RED TERROR
“Besieged fortresses are hardly ever ruled in a democratic manner”.
Issac Deutscher
“Lenin wanted earthly happiness for the people, at least those he called ‘the proletariat’. But he regarded it as normal to build this ‘happiness’ on blood, coercion and the denial of freedom.”
Dimitri Volkogonov
“The execution of the Tsar and his family was needed not only to frighten, horrify and instill a sense of hopelessness in the enemy, but also to shake up our own ranks, to show that there was no retreating, that ahead lay total victory or total doom”.
Trotsky
“It (the murder of the Romanov family) was a declaration of the Terror. It was a statement that from now on individuals would count for nothing in the civil war”.
Orlando Figes
“…the ‘Red Terror’ was not a reluctant response the actions of others but a prophylactic measure designed to nip in the bud any thoughts of resistance to the dictatorship”.
Richard Pipes
“Threatened by danger, the Bolsheviks resorted to the most repugnant means of saving their state, mass terror against their own people.”
Dimitri Volkogonov
“The belief that the end justified the means served them well, blinding them to the way in which means corrupt ends”.
Douglas Smith
“Lenin, Trotsky and Dzerzhinsky believed that over-killing was better than running the risk of being overthrown”.
Robert Service
“Lenin himself was the patron saint of the Cheka”.
Dimitri Volkogonov
“Like the sound of a bolt being shot, the two syllables, Che-ka, would stop any conversation”.
Dimitri Volkogonov
“In particular, he [Lenin] had little foresight about what he was doing when he set up the centralised one-party state”
Robert Service
“Besieged fortresses are hardly ever ruled in a democratic manner”.
Issac Deutscher
“Lenin wanted earthly happiness for the people, at least those he called ‘the proletariat’. But he regarded it as normal to build this ‘happiness’ on blood, coercion and the denial of freedom.”
Dimitri Volkogonov
“The execution of the Tsar and his family was needed not only to frighten, horrify and instill a sense of hopelessness in the enemy, but also to shake up our own ranks, to show that there was no retreating, that ahead lay total victory or total doom”.
Trotsky
“It (the murder of the Romanov family) was a declaration of the Terror. It was a statement that from now on individuals would count for nothing in the civil war”.
Orlando Figes
“…the ‘Red Terror’ was not a reluctant response the actions of others but a prophylactic measure designed to nip in the bud any thoughts of resistance to the dictatorship”.
Richard Pipes
“Threatened by danger, the Bolsheviks resorted to the most repugnant means of saving their state, mass terror against their own people.”
Dimitri Volkogonov
“The belief that the end justified the means served them well, blinding them to the way in which means corrupt ends”.
Douglas Smith
“Lenin, Trotsky and Dzerzhinsky believed that over-killing was better than running the risk of being overthrown”.
Robert Service
“Lenin himself was the patron saint of the Cheka”.
Dimitri Volkogonov
“Like the sound of a bolt being shot, the two syllables, Che-ka, would stop any conversation”.
Dimitri Volkogonov
“In particular, he [Lenin] had little foresight about what he was doing when he set up the centralised one-party state”
Robert Service