leftist Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social hierarchies. Left-wing politi ...

terminology, individual terror, a form of

revolutionary terror Revolutionary terror, also referred to as revolutionary terrorism or reign of terror, refers to the institutionalized application of force to counter-revolutionaries, particularly during the French Revolution from the years 1793 to 1795 (see t ...

, is the murder of isolated individuals with the goal of promotion of a political movement, of provoking political changes, up to political revolution. Lev Sedov "On the Moscow Trials," Ch. 10
"Marxism and Individual Terror"
Ze'ev Iviansky, "Individual Terror: Concept and Typology," Journal of Contemporary History January 1977 vol. 12 no. 1 43-63 As such, it differs from other forms of

targeted killing Targeted killing is a form of assassination carried out by governments Extrajudicial killing, outside a judicial procedure or a battlefield. Since the late 20th century, the legal status of targeted killing has become a subject of contention wit ...

, in particular, the close type of individual murder, the ancient practice of political assassination.

Individual terror vs. political assassination

Many authors do not draw distinction between types of political assassinations and furthermore, and there is no full consensus on the issue.Political assassinations by Jews: a rhetorical device for justice By Nachman Ben-Yehuda, , 1993

/ref> Ze'ev Iviansky attempted to draw a distinction as follows. While revolutionary individual terror and traditional political assassination share the common goal, a major political change, they differ in various aspects: tactics, methods, role, view on the society, and significance of an individual act. Most of the differences stem from the immediate purpose of an individual act. In traditional political assassination the target of the killing is a central political figure, such as the king or

dictator A dictator is a political leader who possesses absolute Power (social and political), power. A dictatorship is a state ruled by one dictator or by a polity. The word originated as the title of a Roman dictator elected by the Roman Senate to r ...

, whose removal would give way to political changes, and as such the choice of the target is of primary importance. The ultimate goal is to hit the regime represented by the target. Whereas in individual terror, the choice of the target, while important, is secondary to the primary goal, which is to bring the attention of the public to a political movement and to promote the political movement. This key distinction explains differences in tactics. While traditional political assassination may well be clandestine, the efficiency of revolutionary individual terror in a greater extent depends on the publicity of the act. The target of a political assassination is usually a very specific individual, while the target of an act of terrorism is not. David C. Rapoport (1971) drew the difference as follows: "...the assassin destroys men who are corrupting the system, while the terrorist destroys a system which has already corrupted everyone it touches..."

History

The roots of individual terror as revolutionary tactics lie in the second half of the 19th century in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. Part of its theoretical base was " propaganda by deed" put forth by the ideologists of

anarchism Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

. Different revolutionary parties had different attitude to individual terror, for political, tactical, moral, and other reasons.

Individual terror vs. political assassination

History

See also

References

Further reading