Cheka Cheka ( ЧК - чрезвыча́йная коми́ссия " chrezvychaynaya komissiya " , Emergency Commission , ) was the first of a succession of Soviet state security organizations . It was created on December 20 , 1917 , after a decree issued by Vladimir Lenin , and was subsequently led by Felix Dzerzhinsky , an aristocrat turned communist . By late 1918 , hundreds of Cheka committees had been created in various cities , at multiple levels including : oblast , guberniya ( " Gubcheks " ) , raion , uyezd , and volost Chekas , with Raion and Volost Extraordinary Commissioners . Many thousands of dissidents , deserters , or other people were arrested , tortured or executed by various Cheka groups . After 1922 , Cheka groups underwent a series of reorganizations , with the NKVD , into bodies whose members continued to be referred to as " Chekisty " ( Chekists ) into the late 1980s . With Vladimir Putin ' s rise to power , the reference to the FSB members as " Chekists " arose , particularly by Putin ' s political opponents , often with negative connotations . 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 . These troops policed labor camps ; ran the Gulag system ; conducted requisitions of food ; subjected political opponents to torture and summary execution ; and put down rebellions and riots by workers or peasants , and mutinies in the desertion - plagued Red Army . Name . The name of the agency was originally " The All - Russian Emergency Commission for Combating Counter - Revolution and Sabotage " ( ; " Vserossiyskaya chrezvychaynaya komissiya po bor ' bye s kontrrevolyutsiyei i sabotazhem " ) , but was often shortened to " Cheka " or " VCheka " . In 1918 its name was changed , becoming " All - Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter - Revolution , Profiteering and Corruption " . A member of Cheka was called a " chekist " . Also , the term " chekist " often referred to Soviet secret police throughout the Soviet period , despite official name changes over time . In " The Gulag Archipelago " , Alexander Solzhenitsyn recalls that zeks in the labor camps used " old ' Chekist ' " as " a mark of special esteem " for particularly experienced camp administrators . 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 " " due to his career in the KGB ) . The Chekists commonly dressed in black leather , including long flowing coats , reportedly after being issued such distinctive coats early in their existence . Western communists adopted this clothing fashion . The Chekists also often carried with them Greek - style worry beads made of amber , which had become " fashionable among high officials during the time of the ' cleansing ' " . History . Creation . In the first month and half after the October Revolution ( 1917 ) , the duty of " extinguishing the resistance of exploiters " was assigned to the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee ( or VRK ) . It represented a temporary body working under directives of the Council of People ' s Commissars ( Sovnarkom ) and of RDSRP ( b ) . The VRK created new bodies of government , organized food delivery to cities and the Army , requisitioned products from " bourgeoisie " , and sent its emissaries and agitators into provinces . One of its most important functions was the security of " revolutionary order " , and the fight against " counterrevolutionary " activity ( see : Anti - Soviet agitation ) . On December 1 , 1917 , the All - Russian Central Executive Committee ( VTsIK or TsIK ) reviewed a proposed reorganization of the VRK , and possible replacement of it . On December 5 , the Petrograd VRK published an announcement of dissolution and transferred the functions to the department of TsIK to the fight against " counterrevolutionaries " . On December 6 , the Council of People ' s Commissars ( Sovnarkom ) strategized how to persuade government workers to strike across Russia . They decided that a special commission was needed to implement the " most energetically revolutionary " measures . Felix Dzerzhinsky ( the Iron Felix ) was appointed as Director and invited the participation of the following individuals : V . K . Averin , V . N . Vasilevsky , D . G . Yevseyev , N . A . Zhydelev , I . K . Ksenofontov , G . K . Ordjonikidze , Ya . Kh . Peters , K . A . Peterson , V . A . Trifonov . On December 7 , 1917 , all invited except Zhydelev and Vasilevsky gathered in the Smolny Institute to discuss the competence and structure of the commission to combat counterrevolution and sabotage . The obligations of the commission were : The commission should also observe the press and counterrevolutionary parties , sabotaging officials and other criminals . It was decided to create three sections : informational , organizational , and a unit to combat counter - revolution and sabotage . Upon the end of the meeting , Dzerzhinsky reported to the Sovnarkom 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 . ' " . 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 . On December 8 , 1917 , some of the original members of the VCheka were replaced . Averin , Ordzhonikidze , and Trifonov were replaced by V . V . Fomin , S . E . Shchukin , Ilyin , and Chernov . On the meeting of December 8 , the presidium of VChK was elected of five members , and chaired by Dzerzhinsky . The issue of " speculation " was raised at the same meeting , which was assigned to Peters to address and report with results to one of the next meetings of the commission . A circular , published on , gave the address of VCheka ' s first headquarters as " Petrograd , Gorokhovaya 2 , 4th floor " . 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 units had been 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 . First months . 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 the activities of VCheKa were centralized mainly in the city of Petrograd . It was one of the several other commissions in the country that 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 the Red Army , plus the Central Requisite and Unloading Commission to fight speculation . The investigation of counterrevolutionary or major criminal offenses was conducting by the Investigatory Commission of Revtribunal . The functions of VCheKa were closely intertwined with the Commission of V . D . Bonch - Bruyevich , which beside the fight against wine pogroms was engaged in the investigation of most major political offenses ( see : Bonch - Bruyevich Commission ) . All results of its activities , VCheKa had either to transfer to the Investigatory Commission of Revtribunal or to dismiss a case . The control of the commission ' s activity was provided by the People ' s Commissariat for Justice ( Narkomjust , at that time headed by Isidor Steinberg ) and Internal Affairs ( NKVD , at that time headed by Hryhoriy Petrovsky ) . Although the VCheKa was officially an independent organization from the NKVD , its main members such as Dzerzhinsky , Latsis , Unszlicht , and Uritsky ( all main chekists ) , since November 1917 composed the collegiate of NKVD headed by Petrovsky . In November 1918 , Petrovsky was appointed as the head of the All - Ukrainian Central Military 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 the Narkomiust its control over its work . Having failed in attempts to subordinate the VCheKa to Narkomiust , the Left SRs were to seek control of the Extraordinary Commission in a different way . They requested that the Central Committee of the party was 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 , the members of the Cheka were exclusively Bolshevik ; however , in January 1918 , the Left SRs also joined the organization The Left SRs were expelled or arrested later in 1918 , following the attempted assassination of Lenin by an SR , Fanni Kaplan . Consolidation of VCheKa and National Establishment . By the end of January 1918 , the Investigatory Commission of Petrograd Soviet ( probably same as of Revtribunal ) petitioned Sovnarkom 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 so - called 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 . 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 organization " Union of Front - liners " was making advances , the executive committee of the Saratov Soviet formed a counter - revolutionary section . On March 7 , 1918 , because of the move from Petrograd to Moscow , the Petrograd Cheka was created . On March 9 , a section for combating counterrevolution was created under the Omsk Soviet . Extraordinary commissions were also created in Penza , 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 38 gubernatorial Chekas ( Gubcheks ) by this time . On June 12 , 1918 , the All - Russian Conference of Cheka adopted the " Basic Provisions on the Organization of Extraordinary Commissions " . They set out to form Extraordinary Commissions not only at Oblast and Guberniya levels , but also at the large Uyezd 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 . In 1918 , the All - Russia Extraordinary Commission and the Soviets managed to establish a local Cheka apparatus . It included Oblast , Guberniya , Raion , Uyezd , and Volost 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 Uyezd militsiya . This decision was approved by the Conference of the Extraordinary Commission IV , held in early February 1920 . Other types of Cheka . 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 , and malfeasance 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 relationship to the transportation sections only control and investigative functions . The beginning of a systematic work of organs of VCheKa in RKKA refers to July 1918 , the period of extreme tension of the civil 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 by M . 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 the report of I . 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 by M . 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 , the Special Section of the Republic . Kedrov was appointed 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 , and guberniya s . In November 1920 the Soviet 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 the State Political Administration or GPU , a section of the NKVD of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic ( RSFSR ) . Dzerzhinsky remained as chief of the new organization . Operations . Suppression of political opposition . Initially formed to fight against counter - revolutionaries and saboteurs , as well as financial speculator s , Cheka had its own classifications . Those counter - revolutionaries fell under these categories : 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 the bourgeoisie , and members of the clergy ; the first organized mass repression began against the libertarians and socialists of Petrograd in April 1918 . Over the next few months , 800 were arrested and shot without trial . However , within a month , the Cheka had extended its repression to all political opponents of the communist government , including anarchists and others on the left . On April 11 / 12 , 1918 , some 26 anarchist political centres in Moscow were attacked . There 40 anarchists were killed by Cheka forces , and about 500 were arrested and jailed after a pitched battle took place between the two groups . ( P . Avrich . G . Maximoff ) 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 " . The " Red Terror " , implemented by Dzerzhinsky on September 5 , 1918 , was vividly described by the Red Army journal " Krasnaya Gazeta " : An early Bolshevik , Victor Serge described in his book " Memoirs of a Revolutionary " : The Cheka was also used against the armed anarchist Black Army of Nestor Makhno in the Ukraine . After the Black Army had served its purpose in aiding the Red Army to stop the Whites under Denikin , the Soviet communist government decided to eliminate the anarchist forces . In May 1919 , two Cheka agents sent to assassinate Makhno were caught and executed . Many victims of Cheka repression were ' bourgeois hostages ' rounded up and held in readiness for summary execution in reprisal for any alleged counter - revolutionary act . Lenin ' s dictum was : that it was better to arrest 100 innocent people rather than to risk one enemy going free . That ensured that wholesale , indiscriminate arrests became an integral part of the system . It was during the Red 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 the nape 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 the NKVD to liquidate Joseph Stalin ' s purge victims and others . Persecution of deserters . It is believed that there were more than three million deserter s from the Red Army in 1919 and 1920 . 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 . These troops were used to forcibly repatriate deserters , 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 . 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 . Number of victims . Estimates on Cheka executions vary widely . The lowest figures ( " disputed below " ) are provided by Dzerzhinsky ' s lieutenant Martyn Latsis , limited to RSFSR over the period 1918 – 1920 : Experts generally agree these semi - official figures are vastly understated . Pioneering historian of the Red Terror Sergei 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 . 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 . " Donald Rayfield concurs , noting that , " Plausible evidence reveals that the actual numbers . . . vastly exceeded the official figures . " Chamberlin provides the " reasonable and probably moderate " estimate of 50 , 000 , while others provide estimates ranging up to 500 , 000 . Several scholars put the number of executions at about 250 , 000 . Some believe it is possible more people were murdered by the Cheka than died in battle . 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 the . 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 ] . " Atrocities . The Cheka is reported to have practiced torture . 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 reportedly beheaded their victims by twisting their necks until their heads could be torn off . The Chinese Cheka detachments stationed in Kiev reportedly 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 . Anton Denikin ' s investigation discovered corpses whose lungs , throats , and mouths had been packed with earth . 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 13 were imprisoned and occasionally executed . All of these atrocities were published on numerous occasions in Pravda and Izvestiya : January 26 , 1919 Izvestiya # 18 articale " Is it really a medieval imprisonment ? " ( « Неужели средневековый застенок ? » ) ; February 22 , 1919 Pravda # 12 publishes details of the Vladimir Cheka ' s tortures , September 21 , 1922 " Socialist Herald " publishes details of series of tortures conducted by the Stavropol Cheka ( hot basement , cold basement , skull measuring etc . ) . The Chekists were also supplemented by the militarized Units of Special Purpose ( the Party ' s Spetsnaz or ) . Cheka was actively and openly utilizing kidnapping methods . With kidnapping methods Cheka was able to extinguish numerous cases of discontent especially among the rural population . Among the notorious ones was the Tambov rebellion . Villages were bombarded to complete annihilation like in the case of Tretyaki , Novokhopersk uyezd , Voronezh Governorate . As a result of this relentless violence more than a few Chekists ended up with psychopathic disorders , which Nikolai 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 ' , of ' sealing ' a victim , or giving him a " natsokal " ( onomatopoeia of the trigger action ) . On November 30 , 1992 , by the initiative of the President of the Russian Federation the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation recognized the Red Terror as unlawful , which in turn led to suspension of the Communist Party of the RSFSR . Regional Chekas . Cheka departments were organized not only in big cities and guberniya seats , but also in each uyezd , at any front - lines and military formations . Nothing is known on what resources they were created . Many who were hired to head those departments were so - called " nestlings of Alexander Keren " .