  yakov khristoforovich peters (, , ) ( &mdash; 25 april 1938) was a latvian communist revolutionary who played a part in the establishment of the soviet union. together with feliks dzerzhinsky, he was one of the founders and chiefs of the cheka (vchk), the secret police of the soviet union. he was the deputy chairman of the cheka from 1918 and briefly the acting chairman of the cheka from 7 july to 22 august 1918. ==early years== he was born in brinken volost of hasenpoth uyezd, courland governorate (now nÄ«krÄce parish, skrunda municipality), to a poor farmer's family on december 3, 1886. he became a member of the latvian social democratic workers' party in 1904. in the aftermath of the russian revolution of 1905 he was arrested in 1
1886_births 1938_deaths Bolsheviks Cheka Great_Purge_victims_from_Latvia Latvian_communists Latvian_people_executed_by_the_Soviet_Union People_from_Courland_Governorate Soviet_rehabilitations