Cheka: Difference between revisions
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*Andrew, C., and Mitrokhin, V. (1999). The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West, London: Penguin Books. |
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Revision as of 07:55, 25 August 2005
The Cheka (ЧК in Russian) was the first of many Soviet secret police organizations.
A member of Cheka was called chekist. Over the time Cheka underwent reorganization and renaming, but Soviet state security personnel were referred to as "Chekists" throughout the Soviet period and the term is still found in use in Russia today (for example, President Vladimir Putin has been referred to in the Russian media as a chekist).
Actually called the Vecheka (ВЧК - VChK), it was created on December 20, 1917 and headed by Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky. Vecheka stands for All-Russian Extraordinary Commission. Full name was: All-Russian Extraordinary Commission to Combat Counter-Revolution and Sabotage (Всероссийская чрезвычайная комиссия по борьбе с контрреволюцией и саботажем), in 1918 changed to: All-Russian Extraordinary Commission to Combat Counter-Revolution, Profiteering and Power Abuse (Всероссийская чрезвычайная комиссия по борьбе с контрреволюцией, спекуляцией и преступлениям по должности).
After early attempts by the western powers (Britain and France) to intervene against the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War, and after the assassination of Petrograd Cheka leader Moisei Uritsky on August 30, 1918 (the same day Fanya Kaplan attempted to assassinate Vladimir Lenin), the Soviet leadership and the Cheka became convinced that there was a wide ranging conspiracy of foreign enemies and internal counter-revolutionaries. Therefore they poured resources into the intelligence service to combat this conspiracy. The Cheka quickly succeeded in destroying any remaining counter revolutionary groups. Additionally, the Cheka played a significant role in destroying nonpolitical criminal gangs.
At the end of the civil war, the Cheka was changed on February 8, 1922 into the GPU (State Political Directorate), a section of the NKVD (People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs).
Related articles
Sources
- Andrew, C., and Mitrokhin, V. (1999). The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West, London: Penguin Books.