REMEMBRANCE DAY FOR THE VICTIMS OF THE RED TERROR

Remembrance Day for the Victims of the Red Terror was observed through political statements and hunger strikes in political labour camps and prisons during the 1970s – 1980s in memory of the Resolution of the Council of Soviet People’s Commissars of Russia from 5 September 1918 “On the Red Terror”. The Council, having heard the report of the Head of the Cheka Felix Dzherzhinsky about the struggle against counter-revolution, speculation and position-related crimes, decided that “in the given situation the safeguarding of the rear by means of terror is a direct necessity … that it is necessary to defend the Soviet Republic against class enemies by isolating them in concentration camps, that all individuals involved in White Guard organizations, conspiracies and revolts shall be executed, that the list of the executed must be punished, and also the grounds for applying this measure”. The document was signed by the People’s Commissar for Internal Affairs G.I. Petrovsky, the People’s Commissar for Justice D.I. Kursky and the director of the Council M. O. Bonch-Bruyevich. Mass terror was to be the means of state rule in the USSR right up to its collapse in 1991.