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S.P. Melignov, "The Red Terror in Soviet-Russia (1918-1923): The System of Repression in the Lenin Era" Summary and Comments - Shocked by the horrific system of repression in the Lenin era...
Red Terror in Soviet-Russia (1918-1923): The System of Repression in the Lenin Era, by S.P. Melignov, translated by Shinichi Kajikawa, was published by Hyoronsha in 2010.
Let's take a quick look at the book.
Contents (from "BOOK" database)
The dead speak aloud to us. Nope. The dead are not silent. The reality of Che Kha's reign of terror in Lenin's time.
Author Biography (from "BOOK Author Profile")
Melignoff, Sergey Petrovich
AmazonProduct Page.
From 1879 to 1956, while a student at the Faculty of History and Letters of Moscow State University, he participated in the student movement and at the same time edited various magazines; after 1907, he became a member of the People's Socialist (NS) Party of the Narodniki lineage. After the October Revolution, he was involved in several anti-Bolshevik struggles and was arrested again by Che Kher; in 1919, he joined the anti-Bolshevik organization "Tactical Center" which was founded under the slogan "Democracy"; in 1920, he was arrested and sentenced to death (later his sentence was commuted).
The Che-Kar mentioned in the content is the secret police of Lenin's Bolshevik government, an agency that was solely responsible for the purges in the country.
The book tells the story of how Lenin's regime, established after the twists and turns following the Russian Revolution, purged the opposition in the country.
It is important to note that the purge of hostile forces was a purge of those who were suspected of being hostile.
The purge was so intense that a great number of people were tortured and slaughtered, even though they were innocent.
The Red Terror in the title refers to "red" or communist acts of violence.
The main goal of red terror is not merely to kill the adversary, but to see how much you can strike fear into the hearts of your opponents and dominate them through violence.
The author, S.P. Meligunov, was also arrested by Che Kher but managed to leave the country and write this book.
I read this book to find out what the hell was going on during the Soviet era, and it was far more tragic than I had ever imagined. I was shocked at how cruel and violent human beings could be.
I visited Auschwitz in 2019. Even then, I felt the cruelty of mankind in all its glory. But I learned again that massacres on a comparable scale were committed during the Lenin/Stalin era.
This book is quite shocking. It made me want to turn away from reading it.
I cannot go into the details of the book in this article, but I would like to quote a few passages from the book.
victims of genocide
Invariably, after the bodies were slaughtered, they were promptly transported by wagon or truck to the outskirts of the city and buried there. In one corner of the above cemetery, I came across another, older cemetery, where there were about 80 corpses.
Here we found variously mutilated and defaced corpses that were difficult to imagine.
There were bodies there with their torsos ripped open, some without genitalia, and some were completely decapitated. The eyeballs of some had been gouged out, while at the same time their heads, faces, necks, and torsos were covered with bruises.
We also found bodies with wedges driven into their hearts. Some were missing their tongues. In a corner of the cemetery we found only a few limbs. Near a fence in a park away from the cemetery we found several bodies with no signs of abuse. When doctors dissected them a few days later, they found that their mouths, respiratory organs, and tracheas were blocked with soil.
In other words, the prisoners were buried alive and inhaled soil as they tried to breathe.
People of all ages and genders were buried in this cemetery. There were old men, men, women, and children. One woman was tied up with a rope along with her daughter, who was about eight years old. Both had gunshot wounds.
Hyoronsha, Red Terror in Soviet-Russia (1918-1923): The System of Repression in the Lenin Era, by S.P. Meligunov, translated by Shinichi Kajikawa, p. 172.
Some line breaks have been made.
Victims of the massacre (2)
"The one to be tormented was nailed to a wall or a post. Next he was securely fastened to the end of an iron pipe several inches wide." ...... "A bear mouse was placed there through the other hole, the hole was plugged with a wire mesh, and a fire was brought close to it. The animal, driven mad by the heat, began to gnaw at the condemned man's flesh in an attempt to find a way out. Such torture continued for hours, sometimes for the next day until the victim died".
Committee documents confirm that such kinds of torture have taken place.
'They buried the torturer in the earth up to his head and left him there until the prisoner could stand it no longer. If the torturer fainted, they dug him out, laid him on the ground until he came to his senses, and buried him again."
In the early years of the civil war, each region had its own specialized characteristics that allowed human cruelty to be demonstrated.
In Voronezh, the torturer was locked naked in a barrel with nails and rolled. A pentagram was applied to the forehead with a burning iron. A barbed crown was placed on the priest's head.
In Tsaritsyn and Kamyshyn [Saratov province] they sawed the bones. In Poltava and Kremenchug they staked all the priests. (omitted).
In Yekachelinoslav, crucifixion and beatings with stones were preferred. In Odessa, officers were tortured, tied to boards with chains and burned with a slow burner, another officer was torn in half with a winch, and another officer in turn was dipped into a cauldron of boiling water or into the sea, then thrown into a fiery furnace.
The methods of mockery and torture are innumerable. In Kiev, they put the victims in a box in which corpses were laid out, shot at them, and then yelled at them that they would be buried alive in the box. The box was buried, and half an hour later it was opened, this time ...... where the interrogation took place.
Such things happened many times in succession. It is not surprising that people really lose their sanity.
Critique, by S.P. Melignov, translated by Shinichi Kajikawa, Red Terror in Soviet-Russia (1918-1923): The System of Repression in the Lenin Era, p. 173-174.
I am no longer at a loss for words because of the sheer brutality of it all...
Even during the Holocaust, I wondered, "How could they do this? But I learned once that in reality, human beings are capable of such things.
But in the Russian purge, my particular question was, "How could they be so cruel to each other when they are all citizens of the same country?
It is not about the eradication of the enemies of other nations and peoples. It is not to eradicate other nations and peoples, but rather to "disobey Lenin's regime (the Bolsheviks)".
They will eliminate all those who get in the way of their government, whether they are fellow citizens or not.
That was the red terror.
I can't tell you why we had to go to such lengths, but this book will help you see that as well.
Although the book is quite stimulating, I believe it is important to learn this kind of history because of the current turmoil in world affairs.
The above is "S.P. Melignoff, "Red Terror in Soviet-Russia (1918-1923)" - Shocked by the horrific system of repression in Lenin's time...".
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