Michael Antonovich Dorman: the general and his «case»

This article deals with the case of the «Smolensk branch» of the monarhist union, "NashaRodina" ("Our Motherland"), in the context of the red terror during the Russian Civil war. It is based on documents from the Archive of the Smolensk Oblast Department of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation and the Russian State Military Archive. Main attention is paid to the personality of former general M. A. Dorman ("the head" of the " Smolensk branch") and to the working methods of the Western oblast ChK (Cheka) during the first months of the red terror (Fall 1918). It concludes that Smolensk Cheka officials fabricated the "counterrevolutionary organization". "The disclosure of the plot" and the execution of most of the defendants became a step in the formation of a system of preemptive terror, the act of frightening potential enemies of the Bolshevik regime, and a means of strengthening the role of ChK (Cheka) in the Soviet state.