New episode of Revolutions Podcast: 10.83- Terror is Necessary: But is it though?

What can I say?  Another great episode.  I'll write some random observations down below:

As I catch up on the back issues, I'm currently listening to the episodes from Season 3: The French Revolution.  So it's interesting to hear that the Bolsheviks were drawing their lessons from the French Revolution.  

(Sidenote: I remember my history professor back in college say that one of the reasons Trotsky got pushed  out of the party in the 1920s is because everyone in the Russian Revolution was studying the French Revolution, and they thought Trotsky was the most likely to become the next Napoleon.  We'll see if that gets mentioned at all in future episodes.)
Mike Duncan mentions they were also drawing their lessons from the Paris Commune--Lenin that that the reason the Paris Commune failed was because they weren't vicious enough.  (Although that part I actually  knew already.)

And speaking of parallels to the French Revolution, it was interesting to hear how ruthlessly Trotsky executed commanders and soldiers who had fled.  (This was something that also happened in the French Revolution.)  It's a reminder that, although it's tempting to romanticize Trotsky, he really had a lot of blood on his hands.  (As I previously noted in my review of Young Stalin.)  

As is quite usual with this podcast series, the actual contents of the episode is much broader than the title.  This episode is not only about the Terror, but also about the growing civil war,  the attempted assassination of Lenin, and the involvement of the allies in the Russian Civil War.  

The attempted assassination of Lenin I knew was coming eventually, but I didn't know when in the chronology it would occur.  

I've heard it said before that Lenin's death in 1924 (he was only 53) was because of the injuries he received in the attempted assassination.  Mike Duncan didn't say so in this episode, but maybe it will come up later.

The allied involvement in the Russian Civil War is also an interesting topic in itself.  Most Americans have no idea that American soldiers were sent to fight in the Russian Civil War.  Mike Duncan mentions this briefly, but I hope it gets expanded on in future.  The ending of this episode hints that it be a big theme in next week's episode.