Defining the ‘Political’ Crime: Revolutionary Tribunals in Early Soviet Russia

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After the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks established revolutionary tribunals to judge ‘counter-revolutionary’ and ‘political’ crimes. Amid conflicting reports from contemporaries on the effectiveness of these new courts, this essay examines their development over the first year of their existence. It argues that whilst tribunals were initially too inefficient for the regime, forcing greater central control over them, they played an important role in defining what constituted counter-revolution. In doing so, they promoted the regime's ideology, imparted an image of legality to the regime's actions, and helped the Bolsheviks to exert their control over a fragmented and diverse political landscape.