As the Civil War and foreign intervention began, so did the Red Terror. Commissar of Foreign Affairs Chicherin responds to the accusations of terrorism leveled against Soviet Russia by the imperialists and supporters of the old regime.

‘Russia’s Answer to the Charge of Terrorism’ by Georgy Chicherin from The Liberator. Vol. 1 No. 10. December, 1918.

THE note presented to us on the 5th of September by the gentlemen representing the neutral powers represents an act of gross interference into the inner affairs of Russia. The Soviet Government would be justified in ignoring this act. But the Soviet Government is glad to grasp any opportunity of explaining the nature of its political tactics to the masses in all countries, for it is the spokesman not only of the Russian working-class, but of exploited humanity all over the earth. The People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs therefore gives answer, hereby, to the matter in question.

In their description of the treatment that is being accorded to the suppressed Russian bourgeoisie, the neutral powers are plainly trying to arouse the sympathy of the bourgeoisie all over the world. We do not propose to disprove the fiction of the gentlemen who represent the neutral nations. In their note they repeat all the slander that has been invented by the Russian bourgeoisie to discredit the Red Army. We will not refute individual occurrences, first of all because the gentlemen who represent the neutral powers have presented absolutely no concrete occurrences, secondly, because every war—and we are in the midst of a civil war-brings with it excesses on the part of individuals.

The gentlemen representing the neutral powers did not protest against the individual misdeeds of irresponsible persons, but against the regime that is being carried out by the Government of the Workmen and Peasants against the exploiting class.

Before entering into the reasons why the Government of the Workers and peasants uses the Red Terror that has called forth the protest of the gentlemen representing the neutral powers, permit us to ask a few questions.

Do the representatives of the neutral nations know that an international war has been raging for almost five years, into which a small clique of bankers, generals and bureaucrats precipitated the masses of the civilized nations of the world? That in this war these masses are destroying each other, cutting each other’s throats that capitalism may earn new millions thereby? Do they know that in this war not only millions of men were killed at the front, but that both belligerent parties have attacked open cities with bombs, killing unarmed women and children? Do they know that in this war one of the belligerent parties doomed millions of human beings to death by starvation by cutting off their food supply in direct contradiction to the tenets of international law, that the belligerent party hopes to force the other, by starving its children, to surrender to the victor? Do they know that the belligerent powers have imprisoned hundreds of thousands of unarmed, peaceable citizens in the enemy’s country, sending them to places far from home into involuntary servitude, depriving them of every right of self-defense? Do they know that in all belligerent nations the ruling capitalist clique has deprived the masses of the right of free press and assemblage and the right to strike? That workingmen are being imprisoned for every attempt to protest against the White Terror of the bourgeoisie, that they are sent to the front that every last thought of human rights may be killed within them?

All of these instances of the destructive force that is being directed against the working-class in the name of capitalist interests, all these pictures of the White Terror of the bourgeoisie against the proletariat are more than familiar to the neutral nations and their representatives in Russia. Nevertheless, either they forgot their high ideals of humanity or they forgot in these cases to remind the blood-dripping belligerent nations of their misdeeds.

The so-called neutral nations did not dare to utter a word of protest against the White Terror of the capitalist class, nay, more, they did not wish to protest, for the bourgeoisie in all neutral nations have helped the capitalist powers of the capitalist nations to carry on the war because they are earning billions in war contracts with the belligerent nations.

We beg leave to ask another question. Have the gentlemen representing the neutral powers heard of the crushing of the Sinn Feiners in Dublin, of the shooting to death, without due process of the law, of hundreds of Irishmen, with Skeffington at their head? Have they heard of the White Terror in Finland, of the tens of thousands of dead, of the tens of thousands of men and women who are languishing in jail, against whom no charges have ever been, or ever will be made? Have they never heard of the mass murder of workmen and peasants in the Ukraine? Of the mass murder of workmen by the brave Checho-Slovaks, these hirelings of French capital? The governments of the neutral nations have heard of all of these things, but never before did it occur to them to protest against the despotism of the bourgeoisie when it oppresses the working class movement. For they themselves are ready, at any moment, to shoot down workingmen who fight for their rights. In their own countries they stand ready, in the name of the bourgeoisie, and in defense of its interests to crush out every vestige of working-class uprising.

It is sufficient to recall that labor demonstrations were recently routed by military force in Denmark, Norway, Holland, Switzerland, etc. The workers of Switzerland, Holland and Denmark have not yet revolted, but already the governments of these countries are mobilizing their military forces against the weakest protest of the working-class. When the representatives of the neutral nations threaten us with the indignation of the entire civilized world, and protest against the Red Terror in the name of humanity, we respectfully call their attention to the fact that they were not sent to Russia to defend the principles of humanity, but to preserve the interests of the capitalist State; we would advise them further not to threaten us with the indignant horror of the civilized world, but to tremble before the fury of the masses who are arising against a civilization that has thrust humanity into the unspeakable misery of endless slaughter.

In the entire capitalist world the White Terror rules over the working-class. In Russia the working-class destroyed that Czarism whose bloody regime brought no protests from the neutral nations. The working-class of Russia put an end to the rule of the bourgeoisie who, under the flag of the Revolution, again amidst the deep silence of the neutral powers, slaughtered soldiers who refused to shed their blood in the interests of war speculators, killed peasants because they claimed the land they had cultivated for centuries in the sweat of their brow.

The majority of the Russian people, in the person of the second Congress of the Workmen’s, Peasants’, Cossacks’ and Soldiers’ Council, placed the power into the hands of the Workmen’s and Peasants’ Government. A small handful of capitalists who desired to regain the factories and the banks that were taken from them in the interests of the people, a small handful of landowners who wished to take back the land that had been given to the peasants, a small handful of generals who wished again to teach the workmen and the soldiers obedience with the whiplash, refused to recognize the decision of the Russian people. With the money of foreign capital they mobilized counter-revolutionary hordes with whose assistance they tried to cut off Russia from its food supply in order to choke the Russian Revolution with the bony hand of hunger. After they became convinced of the futility of their attempts to overthrow the working-class republic that enjoyed the unbounded confidence and support of the working-class, they arranged counter-revolutionary uprisings in the attempt to crowd the Workmen’s and Peasants’ Government from its positive work, to hinder it in its task of ridding the country of anarchy that had taken hold of the country in consequence of the criminal policies of former governments. They betrayed Russia on the South, North and East into the hands of foreign imperialistic states, they called foreign bayonets, wherever they could muster them into Russia. Hidden behind a forest of foreign bayonets they are sending hired murderers to kill the leaders of the working-class. in whom not only the proletariat of Russia but all the massacred humanity sees the personification of its hopes. The Russian working-class will crush without mercy this counter-revolutionary clique, that is trying to lay the noose around the neck of the Russian working-class with the help of foreign capital and the Russian bourgeoisie.

In the face of the proletariat of the whole world we declare that neither hypocritical protests nor pleas will protect those who take up arms against the workers and the poorest farmers, who would starve them and embroil them into new wars in the interests of the capitalist class. We assure equal rights and equal liberties to all who loyally do their duty as citizens of the Socialist Workmen’s and Peasants’ Government. To them we bring peace, but to our enemies we bring war without quarter. We are convinced that the masses in all countries who are writhing under the oppression of a small group of exploiters will understand that in Russia force is being used only in the holy cause of the liberation of the people, that they will not only understand us, but will follow our example.

We decidedly reject the interference of neutral capitalist powers in favor of the Russian bourgeoisie, and declare that every attempt on the part of the representatives of these powers to overstep the boundaries of legal protection for the citizens of their own country, will be regarded as an attempt to support the counter-revolution.

People’s Commissar of Foreign Affairs, G. W. TSCHITSCHERIN.

The Liberator was published monthly from 1918, first established by Max Eastman and his sister Crystal Eastman continuing The Masses, was shut down by the US Government during World War One. Like The Masses, The Liberator contained some of the best radical journalism of its, or any, day. It combined political coverage with the arts, culture, and a commitment to revolutionary politics. Increasingly, The Liberator oriented to the Communist movement and by late 1922 was a de facto publication of the Party. In 1924, The Liberator merged with Labor Herald and Soviet Russia Pictorial into Workers Monthly. An essential magazine of the US left.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/culture/pubs/liberator/1918/10/v1n10-dec-1918-liberator-hr.pdf