Cheka and Red Terror Flashcards
How did the nature of Cheka change in March 1918?
Formation of local branches - no longer just in Petrograd
What happened in May 1918 to boost Cheka?
A conference of all local Chekas to co-ordinate their activities
How many political opponents did Cheka arrest during the Civil War?
100,000
Who was shot without a trial on 16 July 1918?
The Romanov family
Who was the only survivor of the assassination of the Romanov family?
Joy, the spaniel
Who was assassinated on 30 September 1918?
The Petrograd chairman of the Cheka, Uritsky
Who was subject to a failed assassination on 30 September 1918, leaving him seriously wounded?
Lenin
What was the immediate consequence of the attempted assassination of Lenin in September 1918?
The formalisation of Red Terror as state policy on 5 September 1918 - “mass liquidation of the bourgeoisie”
What happened two days before Red Terror became official state policy?
Cheka shot dead over 500 hostages in Petrograd
Why was the violence of Cheka not a total shock to the Russian people?
Violence and coercion had been normalised by the First World War
What did Martin Latsis say about the purpose of Red Terror in November 1918?
“Ask him to which class he belongs, his background, his education, his profession. These are the questions that will determine the fate of the accused. That is the meaning and essence of the Red Terror”
How many forced labour camps were in Russia at the time of Lenin’s death in 1924?
315
(For context, there were around 30,000 at the time of Stalin)
Which three groups of people were held in the labour camps under Lenin?
White prisoners of war
Uncooperative peasants
Political opponents
Where were the forced labour camps situated?
In inhospitable areas, like Siberia
What did a Cheka decree declare about labour camps in May 1919?
Every provincial city should have a labour camp capable of holding at least 300 inmates
How many inmates were in labour camps at the time of Lenin’s death?
Around 70,000
Who were the best treated inmates in Lenin’s labour camps? How were they treated?
The political prisoners (e.g. SRs)
They had electric light and a library, they could receive mail and food packages from home, and even had occasional visits from relatives
What was the usual sentence for attempting to flee one of Lenin’s labour camps?
The length of the sentence would be increased 10x
How many successful escapes were there from labour camps in the summer of 1922?
6,882
Give an example of the food a prisoner in one of Lenin’s labour camps would receive in a day
Breakfast: one potato
Lunch: a soup made of potato peelings
Dinner: one potato
Who made up 73% of labour camp inmates in November 1920?
Ordinary peasants and workers
Give three examples of terror methods used by Cheka under Lenin
1) The ‘glove trick’ – burning the victim’s hands in boiling water until the blistered skin could be peeled off: this left the victims with raw and bleeding hands and their torturers with ‘human gloves’
2) Rolling naked victims in nail-studded barrels
3) Crushing skulls by tightening a leather strap with an iron bolt around their head
4) Affixing a cage with rats to the victim’s torso and heated it so that the enraged rats ate their way through the victim’s guts in an effort to escape
5) Chaining victims to planks and pushed them slowly into a furnace or a tank of boiling water
6) Pouring water on the naked victims until they became living ice statues
Who was put on show trial between April and August 1922? What was the outcome?
The SRs and the Moscow clergy - imprisoned
What did Lenin argue was the purpose of the courts in Russia?
“Not to eliminate terror but to legitimise it”
What was the attitude of the Cossacks to the Bolsheviks when they first assumed power?
“Benevolent neutrality”
What did the Bolsheviks think about the Cossacks and why?
Wealthy and counterrevolutionary - they were historically supporters of the Tsar and held over 80% of the land in the Don and the Kuban
What did the Orgburo announce about the Cossacks on 24 January 1919?
Called for “mass terror against wealthy Cossacks, exterminating every last one”, and “merciless mass terror against Cossacks of any kind who had participated directly or indirectly in the fight against Soviet power”
How many Cossacks were rounded up and shot in the Don between January and March 1919?
10,000
Apart from being shot, how else did the Bolsheviks target the Cossacks as part of decossackisation?
Non-Cossack settlers were imported onto Cossack land, breaking their identity
Deportations and confiscation of property
What was the impact of decossackisation on the Civil War?
Cossacks were now prepared to fight outside their own homelands in support of the Whites
What did the Bolshevik Central Committee announce about decossackisation on 16 March 1919?
Terror would now only be against those who had engaged in counterrevolutionary acts - Cossacks would no longer be targeted because of who they were
What happened to a quarter of the Terek Cossack population in 1920 and why?
Deported
There had been a revolt by five Cossack stanitsas against the Bolsheviks in the Terek, including blowing up bridges and shooting trains
How were Cossacks deported in the Terek?
All adult males up to the age of 50 were loaded onto special trains and made to do heavy labour in the north
