After the October Revolution of 1917 in Russia, the Russian Civil War broke out between the Red Army and the White Army. The White Army massacred the workers and peasants who made up the Red Army. The peasants, who had been oppressed as serfs during the Russian Empire, were wary that the White Army would bring back the former Empire. During the civil war, there were an estimated 7 to 12 million casualties, most of them civilians. During the Russian Civil War, many civilians became refugees and were forced to flee their homes at the hands of both the Red and White armies. When one side committed atrocities, the other side retaliated in equal measure. In addition, the Red Army had its own secret police force, the Chequers, created in December 1917, which arrested citizens without warrants and executed them for crimes they did not commit.
The White Army is the general term for the former regime forces on the counter-revolutionary side against the Red Army on the revolutionary side during the Russian Revolution after the October Revolution of 1917. In the Russian Civil War, the White Army and the Red Army fought each other. The White Army opposed the October Revolution led by the Bolsheviks under Lenin. The White Army consisted of the former Russian Imperial Army, the White Army Faction, and the Cossack Army, many of whom were republicans, who established republics in various regions and opposed the Soviet communist Red Army with support from Britain and France. The Red Army was led by Lenin.
The Red Army was formed by the Bolsheviks, led by Lenin, with workers and peasants by Trotsky in January 1918. They signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918, ceding vast territories to the German Reich and accepting the terms of large reparations. Many opponents of the old regime rose up and assassinated the Russian and German ambassadors in July 1918, and on August 30, 1918, an assassination attempt was made on Lenin. On August 30, 1918, an attempt was made to assassinate Lenin, who had just finished a speech at a factory rally in Moscow and was getting into his car when three shots rang out, two of which hit him in the shoulder and lung. The Bolsheviks took this as an opportunity to declare a civil war of "Red Terror" by the Red Army starting September 5, 1918, and began a massive crackdown and executions of many opponents of the old regime.
After the Red Army ended the Russian Civil War, the Red Bolsheviks were able to reunify the Russian land, but it was in a state of extreme devastation and destruction, further impoverished by the drought of 1920-1921. In order to abolish the market economy, food was forcibly requisitioned from starving areas in reverse, resulting in many starvation deaths. Within just a few years of the outbreak of the October Revolution, some 8 million civilians died. Due to the atrocities of the Russian Civil War, civilians were involved in inhuman acts of mass abuse and genocide.
