To save the revolution, we must first destroy the counterrevolutionaries."- Felix Dzerzhinsky
The CHEKA began with a decree from Lenin and Sovnarkom, dated December 19th 1917. The main cause of formation was the paranoia that the revolution was still in danger and that it had to be shielded from enemies. Many of the first Cheka agents Okhrana double agents who had fully converted to the cause. It is interesting to see how before the secret police was used to destroy the revolution but now it was being used to protect it. The Cheka however operated outside the rule of law: it acted of its own accord, investigated and arrested whoever it chose, and answered to no-one. It was never restricted by the rule of law or any obligation to due process or the rights of suspects. Chekists operated as investigators, arresting authorities, interrogators, prosecutors, judges, juries and executioners. The Cheka was of extreme importance, along with the Red Army (headed by Trotsky) in providing the support Lenin needed to secure his powers and ideals of the new union. |
The Red Terror was a Bolshevik-instigated campaign of intimidation, arrests, violence and executions. It unfolded in the second half of 1918, as the new regime struggled to eliminate opposition and threats to its own power, in the face of a looming civil war. This was overseen by the Cheka leader, Felix Dzerzhinsky, and carried out mainly by his agents. The Terror was soon expanded to include anyone who might pose a threat to the Bolshevik party or its policies: former tsarists, liberals, Mensheviks, members of the Russian Orthodox church, foreigners, anyone who dared to sell food or goods for profit. Peasants who refused to meet state requisition orders were branded as kulaks - greedy parasitical speculators who hoarded grain and food for profit, while other Russians starved – and were subject to arrest, detention and execution. Later, industrial workers who failed to meet production quotas or dared to strike were also targeted. As the Bolsheviks expanded their definition of who was an enemy of the revolution, they also expanded the Cheka. A small force of just a few hundred men in early 1918, within two years the CHEKA was large government agency employed around 200,000. Most historians believe more than 100,000 people were executed under the Red Terror
"This is no time for speech-making. Our Revolution is in serious danger. We tolerate too good-naturedly what is transpiring around us. The forces of our enemies are organizing. The counter-revolutionaries are at work and are organizing their groups in various sections of the country. The enemy is encamped in Petrograd, at our very hearth! We have indisputable evidence of this and we must send to this front the most stern, energetic, hearty and loyal comrades who are ready to do all to defend the attainments of our Revolution. Do not think that I am on the look-out for forms of revolutionary justice. We have no need for justice now. Now we have need of a battle to the death! I propose, I demand the initiation of the Revolutionary sword which will put an end to all counter-revolutionists. We must act not tomorrow, but today, at once!" - In Dzerzhinsky's first address as chief of Cheka