In the Russian Civil War following the Russian Revolution, a White Army execution squad shot two Bolshevik suspects and hanged two more in 1920. Outside Petrograd, the White Army's Okhrana Field Division executed a captured Soviet suspect.

　　In the Russian Civil War following the Russian Revolution, a White Army execution squad shot two Bolshevik suspects and hanged two more in 1920. Outside Petrograd, the White Army's Okhrana Field Division executed a captured Soviet suspect.

　In areas where violence became commonplace and Bolshevikized peasants and workers took control, landowners and employers were robbed, tortured, and murdered. In areas where the White Army held the upper hand, police and soldiers found Bolshevik suspects and where they suspected them, they slaughtered them in cold blood. White Army execution squads shot and killed two Bolshevik suspects and hanged another two. The Russian Revolution, which began as a bloodless overthrow of tsarism, now claimed millions of civilian victims. There was hardly a region of vast Russia where the populace was not separated into Reds and Whites.

　During the years that Russia was torn by civil war, atrocities and violence by both the Red and White armies reached their zenith. Both the Reds and Whites terrorized everywhere, shooting and hanging large numbers of civilians. If the bourgeoisie does not want to exterminate us, now is the time to exterminate the bourgeoisie" (August 31, 1918), wrote the Pravda newspaper. The Pravda newspaper stated, "The rotten bourgeoisie must be wiped out mercilessly from our city. All these people must be registered, and those among them who pose a threat to the revolutionary class must be eliminated. Henceforth the anthem of the working class will be a song of hatred and revenge!" (p. 3). Under these circumstances, the losers had no choice but to surrender or flee, hoping for the mercy of the merciless victors.

　The Russian Civil War was fought primarily between the Red Army (on the side of the Communists and October Revolution) and the White Army (on the side of the Russian Right, Republicans, Monarchists, Conservatives, and Liberals).The two major combatants were the Red Army of the Bolshevik-led socialist state led by Vladimir Lenin and the White Army, which was an ally of the Russian military, the Bolsheviks opposed their domination.