An army cannot be built without repression. The commander will always find it necessary to place the soldier between the possibility that death lies ahead and the certainty that it lies behind.

Leon Trotsky.

Welcome to Russian history retold, episode 186,

the Russian Civil War. Here come the whites.

Last time we began our discussion of the events at the start of the Russian Civil War.

Now we continue things starting after the assassination attempt on Vladimir Lenin.

As I mentioned the last episode, the attempt on Lenin's life had a major effect on

the lives of the Russian people because of the start of the red terror.

Fannie Kaplan had been accused of the crime, but Bruce Lockhart and Sidney Riley, both British

spies, were certainly part of the plot. Lockhart was actually

imprisoned at Ljubianca but was eventually released in a prisoner exchange.

The red terror that was unleashed coincided with the forced food requisitions

which began to anger the peasants and cause unrest in the cities. Food was scarce and the people

who raised the animals and grew the grains had no incentive to do either.

They starved either way so they began a mass slaughter of all animals.

Millions of them and stopped growing food. The Bolsheviks sent out armed groups

to force the farmers to grow the food and to take whatever they found, as well as shoot

anyone who hesitated. Many were killed, but along with the peasants

many Bolsheviks were murdered as well. This forced war communism was

causing great consternation in Russia and within the

Bolshevik party itself.

Men like Nikolai Bukharan warned Lenin that he was leaning too hard on the peasants and that the whole revolution could

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