WHITE TERROR

Tanks of the American Army 11th Armored Division are crushing the people in the Mauthausen Concentration Camp, established in 1938, in Nazi-occupied upper Austria. 

White Terror is political violence and repression by reactionary, conservative, fascist groups to counter leftist revolutionary movements. Some White Terrors: Hungary (1919–1921): After the collapse of the Hungarian Soviet Republic led by Béla Kun in 1919, counter-revolutionary forces under Admiral Miklós Horthy launched violence, targeting communists, socialists, and Jews, resulting in 2,000 deaths. Spain (1936–1945): During and after the Spanish Civil War, Francisco Franco’s Nationalist forces unleashed a White Terror to eliminate supporters of the Spanish Republic, leftists, communists, and regional separatists, killing 4 lakh people, torturing political prisoners, suppressing leftist ideologies. This repression led to Franco’s dictatorship. Taiwan (1949–1987): After the Kuomintang (KMT) retreated to Taiwan in 1949 following defeat in the Chinese Civil War, Chiang Kai-shek’s government imposed martial law to suppress communists. 4,000 civilians were executed. 1.4 lakh people were imprisoned and/ or tortured. Russia (1917–1923): During the Russian Civil War, the anti-Bolshevik White movement engaged in violence against Bolsheviks, communists, and civilians. Bolsheviks’ Red Terror was systematic. White Terror was disorganized. White forces, including warlords like Grigory Semyonov, committed mass killings, pogroms, and village destructions. Finland (1918): After the Finnish Civil War, White Finns repressed socialists and communists, killing thousands. Bulgaria (1923–1926): The Tsankov government suppressed the communist September Uprising, killing 5,000. Mainland China (1927–1949): The KMT’s purge of communists, starting from the 1927 Shanghai Massacre, led to millions of deaths, primarily in rural areas. The use of paramilitary groups, secret police, and mass executions mirrored tactics of fascist regimes like Nazi Germany, Mussolini’s Italy. White Terror was to restore conservative nationalist order. Red Terror was ideologically to transform society.