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business
moved them from their prison to a hospital ward. Here they were murdered by two Kronstadt sailors assigned as their guard. Stienberg was outraged and at first it seemed that Lenin shared his concern but when it came to the crunch Lenin refused to back him in demanding that Kronstadt give up the two murderers.74 If this example is typical then clearly, while the Bolsheviks were not directly responsible, they certainly cuperble by neglect.
These two Ministers were merley the two most prominant victims. In the first few months of Bolshevik rule there were many 75others. Melgunev claimed to have a list (by no means exhaustive) of 884 victims in this period76. These murders were not officialy aproved yet the Bolsheviks did nothing to prevent them. Indeed the Bolshevik slogans such as "Peace to the Huts - War to the Palaces!" did much to encourage them. To a large extent the popular terror alowed the Bolsheviks to benefit from a level of intimidation while not having to take responsibility for it - with the implied threat that wihout the Bolshevik moderating hand an anarchic jaquerie would be unleashed.
Yet if Lenin used popular anger in this way it is also true that a section of the people were ready to be used. The Kronstadt sailors, the heroic fighters for freedom when they rose against the Bolsheviks in 1921, were preparing the ground for their own destruction when they protected the murderers of Shingarev and Kokoshkin.
When the Bolsheviks managed to control the freelance groups the killings did not end. The Cheka used widespread executions to keep order and enforce Bolshevik economic polices.77 However the presence of Left SRs in Collegium ensured that for a time there were no political executions.78
It is true that given the widespread hostility to the government grain monopoly the Cheka, with all it's brutality and lawlessness, was the only way to enforce Bolshevik policies. The Bagtraders were armed bodies of men - a pretty heavy bunch. But no democratic government would have even contemplated imposing such an unpopular policy.