The Secret Police Under Lenin Flashcards
What were his reasons for founding the secret police?
To preserve the revolution
To guarantee internal protection
What was terror an essential part of?
Lenin’s strategy for staying in power
What was Lenin willing to do from the earliest phase of the revolution?
To use terror against his political opponents
What had Lenin and other Communist leaders studied? What impact did this have?
The French Revolution
Lenin knew that terror was one of the weapons used by the new rulers against the old rulers
Lenin believed that revolutionary terror was a legitimate part of a revolution
What did Lenin repeatedly state about French Revolutionary terror?
He hoped the Red Terror would be less severe than the French Revolutionary terror
Lenin believed that political terror was a _________ measure - which should be _________ once the revolution was secure
temporary
abandoned
What was the first secret police?
The Cheka
When was the Cheka established?
20 December 1917
Who did the Cheka target?
The counter-revolutionaries
Who were the counter-revolutionaries?
Those who tried to overthrow the revolution
Who served as the head of the Cheka from 1917-26?
Feliks Dzerzhinsky
In what way did the Cheka link to Tsarism?
The Cheka was in many ways a reincarnation of the Okhrana - the Tsarist security service
In what ways was the Cheka similar to the Okhrana?
The Cheka made use of its methods and in some cases its personnel
What is the relationship between Dzerzhinsky and the Okrana?
Dzerzhinsky had spent years in Tsarist prisons or exile. He had learned his tradecraft from the Okhrana
What was the nickname given to Dzerzhinsky?
Iron Felix
What was the role give to the Cheka during the Civil War?
To protect Communist rule in areas held by Communists
The Cheka attacked capitalist enemies from the early days of the revolution. Who else did they attack?
Other socialists
Give evidence to support the claim that the Cheka attacked other socialists.
The Cheka and the Red Army closed down the Constituent Assembly (January 1918)
The Constituent Assembly was dominated by the Socialist Revolutionaries - their rivals
The Cheka did not ________ laws. Nor were they _______ by laws. Rather they dispensed __________ __________ - allowing them to act ________
enforce
bound
revolutionary
justice
arbitrarily
The Cheka used terror in a variety of ways during the Civil War. What are some examples of this?
- Helped the Red Army requisition grain from the peasants as part of War Communism\
- Supported the 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 enemies
- Stopped private trading (which was outlawed under War Communism)
What was the Cheka replaced with?
GPU - The State Political Directorate (also translated as the State Political Administration)
Who was the head of the GPU
Felix Dzerzhinsky
Lenin instructed Felix Dzerzhinsky to set up an agency within the GPU. When was this?
1922
Lenin instructed Felix Dzerzhinsky to set up an agency within the GPU. To do what?
Monitor the press
The GPU kept former _____ officers (who now served in the _____ Army) under ________
Tsarist
Red
surveillance
Lenin was also suspicious of intellectuals and experts who did not support the government fully. Provide evidence to support this claim.
Lenin instructed Felix Dzerzhinsky to supervise the deportation of professors and engineers that he suspected of anti-Communist sympathies (1922)
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. These took place in ____.
insecure
economic
compromise
overthrow
political
trials
1922
Political trials under Felix Dzerzhinsky and Lenin
Felix Dzerzhinsky organised the trial of Socialist Revolutionary leaders (1922)
They were accused of treason and sabotage - plotting to overthrow the Soviet state
What was the outcome of the 1922 political trials?
Only some were sentenced to death
Most were imprisoned and only executed in the Stalinist terror of the mid-1930s
The GPU also policed the semi-capitalist marketplace established by the NEP. This included:
- Imprisoning Nepmen who had grown too rich
- Harassing women who dressed in Western styles
- Persecuting young people who danced to jazz
- Persecuting priests
