September 5, 1918 · All Soviet-controlled territory Theater
September 5, 1918
Following the assassination attempt on Lenin by Fanny Kaplan on August 30, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars formally decreed the Red Terror on September 5. The Cheka (secret police) under Felix Dzerzhinsky launched mass executions of 'class enemies' — former nobles, clergy, tsarist officers, merchants, and anyone deemed politically suspect. Estimates of those killed by the Cheka during the civil war range from 100,000 to 300,000. Thousands more were held in early concentration camps or taken as hostages. The terror established patterns of political violence that would be institutionalized under Stalin.
Commanders