During much of the twentieth century, the left in the United States and Great Britain grew, evolved, splintered and shrank while being partly overshadowed by events in Russia. The Russian Revolution of 1917 was one of the most transformative events of the modern age. There could be no going back. The established movement of history was knocked off track and began to move in a radically different direction. World politics was transformed. For radical leftists, these events were initially invigorating and held huge promise. However, for the majority on the left, events in what was to become the Soviet Union tarnished their project terribly.

The revolution in Russia was followed by a painful civil war from which the Bolsheviks emerged as the strongest faction. Lenin, the leader of the Bolsheviks, took charge of a country in chaos. He quickly took the country out of the First World War and set to work attempting to restore order. Occasionally, he responded sensibly and to good effect. His New Economic Policy (NEP) programme had a social democratic feel to it, which led many sympathetic observers in the West to form the view that, under Lenin’s careful leadership, the new Soviet could strike a balance between market activity and state regulation that would see an end to the desperate poverty of the peasantry and the terrible conditions experienced by Russia’s new and growing urban proletariat. With any luck, these sympathetic observers mused, the Russian Revolution could act as a model for the working class around the world.

For Lenin, however, the NEP was always just a shortterm fix. He was a communist down to his marrow. He was entirely committed to the total transformation of Russia and the surrounding states, and he was sure that for the nation to move forward the profit motive had to be overcome. He was not a man for half measures, and he launched what was to become known as his Red Terror, which set out to eliminate the Bolsheviks’ diverse political opponents.

It is inevitable and entirely proper that the activities of the Cheka, Lenin’s new secret police service, strike us as repellent. However, it is vital to consider the context in which this repression occurred.