White Terror (Russia)

During the Russian Revolution of 1917 and Civil War (1918-20), the White Armies, foreign forces, and other opponents of the Soviet Government carried out mass violence against the population, including those with alleged revolutionary sympathies, associations with the revolutionary underground and guerrilla movement, and those who served in the organs of the Soviet Government. The terror started as the Soviets moved to assume governmental authority in November 1917 and continued until the defeat of the White Armies and foreign intervention. Historians emphasize that the White terror was premeditated and systematic, as orders for terror came from high officials in the White movement, as well as legislative actions of the White regimes..

The beginning of the terror

Some historians trace the terror to 28 October 1917 (old calendar) when in Moscow, counter-revolutionary Cadets seized control of the Moscow Kremlin and captured soldiers of the 56th Reserve Regiment. The soldiers were ordered to line up, ostensibly to check the monument of Alexander II. The rebels proceeded to shoot on the unarmed captives, killing about 300 people.

Other historians trace the terror to the repression of the Tsarist regime against the revolutionaries, which began in 1866 with the unsuccessful assassination attempt on Alexander II.

White Terror in Southern and Western Russia

An important part of the White Terror was Lavr Kornilov, who who during the Ice Campaign in the south of Russia said: "I give you a very cruel order: do not take prisoners! I accept responsibility for this order before God and the Russian people." He promised promised, "the greater the terror, the greater our victories." He vowed that the goals of his forces must be fulfilled even if it was needed "to set fire to half the country and shed the blood of three-fourths of all Russians."

According to a participant in the Ice Campaign, N. Bogdanov,

After receiving information about the Bolsheviks, the commander of the captured detachment was shot. In Krukkovsky, there was some especially painful cruelty. I know of many cases when under the influence of hatred for the Bolsheviks, the officers assumed the duties of shooting the captured volunteers. The executions were necessary because under the conditions in which the Volunteer Army had to move, prisoners could not be taken.

Bands of Kornilov’s officers left behind more than 500 dead in a Don village in early 1918.

After Kornilov was killed in April 1918, the leadership of the so-called "Volunteer Army" passed over to Deinkin. The press of the Denikin regime regularly incited violence against Jews. For example, a proclamation by one of Denikin's generals incited people to "arm themselves" in order to extirpate "the evil force which lives in the hearts of Jew-communists." In the small town of Fastov alone, Denikin's Volunteer Army murdered over 1500 Jews, mostly elderly, women, and children. An estimated 100-150 thousand Jews in Ukraine and southern Russia were killed in pogroms perpetrated by Denikin's forces as well as Petlyura's nationalist-separatists. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were left homeless and tens of thousands became victims of serious illness.

In the Don Province, the Soviet government was displaced because of the German intervention and a puppet regime headed by Krasnov was formed in April 1918. More than 45,000 people would be shot or hanged by Krasnov's White Cossack regime, which lasted until the liberation of the region by the Red Army following the victory at Tsaritsyn. In one specific incident on 10 May 1918, captured by M. Sholokhov in his novel "Silent Don", the White Cossacks shot 78 men and hanged chairman of the Don Soviet Republic F. Podtelkov and secretary of the Don Military Revolutionary Committee M. Krovhoshlykov.

G. William noted in his memoirs:

In general, the attitude toward Red Army prisoners was awful. I remember one of Shkuro’s detachments’ officers, distinguished by a monstrous fury, telling me details over the victory of the Makhno gangs from Mariupol. I choked when he called the figure of unarmed opponents shot: four thousand!

=Memorials to victims of White Terror

In Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and elsewhere, there are a significant number of monuments dedicated to victims of White Terror. Most monuments were planced on the mass graves of the terror.

In the central square in Volgograd since 1920 there is a "Square of Fallen Fighters", where the remains of 55 victims of white terror are buried. A monument established in 1957 in black and red cranite has an inscription: "To the freedom fighters of Red Tsaritsyn. Buried here are the heroic defenders of Red Tsaritsyn brutally tortured by White Guard butchers in 1919."

A monument to victims of White Terror in Vyborg was made in 1961 near the Leningrad highway. It is dedicated to the victims of 600 prisoners shot by machine gun by the White Guards on the ramparts of the city.

The "In Memory of Victims of White Terror" monument in Voronezh is located in a park near the regional Nikitinskaia libraries. The monument was unveiled in 1920 on the site of public executions in 1919 by the troops of Mamantov.

In Sevastopol on the 15th Bastion Street of December 1920, there is a "Communard Cemetery and victims of white terror". The cemetery is named in honor of the members of the Communist underground, murdered by Whites in 1919-20.

In the city of Slavgorad in Altai, there is a monument for participants of the Chernodolsky Uprising and their families who who fell victim to the white terror of Ataman Annekov.

White Terror in Eastern Russia

In the Urals, Siberia, and the Far East, there was extraordinary cruelty practiced by several Cossack warlords: B. Annenkov, A. Dutov, G. Semyonov, and J. Kalmykov. During the trial against Annenkov, there was testimony about the robbing peasants and atrocities under the slogan: “We have no restrictions! God is with us and Ataman Annenkov: slash right and left!”.. On September 1918, during the suppression of peasant uprisings in Slavgorod county, Annenkov tortured and killed up to 500 people. The village of Black Dole was burned down, after which peasants were shot, tortured, and hanged on pillars, including the wives and children of the peasants. Girls of Slavgorod and surrounding areas were brought to Annenkov’s train, who were raped and then shot. According to an eyewitness, Annenkov behaved with extraordinary cruelty: victims had their eyes gouged and tongues and strips of their back cut off, were buried alive, or tied to horses. In Semipalatinsk, Annenkov threatened to shoot every fifth resident of the city in case of a refusal to pay indemnities..