The Cheka
History: KS3, topic 17.5.3
The Removal of Opposition
Despite being reluctant to hold elections, the Bolsheviks knew that this was necessary in order to avoid the same criticisms which had undermined the Provisional Government.
'Parliamentary democracy'
- Although the Bolsheviks never wanted to create a parliamentary democracy they held an election in November 1917 in which 41.7 million people voted.
- This meant that Lenin’s party had only secured 25% of the vote, and the various factions of the SRs received 40% of the vote.
- More moderate parties, as well as anarchists, made up the rest of the Constituent Assembly.
Shutting down the Constituent Assembly
- After just one day of its first session in January 1918, the Bolsheviks and the Red Guards shut down the Constituent Assembly.
- Without control of enough seats, they were unwilling to allow the assembly to continue.
- The Mensheviks were already speaking of a country “enveloped in the flames of civil war”.
The Railway War and Sovnarkom
- The Bolsheviks set about consolidating their control over the country as a one-party state.
- As they controlled the railways, they used this network to reach and control the main cities.
- This struggle is often referred to as the ‘Railway War’ by historians.
- Lenin’s government was called the Sovnarkom (‘Council of People’s Commissars').
- At first, it included Left Socialist Revolutionaries as well as Bolsheviks but broke down when the Left SRs refused to follow a Bolshevik decision.
The tsar
- The former tsar and his family were housed in Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains. None of the tsar’s former allies would allow him and his family to move to their country.
- Britain and France were embarrassed by the former tsar, who had continued to lead a backward and autocratic society whilst they were building and improving their own democracies.
Civil war and execution of the tsar
- Civil War had broken out by the spring of 1918.
- There was suspicion that ‘white’ (monarchist) armies in the Urals might try to release the tsar and his family.
- Moscow ordered the entire family, as well as their doctor and remaining servants, to be executed on the 17th of July 1918.
The Cheka
The Cheka was the first version of the secret police under the Soviets. It was formed in December 1917.
Felix Dzerzhinsky
- The first director of the Cheka was Felix Dzerzhinsky.
- He was an aristocrat who had become a communist.
- He had been imprisoned many times under the tsarist regime.
Test yourself on The Cheka
What was Lenin's government called?
What was the role of the Cheka?
When was the Cheka formed?
Who was the first director of the Cheka?