openly avowed campaign of terror. Thousands of persons have been summarily shot without even the form of trial. Many of them have no doubt been innocent of even the political views which were supposed to supply the motive of their execution.”
The American Consul General concludes his report by stating:
“The situation cries aloud to all who will act for the sake of humanity.”13
Trotzky made an attempt to justify “mass terror” in an article signed by him in the official daily newspaper Izvestia on January 10, 1919, under the title “Military Specialists and the Red Army.” In this article Trotzky states among other things as follows:
“Terror as the demonstration of the will and strength of the working class, is historically justified, precisely because the proletariat was able thereby to break the political will of the Intelligentsia, pacify the professional men of various categories and work, and gradually subordinate