The Bolshevik secret police, Cheka (abbreviation of Russian words meaning the 'All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-revolution and Sabotage'), was established in December 1917

TASK 1: Read Lenin's letter to Felix Dzherzhinsky on establisment of the Cheka
1.1. What reasons gave Lenin to the need of the new security organisation?
1.2. What were the duties given to the Cheka?

> the beginning of the organised terror

Lenin's orders to Penza communists on 8 Nov 1918

- at the beginning of 1918 the Cheka had recruited 800 agents, at the end of the year there was 40 000.
- about half million people were executed between 1918 - 1921
- in 1920 there was about 50 000 people in prison camps, in 1923 about 70 000 (numbers are estimations)
- the Cheka was renamed the GPU (Main Political Administration) in 1923

TASK 2: The Soviet leaders used a term 'class enemies' to describe people they disliked. Consider the purpose to create such a category.