Native name | Белый террор |
---|---|
Duration | 1917–1923 |
Location | Former Russian Empire |
Type | Mass killings, executions, pogroms, political violence, genocide |
Motive | Antisemitism, anti-communism, Russian nationalism, Russian monarchism |
Target | Jews, communists |
Perpetrator | White movement |
Deaths | Estimates range between 20,000[1] and more than 500,000 excluding pogroms[2] |
The White Terror (Russian: Белый террор, romanized: Belyy terror) in the former Russian Empire refers to the violence and mass killings carried out by the White movement during the Russian Civil War (1917–1923). It began after the Bolsheviks seized power in November 1917, and continued until the defeat of the Whites at the hands of the Red Army.
The Bolsheviks' Red Terror started a year later in early September 1918[3][4] in response to several planned assassinations of Bolshevik leaders and the initial massacres of Red prisoners in Moscow and during the Finnish Civil War.[5] According to some Russian historians, the White Terror was a series of premeditated actions directed by their leaders.[6][7][8] although this is contested by most Russian historians who view it as spontaneous and disorganized.[9][10][11]
Dietrich Beyrau estimates victims of the White Terror between 20,000 and 100,000 people excluding the victims of the pogroms compared to "up to 1.3 millions" of the Red Terror,[1] while Jonathan Smele cites the estimates of the Russian historian V. Erlikhman of 300,000 victims of the White Terror compared to 1,200,000 of the Red Terror;[12] Russian historian Nikita Ratkovsky believes that the number of the victims of the White Terror may exceed 500,000 excluding pogroms and notes that by the estimate of the Cheka presented during the 1920 trial of Kolchak's ministers, at least 25,000 people were executed by the Kolchak regime in Yekaterinburg Governorate alone between 1918 and 1919.[2]
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).[13] 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.[13]
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.[14]
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.
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.
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