ABSTRACT
The Red Terror was the result of fear. Fear had caused the fall of the Tsar; fear had brought the Duma over to the side of the Revolution; fear had compelled the Provisional Government from the outset of its career to submit to the Petrograd Soviet. The wave of Red Terror flowed all over Russia. Petrovsky, the Commissar of Interior Affairs, issued an order requiring all Soviets to seize a definite number of citizens and to hold them as pledges. The prisoner was carried off and thrown into the Troutbetskoy bastion of the fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul, where he endured damp, starvation, darkness, and constant fear that he would be shot. A group of five hundred alleged bourgeoisie was sent to Vologda to be put to 'forced labour', but they were thrown into prison instead. The prison was cold and damp. 'On the first night many became insane and many committed suicide'.
