In the summer of 1918, a full-scale civil war began in Russia. Russian counterrevolutionaries and foreign powers sought to overthrow the Soviet government established during the October Revolution. The struggle was not limited to the front: underground counterrevolutionary organizations were active in the RSFSR. In early July, an armed uprising by Left Socialist Revolutionaries took place in Moscow, aimed at overthrowing the Council of People’s Commissars and denouncement of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty. The uprising was suppressed, but the counterrevolutionaries continued the struggle.

On August 30, 1918, a rally was held at the Mikhelson Factory in Moscow, where Vladimir Ilyich Lenin spoke. After the event, as Lenin was leaving the factory and getting into his car, Socialist Revolutionary Fanny Kaplan approached him and fired three shots. As a result, the head of the Soviet government suffered serious wounds to the neck and arm. That same morning, in Petrograd, Socialist Revolutionary Kannegiser assassinated Moisei Uritsky, chairman of the Petrograd Cheka.

The ferocity of class struggle that manifested itself at the onset of the White Terror could not go unanswered—the gains of the October Revolution were at stake. To counter the counterrevolution, on September 5, 1918, the Council of People’s Commissars adopted the decree “On the Red Terror,” marking the beginning of a ruthless struggle against the internal enemies of Soviet power.

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