Petrograd Cheka

Categories / City Administration/Police, Prisons
PETROGRAD CHEKA (Petrograd Emergency Committee), the local body of All-Russian Extraordinary Commission, established on March 10, 1918 after the transfer of All-Russian Extraordinary Commission to Moscow; it was quartered on 2/6 Gorokhovaya Street. The committee was initially called the Department against counter-revolution of the Commissars' Soviet of the Petrograd labour commune; since the end of April of 1918 - regional Emergency Committee (Cheka) attached to the Commissar Soviet of the Association of local authorities of the Northern region; since February of 1919 it was known as Petrograd province Cheka (exercising its rights as an independent department of Petrograd Soviet). During the first period of its activity Cheka was headed by the Presidium (the first chairman - M.S. Uritsky), it comprised the following departments: against counter-revolution, against black market activities, fighting detachments, various subsidiary subdivisions (secretariat, front office, commandant's office etc.). Later the structure of the committee was changed. After the death of Uritsky (August of 1918) Petrograd Cheka was headed by: G.I. Boky, V.N. Yakovleva, N.K. Antipov, A.K. Skorokhodov, S.S. Lobov, F.D. Medved, G.I. Blagonravov, I.P. Bakaev, N.P. Komarov. One of the first Cheka undertakings was disarmament of anarchists' fighting detachments in April of 1918. In June - July of 1918 Petrograd Cheka eliminated the military organization of the Right socialist revolutionaries; in July of 1918 it participated in the suppression of an armed uprising attempt undertaken by the military organization of the Left socialist revolutionaries in former Vorontsovsk Palace. In 1919 Petrograd Cheka together with the members of the Special department of All-Russian Extraordinary Commission discovered and liquidated the underground anti-Bolshevist organization headed by the agent of the British intelligence service P. Duxe. Petrograd Cheka was the main implement of the red terror in Petrograd, it performed the functions of political investigation and control, fought against anti-Bolshevist actions (including those among the workers of Petrograd), exercised repressions against the Extraordinary assembly of Petrograd plants and factories commissioners (1918), against participants of strikes and "dawdlings" at the city enterprises (especially in spring of 1919 and in the beginning of 1921), against the participants of Kronstadt uprising of 1921. The Petrograd Cheka officials often resorted to the falsification of evidence and fabrication of proceedings upon imaginary counter-revolutionary organizations. In March of 1922 Petrograd Cheka was transformed into the department of city administration attached to People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs.

References: Красная книга ВЧК: В 2 т. М., 1989; Кутузов В. А. Чекисты Петрограда на страже революции: В 2 кн. Л., 1989; Измозик В. С. Глаза и уши режима: Гос. полит. контроль за населением Сов. России в 1918-1928 гг. СПб., 1995; Бережков В. И. Питерские прокураторы: Руководители ВЧК - МГБ, 1918-1954. СПб., 1998.

A. M. Kulegin. Antipov Nikolay Kirillovich
Bakaev Ivan Petrovich
Blagonravov Georgy Ivanovich
Boky Gleb Ivanovich
Dukes Paul
Komarov Nikolay Pavlovich (real name Sobinov Fedor Evgenievich)
Lobov Semen Semenovich
Medved Filipp Demyanovich
Skorokhod G.A.
Uritsky Moisey Solomonovich
Yakovleva Varvara Nikolaevna
Gorokhovaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 2/6
Кутузов В. А. Чекисты Петрограда на страже революции: В 2 кн. Л., 1989
Измозик В. С. Глаза и уши режима: Гос. полит. контроль за населением Сов. России в 1918-1928 гг. СПб., 1995
Бережков В. И. Питерские прокураторы: Руководители ВЧК - МГБ, 1918-1954. СПб., 1998
Красная книга ВЧК: В 2 т. М., 1989 Union of Communes of the Northern Region
Kronstadt Rebellion of 1921