to help the foreigners of Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and Bessarabia in exchange for a promise of independence to them. Add here 40 thousand captured Austrian Hungarians and 2OO thousand Chinese heads, from which they formed punitive detachments. The 6th Latvian regiment of the Lod by the leadership of Uritsky shot a demonstration in support of the Constituent Assembly, Finnish special forces under the command of Smilgi arrested the Austro-Hungarian Imre Nadi, bayoned the children of the Russian Tsar, Chinese THE MERCENIES TOGETHER WITH THE LETCHES SUPPRESSED THE PEASANT UPRISING IN THE TAMBOV PROVINCE. LENIN’S PERSONAL PROTECTION CONTAINED 70 CHINESE.
Vilorik Voytyuk 06.10.2014 08:41
Mariana, the tsar transferred power to his brother Mikhail, whom the Bolsheviks killed. And the multi-million people of Russia elected not punks to the Constituent Assembly, as you say. and the overwhelming majority of deputies from the party of socialist revolutionaries, who proclaimed the country's transition to socialism.
alexander chelyabinsk region asha 08.10.2014 06:28
Vilorik Voytyuk, where did you get this from? And in what place did the peasants (approximately at least 93% of the population) in the conditions of the First World War "many millions" elect the Constituent Assembly?
Vilorik Voytyuk 11.10.2014 07:47
Maryana, the Zionists were the first to present the form of Russian statehood in October 1917 and still don’t give this concept to anyone.
Vilorik Voytyuk 12.10.2014 06:28
Maryana says that Vilorik Voytyuk is illiterate. Well, if she is not five years old at the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University, then I don’t know what else she needs.
Masha Smart 06.08.2015 03:07
two idiots gathered (vilorik and maryana) and carry complete nonsense to each other.)) one blames some Jewish Bolsheviks for everything (apparently he has such a new race :)), and the other positions himself as a kind of communist, but at the same time he swears by the Red Guards , thanks to which, by the way, it took place Soviet authority and socialism in the country (and secretly probably pities the white officers as representatives of the "white and fluffy" last intelligentsia).)) in short, the parade of schizophrenics.)))
vilora73 29.08.2016 09:11
Masha is smart, you are talking about two idiots, but add yourself there, because God loves a trinity.
vilora73 29.08.2016 09:30
Alexander from Asha, there were no military operations on the territory of Russia, so the elections in Constituent Assembly went smoothly, calmly. Another interesting thing is that the Bolsheviks in the elections received, even taking into account the alliance with the left, the female Socialist-Revolutionaries, a crushing minority.
Vasilina 21.12.2016 16:55
The white terror served as the victory of the common man. They not only simply killed, they executed the Reds and those who sympathized with them. There are testimonies of the American general and the Whites themselves. Eved, many remained in Russia and changed documents, etc. Vasilina
Adolf 22.05.2018 01:10
What are you ignoramuses arguing about? In addition to Soviet agitation, who did not read anything and did not speak to any of the eyewitnesses?
To begin with, ask yourself why the "revolutionaries" are all Jews and came from Switzerland, England and the USA, where they lived on handouts from Jewish bankers? Why initially their numerous guards were also foreigners - Latvians, Finns, Poles, Chinese? Why were numerous urban and peasant riots suppressed by the Latvians, Magyars and Chinese? And really no one thought about how the peasants and tsarist officers (some) were driven into the "Red Army", and who drove them? If you are faced with the question of choosing to go to the Kramiya or the death of your or your family, what people had to do. Thanks to Stalin, he got into power, cleaned up a lot of Jews and non-Russians, whose hands were up to their elbows in blood. But you don’t have to discuss the “whites”, these are Russian people and this was their land and fatherland, which cannot be said about the Jews, especially the one that lived outside Russia for decades and did nothing for Russia.
