Editing Russian Civil War (section)

====Repression====
In December 1917, [[Felix Dzerzhinsky]] was appointed to the duty of rooting out [[counter-revolutionary]] threats to the [[Government of the Soviet Union|Soviet government]]. He was the director of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (aka [[Cheka]]), a predecessor of the KGB that served as the [[secret police]] for the Soviets.<ref name="Bird-2018" />

The Bolsheviks had begun to see the anarchists as a legitimate threat and associate criminality such as [[robberies]], [[expropriations]] and [[murders]] with anarchist associations. Subsequently, the [[Council of People's Commissars]] (Sovnarkom) decided to liquidate criminal recklessness associated with anarchists and disarm all anarchist groups in the face of their militancy.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Goodwin |first=James |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pun07YW3t7sC&dq=anarchists+criminal+elements+cheka+april&pg=PA48 |title=Confronting Dostoevsky's Demons: Anarchism and the Specter of Bakunin in Twentieth-century Russia |date=2010 |publisher=Peter Lang |isbn=978-1-4331-0883-9 |page=48 |language=en}}</ref>

From early 1918, the Bolsheviks started physical elimination of opposition, other socialist and revolutionary fractions. [[Anarchism|Anarchists]] were among the first:

{{Blockquote|text=Of all the revolutionary elements in Russia it is the Anarchists who now suffer the most ruthless and systematic persecution. Their suppression by the Bolsheviki began already in 1918, when — in the month of April of that year — the Communist Government attacked, without provocation or warning, the Anarchist Club of Moscow and by the use of machine guns and artillery "liquidated" the whole organisation. It was the beginning of Anarchist hounding, but it was sporadic in character, breaking out now and then, quite planless, and frequently self-contradictory.|author=[[Alexander Berkman]], [[Emma Goldman]]|title="Bolsheviks Shooting Anarchists"<ref name="Berkman" />}}

Prior to the events that would officially catalyze the [[Red Terror]],<ref name="black">{{Harvp|Werth|Bartosek|Panne|Margolin|1999|loc=Chapter 4: The Red Terror.}}</ref> [[Vladimir Lenin]] issued orders and made speeches which included harsh expressions and descriptions of brutal measures to be taken against the "class enemies", which, however, often were not actual orders or were not carried out as such. For example, in a telegram which became known as "[[Lenin's hanging order]]" he demanded they "crush" landowners in [[Penza]] and publicly hang "at least 100 kulaks, rich bastards, and known bloodsuckers"<ref name="black" /> in response to an uprising there; yet, only the 13 organizers of the murder of local authorities and the uprising were arrested, while the uprising ended as propaganda activities were held there;<ref name="log" /> in 1920, having received information that in Estonia and Latvia, with which Soviet Russia had concluded peace treaties, volunteers were being enrolled in anti-Bolshevik detachments, Lenin offered to "advance by 10–20 miles (versts) and hang kulaks, priests, landowners" "while pretending to be greens",<ref name="litvinalkbterror">[[:ru:Литвин, Алтер Львович|Alter Litvin]] ''Красный и Белый террор в России в 1917—1922 годах [Red and White terror in Russia in 1917-1922]'' {{In lang|ru}}, {{ISBN|5-8784-9164-8}}.</ref> but instead, his government confined itself to sending diplomatic notes.<ref name="log">[[:ru:Логинов, Владлен Терентьевич|Vladlen Loginov]]. Послесловие / ''В.И.Ленин. Неизвестные документы. 1891-1922''. {{In lang|ru}}, {{ISBN|5-8243-0154-9}}.</ref>

[[Leonid Kannegisser]], a young [[military cadet]] of the [[Imperial Russian Army]], assassinated [[Moisey Uritsky]] on 17 August 1918, outside the Petrograd Cheka headquarters in retaliation for the execution of his friend and other officers.<ref>[http://www.lib.ru/POLITOLOG/MELGUNOW/terror.txt Melgunov, S.P. ''Red Terror'' in Russia] {{In lang|ru}}</ref>

[[File:Lenin attempt.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Vladimir Pchelin's depiction of the assassination attempt on Lenin]]

{{Cleanup section|date=August 2023|reason=incomplete sentence starting with 'and sought to eliminate...'. Next sentence explains 'the term', which hasn't been introduced.}}

On 30 August, the SR [[Fanny Kaplan]] unsuccessfully [[Assassination attempts on Vladimir Lenin|attempted to assassinate]] Lenin,<ref name=":11">Wilde, Robert. 2019 February 20. "[https://www.thoughtco.com/the-red-terror-1221808 The Red Terror]" ''ThoughtCo''. Retrieved 24 March 2021.</ref> who sought to eliminate political dissent, opposition, and any other threat to Bolshevik power.<ref>Llewellyn, Jennifer; McConnell, Michael; Thompson, Steve (11 August 2019). [https://alphahistory.com/russianrevolution/red-terror/ "The Red Terror"]. ''Russian Revolution''. Alpha History. Retrieved 4 August 2021.</ref> As a result of the failed attempt on Lenin's life, he began to crack down on his political enemies in an event known as the [[Red Terror]]. More broadly, the term is usually applied to Bolshevik political repression throughout the Civil War (1917–1922),<ref>Melgunov, Sergey [1925] 1975. ''The Red Terror in Russia''. Hyperions. {{ISBN|0-8835-5187-X}}.</ref><ref>[[Sergei Melgunov|Melgunov, Sergei]]. 1927. "[http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/soviet/redterror.pdf The Record of the Red Terror] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181221170529/http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/soviet/redterror.pdf |date=21 December 2018}}." ''[[Current History]]'' (November 1927):198–205.</ref><ref name="Bird-2018" />

During interrogation by the [[Cheka]], she made the following statement:

{{Blockquote|My name is Fanya Kaplan. Today I shot Lenin. I did it on my own. I will not say from whom I obtained my revolver. I will give no details. I had resolved to kill Lenin long ago. I consider him a traitor to the Revolution. I was exiled to Akatui for participating in an assassination attempt against a Tsarist official in Kiev. I spent 11 years at hard labour. After the Revolution, I was freed. I favoured the [[Russian Constituent Assembly|Constituent Assembly]] and am still for it.<ref name="spartacus">{{Cite web |title=Fanya Kaplan |url=http://spartacus-educational.com/RUSkaplan.htm |website=Spartacus Educational}}</ref>}}

Kaplan referenced the Bolsheviks' growing authoritarianism, citing their forcible shutdown of the Constituent Assembly in January 1918, the [[1917 Russian Constituent Assembly election|elections]] to which they had lost. When it became clear that Kaplan would not implicate any accomplices, she was executed in [[Alexander Garden]]. The order was carried out by the commander of the Kremlin, the former Baltic sailor P. D. Malkov and a group of Latvian Bolsheviks<ref>{{Cite book |title=Malkov P. Notes of the Kremlin commandant. – M.: Molodaya gvardiya, 1968.S. 148–149.}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=August 2021}}{{Primary source inline|date=August 2021}} on 3 September 1918, with a bullet to the back of the head.<ref name="how">{{Cite book |last=Donaldson |first=Norman |title=How Did They Die? |last2=Donaldson |first2=Betty |date=1 January 1983 |publisher=Greenwich House |isbn=978-0-5174-0302-0 |page=221}}</ref> Her corpse was bundled into a barrel and set alight. The order came from [[Yakov Sverdlov]], who only six weeks earlier had ordered the [[Murder of the Romanov family|murder]] of the Tsar and his family.<ref>{{Citation |last=Slezkine |first=Yuri |title=The house of government: a saga of the Russian Revolution |page=158 |isbn=978-1-5384-7835-6 |oclc=1003859221}}</ref><ref name="Lyandres">{{Cite journal |last=Lyandres |first=Semion |date=Autumn 1989 |title=The 1918 Attempt on the Life of Lenin: A New Look at the Evidence |journal=Slavic Review |publisher=Cambridge University Press |volume=48 |issue=3 |pages=432–448 |doi=10.2307/2498997 |jstor=2498997 |s2cid=155228899}}</ref>{{Rp|442}}

These events persuaded the government to heed Dzerzhinsky's lobbying for greater terror against opposition. The campaign of mass repressions would officially begin thereafter.<ref name=":11" /><ref name="Bird-2018" /> The Red Terror is considered to have officially begun between 17 and 30 August 1918.<ref name=":11" /><ref name="Bird-2018">{{Cite magazine |last=Bird |first=Danny |date=5 September 2018 |title=How the 'Red Terror' Exposed the True Turmoil of Soviet Russia 100 Years Ago |url=https://time.com/5386789/red-terror-soviet-history |access-date=2021-03-24 |magazine=Time}}</ref>