Have you ever heard of the "Cheka"? If not, then the KGB is an institution you will certainly not be unfamiliar with. Yes, the Cheka was the predecessor of the KGB and the largest intelligence agency in the world at the time.
"Cheka" is an abbreviation in Russian, and its full name is "All-Russian Extraordinary Committee for the Elimination of Counter-Revolution and Sabotage". During the Soviet era, the more official version was that the Cheka was a tool for the Red Terror against the White Terror and for the defense of the nascent Soviet regime.
Yes, as the Soviet authorities say, the original establishment of the Cheka was indeed in the service of consolidating Soviet power.
After the victory of the October Revolution, the Russian landlords and bourgeois elements attempted to sabotage by various means in a vain attempt to overthrow the nascent Soviet power. In order to maintain the dominance of the Bolsheviks, on December 20, 1917, Lenin decided to form the "Committee for the Suppression of the Rebellion" (referred to as the Cheka) and appointed Dzerzhinsky as chairman of the Cheka.
In February 1918, lenin's Soviet government published the Letter of the Council of People's Commissars to the Working People of Russia, in which the specific functions of the Cheka were defined for the first time: all enemy traitors, speculative traders, thugs, hooligans, counter-revolutionary agitators, German spies, were executed on the spot. Soon after the document was promulgated, the Russian People's Committee gave the Cheka the soviet power to execute executions without trial.
Now people think of the Cheka as a powerful intelligence organization, but in Soviet Russia at that time, the cheka's fundamental function was internal repression, and intelligence work was only its side business.
The original Cheka was divided into three bureaus: the Intelligence Bureau, the Organization Bureau, and the Operations Bureau. Of these three bureaus, the Bureau of Action was undoubtedly the most powerful department, and almost all of the repressive activities in Soviet Russia were carried out by this department.
The character of Zhu Helai is mentioned in the book "How Steel is Made", and Zhu Helai is a true portrayal of the cheka members at that time. In its early years, the Cheka played the role of a soviet for the defense of the Soviets, not only fighting the stubborn White Russians, but also often going deep into the countryside to engage in life-and-death rivalry with the local recalcitrant landlords and rich peasants. In the process, many backbone Soviet forces were killed.
While the concentration of power is daunting, prolonged concentration is not conducive to the political process and can even produce political terror, as the Cheka is a clear example.
As mentioned earlier, since the birth of the Cheka, it has been regarded as a sword of Soviet state rule. Due to the treacherous environment in Soviet Russia after the October Revolution, the social order in Russia at that time had effectively collapsed, and large areas of the country were out of Moscow's control. In this case, organizations such as the Cheka must be created to reshape the Russian order, even if it is terribly terrifying.
In September 1918, in response to the terrible situation in Which Russia was in chaos, Lenin openly declared that he would create a "red terror" against the bourgeois counter-revolution, causing great panic in Soviet society.
According to official Cheka statistics, the number of Cheka hangers and executions between 1917 and 1922 may have reached hundreds of thousands. Not only the members of the opposition were involved, but also the remnants of all strata of Soviet society, and the entire family of the last Russian Tsar, Nicholas II, was also killed in the purge.
Of course, this figure is only a fraction of the total, not including the actions of the Cheka's local branches. Because of this, some Russian Social-Democrats also denounced Lenin, and the Menshevik leader Martov and the German revolutionary pioneer Kautsky even called him the "Reign of Terror."
But we also have to admit that the Work of the Cheka has been very productive. In times of turmoil, no one cares about any laws, and in their view, only guns are the last word. Therefore, the only way to deal with these petty criminals is to use violent means, and when the conspiracy meets the iron fist, any atrocities against the Soviets will disappear.
This is the difference between a theorist and a doer. Plekhanov and Martov, as theoreticians, saw only the Side of the Cheka's suppression of the reactionary forces, and they did not know what predicament had been encountered with the nascent Soviet regime before the establishment of the Cheka.
On August 30, 1918, Lenin was even severely wounded by the assassination of the opposition. In view of this, it is inevitable to respond to a counterattack, and the Soviet government cannot remain indifferent to this. Perhaps when bad luck comes to theoreticians such as Plekhanov, they will understand the importance of the existence of state violence institutions.
In a moment of revolutionary crisis, the Soviet leaders were able to delegate power decisively, allowing the Cheka to free his hands and feet against all enemies at home and abroad. In this respect, the establishment of the Cheka did play a particularly positive role in consolidating Soviet power.