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?
best take I've seen all day. If you are willing to take a jab at another question: why do you think the Whites were so willing die for their cause? I doubt the majority of them were bougies so what did they think they were fighting for?
A mixture of status quo loyalty, misinformation, religious fervor, utilization of authority granted by the previous regime, force of arms, regional loyalties coinciding with which colour's in charge of them, promises of restoration of standards of living etc. Among the more loyalist members, it would also include loyalty to the old emplaced hierarchy, internalized ideological-pseudoscientific racism, restoration of material wealth, boons of material wealth, promises of rewards in the new order, etc.
By the time the Civil War was coming to a close and the Whites knew they were being snuffed out, many of them either fled into exile beyond the borders, embraced banditry, or simply left for home and tried to put it in the past while living in the victorious USSR.