The Cheka became notorious for mass summary executions, performed especially during the Red Terror and the Russian Civil War.Robert Gellately. Lenin, Stalin and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe. Knopf, 2007. . pp. 46–48.George Leggett, The Cheka: Lenin’s Political Police. Oxford University Press, 1987, pp. 197–201. The Cheka undertook drastic measures as tens of thousands of political opponents and saboteurs were shot without trial in the basements of prisons and in public places.Orlando Figes. A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891–1924. Penguin Books, 1997. . p. 647 Dzerzhinsky said: "We represent in ourselves organized terror—this must be said very clearly".J. Michael Waller Secret Empire: The KGB in Russia Today. Westview Press. Boulder, CO, 1994. .George Leggett, The Cheka: Lenin’s Political Police. Oxford University Press, 1987. . p. 114. In 1922, at the end of the Civil War, the Cheka was dissolved and reorganized as the State Political Directorate (Gosudarstvennoe Politicheskoe Upravlenie, or GPU), a section of the NKVD. With the formation of the Soviet Union later that year, the GPU was again reorganized as the Joint State Political Directorate (Obyedinyonnoye gosudarstvennoye politicheskoye upravleniye, or OGPU), directly under the Council of People's Commissars. These changes did not diminish Dzerzhinsky's power; he was Minister of the Interior, director of the Cheka/GPU/OGPU, Minister for Communications, and director of the Vesenkha (Supreme Council of National Economy) in 1921–24. Indeed, while the (O)GPU was theoretically supposed to act with more restraint than the Cheka, in time its de facto powers grew even greater than those of the Cheka.
The Cheka became notorious for mass summary executions, performed especially during the Red Terror and the Russian Civil War.Robert Gellately. Len,in, Stalin and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe. Knopf, 2007. . pp. 46–48.George Leggett, The Cheka: Lenin’s Political Police. Oxford University Press, 1987, pp. 197–201. The Cheka undertook drastic measures as tens of thousands of political opponents and saboteurs were shot without trial in the basements of prisons and in public places.Orlando Figes. A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891–1924. Penguin Books, 1997. . p. 647 Dzerzhinsky said: "We represent in ourselves organized terror—this must be said very clearly".J. Michael Waller Secret Empire: The KGB in Russia Today. Westview Press. Boulder, CO 1994. .George Leggett, The Cheka: Lenin’s Political Police. Oxford University Press, 1987. . p. 114. In 1922, at the end of the Civil War, the Cheka was dissolved and reorganized as the State Political Directorate (Gosudarstvennoe Politicheskoe Upravlenie, or GPU), a section of the NKVD. With the formation of the Soviet Union later that year, the GPU was again reorganized as the Joint State Political Directorate (Obyedinyonnoye gosudarstvennoye politicheskoye upravleniye, or OGPU), directly under the Council of People's Commissars. These changes did not diminish Dzerzhinsky's power; he was Minister of the Interior, director of the Cheka/GPU/OGPU, Minister for Communications, and director of the Vesenkha (Supreme Council of National Economy) in 1921–24. Indeed, while the (O)GPU was theoretically supposed to act with more restraint than the Cheka, in time its de facto powers grew even greater than those of the Cheka.