The existing assumption of facts I have going into this is that from a period between 1918 and 1922 an estimated 50,000 to 200,000 people were executed by the Bolsheviks. What isnt clear to me is was this just mopping up what was left of the Whites and couter-revolutionaries, or was any dissent against the Bolsheviks liable to put you in the line of fire? Was the high death count justified or not? Thoughts?
Consequences of a tough crackdown on groups and individuals that immediately threatened the maintenance of the USSR; it was a must to slam down, those caught in the quake were unfortunate byproducts. Herberg points out in regards to Stalin, and in passing Lenin, that none of the Western journalists or press shed a tear for the assassination of Bolsheviks, but they wept for those whites and counter-revolutionaries who were killed; one might say it is unfair, the difference of size, but it is the fate of everything, and everything must be done to preserve it.