Russia's Red Revolutionary and White Terror, 1917–1921: A Provincial Perspective

Abstract

This essay re-examines White and Red terror during the Russian Civil War by studying public participation in the acts of political violence. It shifts attention from the ideological and political motifs of terror to places and contexts where violence occurred. On the example of paramilitary groups of White and Red partisans in Arkhangel'sk province in the Russian North, it demonstrates how local factors, such as the nearby frontline, poor economic conditions or traditional enmity between neighbouring communities, contributed to the escalation of terror at a grass-root level.