7. Russian Civil War (Russia, 1917-1921): 6.7 Million-9 Million Deaths
From one huge nation to another - and from one conflict between nationalism and socialism to another - the Russian Civil War between 1917 and 1921 saw between 6.7million and 9million belligerents lose their lives. The Russian Revolution of 1917 - provoked by a Bolshevik takeover of the central government - led to the execution of Tsar Nicholas II and the royal family, forcing a ferocious backlash from loyalist forces, and latterly from the Western Powers. The USA, Britain and France sent forces to Russia in an attempt to help the loyalist "White Movement" as the so-called "Green armies", while the Red Army of the Bolsheviks tried to unite Russia under a Communist banner. With Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and many other newly-emerged republics forming in the aftermath of the Civil War, the former Russian Empire was dissolved and a new Communist structure in the country established once the Bolsheviks claimed ultimate victory in 1921. The Russian Civil War was brutal, with deaths caused by combat (300,000), disease in the military (450,000), "decossackization" of the Cossacks (500,000), murder of Jews in Ukraine (100,000), widespread typhus (3million) - and more than 1million summary executions of "enemies of the people" by the Cheka (the Bolshevik secret service) during the "Red Terror". Effectively the "Red Terror" was a campaign of mass killing, torture and oppression conducted by the Bolsheviks in order to establish power - and was the most horrendous period of an extremely bloody Civil War.
NUFC editor for WhatCulture.com/NUFC. History graduate (University of Edinburgh) and NCTJ-trained journalist. I love sports, hopelessly following Newcastle United and Newcastle Falcons. My pastimes include watching and attending sports matches religiously, reading spy books and sampling ales.
