The existing assumption of facts I have going into this is that from a period between 1918 and 1922 an estimated 50,000 to 200,000 people were executed by the Bolsheviks. What isnt clear to me is was this just mopping up what was left of the Whites and couter-revolutionaries, or was any dissent against the Bolsheviks liable to put you in the line of fire? Was the high death count justified or not? Thoughts?
Any reading you’d recommend to get caught up on the topic?
The trot fantasy writer, yes I know, China Mieville’s “October” would be some nice light reading to introduce it in a more captivating manner. As a sort of prequel, John Reed’s 10 days that shook the world can be concidered essential reading as a first-person primary source document.
There’s also the section on it in short course on The History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks) by Stalin. I’ve also been told that The Crisis in Russia, by Arthur Ransome and Through the Russian Revolution, by Albert Rhys Williams are quite alright - even though they both had close ties to Trotsky throughout their lives - as their respective books were written roughly during and at the end of the civil war, therefore being considered primary sources. I was also recommended “A Short History of the Russian Revolution from 1905 to the present day” by R. Page Arnot, present day to Arnot being 1937. Even Kotkin’s first Stalin book has a section on it that, as long as you filter it through the lens of critical reading, has an interesting perspective on the civil war while revealing Kotkin’s own ideological failings of being a hypocrite.
Honestly you can’t throw a fucking pebble into the pond of Russian civil war books without hitting either a reactionary or a trot.
Edit; I remembered I made something of another list before And I dug it up although it had more to do with the slice of history that dealt with the Poles. I’m sure there’s some nice reads rattling around the great soviet encyclopedia though.
This is all awesome, thank you!