Cheka
Cheka: (ЧК in Russian) was the first Soviet state security organization.
Actually called the Vecheka (ВЧК), it was created on December 20, 1917 and headed by Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinskiy. Vecheka stands for All-Russian Extraordinary Commission to Combat Counter-Revolution and Sabotage (Всероссийская чрезвычайная комиссия по борьбе с контрреволюцией и саботажем).
After early attempts by the west to intervene against the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War, great paranoia gripped the Soviet leadership and the Cheka. They became convinced that there was a wide ranging conspiracy of foreign enemies and internal counter-revolutionaries, and poured resources into the intelligence service to combat this conspiracy. The Cheka quickly succeeded in destroying any remaining counter revolutionary groups. Additionaly, 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). Soviet state security personnel were referred to as 'Chekists' throughout the Soviet period and the term is still found in use in Russia today.
Perhaps the most spectacular success of the Cheka (GPU) was the Trust Operation, 1924-1925. GPU agents contacted emigrés in western Europe and pretended to be representatives of a large group working for the overthrow of the communist regime, known as "the Trust". Exiled Russians gave the Trust large sums of money and supplies, as did foreign intelligence agencies. The trust finally succeeded in luring one of the leading anti-Communist operator, Sidney Reilly, into Russia to meet with the Trust. Once he was in Russia, he was captured and killed. The Trust was dissolved, and it became a large propaganda success.
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Referenced By
20 December | 20th December | Bolshevik | Bolsheviks | Bolshevism | Bolshevist | Bolshewiks | Civil War in Russia | December 20 | December 20th | Fanny Kaplan | Fanya Kaplan | Feliks Edmundovich Dzerzhinksiy | Felix Dzerzhinsky | Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinskiy | Felix Edmundovitch Dzherzinsky | Glavnoje Politicheskoe Upravlenije | Gosudarstvennoye Politicseskoye Upravleniye | History of Anti-Semitism | History of Russia and the Soviet Union (1917-1927) | History of the Soviet Union | History of the Soviet Union: Part I | History of the Soviet Union (1917-1927) | History of the USSR | Intelligence agencies | Intelligence service | Komitet Gosudarstvennoi Bezopasnosti | Komitet Gosudarstvennoi Bezopastnosti | Kronstadt Uprising | Kronstadt rebellion | Lavrenti Beria | Lavrentii Beria | Lavrenty Beria | Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria | List of English words of Russian origin | List of Poles | List of famous Poles | List of intelligence agencies | Princess Brassova | Russian Civil War | Secret service | Sidney Reilly | Timeline of Anti-Semitism | Words of Russian origin | Yevsektsiya
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