Cheka
The Cheka [1] was the first Soviet state security organization. It was created on 20 December 1917, after a decree issued by Vladimir Lenin. Its first leader was Polish aristocrat-turned-communist Felix Dzerzhinsky.[2]
| VCheKa (Russian: ВЧК) | |
|---|---|
| |
| Cheka badge as it was in 1922 | |
| Agency overview | |
| Formed | 1917 |
| Preceding agency | Petrograd VRK |
| Dissolved | (reorganized and renamed) 1922 |
| Superseding agency | State Political Directorate |
| Headquarters | 2 Gorokhovaya street, Petrograd Lubyanka Square, Moscow |
| Agency executive | Felix Dzerzhinsky |
| Parent agency | .svg){kind=small} Council of the People's Commissars |
History
By late 1918, hundreds of Cheka committees had been created in the cities. Many thousands of dissidents, deserters, or other people were arrested, tortured or executed by Cheka groups.[3] After 1922, Cheka groups underwent many reorganizations, as did the NKVD.
From its start, the Cheka was an important military and security arm of the Bolshevik communist government. In 1921 the troops of the Cheka numbered 200,000. These troops policed and ran the Gulag system; "requisitioned" food; tortured and executed political opponents; put down rebellions and riots by workers or peasants, and mutinies in the desertion-plagued Red Army.[4]
Cheka was succeeded by OGPU in 1922, but its members were still called Chekists.[5]
Name
The full name of the Cheka in 1918 was (in Russian) the "All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution, Profiteering and Corruption".
A member of Cheka was called a "chekist" throughout the Soviet period, despite various official name changes.[6] The term is still found in use in Russia. For example, President Vladimir Putin has been referred to in the Russian media as a "chekist" due to his career in the KGB.[7]
Cheka Media
Members of the presidium of VCheKa (left to right) Yakov Peters, Józef Unszlicht, Abram Belenky (standing), Felix Dzerzhinsky, Vyacheslav Menzhinsky, 1921
Smolny, the seat of the Soviet government, 1917
Grigory Petrovsky is a russian revolutionary
Felix Dzerzhinsky in a meeting among other members of the Presidium of the Cheka, 1919
Portrait of Martin Latsis on a Soviet postage stamp.
Corpses of hostages executed by Cheka in 1918 in the basement of Tulpanov`s house in Kherson, Ukrainian SSR, The Black Book of Communism
Corpses of people executed by Cheka in 1918 at a yard in Kharkiv, Ukrainian SSR, The Black Book of Communism
.jpg)
References
- ↑ ЧК - чрезвыча́йная коми́ссия chrezvychaynaya komissiya, Emergency Commission.
- ↑ Laver, John (2008). The Impact of Stalin's Leadership in the USSR,1924-1941. Nelson Thornes. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-7487-8267-3.
- ↑ pages 383-385[dead link] Lincoln (1999).
- ↑ Courtois, Stephane; Kramer, Mark (1999). Livre Noir Du Communisme: Crimes, Terreur, Repression. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-07608-2.
- ↑ "Library of Congress / Federal Research Division / Country Studies / Area Handbook Series/ Soviet Union / Glossary". Lcweb2.loc.gov. Retrieved 2011-07-27.
- ↑ Solzhenitsyn, Alexander (1974). The Gulag Archipelago. Vol. II. New York: Harper. pp. 537–38. ISBN 978-0-06-092103-3.
An old Chekist! Who has not heard these words, drawled with emphasis, as a mark of special esteem? If the zeks wish to distinguish a camp keeper from those who are inexperienced, inclined to fuss, and do not have a bulldog grip, they say: 'And the chief there is an o-o-old Chekist!' ... 'An old Chekist'—what that means at the least is that he was well-regarded under... Beria
- ↑ A Stalin slip and Putin trick | Opinion. 2011-05-10. http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/a-stalin-slip-and-putin-trick/436470.html. Retrieved 2011-07-27.