Photo Album: The Brutality of the Russian Civil War

“The Cheka [acronym for Chrezvychainaya Kommissiya (the the All-Russan Extraordinary Commission in the Struggle with Counterrevolution and Sabotage), the first Bolshevik manifestation of a state security police, December 1917, under Felix Dzershinsky] is the defense of the revolution as the Red Army is; as in the civil war the Red Army cannot stop to ask whether it may harm particular individuals but must take into account only one thing, the victory of the revolution over the bourgeoisie, so the Cheka must defend the revolution and conquer the enemy even if its sword falls occasionally on the heads of the innocent.”

Felix Dzerzhinsky (Red)

"The greater the terror, the greater our victories." He claimed he would be successful even if it was needed "to set fire to half the country and shed the blood of three-quarters of all Russians."

General Lavr Kornilov (White)

Helpless Woman in Samara Staring at Her Dying Husband

Stacked Famine Dead  Outside Cemetery in Samara

Hungry Russian Women Begging Relief Official for Food

Starving Child

Captured Bolshevik Leaders Shown Before Execution

White Propaganda Poster with Cloven-Footed Trotsky

Dead of Kharkiv Uncovered After Whites
Captured the City from Reds

Starving Russian Soldier, Allegiance Unidentified

Red Killed by American Forces, Northern Russia

Red Officer Awaiting Execution by Whites

As many as 10 million lives were lost as a result of the Russian Civil War, and the overwhelming majority of these were civilian casualties. 

Encyclopedia Britannica

Sources: Radio Free Europe; Spartacus