GUNS AND GUILLOTINES: STATE TERROR IN THE RUSSIAN AND FRENCH REVOLUTIONS

Abstract

This article examines the ‘Red Terror’ of the Russian Civil War through a comparative analysis with terror during the French Revolution. First, it suggests that the experiences of the Jacobins had a direct influence upon the Russian Civil War. Furthermore, it argues that such a comparative study highlights the Bolsheviks’ practical approach towards the use of terror as a governing principle. Unlike their French predecessors, who by and large appeared to take a more hard‐line stance when dispersing potential threats to their regime, the Bolsheviks were prepared to avoid outright executions by showing relative tolerance and the use of ‘soft terror’. It was the adoption of this policy that allowed the Bolsheviks to consolidate their revolution and to succeed in the utilization of terror where their French predecessors had failed.