RUSSIA: A Glimse into the Notorious Cheka

When the Bolsheviks took power in Russia in 1917, things were chaotic. They had just overthrown the Provisional Government, World War I was still dragging on, and civil war was brewing. The new leaders knew they had enemies—lots of them. So they created a special force to deal with these threats. This group was called the Cheka, and it became the first of many secret police organizations in the Soviet Union.

In this blog post, we will look at the history of this notorious organization that was the root of the infamous KGB, which later led to the FSB we know today.

WHY WAS IT CALLED CHEKA?

The full name was a bit of a mouthful: The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage (in Russian Vserossiyskaya chrezvychaynaya komissiya po bor'be s kontrrevolyutsiey i sabotazhem). Most people just called it the Cheka or VeCheka . It was formed in December 1917, just weeks after the Bolsheviks seized power. They were the "sword and shield" of the Bolshevik revolution, tasked with keeping order and investigating dissidence to the new order. 

At first, the Cheka was supposed to stop counter-revolutionaries—anyone who opposed the new Soviet government. But very quickly, its mission grew. Soon, it was going after political opponents, suspected spies, "class enemies", and pretty much anyone the Bolsheviks didn’t trust. People could be arrested for saying the wrong thing, or sometimes for nothing at all. At first, lawmakers tried to get in their way, but Lenin soon put a stop to that. He gave orders to amend the laws that the Cheka can first arrest and then provide a reason for the arrests to the local judges, who were demanding that prisoners are given legitimate reasons for their arrests before they are captured. 

THE IRON COUNT 

The man in charge was Felix Dzerzhinsky, a hardline Bolshevik who believed in total loyalty to the cause. 

Dzerzhinsky, born into a wealthy Polish noble family in 1877, seemed an unlikely candidate for radical politics. However, by the 1890s he had immersed himself in Marxist circles in the Baltic region. Restless and committed to revolutionary change, he aligned with Lenin’s Bolshevik faction in 1906. Over the next decade, Dzerzhinsky endured years of imprisonment and forced labor, finally gaining release in the sweeping amnesty of 1917. His loyalty and unwavering ideology earned Lenin’s trust, positioning him as a key figure in the Bolsheviks’ rise to power during the October Revolution.

Louise Bryant, an American journalist who met Dzerzhinsky, portrayed him as intensely devoted to Lenin and emotionally distant—a man marked by stern moral rigidity. Though shy and austere in manner, he was also unflinchingly ruthless, his character shaped by relentless suffering and ideological conviction. His uncompromising commitment to the cause led others to nickname him "Iron Felix" and the "Iron Count", reflecting a blend of noble heritage and revolutionary severity. 

Under him, the Cheka had free rein. They didn’t need warrants. There were no trials. If they thought you were a threat, you could be arrested, tortured, or even executed—often on the spot. It was brutal and terrifying.

Head of Cheka, Felix Dzerzhinsky

 

IN CHARGE OF TERROR AND DEATH

One of the darkest chapters in Cheka history was the Red Terror, launched in 1918. This was a campaign of mass killings and brutal repression. The Cheka targeted former tsarist officials, rival political parties, intellectuals, and even ordinary workers who complained about their conditions.

They didn’t need solid proof to act—just suspicion was enough. Thousands, possibly tens of thousands, were arrested and executed without any trial. The goal was clear: create fear and crush any resistance before it could grow.

The Cheka spread rapidly across Russia, setting up local branches in cities and towns. In March 1918, there were about 120 agents in the Cheka. But, increase in anti-Bolshevik sentiments, an assassination attempt on Lenin, and the onset of the Civil War meant that Dzerzhinsky was given free rein for massive growth. Within one year, the Cheka ballooned to over 100,000 men and was one of the most funded agencies in the growing Soviet Union. 

They ran secret prisons where torture was common. The Cheka also recruited informants to spy on their neighbors, friends, and even family members. It was a world where trust was dangerous, and silence was often safer. Some of the preferred torture methods that the Cheka used were burning, branding, scalping, and beating. Medieval torture methods were also purported to be employed. Things like burning the hands until the skin peeled off like gloves, using rats in heated cages to gnaw through humans, pouring water on victims in cold weather so they can turn into living ice statues, or slowly drowning people. 

Dzerzhinsky famously declared that the Cheka’s job was not to debate but to "liquidate enemies." This ruthless approach set the tone for Soviet secret police for decades to come.

 

Cheka Emblem

EVOLUTION IN NAME ONLY, METHODS STAYED THE SAME

By 1922, after the civil war had mostly ended, the Soviet government wanted to soften the Cheka’s image. So they reorganized it into the GPU (State Political Directorate), and then later the OGPU. Despite the new names and some changes in structure, the core of what they did remained terrifyingly similar.

The GPU and OGPU still spied on citizens, arrested suspected enemies without due process, and ran labor camps that became the early Gulag system. The methods of fear, surveillance, and harsh punishment continued with little mercy.

In the 1930s, the OGPU became part of the larger NKVD (People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs). The NKVD played a central role in Stalin’s Great Purge, where millions were arrested, tortured, sent to labor camps, or executed. The secret police had become one of the most powerful and feared institutions in the Soviet Union.

After Stalin’s death, the NKVD’s role changed and eventually morphed into the KGB (Committee for State Security) in 1954. The KGB combined domestic security with foreign intelligence and espionage. While its tactics were sometimes less openly violent than during Stalin’s time, it maintained the same goal: protect the regime and suppress any opposition, often by any means necessary.

CONCLUSION

So, why does the Cheka matter today? Because it set the foundation for how the Soviet Union—and now Russia—used state security to maintain control.

It started as a tool to defend a fragile new government in a chaotic time. But it quickly became a system built on fear, violence, and surveillance. This approach was repeated and expanded for decades, shaping not just Soviet politics but also the lives of millions of ordinary people. The legacy of the Cheka lives on in modern Russian intelligence agencies like the FSB, reminding us how state power can be wielded with ruthless efficiency to silence dissent and control society. 

References

• Alpha History: The Cheka
• Soviet History MSU: Why the Cheka was Created
• UK GOV: What’s the Context? 20 December 1917: formation of the Cheka, the first Soviet security and intelligence agency