This is an Appendix post to Revolution Under Siege, my series on the Russian Civil War.

This post started life as a (terrible) idea for a drinking game. Read or listen to my blog and drink any time you come across

a)      A White leader whose name starts with K

b)     A Red leader who was later killed by Stalin

When you’re reading any account of the Civil War, the phrase “…who was later killed by Stalin…” is a repeating motif. On rare occasions, like the case of Semyonov, this refers to a White leader. But nearly all the time it refers to a Red.

Hence the title.

But instead of inventing the least funny drinking game ever, I went back through all the posts from Series 1 (covering 1918) and made a list of every named individual who supported the Red side. Some are people I spent a whole chapter talking about, others accidental mentions in the captions of photos, others still the authors of sources.

For each one I asked, ‘What happened to them? How did they die?’

This graph was the result.

The graph is based on 39 people. It counts all Red supporters mentioned during Season 1 – so, Reds who were prominent during the year 1918, plus a scattering of accidental figures. There will be omissions, but it is broadly representative. I have in no sense deliberately weighted this sample so as to make Stalinism look bad. I could have weighted it far further in that direction without stretching credibility. For example, I have included Adolf Joffe under ‘Natural Causes or Illness’ even though his suicide was triggered by the persecution of the Left Opposition by the Stalin group.

So that you can see for yourself, here is the full list.

Natural Causes or Illness

1.      Alexander Serafimovich (Author, The Iron Flood) – Natural causes, 1949

2.      Kliment Voroshilov (Red commander in Southern Army Group in 1918) – Natural Causes, 1969

3.      Klavdia Nikoaevna (Editor of Kommunistka) – Killed in a German bombing raid, 1944

4.      Vasily Chuikov (Red Guard, later commander at Stalingrad in 1942-43) – Natural causes, 1982

5.      Vladimir Lenin (Leading figure in Bolshevik Party) – Illness, 1924

6.      Nikolai Andreyev (Assassin of Count Mirbach) – Illness (Typhus), 1919

7.      Felix Dzerzhinsky (Founder and leader of the Cheka) – Illness (Heart attack), 1926

8.      Yakov Sverdlov (Leading figure in Bolshevik Party) – Illness (Spanish Flu?), 1919

9.      Larissa Reissner (Red Army soldier and writer) – Illness (Typhus), 1926

10.   Josef Stalin (Leading figure in Bolshevik Party) – Illness, 1953

11.   Adolf Joffe, (Leading figure in Bolshevik Party) – Suicide, 1927

Killed in Civil War

12.   Mikhail Muraviev (Former Tsarist officer and Left SR) – killed by Reds, 1918

13.   Dmitry Popov (Chekist, Left SR, Anarchist) – killed by Reds, 1921

14.   Commissar Panteleev (Involved in mutiny at Sviyazhsk) – killed by Reds, 1918

15.   Fyodor Podtelkov (Leader of Red Cossacks, SR) – killed by White Cossacks, 1918

16.   V. Volodarsky (Bolshevik) – killed by SR assassin, 1918

17.   Moisei Uritsky (Bolshevik) – killed by SR assassin, 1918

18.   Nikolai  Markin (Bolshevik sailor) – killed in battle, 1918

Unknown

(‘Unknown’ means ‘I was unable to find out.’ I’d appreciate further info anyone has).

19.   Vakhrameyev

20.   Makhrovskii (Communist imprisoned at Tsaritsin)

21.   Slavin (Unable to identify with certainty the identity of this individual)

22.   Mitorfan Grekov (Civil War painter) – died in 1934

Killed on the orders of Stalin

23.   Maria Spiridonova (SR leader) – executed, 1941

24.   Alexander Shlyapnikov (Bolshevik leader) – executed, 1937

25.   Lev Trotsky (Bolshevik leader) – assassinated, 1940

26.   Feodor Raskolnikov (Bolshevik sailor) – probably assassinated, 1938

27.   Lev Kamenev (Bolshevik leader) – executed, 1937

28.   Vasily Blyukher (Red officer) – executed, 1938

29.   Yakov Blumkin (assassin of Count Mirbach, Chekist) – executed, 1929

30.   Jukums Vacietis (commander of Latvian Rifles) – executed, 1938

31.   Bela Kun (leader of Hungarian Communists) – executed, 1938

32.   Yuri Sablin (left SR and Red officer) – executed, 1937

33.   IM Vareikis (Bolshevik, assassin of Muraviev) – executed, 1938

34.   Andrei Snesarev (Former Tsarist officer) – died in prison, 1934

35.   Pavel Sytin (Former Tsarist Officer) – executed, 1938

36.   Nikolai Bukharin (Bolshevik leader) – executed, 1938

37.   Martin Latsis (Either a Left SR or a Bolshevik; accounts vary) – executed, 1938

38.   Mikhail Tukhachevsky (Red Army commander) – executed, 1937

39.   Konstantin Akashev (Red aviator, anarchist) – executed, 1931