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| − | [[Image:KGB Symbol.png|thumb|117px|The sword-and-shield emblem of the Cheka-KGB.]]
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| − | The '''Cheka''' ('''ЧК''' - чрезвычайная комиссия ''Chrezvychaynaya Komissiya'', {{IPA-ru|tɕɛ.ka}}) was the first of a succession of [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] [[state security]] organizations. It was created by a decree issued on December 20, 1917, by [[Vladimir Lenin]] . After 1922, the ''Cheka'' underwent [[Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies|a series of reorganization]]s and had numerous successors until the creation of the [[KGB]] in 1954.
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| − | From its founding, the ''Cheka'' was an important military and security arm of the [[Bolshevik]] communist [[government]]. In 1921 the ''Troops for the Internal Defense of the Republic'' (a branch of the ''Cheka'') numbered 200,000.
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| − | The Cheka is associated with the implementation of the policy of the '''Red Terror''', a campaign of mass arrests and [[execution]]s conducted by the [[Bolshevik]] government. The mass [[repression]]s were conducted [[extrajudicial punishment|without judicial process]] by the [[Cheka]], together with elements of the Bolshevik military intelligence agency, the [[GRU]]. Introduced in reply to [[White Terror#Russian White Terror|White Terror]], the stated purpose of this campaign was to struggle with [[counter-revolutionaries]] considered to be [[enemies of the people]]. Many [[Bolshevik|Russian communists]] openly proclaimed that Red Terror was needed for extermination of entire [[social classes|social groups]] or former "[[ruling classes]]".
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| − | == Name ==
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| − | The full name of the agency was ''The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating [[Anti-Soviet agitation|Counter-Revolution]] and [[Sabotage]]''<ref name=Stalinsleadership/>
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| − | ({{lang-ru|Всероссийская чрезвычайная комиссия по борьбе с контрреволюцией и саботажем}}; ''Vserossijskaya Chrezvychajnaya Komissiya''), but was commonly abbreviated to ''Cheka'' or ''[[VCheka]]''. In 1918 its name was slightly altered, becoming ''All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution, [[Profiteering]] and [[Political corruption|Corruption]]''.
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| − | A member of ''Cheka'' was called a ''chekist''. Chekists of the post-[[October Revolution]] years wore leather jackets creating a fashion followed by Western [[communism|communist]]s; they are pictured in several films in this apparel. Despite name and organizational changes over time, Soviet secret policemen were commonly referred to as "Chekists" throughout the entire Soviet period. In ''[[The Gulag Archipelago]]'', [[Alexander Solzhenitsyn]] recalls that [[White_Sea-Baltic_Canal#Commemoration|zeks]] in the [[Gulag|labor camps]] used "old ''Chekist''" as "a mark of special esteem" for particularly experienced camp administrators.<ref name="Solzhenitsyn cite">{{cite book |title=The Gulag Archipelago |last=Solzhenitsyn |first=Alexander |authorlink=Alexander Solzhenitsyn |coauthors= |year=1974 |publisher=[[Harper Perennial]] |location=New York, NY |isbn=006092103X |volume= II |pages= 537–38|quote=''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 [[Genrikh Yagoda|Yagoda]], [[Nikolai Yezhov|Yezhov]] and [[Lavrenti Beria|Beria]]. He was useful to them all.}}</ref> The term is still found in use in [[Russia]] today (for example, President [[Vladimir Putin]] has been referred to in the Russian [[News media|media]] as a ''"chekist"'' due to his career in the [[KGB]].
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| − | == History ==
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| − | The Cheka was created in December 1917, over a month after the [[October Revolution]] and the formation of the [[Bolshevik]] government and was subsequently led by an [[aristocrat]] turned [[communism|communist]], [[Felix Dzerzhinsky]].<ref name=Stalinsleadership>{{cite book |title=The Impact of Stalin's Leadership in the USSR,1924-1941 |authorlink=John Laver |year=2008 |publisher=Nelson Thornes |isbn=978-0-7487-8267-3 |pages=3}}</ref>. Its immediate precursor was the "commission for the struggle with counter-revolution," established on {{OldStyleDate|December 7|1917|November 21}}, by the ''Milrevkom'' (the [[Military Revolutionary Committee]] of the [[Petrograd Soviet]]) on the proposal of Dzerzhinsky<ref>Carr (1958), p. 1.</ref>. Its members were the Bolsheviks Skrypnik, Flerovski, Blagonravov, Galkin, and Trifonov<ref name="autogenerated1">Ibid.</ref>.
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| − | The Cheka was established on {{OldStyleDate|December 20|1917|December 7}}, by a decision of the ''[[Sovnarkom]]'', or Council of People's Commissars–the Soviet government. It was subordinated to the ''Sovnarkom'' and its functions were, "to liquidate counter-revolution and sabotage, to hand over counter-revolutionaries and saboteurs to the [[revolutionary tribunal (Russia)|revolutionary tribunal]]s, and to apply such measures of repression as 'confiscation, deprivation of ration cards, publication of lists of enemies of the people etc.'"<ref>Ibid., p. 2.</ref>. The original members of the Vecheka were [[Yakov Peters|Peters]], Ksenofontov, Averin, [[Grigoriy Ordzhonikidze|Ordzhonikidze]], Peterson, Evseev, and Trifonov<ref>Ibid., p. 3.</ref>, but the next day Averin, Ordzhonikidze, and Trifonov were replaced by Fomin, Shchukin, Ilyin, and Chernov<ref name="autogenerated1" />. A circular published on {{OldStyleDate|December 28|1917|December 15}}, gave the address of Vecheka's first headquarters as "Petrograd, Gorokhovaya 2, 4th floor"<ref name="autogenerated1" />.
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| − | Originally, the members of the Cheka were exclusively [[Bolshevik]]; however, in January 1918, [[Left Socialist-Revolutionaries|left SRs]] also joined the organization<ref>Schapiro (1984).</ref> The Left SRs were expelled or arrested later in 1918 following an attempted assassination of Lenin.
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| − | ===Successor organizations===
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| − | In 1922, the Cheka was transformed into the [[State Political Administration]] or [[Gosudarstvennoye Politicheskoye Upravlenie|GPU]], a section of the [[NKVD]] of the [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|RSFSR]]. With the creation of the USSR in December 1922, a unified organization was required to exercise control over [[state security]] throughout the new union. Thus, on November 15, 1923, the GPU left the Russian NKVD and transformed into the all-union '''Joint State Political Directorate''', also translated as "All-Union State Political Administration." Its official name was "''Ob'edinennoe Gosudarstvennoe Politicheskoe Upravlenie'' under the [[Sovnarkom|SNK]] of the USSR" (Объединённое государственное политическое управление при СНК СССР), or '''OGPU''' (ОГПУ).
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| − | The OGPU was responsible for the creation of the [[Gulag]] system. It also became the Soviet government's arm for the persecution of the [[Russian Orthodox Church]], the [[Eastern Catholic Churches|Greek Catholics]], the [[Roman Catholic Church|Latin Catholics]], [[Islam]] and other religious organizations (with the exception of [[Judaism]]), an operation headed by [[Eugene Tuchkov]]. The OGPU was also the principal secret police agency responsible for the detection, arrest, and liquidation of anarchists and other dissident left-wing factions in the early Soviet Union.
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| − | There were numerous successor organizations during the [[Joseph Stalin]] party chairmanship. After his death in 1953, the final successor, the [[KGB]] ([[transliteration]] of "КГБ") is the Russian-language abbreviation for Комитет государственной безопасности (Committee for State Security) would be formed in 1954 and would continue until the dissolution of the [[Soviet Union]] in 1991.
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| − | == Operations ==
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| − | ===Suppression of Political Opposition===
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| − | At the direction of Lenin, the ''Cheka'' performed mass arrests, imprisonments, and executions of "[[enemies of the people]]." The ''Cheka'' targeted "class enemies" such as the [[bourgeoisie]], and members of the [[clergy]]; the first organized mass repression began against the libertarian Socialists of Petrograd in April 1918.
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| − | However, within a month the ''Cheka'' had extended its repression to all political opponents of the communist government, including [[anarchism|anarchists]] and others on the left. On May 1, 1918, a pitched battle took place in Moscow between the anarchists and the police. ( P.Avrich. G Maximoff) In response, the ''Cheka'' orchestrated a massive retaliatory campaign of repression, executions, and arrests against all opponents of the Bolshevik government that came to be known as ''[[Red Terror]]''. The ''Red Terror'', implemented by Dzerzhinsky on September 5, 1918, was vividly described by the [[Red Army]] journal ''Krasnaya Gazeta'':
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| − | <blockquote>Without mercy, without sparing, we will kill our enemies in scores of hundreds. Let them be thousands, let them drown themselves in their own blood. For the blood of Lenin and [[Moisei Uritsky|Uritsky]] … let there be floods of blood of the bourgeoisie – more blood, as much as possible…<ref>page 9, Applebaum (2003).</ref></blockquote>
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| − | In an attack on twenty-six anarchist political centers, forty anarchists were killed by ''Cheka'' forces, and 500 arrested and jailed. At the direction of Lenin and Trotsky, the ''Cheka'' and [[Red Army]] state security forces (later renamed the [[OGPU]]), shot, arrested, imprisoned, and executed thousands of persons, regardless of whether or not they had actually planned rebellion against the communist government. Most of the survivors were later deported to Siberian labor camps.
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| − | An early Bolshevik [[Victor Serge]] described in his book ''"Memoirs of a Revolutionary"''
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| − | <blockquote>Since the first massacres of Red prisoners by the Whites, the murders of Volodarsky and Uritsky and the attempt against Lenin (in the summer of 1918), the custom of arresting and, often, executing hostages had become generalized and legal. Already the Cheka, which made mass arrests of suspects, was tending to settle their fate independently, under formal control of the Party, but in reality without anybody's knowledge.</blockquote>
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| − | <blockquote>The Party endeavoured to head it with incorruptible men like the former convict Dzerzhinsky, a sincere idealist, ruthless but chivalrous, with the emaciated profile of an [[Inquisitor]]: tall forehead, bony nose, untidy goatee, and an expression of weariness and austerity. But the Party had few men of this stamp and many Chekas.</blockquote>
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| − | <blockquote>I believe that the formation of the Chekas was one of the gravest and most impermissible errors that the Bolshevik leaders committed in 1918 when plots, blockades, and interventions made them lose their heads. All evidence indicates that [[revolutionary tribunal (Russia)|revolutionary tribunal]]s, functioning in the light of day and admitting the right of defence, would have attained the same efficiency with far less abuse and depravity. Was it necessary to revert to the procedures of the Inquisition?" </blockquote>
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| − | The ''Cheka'' was also used against the armed anarchist [[Black Army]] of [[Nestor Makhno]] in [[Ukraine]]. After the Black Army had served its purpose in aiding the [[Red Army]] to stop the [[White Army|Whites]] under Gen. [[Denikin]], the Soviet communist government decided it must eliminate the anarchist forces, which threatened to arouse rural peasant support against the [[dictatorship of the proletariat]]. In May 1919, two Cheka agents sent to assassinate Makhno were caught and executed.<ref>Avrich, Paul, ''Russian Anarchists and the Civil War'', Russian Review, Volume 27, Issue 3 (July 1968), pp. 296-306</ref>
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| − | ===Tracking down and punishing deserters and their families===
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| − | It is believed that more than 3 million [[deserter]]s escaped from [[Red Army]] in 1919 and 1920. Around 500,000 deserters were arrested in 1919 and close to 800,000 in 1920 by troops of the dreaded 'Special Punitive Department' of the ''Cheka'' created to punish desertions<ref>Chamberlain, William Henry, ''The Russian Revolution: 1917-1921'', New York: Macmillan Co. (1957), p. 131</ref><ref name="Black"/>. This force was used to forcefully repatriate deserters back into the Red Army, taking and shooting hostages to force compliance or to set an example. Throughout the course of the civil war, several thousand deserters were shot–a number comparable to that of belligerents during [[World War I]].
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| − | In September 1918, according to "[[The Black Book of Communism]]" in only twelve provinces of Russia, 48,735 deserters and 7,325 "bandits" were arrested, 1,826 were killed and 2,230 were executed. The exact identity of these individuals is confused by the fact that the Soviet Bolshevik government used the term 'bandit' to cover ordinary criminals as well as armed and unarmed political opponents, such as the anarchists.
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| − | The ''Cheka'' later played a major role in the putting down the [[Kronstadt Rebellion]] by Soviet sailors in 1921.
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| − | == Number of victims ==
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| − | Estimates on Cheka executions vary widely. The lowest figures are provided by Dzerzhinsky’s lieutenant [[Martin Latsis|Martyn Latsis]], limited to RSFSR over the period 1918–1920:
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| − | *''For the period 1918-July 1919, covering only twenty provinces of central Russia:''
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| − | ::1918: 6,300; 1919 (up to July): 2,089; Total: 8,389
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| − | *''For the whole period 1918-19:''
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| − | ::1918: 6,185; 1919: 3,456; Total: 9,641
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| − | *''For the whole period 1918-20:''
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| − | ::January-June 1918: 22; July-December 1918: more than 6,000; 1918-20: 12,733
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| − | Experts generally agree these semi-official figures are vastly understated.<ref>pages 463-464, Leggett (1986).</ref> W. H. Chamberlin, for example, claims ''“it is simply impossible to believe that the Cheka only put to death 12,733 people in all of Russia up to the end of the civil war.”''<ref>pages 74-75, Chamberlin (1935).</ref> He provides the ''"reasonable and probably moderate"'' estimate of 50,000<ref name="autogenerated1" />, while others provide estimates ranging up to 500,000.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN1560008873&id=sK5CJFpb2DAC&pg=PA39&lpg=PA39&ots=TubCNy7NoM&dq=lethal+politics+cheka+executions+most+probably+about+500,000&ie=ISO-8859-1&sig=X7A0DHHZ6WCVlnpj5m9CTB-u_rg page 39], Rummel (1990). Retrieved January 19, 2009.</ref><ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2273462.stm Statue plan stirs Russian row (BBC)] Retrieved January 19, 2009.</ref> Several scholars put the number of executions at about 250,000.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=9TWUAQ7Xof8C&pg=PA28&dq=kgb+cheka+executions+probably+numbered+as+many+as+250,000&ei=kPDrRvKoB5imoALvyaS5Dw&ie=ISO-8859-1&sig=GSLukXFh7KRQx6oQTEkNvvlC77E page 28], Andrew and Mitrokhin, ''The Sword and the Shield'', paperback edition, Basic books, 1999. Retrieved January 19, 2009.</ref><ref>page 180, Overy, ''The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia,'' W. W. Norton & Company; 1st American Ed edition, 2004.</ref> One difficulty is that the ''Cheka'' sometimes recorded the deaths of executed anarchists and other political dissidents as criminals, 'armed bandits', or 'armed gangsters'. Some believe it is possible more people were murdered by the ''Cheka'' than died in battle.<ref>page 649, Figes (1996).</ref> Lenin himself seemed unfazed by the killings. On 14 May 1921, the [[Politburo]], chaired by Lenin, passed a motion ''"broadening the rights of the [Cheka] in relation to the use of the [death penalty]."''<ref>page 238, Volkogonov (1994).</ref>
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| − | == Atrocities ==
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| − | The ''Cheka'' is reported to have practiced [[torture]]. Victims were reportedly skinned alive, scalped, "crowned" with barbed wire, impaled, crucified, hanged, stoned to death, tied to planks and pushed slowly into furnaces or tanks of boiling water, and rolled around naked in internally nail-studded barrels. Chekists reportedly poured water on naked prisoners in the winter-bound streets until they became living ice statues. Others reportedly beheaded their victims by twisting their necks until their heads could be torn off. The [[Chinese in Russian Revolution|Chinese Cheka detachments]] stationed in [[Kiev]] reportedly would attach an iron tube to the torso of a bound victim and insert a rat into the other end which was then closed off with wire netting. The tube was then held over a flame until the rat began gnawing through the victim's guts in an effort to escape. [[Anton Ivanovich Denikin|Denikin’s]] investigation discovered corpses whose lungs, throats, and mouths had been packed with earth.<ref>pages 177-179, Melg(o)unov (1925).</ref><ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=R6HAJIJhNp4C&pg=PA383&dq=red+victory+cheka+torture+beatings&ei=JPDrRvHBDY3goALEseCxDw&ie=ISO-8859-1&sig=Q2uKWqXLBGbGzwKVQYfnIR-LWaQ#PPA383,M1 pages 383-385], Lincoln (1999). Retrieved January 19, 2009.</ref><ref>page 646, Figes (1996).</ref>
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| − | Women and children were also victims of ''Cheka'' terror. Women would sometimes be tortured and raped before being shot. Children between the ages of 8 and 16 were imprisoned and occasionally executed.<ref>page 198, Leggett (1986).</ref>
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| − | ==Legacy==
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| − | The Cheka policed [[labor camps]], ran the [[Gulag]] system, conducted [[Prodrazvyorstka|requisitions of food]], liquidated political opponents (on both the right and the left), put down peasant rebellions, riots by workers, and mutinies in the [[Red Army]], which was plagued by desertions<ref name="Black">Nicolas Werth, Karel Bartošek, Jean-Louis Panné, Jean-Louis Margolin, Andrzej Paczkowski, [[Stéphane Courtois]], ''The [[Black Book of Communism]]: Crimes, Terror, Repression'', [[Harvard University Press]], 1999, hardcover, 858 pages, ISBN 0-674-07608-7 </ref>
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| − | Their work was instrumental in the success of the Bolsheviks during the [[Russian Civil War]], through the policy of the [[Red Terror]]. As a consequence, the ''Cheka'' was responsible for a large number of civilian deaths.
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| − | ===The Cheka in popular culture===
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| − | * The ''Cheka'' were popular staples in Soviet film and literature. This was partly due to a romanticization of the organization in the post-Stalin period, and also because they provided a useful action/detection template. Films featuring the ''Cheka'' include [[Ostern]]s ''[[Miles of Fire]]'', [[Nikita Mikhalkov]]'s ''[[At Home among Strangers]]'', and also ''[[Dead Season]]'' starring [[Donatas Banionis]] and the 1992 [[Cinema of the Soviet Union|Soviet Union]] film ''[[Chekist (film)|Chekist]]''.<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103949/ Chekist (1992)<!--Bot-generated title—>] Retrieved January 19, 2009.</ref>
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| − | * In [[Spain]], during the [[Spanish Civil War]], the detention and torture centers operated by the Communists were named ''checas'' after the Soviet organization.<ref>[http://www.firmaspress.com/285.htm International justice begins at home<!--Bot-generated title—>] Retrieved January 19, 2009.</ref>
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| − | == See also ==
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| − | * [[Russian Revolution of 1917]]
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| − | * [[Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies]]
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| − | * [[State Political Directorate]]
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| − | * [[People's Commissariat for State Security (Soviet Union)]]
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| − | * [[NKVD]]
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| − | * [[Ministry for State Security (Soviet Union)]]
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| − | * [[KGB]]
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| − | * [[Lubyanka (KGB)]]
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| − | * [[Felix Dzerzhinsky]]
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| − | * [[Vyacheslav Menzhinsky]]
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| − | * [[Yakov Peters]]
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| − | * [[Józef Unszlicht]]
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| − | * [[Genrikh Yagoda]]
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| − | * [[Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria]]
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| − | * [[Russian Civil War]]
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| − | * [[Red terror]]
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| − | * [[Mensheviks]]
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| − | * [[Bolsheviks]]
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| − | * [[Decossackization]]
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| − | * [[Lenin's Hanging Order]]
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| − | * [[Great Purge]]
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| − | ==Notes==
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| − | {{reflist|3}}
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| − | == References ==
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| − | * [[Christopher Andrew|Andrew, Christopher M.]] and [[Vasili Mitrokhin]] (1999) ''The Sword and the Shield : The [[Mitrokhin Archive]] and the Secret History of the KGB.'' New York: [[Basic Books]]. ISBN 0465003125.
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| − | * [[Anne Applebaum|Applebaum, Anne]] (2003) ''[[Gulag: A History]].'' [[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday]]. ISBN 0767900561
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| − | * [[E. H. Carr|Carr, E. H.]] (1958) "The Origin and Status of the Cheka." ''[[Soviet Studies]]'', vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 1–11. {{ISSN| 0038-5859}}
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| − | * Chamberlin, W. H. (1935) ''The Russian Revolution 1917-1921, '' 2 vols. London and New York. The Macmillan Company. {{OCLC|1124141}}
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| − | * Dziak, John. (1988) ''Chekisty: A History of the KGB.'' Lexington, Mass. Lexington Books. ISBN 9780669102581
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| − | * [[Orlando Figes|Figes, Orlando]] (1997) ''A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891-1924.'' [[Penguin Books]]. ISBN 0670859168.
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| − | * Leggett, George (1986) ''The Cheka: Lenin's Political Police.'' [[Oxford University Press]], New York. ISBN 0198228627
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| − | * Lincoln, Bruce W. (1999) ''Red Victory: A History of the Russian Civil War.'' Da Capo Press. ISBN 0306809095
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| − | * [[Sergei Melgunov|Melgounov, Sergey Petrovich]] (1925) ''The Red Terror in Russia.'' London & Toronto: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd.
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| − | * [[Richard Overy|Overy, Richard]] (2004) ''The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia.'' W. W. Norton & Company; 1st American edition. ISBN 0393020304
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| − | * [[R. J. Rummel|Rummel, Rudolph Joseph]] (1990) ''Lethal Politics: Soviet Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1917.'' Transaction Publishers. ISBN 1560008873
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| − | * [[Leonard Schapiro|Schapiro, Leonard B.]] (1984) ''The Russian Revolutions of 1917 : The Origins of Modern Communism.'' New York: Basic Books. ISBN 0465071546.
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| − | * [[Dmitri Volkogonov|Volkogonov, Dmitri]] (1994) ''Lenin: A New Biography.'' [[Free Press]]. ISBN 0029334357
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| − | == External links ==
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| − | *[http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUScheka.htm The Cheka] - Spartacus Schoolnet collection of primary source extracts relating to the Cheka. Retrieved January 17, 2009.
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| − | *[http://iaia.essortment.com/cheka_rvph.htm Origins of the Cheka] Retrieved January 17, 2009.
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| − | {{Secret police of Communist Europe}}
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| − | [[category:Politics and social sciences]]
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| − | [[category:Politics]]
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| − | {{credits|Cheka|259608096|State_Political_Directorate|260958201|Red_Terror|264161717}}
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