White Terror (Russia)

White Terror
Execution of the members of the Alexandrovo-Gaysky District regional Soviet by Cossacks under the command of Ataman Alexander Dutov, 1918.
Execution of the members of the Alexandrovo-Gaysky District regional Soviet by Cossacks under the command of Ataman Alexander Dutov, 1918.
Native name Белый Террор
Duration1917–1923
LocationFormer Russian Empire
TypeMass killings, executions, pogroms, political violence, genocide
MotiveAntisemitism, anti-communism, Russian nationalism, Russian monarchism
TargetJews, communists
PerpetratorWhite Army
Deaths20,000–300,000[1]

The White Terror (Russian: Белый Террор, romanized: Belyy Terror) in Russia refers to the violence and mass killings carried out by the White Army during the Russian Civil War (1917–1923). It began after the Bolsheviks seized power in November 1917, and continued until the defeat of the White Army at the hands of the Red Army.

The Bolsheviks' Red Terror started a year later in early September 1918[2][3] in response to several planned assassinations of Bolshevik leaders and the initial massacres of Red prisoners in Moscow and during the Finnish Civil War.[4] According to some Russian historians, the White Terror was a series of premeditated actions directed by their leaders.[5][6][7] although this is contested by most Russian historians who view it as spontaneous and disorganized.[8][9][10] Estimates for those killed in the White Terror vary between 20,000 and 300,000 people.[11]

According to historian Ronald Suny, total estimates for the White Terror are difficult to ascertain due to the role of multiple administrations and violence perpetrated by undisciplined, independent anti-Bolshevik forces. However, Suny did highlight the higher proportion of anti-semitic attacks by the White military forces, who were responsible for 17% of pogroms throughout the Russian Civil War (compared to 8.5% for the Red forces).[12] Suny stated that the casualties of the White Terror would have exceeded the Red Terror with the inclusion of anti-Soviet violence and Jewish pogroms into the death toll.[12]

The 1985 Whitaker Report of the United Nations cited that 100,000 to 250,000 Jews in more than 2,000 pogroms were killed by a mixture of Whites, Cossacks and Ukrainian nationalists as a modern example of genocide.[13]

  1. ^ Rinke, Stefan; Wildt, Michael (2017). Revolutions and Counter-Revolutions: 1917 and Its Aftermath from a Global Perspective. Campus Verlag. p. 58. ISBN 978-3593507057. The number of victims of anti-Jewish pogroms is estimated to have been between 300,000 to 600,000; the victims of Bolshevik repression and pacification actions totaled up to 1.3 million, and those of the White Terror from somewhere between 20,000 and 100,000.
  2. ^ Blakemore, Erin (September 2, 2020). "How the Red Terror set a macabre course for the Soviet Union". National Geographic. Archived from the original on February 22, 2021. Retrieved July 13, 2021. The poet was just one of many victims of the Red Terror, a state-sponsored wave of violence that was decreed in Russia on September 5, 1918, and lasted until 1922.
  3. ^ Melgunov (1927), p. 202.
  4. ^ Liebman, Marcel (1975). Leninism under Lenin. London: J. Cape. pp. 313–314. ISBN 978-0-224-01072-6.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Tsvetkov was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Litvin2004 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Террор белой армии. Подборка документов [Terror of the White Army, a selection of documents] (in Russian). Atheist Society.
  8. ^ "Предисловие". Красный террор в годы гражданской войны. По материалам Особой следственной комиссии по расследованию злодеяний большевиков (in Russian). М.: ТЕРРА-Книжный клуб. 2004. ISBN 5-275-00971-2. - Под ред. докторов исторических наук Ю. Г. Фельштинского и Г. И. Чернявского.
  9. ^ Красный террор глазами очевидцев. Белая Россия (in Russian) (3000 экз ed.). М.: Iris Press. 2009. pp. 5–21. ISBN 978-5-8112-3530-8. - Составл., предисл. и коммент. д. и. н. С. В. Волкова.
  10. ^ Зимина В. Д. Белое дело взбунтовавшейся России: Политические режимы Гражданской войны. 1917—1920 гг. — М.: Рос. гуманит. ун-т, 2006. — С. 38. — 467 с. — (История и память). — ISBN 5-7281-0806-7.
  11. ^ Rinke, Stefan; Wildt, Michael (2017). Revolutions and Counter-Revolutions: 1917 and Its Aftermath from a Global Perspective. Campus Verlag. p. 58. ISBN 978-3593507057.
  12. ^ a b Suny, Ronald (2017). Red Flag Unfurled: History, Historians, and the Russian Revolution. Verso. pp. 1–320. ISBN 978-1-78478-566-6.
  13. ^ "UN Whitaker Report on Genocide, 1985, paragraphs 14 to 24 pages 5 to 10» ". preventgenocideinternational. Archived from the original on June 13, 2019.