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What was the Red Terror?

The Red Terror was the name given to brutal tactics used by Communists in Russia following the Bolshevik Revolution of November 1917. After the revolution the Bolsheviks, now called Communists, placed their leader Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) in power. His first step was to honor the Bolshevik pledge to end Russia's involvement in World War I (1914–18). Lenin called for peace talks with Germany, thus ending warfare on the eastern front. (American entry into the war in 1917 kept victory away from Germany and the other Central Power countries on the western front). But the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, signed March 3, 1918, dictated harsh, even many thought humiliating, terms to Russia. The new Communist nation was forced to give up large territories including Finland, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldavia, and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

In the meantime, Russians had elected officials...

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1. World War I