White Terror
In general, the term
White Terror refers to acts of violence carried out by
reactionary (usually
monarchist or
conservative) groups as part of a
counter-revolution. Often, such acts were carried out in response to (and/or followed by) similar measures taken by the
revolutionary side in the conflict. In particular, during the 20th century, in several countries the term
White Terror was applied to acts of violence against real or suspected
socialists and
communists.
In a usage that may not be directly related, during the late 19th and 20th centuries in the
United States, the term
White Terror was applied to terrorist acts of violence committed by costumed nightriders, such as members of the
Ku Klux Klan who masked their identity and used terror, including murder especially against African Americans to stop them from voting or participating in "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" with the same
civil rights other citizens enjoy. [
White Terror: The Ku Klux Klan Conspiracy and Southern Reconstruction by Allen W. Trelease] It is not clear whether "white" in this use was originally intended to evoke the original meaning of "white terror" or was simply a reference to
race.
The
original White Terror took place in 1794, during the turbulent times surrounding the
French Revolution. It was organized by reactionary "
Chouan" royalist forces in the aftermath of the
Reign of Terror, and was targeted at the radical
Jacobins and anyone suspected of supporting them. Throughout
France, both real and suspected Jacobins were attacked and often murdered. Just like during the Reign of Terror, trials were held with little regard for due process. In other cases, gangs of youths who had aristocratic connections roamed the streets beating known Jacobins. These "bands of Jesus" dragged suspected terrorists from prisons and murdered them much as alleged royalists had been murdered during the
September Massacres of 1792.
Again, in 1815, following the return of
King Louis XVIII of France to power, people suspected of having ties with the governments of the
French Revolution or of
Napoleon suffered arrest and execution.
Night-riding groups across the United States, especially the southern part of the country, terrorized black people and whites who supported
civil rights efforts during
Reconstruction and continuing, in one form or another, from the 1860s through to the 1960s. Beginning in 1867 after the
American Civil War in the United States, the
Ku Klux Klan (KKK), the most famous of the night-riding groups, "whipped, shot, hanged, robbed, raped and otherwise outraged Negroes and Republicans across the South in the name of preserving white civilization." [
White Terror: The Ku Klux Klan Conspiracy and Southern Reconstruction by Allen W. Trelease]
While the KKK was the most famous of the night-riding groups whose members hid their identities beneath white sheets and pointy hats, there were many other groups of vigilantes made up of white racists who terrorized African Americans and white citizens who supported the struggle for civil rights.
During the 1860s, the
Republican Party advocated
civil rights for African Americans while the
Democratic Party represented plantation owners who, before the Civil War ended the practice, had held large numbers of
African Americans as their slaves.
Russian White Terror
After the
October Revolution in
Russia, counter-revolutionary forces grouped themselves loosely into the '
White Movement'. The color
white was adopted as the symbol of the movement because it had been the traditional color of the Russian monarchy (the Russian
Tsar was often called the "White Tsar"). In 1918, the White Movement started the
Russian Civil War against the newly created
Russian SFSR. Both sides carried out acts of violence against dissidents and suspected enemy agents within the territory they controlled. The mass arrests and summary executions carried out by the White Movement became known as the
White Terror.
By analogy, the term "White Terror" came to be used to refer to many different campaigns of violence carried out by various kinds of
anti-communist forces against real or suspected communist sympathizers, in different places and periods of the 20th century.
Hungarian White Terror
One of the first such White Terrors outside Russia was the
Hungarian White Terror, the retaliation carried out by irregular and semi-regular detachments (most of them formally belonged to
Miklós Horthy's
"National Army") in
Hungary in 1919-1920, after the fall of the
Hungarian Soviet Republic, against
Leftists and
Jews (mainly as a revenge for the
Red Terror - see
here for additional information). Horthy's personal moral culpability and responsibility for the White Terror is a matter of dispute among historians: Horthy did not command these atrocities—indeed, in words, he prohibited them—but he did not do a great deal to prevent them.
German White Terror
Finnish White Terror
After the
Finnish Civil War 1918 the
White troops (who had won the war) enclosed thousands of
reds on prison camps. Diseases, hunger and executions after convictions for high treason were regarded as terror on remaining reds. The white terror may have created more victims than the pre-war red terror.
Bulgarian White Terror
The White Terror in Bulgaria occurred during the
right-wing government of
Aleksandar Tsankov (1923-1926). The
Bulgarian Communist Party was mercilessly repressed and a
martial law was declared. In 1925, after the
Sofia bomb attack aimed to assassinate Tsar
Boris III, the Communist Party was outlawed and persecution escalated, with many notable figures who had expressed Communist beliefs—for example, writer
Geo Milev—being repressed, put on trial or even killed.
Chinese White Terror
Another anti-communist White Terror took place during the
Chinese Civil War. It was an attempted suppression of
Communists and Communist sympathizers by
Chiang Kai-shek's
Kuomintang government. Beginning in 1927, the White Terror spread through many major Chinese cities, most notably
Shanghai.
Also known as Chiang's "Bloody Double Cross", this White Terror saw his armies turn against their former Communist allies. Death Squads patrolled the cities, on order to shoot anyone suspected of Communist leanings.
White Terror in Taiwan
Rooted in the
228 Incident on
Taiwan in 1947, the "White Terror" describes the suppression of political dissents and public discussion of the massacre under the
martial law from
May 19 1949 to
July 15 1987.
During the White Terror, around 140,000 Taiwanese were imprisoned or executed for their real or perceived opposition to the
Kuomintang government led by
Chiang Kai-shek, according to a recent report by the
Executive Yuan of
Taiwan. Some prosecuted Taiwanese were labeled by the Kuomintang as "bandit spies" (匪諜), meaning spies for Chinese communists, and punished as such. The "White Terror" left many native Taiwanese with a deep-seated bitterness towards the
Kuomintang,
Chiang Kai-shek, and sometimes the mainlanders.
Fear of discussing the 228 Incident and the White Terror gradually decreased with the lifting of martial law in 1987, culminating in the establishment of an official public memorial and an apology by
President Lee Teng-hui in 1995.
* Trelease, Allen W.,
White Terror: The Ku Klux Klan Conspiracy and Southern Reconstruction (Louisiana State University: 1971)
