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>>"Trotsky made extensive and unapologetic use of torture during
the civil
war, as he smashed all those plots (from Tsarist to left-SR) directed
against the Bolsheviks.
Citation?"<<
Oh come on Louis, the Cheka (Extraordinary Commission for Combating
Counter-Revolution) was established by Lenin and Trotsky in December 1917.
From its inception, Left Communists (Victor Serge) and Anarchists (Emma
Goldman) criticized the growing powers of the Cheka to operate without
being held accountable in any form.
Trotsky consistently dismissed such concerns as "petit bourgeois" as the
Cheka's goal was to institue a "Red Terror" (the term used by
Bolsheviks) to suppress counterrevolutionary activities in Russia.
The head of the Cheka, Dzerzhinsky (aka "Iron Felix"), under tight
control from Trotsky and Lenin, was tasked with ruthlessly uprooting
anti-Bolshevik subversion.
"[...] profiteers, marauders, hooligans, counter-revolutionary agitators
and spies are to be shot on the spot.''
---/Decree of Soviet Power (1917)/
Louis, are you telling me that the Cheka was bound by bourgeois notions
of human rights in its task of uprooting counter-revolutionary
subversion ? As the founder of the Red Army, Trotsky was more than ready
to do anything to ensure the success of the revolution and all his
speeches (and his memoir) abound in ruthless and harsh statements about
the fate that awaits those who oppose Soviet power.
I could google Cheka, Trotsky and torture, but I already know the
answer. The (partial) opening of former USSR archives can provide the
historian with all the necessary orders and directives relative to the
treatment of suspects in Cheka prisons and detention camps and the
information that is to be extracted from them. I'm certain waterboarding
was only one of the methods used to extract said information from SR
conspirators, disgruntled Tsraist officers and citizens suspected of
involvement in counter-revolutionary activities.
I could spend some time investigating interrogation techniques used by
the Bolsheviks from 1917 to 1924, and the degree to which Trotsky was
informed of the methods used and his personal feelings towards torture
(psychological and physical). However,I am engaged in researching
"equality of opportunity in the US and Europe from the 1950s onward".
So I'll just repeat my quote : "Trotsky made extensive and unapologetic
use of torture during the civil
war, as he smashed all those plots (from Tsarist to left-SR) directed
against the Bolsheviks." and assume that as a leader in time of civil
war, Trotsky made use of torture. He didn't disapprove of the cheka, but
believed in ruthlessness combined with incorruptibility.
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