“As official reports arrived, confirming the extent of the Terror, I grew more and more disturbed. Revolutions, I knew, we’re not accomplished without bloodshed, and the suppression of counterrevolutionary activity was both inevitable and fully justified on the part of the revolutionary regime. Russia was compelled to defend itself not only against the assaults of world capitalism but against thousands of conspirators and reactionaries within its own borders. But was wholesale slaughter necessary? Was not the Terror expanding beyond its legitimate bounds?”

Angelica Balabanov