How Did The Cheka Happen After The Russian Revolution

Could you imagine living in a time and place where you could be arrested for any reason, tried and executed all in one day? That is what happened after the Russian Revolution when the first secret police organization was created by Vladimir Lenin on December 20, 1917. They were known as the secret police even though their activities weren’t really a secret. The Cheka, were the first secret police group, it was created to remove any opposition to the Soviet regime, didn’t obey any rules, and set the path for the future of the secret police.
The Vecheka was created in the wake of the October 1917 Russian Revolution. It was to be the “Sword and Shield” (Llewellyn) of the revolution defending the Soviet regime by attacking its enemies, real or

The Cheka created a network of prisons and labor camps which became known as the world’s first concentration camps. Two events in the summer of 1918 helped the Cheka increase their power, these events led to ‘Red Terror.’ On August 30, 1918, the head of the Cheka group in Petrograd was murdered by a young officer. Also on this same day, there was an attempt on Lenin’s life in Moscow. Fanya Kaplan shot at Lenin three times as he was exiting a factory. One bullet struck him in his arm, another one grazed his neck causing severe bleeding. ‘Red Terror,’ the government's new terror campaign allowed the Cheka to shoot hostages and gave them the power to arrest, try and execute suspects. The total amount of Soviet citizens killed during ‘Red Terror’ was about 140,000 (Ascher p 113). During its 4 years in power, the Cheka was not restricted by law or obligation of due process. They operated outside the law, investigating and

Felix Dzerzhinsky was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1877 to a wealthy family, he was possibly a noble. Felix was part of the Marxist Political Group in the 1890’s in the Baltics before joining Lenin’s Bolshevik party in 1906. He spent over 10 years in prison and labor camps before being released in 1917. He was one of Lenin’s most trusted lieutenants, he was ruthless and devoted to Lenin. “Iron Felix” as he was called, handpicked Bolsheviks to be part of the Cheka, they had to be ruthless like him. Felix was a religious icon to his agents, portrayed as the “red saint.” Throughout 1918, under Felix’s leadership the group grew from 100 agents to over 100,000 because of an increase in anti-Bolshevik activity, onset of the civil war, the failed left SR uprising of July 1918 and the assassination attempt on Lenin. Dzerzhinsky wrote in the Red Army journal, their goal was “without mercy, we will kill our enemies in scores of hundreds. Let them be thousands, let them drown themselves in their own blood. For the blood of Lenin and Untsky…let there be floods of blood of the bourgeoisie – more blood, as much as possible…” (Schauss) The Cheka later grew into a “terror organization” against the enemies of the Bolsheviks. Most citizens spoke out against them but they remained in power until 1922, or the end of the Civil