Red Terror

The Red Terror was a program of repression conducted in Russia by the Bolsheviks in 1918, shortly after the Russian Revolution, in which approximately eight hundred perceived and real opponents of the Bolsheviks were summarily shot without trial. The decree for the "Red Terror" was issued shortly after the simultaneous successful assassination of Petrograd Cheka head Moisei Uritsky, and attempted assassination of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin on August 30, 1918. These events convinced the Bolsheviks that they were facing severe infiltration by White agents, and that measures needed to be taken to combat this infiltration. Meanwhile, the Whites also believed they had enemy infiltrators among their ranks, which prompted them to initiate the somewhat similar White Terror.