Revolutionary Slaughter and Pogroms

The Institute of World Politics

About the lecture: The autocratic system's inefficiencies, Russia's economic backwardness, the opposition's maximalist dissatisfaction, ghoulish slaughter at the front, and food supply failures combined to trigger a revolution in the empire in February 1917. The tsar abdicated and his regime yielded to a dual power system: the center-left provisional government and the leftist revolutionary Soviet. The new arrangement led to the paralysis of the country and the collapse of law and order. Deserters and bandits, along with the peasants, wreaked havoc from below; revolutionary parties fostered anarchy from above. Eventually, after October 1917, when the Bolsheviks seized power, deposing the liberals, chaos was further exacerbated by Lenin's government fostering Red Terror as state policy. In the ensuing Civil War, all possible political orientations raged against one another and against innocent bystanders. Everyone was caught in mayhem and violence, in particular helpless civilians, including traditional elites and Jews. About the speaker: Dr. Marek Chodakiewicz currently serves as a Professor of History at The Institute of World Politics, where he holds the Kosciuszko Chair of Polish Studies. He also leads IWP’s Center for Intermarium Studies. At IWP, Dr. Chodakiewicz teaches courses on Contemporary Politics and Diplomacy, Geography and Strategy, Mass Murder Prevention in Failed and Failing States, and Russian Politics and Foreign Policy. He was formerly an assistant professor of history of the Kosciuszko Chair in Polish Studies at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. He also served as a visiting professor of history at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.