The Role of Ideology in Revolutionary Terror: Comparisons of the French, Russian and Ethiopian Experiences

Events unfolded during the French Revolution immensely impacted on the ensuing political struggles across the globe. The Terror which took place in Russia and Ethiopia following the 1917 and 1974 Revolutions respectively were among the classic instances. This paper, therefore, attempts to encapsulate how the Terror orchestrated by the Jacobins emulated by the Russian Bolsheviks on the one hand and by the Ethiopian Revolutionary forces on the other. But one of the specific features of the Russian Revolution was the recurrent and extensive use of Terror. Yet among the waves of Terror unfolded in Russia, the first one (1918-21) is a classical revolutionary Terror akin to that of the Jacobins. Likewise the Terror that occurred in Ethiopia ostensibly from 1976 to 1978 under the leadership of Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam is also akin to this wave of the Bolsheviks Terror. Hence, the paper compares the three revolutionary Terror based on the roles of ideology as idiosyncrasy from which terror emanated.