ABSTRACT
Terror decimated the rank and file of all parties, including even those, such as Left Socialist Revolutionaries, who had supported Bolsheviks in the very beginning of their reign. The life of recalcitrant peasants and workers were not spared, either. Bolshevik leaders, then, were busy justifying terror and since organized terror similar to that of the French was launched in September, it provided fresh impetus for those wishing to find parallels between the Russian and French Revolutions. Terror and dictatorship had become part of modern world history. But they remained in the context of the French Revolution as a historical model, and were not placed in the context of other periods of world history, such as the Roman empire and Russian and oriental history with their traditions of lasting authoritarian rule. The use of Jacobinic terror was justified on the grounds that the Bolshevik Revolution was leading toward mankind's liberation and the creation of a harmonious society throughout the world.
