Cheka
The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (AREOC; Russian: Всероссийская чрезвычайная комиссия, tr. Vserossijskaja črezvyčajnaja komissija, IPA: [fsʲɪrɐˈsʲijskəjə tɕrʲɪzvɨˈtɕæjnəjə kɐˈmʲisʲɪjə]), abbreviated as VChK (Russian: ВЧК, IPA: [vɛ tɕe ˈka]), and commonly known as Cheka (Russian: Чека, IPA: [tɕɪˈka]; from the initialism ЧК), was the first of a succession of Soviet secret-police organizations known for conducting the Red Terror. Established on December 5 (Old Style) 1917 by the Sovnarkom, it came under the leadership of Bolshevik revolutionary Felix Dzerzhinsky. By late 1918, hundreds of Cheka committees had sprung up in the Russian SFSR at all levels.
| Всероссийская чрезвычайная комиссия (Russian) | |
Badge commemorating 5 years of the VChK–GPU | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | December 5, 1917 |
| Preceding agencies | |
| Dissolved | February 6, 1922 |
| Superseding agency | |
| Type | State security |
| Headquarters |
|
| Agency executive | |
| Parent agency | Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom) |
Ostensibly set up to protect the revolution from reactionary forces, i.e., "class enemies" such as the bourgeoisie and members of the clergy, it soon became the repression tool against all political opponents of the communist regime. At the direction of Vladimir Lenin, the Cheka performed mass arrests, imprisonments, torture, and executions without trial.
In 1921, the Troops for the Internal Defense of the Republic (a branch of the Cheka) numbered at least 200,000. They policed labor camps, ran the Gulag system, conducted requisitions of food, and put down rebellions and riots by workers and peasants and mutinies in the Red Army.
The organization was dissolved in 1922 and succeeded by the State Political Directorate or GPU.