Ostensibly created to protect theOctober Revolution from "class enemies" such as thebourgeoisie and members of theclergy, the Cheka soon became a tool of repression wielded against all political opponents of theBolshevik regime. The organization had responsibility forcounterintelligence, oversight of the loyalty of theRed Army, and protection of the country's borders, as well as the collection ofhuman andtechnical intelligence. At the direction ofVladimir Lenin, the Cheka performed mass arrests, imprisonments, torture, and executions without trial in what came to be known as the "Red Terror". It policed theGulag system oflabor camps, conductedrequisitions of food, and put down rebellions by workers and peasants. The Cheka was responsible for executing at least 50,000 to as many as 200,000 people, though estimates vary widely.
The Cheka, the first in a longsuccession of Soviet secret police agencies, established the security service as a major player in Soviet politics. It was dissolved in February 1922, and succeeded by theState Political Directorate (GPU). Throughout the Soviet era, members of the secret police were referred to as "Chekists".
The official designation wasAll-Russian Extraordinary (orEmergency)Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage under the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR (Russian:Всероссийская чрезвычайная комиссия по борьбе с контрреволюцией и саботажем при Совете народных комиссаров РСФСР,Vserossiyskaya chrezvychaynaya komissiya po borbe s kontrrevolyutsiyey i sabotazhem pri Sovete narodnykh komisarov RSFSR).[4]
In 1918, its name was changed, becomingAll-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution, Profiteering and Corruption.
A member of Cheka was called achekist (Russian:чеки́ст,romanized:chekíst,IPA:[t͡ɕɪˈkʲist]ⓘ). Also, the termchekist often referred to Sovietsecret police throughout the Soviet period, despite official name changes over time. InThe Gulag Archipelago,Alexander Solzhenitsyn recalls thatzeks in thelabor camps usedold chekist as a mark of special esteem for particularly experienced camp administrators.[5] The term is still found in use in Russia today (for example, PresidentVladimir Putin has been referred to in the Russianmedia as achekist due to his career in theKGB and as head of the KGB's successor,FSB[6]).
The Chekists commonly dressed in black leather, including long flowing coats, reportedly after being issued such distinctive coats early in their existence.[7][8] Westerncommunists adopted this clothing fashion. The Chekists also often carried with them Greek-styleworry beads made of amber, which had become "fashionable among high officials during the time of the 'cleansing'".[9]
After 1922, Cheka groups underwent the first ofa series of reorganizations; however the theme of a governmentdominated by "the organs" persisted indefinitely afterward, and Soviet citizens continued to refer to members of the various organs asChekists.[13]
The Cheka was largely controlled by people who came from well off backgrounds and from a diverse set of ethnicities. Eleven of the top twenty ranking Chekists were of the bourgeoisie or bourgeoisie-intelligentsia, one came from a family of wealthy landowners, two came from families of the industrial proletariat, only three were peasants, and three have unknown backgrounds. Six of the twenty were ethnic Russians, three were Polish Jews, three were Latvians, two were ethnic Poles, one was Ukrainian, one was an Azerbaijani Jew, one was Georgian, one was Armenian, one was a Russified Greek, and one was a Lithuanian Jew.[14]
On December 7, 1917, all of those invited except Zhydelev and Vasilevsky gathered in theSmolny Institute with Dzerzhinsky to discuss the competence and structure of the commission to combat counterrevolution and sabotage. The obligations of the commission were: "to liquidate to the root all of the counterrevolutionary and sabotage activities and all attempts to them in all of Russia, to hand over counter-revolutionaries and saboteurs to therevolutionary tribunals, develop measures to combat them and relentlessly apply them in real-world applications. The commission should only conduct a preliminary investigation".[clarification needed] The commission should also observe the press and counterrevolutionary parties, sabotaging officials and other criminals.
Three sections were created: informational, organizational, and a unit to combat counter-revolution and sabotage. Upon the end of the meeting, Dzerzhinsky reported to theSovnarkom with the requested information. The commission was allowed to apply such measures of repression as 'confiscation, deprivation of ration cards, publication of lists of enemies of the people etc.'".[16] That day, Sovnarkom officially confirmed the creation of VCheKa. The commission was created not under the VTsIK as was previously anticipated, but rather under the Council of the People's Commissars.[17]
On December 8, 1917, some of the original members of the Cheka were replaced. Averin, Ordzhonikidze, and Trifonov were replaced by V. V. Fomin, S. E. Shchukin, Ilyin, and Chernov.[17] On the meeting of December 8, the presidium of VChK was elected of five members, and chaired by Dzerzhinsky. The issues of "speculation" or profiteering, such as by black market grain sellers[18] and "corruption" was raised at the same meeting,[19] which was assigned to Peters to address and report with results to one of the next meetings of the commission. A circular, published on December 28 [O.S. December 15] 1917, gave the address of VCheka's first headquarters as "Petrograd, Gorokhovaya 2, 4th floor".[17] On December 11, Fomin was ordered to organize a section to suppress "speculation." And in the same day, VCheKa offered Shchukin to conduct arrests of counterfeiters.
In January 1918, a subsection of the anti-counterrevolutionary effort was created to police bank officials. The structure of VCheKa was changing repeatedly. By March 1918, when the organization came to Moscow, it contained the following sections: against counterrevolution, speculation, non-residents, and information gathering. By the end of 1918–1919, some new units were created: secretly operative, investigatory, of transportation, military (special), operative, and instructional. By 1921, it changed once again, forming the following sections: directory of affairs, administrative-organizational, secretly operative, economical, and foreign affairs.
In the first months of its existence, VCheKa consisted of only 40 officials. It commanded a team of soldiers, the Sveaborgesky regiment, as well as a group of Red Guardsmen. On January 14, 1918, Sovnarkom ordered Dzerzhinsky to organize teams of "energetic and ideological" sailors to combat speculation. By the spring of 1918, the commission had several teams: in addition to the Sveaborge team, it had an intelligence team, a team of sailors, and a strike team. Through the winter of 1917–1918, all activities of VCheKa were centralized mainly in the city of Petrograd. It was one of several other commissions in the country which fought against counterrevolution, speculation, banditry, and other activities perceived as crimes. Other organizations included: the Bureau of Military Commissars, and an Army-Navy investigatory commission to attack the counterrevolutionary element in theRed Army, plus the Central Requisite and Unloading Commission to fight speculation. The investigation of counterrevolutionary or major criminal offenses was conducted by the Investigatory Commission of Revtribunal. The functions of VCheKa were closely intertwined with the Commission ofV. D. Bonch-Bruyevich, which beside the fight against winepogroms was engaged in the investigation of most major political offenses (see:Bonch-Bruyevich Commission).
Grigory Petrovsky
All results of its activities, VCheKa had either to transfer to the Investigatory Commission of Revtribunal, or to dismiss. The control of the commission's activity was provided by thePeople's Commissariat for Justice (Narkomjust, at that time headed byIsaac Steinberg) and Internal Affairs (at that time headed byGrigory Petrovsky). Although the VCheKa was officially an independent organization from Internal Affairs, its chief members such as Dzerzhinsky,Latsis,Unszlicht, andUritsky (all main chekists), since November 1917 composed the collegiate of Internal Affairs headed by Petrovsky. In November 1918, Petrovsky was appointed as head of the All-Ukrainian CentralMilitary Revolutionary Committee during VCheKa's expansion to provinces and front-lines. At the time of political competition between Bolsheviks and SRs (January 1918),Left SRs attempted to curb the rights of VCheKa and establish through theNarkomiust their control over its work. Having failed in attempts to subordinate the VCheKa to Narkomiust, the Left SRs tried to gain control of the Extraordinary Commission in a different way: they requested that the Central Committee of the party be granted the right to directly enter their representatives into the VCheKa.Sovnarkom recognized the desirability of including five representatives of the Left Socialist-Revolutionary faction of VTsIK. Left SRs were granted the post of a companion (deputy) chairman of VCheKa. However, Sovnarkom, in which the majority belonged to the representatives of RSDLP(b) retained the right to approve members of the collegium of the VCheKa.
Originally, members of the Cheka were exclusivelyBolshevik; however, in January 1918,Left SRs also joined the organization.[20] The Left SRs were expelled or arrested later in 1918, following the attempted assassination ofLenin by an SR,Fanni Kaplan.
Consolidation of VCheKa and National Establishment
By the end of January 1918, the Investigatory Commission ofPetrograd Soviet (probably same as of Revtribunal) petitionedSovnarkom to delineate the role of detection and judicial-investigatory organs. It offered to leave, for the VCheKa and the Commission of Bonch-Bruyevich, only the functions of detection and suppression, while investigative functions entirely transferred to it. The Investigatory Commission prevailed. On January 31, 1918, Sovnarkom ordered to relieve VCheKa of the investigative functions, leaving for the commission only the functions of detection, suppression, and prevention of anti revolutionary crimes. At the meeting of the Council of People's Commissars on January 31, 1918, a merger of VCheKa and the Commission of Bonch-Bruyevich was proposed. The existence of both commissions, VCheKa of Sovnarkom and the Commission of Bonch-Bruyevich of VTsIK, with almost the same functions and equal rights, became impractical. A decision followed two weeks later.[21]
On February 23, 1918, VCheKa sent a radio telegram to all Soviets with a petition to immediately organize emergency commissions to combat counter-revolution, sabotage and speculation, if such commissions had not been yet organized. February 1918 saw the creation of local Extraordinary Commissions. One of the first founded was the Moscow Cheka. Sections and commissariats to combat counterrevolution were established in other cities. The Extraordinary Commissions arose, usually in the areas during the moments of the greatest aggravation of political situation. On February 25, 1918, as the counterrevolutionary organizationUnion of Front-liners was making advances, the executive committee of theSaratov Soviet formed a counter-revolutionary section. On March 7, 1918, because of the move fromPetrograd to Moscow, the Petrograd Cheka was created. On March 9, a section for combating counterrevolution was created under theOmsk Soviet. Extraordinary commissions were also created inPenza,Perm,Novgorod,Cherepovets,Rostov,Taganrog. On March 18, VCheKa adopted a resolution,The Work of VCheKa on the All-Russian Scale, foreseeing the formation everywhere of Extraordinary Commissions after the same model, and sent a letter that called for the widespread establishment of the Cheka in combating counterrevolution, speculation, and sabotage. Establishment of provincial Extraordinary Commissions was largely completed by August 1918. In the Soviet Republic, there were 38gubernatorial Chekas (Gubcheks) by this time.
On June 12, 1918, the All-Russian Conference of Cheka adopted theBasic Provisions on the Organization of Extraordinary Commissions. They set out to form Extraordinary Commissions not only atOblast andGuberniya levels, but also at the largeUyezd Soviets. In August 1918, in the Soviet Republic had accounted for some 75 Uyezd-level Extraordinary Commissions. By the end of the year, 365 Uyezd-level Chekas were established.
Felix Dzerzhinsky in a meeting among other members of the Presidium of the Cheka, 1919
In 1918, the All-Russia Extraordinary Commission and the Soviets managed to establish a local Cheka apparatus. It included Oblast, Guberniya,Raion,Uyezd, andVolost Chekas, with Raion and Volost Extraordinary Commissioners. In addition, border security Chekas were included in the system of local Cheka bodies.
In the autumn of 1918, as consolidation of the political situation of the republic continued, a move toward elimination of Uyezd-, Raion-, and Volost-level Chekas, as well as the institution of Extraordinary Commissions was considered. On January 20, 1919, VTsIK adopted a resolution prepared by VCheKa,On the abolition of Uyezd Extraordinary Commissions. On January 16 the presidium of VCheKa approved the draft on the establishment of the Politburo at Uyezdmilitsiya. This decision was approved by the Conference of the Extraordinary Commission IV, held in early February 1920.
On August 3, a VCheKa section for combating counterrevolution, speculation and sabotage on railways was created. On August 7, 1918,Sovnarkom adopted a decree on the organization of the railway section at VCheKa. Combating counterrevolution, speculation, andcrimes on railroads was passed under the jurisdiction of the railway section of VCheKa and local Cheka. In August 1918, railway sections were formed under the Gubcheks. Formally, they were part of the non-resident sections, but in fact constituted a separate division, largely autonomous in their activities. The gubernatorial and oblast-type Chekas retained in relation to the transportation sections only control and investigative functions.
The beginning of a systematic work of organs of VCheKa inRKKA refers to July 1918, the period of extreme tension of thecivil war and class struggle in the country. On July 16, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars formed the Extraordinary Commission for combating counterrevolution at the Czechoslovak (Eastern) Front, led byM. I. Latsis. In the fall of 1918, Extraordinary Commissions to combat counterrevolution on the Southern (Ukraine) Front were formed. In late November, the Second All-Russian Conference of the Extraordinary Commissions accepted a decision after a report fromI. N. Polukarov to establish at all frontlines, and army sections of the Cheka and granted them the right to appoint their commissioners in military units. On December 9, 1918, the collegiate (or presidium) of VCheKa had decided to form a military section, headed byM. S. Kedrov, to combat counterrevolution in the Army. In early 1919, the military control and the military section of VCheKa were merged into one body, theSpecial Section of the Republic, with Kedrov as head. On January 1, he issued an order to establish the Special Section. The order instructed agencies everywhere to unite the Military control and the military sections of Chekas and to form special sections of frontlines, armies, military districts, andguberniyas.
In November 1920, theSoviet of Labor and Defense created a Special Section of VCheKa for the security of the state border. On February 6, 1922, after the Ninth All-Russian Soviet Congress, the Cheka was dissolved by VTsIK, "with expressions of gratitude for heroic work." It was replaced by theState Political Administration (GPU), a section of Internal Affairs of theRussian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR). Dzerzhinsky remained as chief of the GPU.
As its name implied, the Extraordinary Commission had virtually unlimited powers and could interpret them in any way it wished. No standard procedures were ever set up, except that the commission was supposed to send the arrested to the Military-Revolutionary tribunals if outside of a war zone. This left an opportunity for a wide range of interpretations, as the whole country was in total chaos. At the direction of Lenin, the Cheka performed mass arrests, imprisonments, and executions of "enemies of the people". In this, the Cheka said that they targeted "class enemies" such as thebourgeoisie, and members of theclergy.
Within a month, the Cheka had extended its repression to all political opponents of the communist government, includinganarchists and others on the left. On April 11/12, 1918, some 26 anarchist political centres in Moscow were attacked. Forty anarchists were killed by Cheka forces, and about 500 were arrested and jailed after a pitched battle took place between the two groups.[22] In response to the anarchists' resistance, the Cheka orchestrated a massive retaliatory campaign of repression, executions, and arrests against all opponents of the Bolshevik government, in what came to be known as "Red Terror". TheRed Terror, implemented by Dzerzhinsky on September 5, 1918, was vividly described by theRed Army journalKrasnaya Gazeta:
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 andUritsky … let there be floods of blood of thebourgeoisie – more blood, as much as possible..."[23]
An early Bolshevik,Victor Serge described in his bookMemoirs of a Revolutionary:
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. 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 anInquisitor: 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. 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 thatrevolutionary tribunals, functioning in the light of day and admitting the right of defense, would have attained the same efficiency with far less abuse and depravity. Was it necessary to revert to the procedures of the Inquisition?"
The Cheka was also used againstNestor Makhno'sRevolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine. After the Insurgent Army had served its purpose in aiding theRed Army to stop theWhites underDenikin, the Soviet communist government decided to eliminate the anarchist forces. In May 1919, two Cheka agents sent to assassinate Makhno were caught and executed.[24]
Many victims of Cheka repression were "bourgeois hostages" rounded up and held in readiness forsummary execution in reprisal for any alleged counter-revolutionary act. Wholesale, indiscriminate arrests became an integral part of the system.[25] The Cheka used trucks disguised as delivery trucks, called "Black Marias", for the secret arrest and transport of prisoners.[26]
It was during theRed Terror that the Cheka, hoping to avoid the bloody aftermath of having half-dead victims writhing on the floor, developed a technique for execution known later by the German words "Nackenschuss" or "Genickschuss", a shot to thenape of the neck, which caused minimal blood loss and instant death. The victim's head was bent forward, and the executioner fired slightly downward at point-blank range. This had become the standard method used later by theNKVD to liquidateJoseph Stalin'spurge victims and others.[27]
It is believed that there were more than three milliondeserters from the Red Army in 1919 and 1920.[28] Officially there was about 2,630,000 registered deserters by the Central Committee for Struggle Against Desertion.[29] Approximately 500,000 deserters were arrested in 1919 and close to 800,000 in 1920, by troops of the 'Special Punitive Department' of the Cheka, created to punish desertions.[30][31] These troops were used to forciblyrepatriate deserters, taking and shooting hostages to force compliance or to set an example.
In September 1918, according toThe 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.
Estimates on Cheka executions vary widely. The lowest figures (disputed below) are provided by Dzerzhinsky's lieutenantMartyn Latsis, limited to RSFSR over the period 1918–1920:
For the period 1918 – July 1919, covering only twenty provinces of central Russia:
In 1918: 6,300; in 1919 (up to July): 2,089; Total: 8,389
For the whole period 1918–19:
In 1918: 6,185; in 1919: 3,456; Total: 9,641
For the whole period 1918–20:
In January–June 1918: 22; in July–December 1918: more than 6,000; in 1918–20: 12,733.
Experts generally agree these semi-official figures are vastly understated.[32] Pioneering historian of theRed TerrorSergei Melgunov claims that this was done deliberately in an attempt to demonstrate the government's humanity. For example, he refutes the claim made by Latsis that only 22 executions were carried out in the first six months of the Cheka's existence by providing evidence that the true number was 884 executions.[33] W. H. Chamberlin 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."[34]Donald Rayfield concurs, noting that, "Plausible evidence reveals that the actual numbers … vastly exceeded the official figures."[35] Chamberlin provides the "reasonable and probably moderate" estimate of 50,000,[34] while others provide estimates ranging up to 500,000.[36][37] Several scholars put the number of executions at about 250,000.[38][39] Some believe it is possible more people were murdered by the Cheka than died in battle.[40] Historian James Ryan gives a modest estimate of 28,000 executions per year from December 1917 to February 1922.[41]
Lenin himself seemed unfazed by the killings. On 12 January 1920, while addressing trade union leaders, he said: "We did not hesitate to shoot thousands of people, and we shall not hesitate, and we shall save thecountry."[42] On 14 May 1921, thePolitburo, chaired by Lenin, passed a motion "broadening the rights of the [Cheka] in relation to the use of the [death penalty]."[43]
There is no consensus among the Western historians on the number of deaths from theRed Terror. One source gives estimates of 28,000 executions per year from December 1917 to February 1922.[44] Estimates for the number of people shot during the initial period of the Red Terror are at least 10,000.[45] Estimates for the whole period go for a low of 50,000[46] to highs of 140,000[46][47] and 200,000 executed.[48] Most estimations for the number of executions in total put the number at about 100,000.[49]
According to Vadim Erlikhman's investigation, the number of the Red Terror's victims is at least 1,200,000 people.[50] According toRobert Conquest, a total of 140,000 people were shot in 1917–1922.[51] Candidate of Historical Sciences Nikolay Zayats states that the number of people shot by the Cheka in 1918–1922 is about 37,300 people, shot in 1918–1921 by the verdicts of the tribunals – 14,200, i.e. about 50,000–55,000 people in total, although executions and atrocities were not limited to the Cheka, having been organized by theRed Army as well.[52]
According to anti-BolshevikSocialist RevolutionarySergei Melgunov (1879–1956), at the end of 1919, the Special Investigation Commission to investigate the atrocities of the Bolsheviks estimated the number of deaths at 1,766,188 people in 1918–1919 only.[53]
The Cheka engaged in the widespread practice oftorture. Depending on Cheka committees in various cities, the methods included: being 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, or 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 beheaded their victims by twisting their necks until their heads could be torn off. TheCheka detachments stationed inKiev would attach an iron tube to the torso of a bound victim and insert a rat in the tube closed off with wire netting, while the tube was held over a flame until the rat began gnawing through the victim's guts in an effort to escape.[54][55]
Women and children were also victims of Cheka terror. Rape of women by Cheka guards and interrogators was commonplace, superiors would only put a stop to it if the rape became too brutal.[56] Many of the women were shot after they were raped. Children between the ages of 8 and 16 were imprisoned and occasionally executed.[55]
All of these atrocities were published on numerous occasions inPravda andIzvestiya: January 26, 1919Izvestiya #18 articleIs it really a medieval imprisonment? («Неужели средневековый застенок?»); February 22, 1919Pravda #12 publishes details of theVladimir Cheka's tortures, September 21, 1922Socialist Herald publishes details of series of tortures conducted by theStavropol Cheka (hot basement, cold basement, skull measuring, etc.).[57]
The Chekists were also supplemented by the militarized Units of Special Purpose (the Party's Spetsnaz orЧОН).
Cheka was actively and openly utilizing kidnapping methods.[58][59] With kidnapping methods, Cheka was able to extinguish numerous cases of discontent especially among the rural population. Among the notorious ones was theTambov rebellion.
As a result of this relentless violence, more than a few Chekists ended up with psychopathic disorders, whichNikolai Bukharin said were "an occupational hazard of the Chekist profession." Many hardened themselves to the executions by heavy drinking and drug use. Some developed a gangster-like slang for the verb to kill in an attempt to distance themselves from the killings, such as 'shooting partridges', or 'sealing' a victim, or giving him anatsokal (onomatopoeia of the trigger action).[60]
On November 30, 1992, by the initiative of thePresident of the Russian Federation the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation recognized the Red Terror as unlawful, which in turn led to the suspension of Communist Party of the RSFSR.
Cheka departments were organized not only in big cities andguberniya seats, but also in eachuyezd, at any front-lines and military formations. Nothing is known on what resources they were created.
Deputy –Yakov Peters (initially the chairman of the Petrograd Department for a month, and the number two in the Cheka overall)
Other members – Shklovsky, Kneyfis, Tseystin, Razmirovich, Kronberg, Khaikina, Karlson, Shauman, Lentovich, Rivkin, Antonov, Delafabr, Tsytkin, G. Sverdlov, Bizensky,Yakov Blumkin, Aleksandrovich, Fines, Zaks, Yakov Goldin, Galpershtein, Kniggisen,Martin Latsis (later transfer (chief of jail), Fogel, Zakis, Shillenkus, Yanson).
Petrograd Cheka (1918–1922)
Chairman –Moisei Uritsky (January 1918 to 30 August 1918),[62]Gleb Bokii (31 August 1918 to 30 September 1918), Meinkman (October 1918 to January 1919),[63]Varvara Yakovleva (acting chair in two periods; November 1918 to January 1919; and October 1919 to October 1921),[64]Nikolai Antipov (January 1919 to October 1919)[65]
Deputy – Gleb Bokii (March 1918 to August 1918), Varvara Yakovleva (September 1918 to February 1922), Nikolai Antipov (acting deputy chairman from November 1918 to January 1919)
Other members – Reiller,Kozlovsky, Model, Rozmirovich, I. Diesporov, Iselevich, Krassikov, Bukhan, Merbis, Paykis,Anvelt.
Kharkov Cheka
Deych, Vikhman, Timofey, Vera (Dora) Grebenshchikova, A. G. Aleksandra
In Spain, during theSpanish Civil War, the detention and torture centers operated by theRepublicans were named "checas" after the Soviet organization.[67]Alfonso Laurencic was their promoter, ideologist and builder.[68]
Dzerzhinsky, who rarely drank, is said to have told Lenin – on an occasion in which he did so excessively – that secret police work could be done by "only saints or scoundrels ... but now the saints are running away from me and I am left with the scoundrels".[69]
The Chekist, directed byAleksandr Rogozhkin, is a 1992 French–Russian film based on a 1923 short story by Vladimir Zazubrin. It tells the story of a bloody work and downfall of a Soviet Cheka security official involved in mass executions during theRussian Civil War.
The Soviet Story, a 2008 Latvian film, mentioned that Cheka is the Soviet terror machine, and Cheka is the "teacher" of Nazigestapo.
"Happy Birthday, Executioners" near the main FSB building, on the day the centenary of the Cheka was celebrated, 20 December 2017
Konstantin Preobrazhenskiy criticised the continuing celebration of the professional holiday of theold and the modern Russian security services on the anniversary of the creation of the Cheka,The Day of the Security Authorities of the Russian Federation [ru], with the assent of the Presidents of Russia. (Vladimir Putin, former KGB officer, chose not to change the date to another): "Thesuccessors of theKGB still haven't renounced anything; they even celebrate their professionalholiday the same day, as duringrepression, on the 20th of December. It is as if the present intelligence and counterespionage services of Germany celebratedGestapo Day. I can imagine how indignant our press would be!"[70][71][72]
^Solzhenitsyn, Alexander (1974).The Gulag Archipelago. Vol. II. New York:Harper Perennial. pp. 537–38.ISBN978-0-06-092103-3.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 underYagoda,Yezhov andBeria. He was useful to them all.
^abStone, Bailey (2013).The Anatomy of Revolution Revisited: A Comparative Analysis of England, France, and Russia. Cambridge University Press. p. 335.
^Pipes, Richard (2011).The Russian Revolution. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. p. 838.
^Lincoln, W. Bruce (1989).Red Victory: A History of the Russian Civil War. Simon & Schuster. p. 384.ISBN0671631667.... the best estimates set the probable number of executions at about a hundred thousand.
^Conquest, Robert (2007).The Great Terror: A Reassessment, 40th Anniversary Edition. Oxford University Press. pp. in Preface, p. xvi: "Exact numbers may never be known with complete certainty, but the total of deaths caused by the whole range of Soviet regime's terrors can hardly be lower than some fifteen million.".
^В. П. Данилов. «Советская деревня глазами ВЧК-ОГПУ-НКВД», 1918–1922, М., 1998. // РГВА (Российский Государственный Военно-исторический Архив), 33987/3/32.
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