The secret police under Lenin

Question 1

Terror was an essential part of…

Answer 1

Lenin’s strategy for staying in power. Lenin was willing, from the earliest phase of the revolution, to use terror against his political opponents

Question 2

Lenin and the French Revolution

Answer 2

Lenin and other Communist leaders had studies the French Revolution and knew that terror was one of the weapons used by the new rulers against the old rulers. In that sense, Lenin believed that revolutionary terror was a legitimate part of a revolution

Question 3

Significantly, Lenin repeatedly stated that he hoped the Red Terror would be…

Answer 3

less severe than the French Revolutionary terror

Question 4

Lenin believed that political terror was a _____ measure, which should be _______ once the revolution was secure

Answer 4

temporary
abandoned

Question 5

Lenin’s first secret police

Answer 5

The Cheka

Question 6

When was the Cheka established?

Answer 6

20 December 1917

Question 7

The target of the Cheka

Answer 7

The counter-revolutionaries: those who tried to overthrow the revolution

Question 8

Who served as the head of the Cheka from 1917-26?

Answer 8

Felix Dzerzhinsky

Question 9

In what way did the Cheka link to Tsarism?

Answer 9

The Cheka was in many ways a reincarnation of the Tsarist security service, the Okhrana, making use of its methods and in some cases its personnel, as well

Question 10

Dzerzhinsky and the Okhrana

Answer 10

The Cheka’s first head, the Pole Feliks Dzerzhinsky, had spent years in Tsarist prisons or exile, and had learned his tradecraft from the Okhrana

Question 11

Dzerzhinsky nickname

Answer 11

Iron Felix

Question 12

During the Civil War, the Cheka’s role was to…

Answer 12

protect Communist rule in areas held by Communists

Question 13

Significantly, from the early days of the revolution, the Cheka attacked not only the Communists’ capitalist enemies, but also other socialists - provide evidence to support this claim

Answer 13

In January 1918, the Cheka and the Red Army closed down the Constituent Assembly, a democratically elected parliament that was dominated by the Communists’ rivals, the Socialist Revolutionaries

Question 14

The Cheka did not ________ laws. Nor were they _______ by laws. Rather they dispensed “__________ __________”, which allowed them to act ________

Answer 14

enforce
bound
revolutionary
justice
arbitrarily

Question 14

Between 1917 and 1921 Lenin’s secret police used terror in a variety of ways. The Cheka:

Answer 14

• Helped the Red Army requisition grain from the peasants as part of War Communism
• Supported the Red Army’s attack on the Kronstadt Naval base; Cheka agents with machine guns were positioned behind Red Army soldiers and instructed to shoot any soldiers who retreated or refused to fight
• Ran concentration camps that housed the Communists’ enemies
• Stopped private trading, which was outlawed under War Communism

Question 15

What was the Cheka replaced with??

Answer 15

GPU - The State Political Directorate (also translated as the State Political Administration)

Question 16

Who was the head of the GPU

Answer 16

Felix Dzerzhinsky

Question 17

In 1922 Lenin instructed Felix Dzerzhinsky to set up an agency within the GPU to…

Answer 17

monitor the press

Question 18

The GPU kept former _____ officers, who now served in the _____ Army, under ________

Answer 18

Tsarist
Red
surveillance

Question 19

Lenin was also suspicious of intellectuals and experts who did not support the government fully - provide evidence to support this claim

Answer 19

In 1922 Lenin instructed Felix Dzerzhinsky to supervise the deportation of professors and engineers that he suspected of anti-Communist sympathies

Question 20

Lenin was profoundly ________ about the future of the revolution. He feared that the _______ __________ of the NEP would lead to political _________. Therefore he ordered Felix Dzerzhinsky to set up ______ ______ of his leading socialist opponents

Answer 20

insecure
economic
compromise
overthrow
political
trials

Question 21

Political trials under Felix Dzerzhinsky and Lenin

Answer 21

In 1922 Felix Dzerzhinsky organised the trial of Socialist Revolutionary leaders
They were accused of treason, sabotage and plotting to overthrow the Soviet state
At the end of the trial in August 1922 all of the dependants were sentenced to death
Most were, however, imprisoned and only executed in the Stalinist terror of the mid-1930s

Question 22

The GPU also policed the semi-capitalist marketplace established by the NEP. This included:

Answer 22

• Imprisoning Nepmen who had grown too rich
• Harassing women who dressed in Western styles
• Persecuting young people who danced to jazz
• Persecuting priests

Question 23

What were Lenin’s reasons for founding the secret police?

Answer 23

To preserve the revolution
To guarantee internal protection