The functions of the Cheka were to carry out. State security agencies of the USSR and Russia: from the Cheka to the FSB (7 photos). "Emergency measures are needed..."

Description

The calendar consists of an upper "header" with an image and three calendar blocks.
The approximate size of the unfolded calendar is 80 cm long and 33 cm wide.

Cheka(7) December 20, 1917 By a decree of the Council of People's Commissars, the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (VChK) was formed to combat counter-revolution and sabotage in Soviet Russia. F.E. Dzerzhinsky was appointed its first chairman. He held this post until February 6, 1922. July to August 1918 the duties of the chairman of the Cheka were temporarily performed by Ya.Kh. Peters

GPUFebruary 6, 1922 The All-Russian Central Executive Committee adopted a resolution on the abolition of the Cheka and the formation of the State Political Directorate (GPU) under the NKVD of the RSFSR.

OGPUNovember 2, 1923 The Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR created the United State Political Administration (OGPU) under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. Until the end of his life (July 20, 1926), F.E. Dzerzhinsky remained the chairman of the GPU and the OGPU, who was replaced by V.R. Menzhinsky, who headed the OGPU until 1934.

NKVDJuly 10, 1934 in accordance with the decision of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, the state security bodies were included in the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) of the USSR. After the death of Menzhinsky, the work of the OGPU, and later the NKVD, from 1934 to 1936. led by G.G. Yagoda. From 1936 to 1938. The NKVD was headed by N.I. Yezhov. November 1938 to 1945 L.P. Beria was the head of the NKVD.

NKGBFebruary 3, 1941 The NKVD of the USSR was divided into two independent bodies: the NKVD of the USSR and the People's Commissariat of State Security (NKGB) of the USSR. People's Commissar of Internal Affairs - L.P. Beria. People's Commissar for State Security - VN Merkulov. In July 1941 The NKGB of the USSR and the NKVD of the USSR were again merged into a single people's commissariat - the NKVD of the USSR. In April 1943 The People's Commissariat for State Security of the USSR was re-formed, headed by V.N. Merkulov.

MGBMarch 15, 1946 The NKGB was transformed into the Ministry of State Security. Minister - V.S. Abakumov. In 1951 - 1953. the post of Minister of State Security was held by S.D. Ignatiev. In March 1953 a decision was made to merge the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of State Security into a single Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR headed by S.N. Kruglov.

MIA March 7, 1953 a decision was made to merge the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of State Security into a single Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR headed by S.N. Kruglov.

KGBMarch 13, 1954 The State Security Committee under the Council of Ministers of the USSR was created.
From 1954 to 1958 the leadership of the KGB was carried out by I.A. Serov,
from 1958 to 1961 - A.N. Shelepin,
from 1961 to 1967 - V.E. Semichastny,
from 1967 to 1982 - Yu.V.Andropov,
from May to December 1982 - V.V. Fedorchuk,
from 1982 to 1988 - V.M. Chebrikov,
from 1988 to August 1991 - V.A. Kryuchkov,
August to November 1991 - V.V. Bakatin.
December 3, 1991 The President of the USSR MS Gorbachev signed the Law "On the reorganization of state security agencies". On the basis of the Law, the KGB of the USSR was abolished and, for the transitional period, the Inter-Republican Security Service and the Central Intelligence Service of the USSR (currently the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation) were created on its basis.

SMENovember 28, 1991 The President of the USSR MS Gorbachev signed the Decree "On the Approval of the Provisional Regulations on the Inter-Republican Security Service".
Head - V.V. Bakatin (from November 1991 to December 1991).

KGBMay 6, 1991 Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR B.N. Yeltsin and Chairman of the KGB of the USSR V.A. Kryuchkov signed a protocol on the formation in accordance with the decision of the Congress of People's Deputies of Russia of the State Security Committee of the RSFSR, which has the status of a Union-Republican State Committee. V.V. Ivanenko was appointed its leader.

MBJanuary 24, 1992 The President of the Russian Federation Boris N. Yeltsin signed a Decree on the formation of the Ministry of Security of the Russian Federation on the basis of the abolished Federal Security Agency of the RSFSR and the Inter-Republican Security Service.
Minister - V.P. Barannikov since January 1992 to July 1993,
N.M. Golushko since July 1993 to December 1993

FSKDecember 21, 1993 Russian President B.N. Yeltsin signed a Decree on the abolition of the Ministry of Security and the creation of the Federal Counterintelligence Service.
Director - N.M. Golushko since December 1993. to March 1994,
S.V.Stepashin since March 1994 to June 1995

FSBApril 3, 1995 The President of the Russian Federation Boris N. Yeltsin signed the Law "On the Bodies of the Federal Security Service in the Russian Federation", on the basis of which the FSB is the legal successor of the FSK.
Director - M.I.Barsukov since July 1995. to June 1996,
N.D. Kovalev since July 1996 to July 1998,
V.V. Putin since July 1998 to August 1999,
N.P. Patrushev since August 1999 to May 2008
A.V. Bortnikov since May 2008

The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (VChK) was formed

December 7 (20), 1917 By decree of the Council of People's Commissars, the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (VChK) was formed to combat counter-revolution, profiteering and crimes ex officio.

The first chairman of the Commission was F. E. Dzerzhinsky. The commission included I. K. Ksenofontov, M. S. Kedrov, M. S. Uritsky, J. H. Peters, S. A. Menzhinsky, I. S. Unshlikht, M. I. Latsis, etc.

The tasks of the created commission included "suppression and elimination of counter-revolutionary and sabotage actions throughout Russia, from whomsoever they came", bringing the Revolutionary Tribunals to justice and developing measures to combat counter-revolution and sabotage.

The administrative apparatus of the Cheka was headed by a collegium; the governing body was the Presidium, headed by the chairman, who had two deputies.

In 1918 local bodies of the Cheka were created: provincial, county (abolished in January 1919g.), transport, front-line and army Cheka.

In the first two months of its existence, the Extraordinary Commission had only the right of preliminary investigation, but gradually the powers of the Cheka were expanded.

From February 1918 The Council of People's Commissars endowed the Cheka with the right to decide cases out of court with the use of capital punishment - execution. Since that time, the bodies of the Cheka not only carried out operational work, but also carried out investigations and passed sentences, replacing the investigative and judicial bodies.

To exercise its powers, the Cheka had its own armed forces: detachments of the Cheka, special forces (CHON), controlled by the Revolutionary Military Council of the republic, its own system of correctional labor institutions. The Cheka worked in contact with the NKVD and the People's Commissariat of Justice.

The structure of the state security agencies subsequently changed more than once, but the most important elements were the following units: counterintelligence departments (CRO), military counterintelligence departments (Special Department, formed on 19 December 1918 g.), foreign intelligence units (Foreign department of the Cheka was formed on 20 December 1920).

The scale of the activities of the Cheka can be judged by the number of its employees - at the end of February 1918it did not exceed 120 people, by 1921peaked at 31 thousand people.

November 1920 The VChK was entrusted with the protection of the borders of the state (before that, the protection of the borders was to some extent provided by "curtains" - a system of mobile military detachments).

February 6, 1922 The All-Russian Central Executive Committee adopted a resolution on the abolition of the Cheka and the formation of the State Political Directorate (GPU) under the NKVDRSFSR, whose tasks included the fight against espionage, counter-revolution and banditry.

Following the formation of the USSR, on the basis of the GPU, the United GPU (OGPU) arose. USSR). In 1934 The OGPU was merged with the internal affairs bodies (militia) and the Union-Republican People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs was formed. In 1943the People's Commissariat for State Security was separated from the NKVD, renamed in 1946to the Ministry of State Security.

March 1953 a decision was made to merge the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of State Security into a single Ministry of Internal Affairs USSR. March 13, 1954 was created State Security Committee under the Council of Ministers of the USSR. December 3, 1991Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev signed the Law "Onreorganization of the state security bodies”, on the basis of which the KGBThe USSR was abolished and for the transitional period, the Inter-Republican Security Service and the Central Intelligence Service of the USSR (currently the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation) were created on its basis.

May 1991 the State Security Committee of the RSFSR was formed; 26 November 1991 it was transformed into the Federal Security Agency of the RSFSR, from January 1992d. - to the Ministry of Security RF.

December 21, 1993 A decree was signed on the abolition of the Ministry of Security of the Russian Federation and on the creation of the Federal Counterintelligence Service of the Russian Federation (FSK Russia). April 1995The Federal Security Service (FSB) became the successor of FSK.

20 December in our country is celebrated as the Day of the Security Bodies of the Russian Federation - a professional holiday for employees of the FSB, SVR, FSO and other Russian special services.

Lit.: Kolpakidi A. Sever A. KGB. M., 2010; Lubyanka: Bodies of the Cheka-OGPU-NKVD-NKGB-MGB-MVD-KGB, 1917-1991: Ref. / Comp. BUT. I. Kokurin, N. V. Petrov. M., 2003; TurchenkoC. Formation and organization of the activities of the Cheka-OGPU. [Electronic resource] // FSB RF. 1999-2013. URL : http :// www. fsb. ru/ fsb/ history/ author/ single. htm! id%3 [email protected] fsb Publication. html; Khlobustov A. Shield and sword of the Fatherland. [Electronic resource] // Chekist. ru. 2002-2013. URL : http:// www. chekist. en/article/924; Yakovleva M. A. Discussions 1919-1921years on the functions and rights of the All-Russian and Moscow Extraordinary Commissions: a modern view // Knowledge. Understanding. Skill. 2010 Series No. 6.

See also in the Presidential Library:

A department for combating theft of socialist property and speculation (OBKhSS) was organized // On this day. March 16, 1937 G.

On December 20, 1917, according to the decision of the Council of People's Commissars (SNK), the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (VChK) was formed to combat counter-revolution and sabotage in Soviet Russia.

On December 18, 1917, a telegram from the Small Council of Ministers of the former Provisional Government was intercepted, calling on all officials to sabotage on an all-Russian scale. In connection with the current situation, the issue of a possible strike of employees on December 19, 1917 was brought up for discussion by the Council of People's Commissars, which instructed F. E. Dzerzhinsky "to form a special commission to find out the possibility of combating such a strike through the most energetic revolutionary measures, to find out ways to suppress malicious sabotage" .

On December 20, 1917, at a government meeting, Dzerzhinsky's report on the organization and composition of this commission was heard. He headed its collegiate body (later it will be called the collegium of the Cheka). Prominent figures of the Bolshevik Party headed by F. E. Dzerzhinsky became members of the commission.

The Council of People's Commissars decided to call the new state structure the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission under the Council of People's Commissars for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage (VChK). Thus, the attempt to conduct an all-Russian strike of civil servants was a direct impetus for the emergence of a special body designed to solve the problems of protecting the new Soviet state system. Undoubtedly, under other internal political circumstances, sooner or later, the Bolsheviks would have to create an organ that would perform the functions of intelligence, counterintelligence and political search absolutely necessary for the existence of any state.

In the first months of the existence of the Cheka, its legal status, organizational structure, forms and methods of activity were not clearly regulated by legal acts. Until February 1918, the only document was the decision of the Council of People's Commissars on the formation of the Cheka. In the protocol N 21 of the meeting of the Council of People's Commissars of December 20, 1917, it was recorded that the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission was called upon to solve the following tasks:

1. To suppress and eliminate all counter-revolutionary and sabotage attempts and actions throughout Russia, no matter who they come from.

2. Bring all saboteurs and counter-revolutionaries to trial by a revolutionary tribunal and work out measures to combat them.

3. Conduct only a preliminary investigation, as this is necessary to stop sabotage.
More specifically, these provisions are formulated in the resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of February 13, 1918 "On the precise delimitation of the functions of existing institutions for search and suppression, investigation and trial." It was determined that "the Extraordinary Commission concentrates all the work of detecting, suppressing and preventing crimes, all further case management, investigation and bringing the case to court is provided to the commission of inquiry at the tribunal." Thus, the competence of the bodies of the Cheka and the investigative commissions of the tribunals was clearly demarcated. The Extraordinary Commission was entrusted only with the organization and direct conduct of operational-search work, judicial functions were performed by revolutionary tribunals. Normal relations were created between these bodies.

The resolution of the Council of People's Commissars also determined the measures that could be used in the fight against counter-revolutionaries and saboteurs. They were quite mild: confiscation, expulsion, deprivation of ration cards, publication of lists of enemies of the people were envisaged. However, the period of humane measures was short-lived. Further aggravation of the internal and international situation led to a sharp tightening of the punitive policy of the Soviet government. In connection with the offensive of the German army, a resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of February 21, 1918 "The Socialist Fatherland is in danger!" It said that "enemy agents, speculators, thugs, hooligans, counter-revolutionary agitators, German spies are shot at the scene of the crime." Researchers believe that this document gave the Cheka the right to extrajudicially resolve cases with the use of capital punishment - execution.

Initially, the organs of the Cheka intended to do without agents. She evoked contempt from all revolutionaries who experienced "inquiries, denunciations, courtesy gendarmes." To obtain information about counter-revolutionaries, the central authorities and local Chekas held "open days" when citizens came with statements. However, soon the most active visitors of the "days" were found killed. Then in the spring of 1918, at the collegium of the Cheka, they decided to put into practice the undercover method of informing. Following this, the use of various developments, instructions, instructions of pre-revolutionary special services began. This immediately put the search and counterintelligence activities of the Cheka on a higher level.

On March 20, 1918, F. E. Dzerzhinsky made a presentation at the collegium of the All-Russian Cheka “On the militarization of the commission”. It was about the introduction of military discipline in it. This played a huge role in the entire subsequent history of the Soviet state security agencies and determined the high efficiency of their activities.

In the first months of its existence, the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission was small and consisted of only a few dozen employees. The sphere of its activity was actually only the capital. Therefore, already on December 28, 1917, the Cheka published in Izvestia of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee an appeal to local councils with a proposal to organize emergency commissions on the ground. On February 23, 1918, a radiogram was sent to the province, which again emphasized the need for the immediate organization of commissions to combat counter-revolution, sabotage and speculation. On March 18, 1918, a new appeal from the board of the Cheka followed, this time from Moscow, where the commission moved along with the government.

From this period on the ground, they actively began to create emergency commissions. At the end of March 1918, the Yaroslavl Provincial Extraordinary Commission was formed to combat counter-revolution, speculation and crimes ex officio under the Yaroslavl Provincial Executive Committee of the Council of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies. She was first mentioned in one of the issues of the Yaroslavl Gubernskie Vedomosti. Unfortunately, documentary materials about the initial stage of the work of the gubchek have not been preserved. According to eyewitnesses, they were buried under the rubble of a building destroyed during an armed uprising in Yaroslavl in July 1918.

In the first months of the gubcheka, there were several employees poorly trained for complex, difficult and often dangerous work. On July 5, 1918, the acting chairman of the gubchek, Krylov, turned to the presidium of the provincial executive committee with a request to replace him with another person, since he considered himself unsuitable for this work. A few hours remained before the start of the armed uprising in Yaroslavl against the existing government.

The rebellion in Yaroslavl began early in the morning on July 6, 1918. At that time, only the police and a small detachment of the Red Guard were the real power structures in the city. Their task was to maintain order in Yaroslavl and other cities of the province. No one was engaged in tracking political and social processes in society. The weakness of the local Cheka allowed the rebels to unexpectedly take the city into their own hands. The speech was organized by the underground conspiratorial organization "Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom".

For more effective coordination of actions, the Union of Defense decided to move its headquarters from Moscow to Kazan. During the relocation, the Cheka arrested the participants in the conspiracy, but its leaders fled. Savinkov fled to the British consulate. Perkhurov managed to leave for Yaroslavl, where he led the uprising. Savinkov, Bredis, Dikhof-Derenthal tried to raise a rebellion in Rybinsk, but the local Cheka was able to prevent it by organizing the defense of military facilities in a timely manner and quickly defeating the rebels. In Murom, the conspirators held out for one day. Savinkov and other leaders of the headquarters fled near Kazan. Their fate was different. All of them were subsequently detained. Perkhurov was sentenced to capital punishment in 1922 in Yaroslavl by a visiting session of the Supreme Tribunal.

In general, the speeches of the organization "Union of Protection" were crushed quite quickly. Only in Yaroslavl did the rebels manage to hold out for about two weeks, after which the "Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom" ceased to exist. In recent years, individual public organizations have tried to whitewash Perkhurov's activities, but all these attempts have failed. The military collegium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation in 1998 issued a ruling against the former colonel of the tsarist army and the leader of the Yaroslavl rebellion in 1918, A.P. Perkhurov. The verdict of July 19, 1922 was recognized as justified and left unchanged.

After the suppression of the rebellion, the work of the Yaroslavl gubchek noticeably intensified. A member of the provincial committee of the RCP (b) A. I. Grigoriev was appointed its leader. As in any new business, there were many difficulties and sometimes confusion in the activities of the commission. Very clearly characterize the situation in the gubchek excerpts from the speeches of the members of her collegium at a meeting on August 18, 1918.

Head Vilks, the department for combating counter-revolution, said: “There is complete confusion in the department, chaos. We do not know the exact number of completed and expected cases. Now we are sorting out the cases of the White Guard rebellion, but the work is proceeding chaotically ... There is no way to restore the picture of the rebellion due to the absence of relevant workers ... Confusion, confusion, unsystematic activity in the commission's activities are a specific feature of the current moment. This affects all the institutions of the city of Yaroslavl. All this is due to the lack of people, the misuse of available forces and the lack of differentiation in work. All papers go to the chairman, who is unable to sort through them due to lack of time.

A. I. Grigoriev, chairman of the gubchek: “Such an abnormal situation, which Vilks speaks of, is due to the lack of experienced workers and the overload of existing ones ... There was no way to properly report.”

Deputy Chairman of the provincial Cheka Alexandrov: “I propose to distribute the work between individual members of the commission and office workers. Introduce daily oral reports of department heads and weekly written reports.

The comments were correct. It was decided to postpone the formation of the department for combating crimes ex officio. This work was temporarily entrusted to the department for combating counter-revolution. The shortcomings were gradually eliminated. To restore order, the board gave the task to draw up instructions for departments. In the office of the gubchek, they introduced accounting for incoming and outgoing documents, incoming and outgoing amounts of money. They organized file cabinets of the arrested, as well as accounting for the personnel of the gubchek, developed instructions for office work.

From December 1918 to December 1919, the commission was headed by M. I. Lebedev, a man with great revolutionary experience, a participant in the Lena events of 1912. He launched a vigorous activity to reorganize the work of the commission. The first report of the Gubchek in the new composition said: “Having entered into the performance of its duties, the commission found one broken trough at the site of the institution. The main attention had to be directed to the investigative department, since the commission had 654 prisoner cases. For two weeks, 198 cases were sorted out. There were about 2,000 prisoners in the Korovnitsky prison, on whom there were no cases indicating the essence of the crime.

Gradually, the Chekists put things in order in their household. Established vocational training. A letter was sent to the Cheka with a request "to help the Yaroslavl security officers to become, first of all, party-conscious workers, to send the necessary literature."

They also tried to solve the personnel problem in the central office. In February 1918, the Cheka decides to recruit mainly party comrades to work in the bodies, and non-party comrades only as an exception. This provision actually existed until August 1991, that is, for more than 70 years. On November 2, 1918, a meeting of communists of the provincial Cheka took place. It elected a bureau of the communist faction under the gubchek consisting of three people: the chairman of the bureau, Makarychev, the deputy chairman of the bureau, Grishman, and the secretary, Kiselev. In connection with the instructions from the center, the party meeting decided: “To ask the Communist Party to give politically mature workers to the gubchek, and to dismiss non-party employees as far as possible from the commission.”

Experienced party members K. Ya. Berzin, S. V. Vasiliev, A. V. Klochkova, N. P. Kustov, F. I. Kostopravov, A. A. Lebedev, A. K. Mikelevich, N. N. Panin, T. M. Smirnov, A. V. Frenkel and others. They were responsible for the elimination of the consequences of the rebellion, the fight against crime and peasant unrest. By 1919, 80 percent of the commission were members and sympathizers of the Bolshevik Party.

In May 1919, the collegium of the gubchek approved a special guideline regulating the procedure for searches, the rights and obligations of commissars. It said: “All commissars are at the disposal of the head of the secret operations department and receive all assignments from him. Going for a search, the commissioner learns about the nature of the operation from the head of the department, and at night from the duty member of the commission. Upon arrival at the place of the search, the commissioner is obliged to invite a representative or a member of the house committee to be present during the search, and in the absence of such, the janitor. With the available armed force, the commissar occupies all the exits and locks them up.

All those present during the search are deprived of the right to walk around the rooms and talk to each other. The commissioner at this time conducts a search. During the search, both the commissar and the detachment do not enter into conversations and bickering, but only carry out the assigned task.

The appeal must be impeccable, correct. At the end of the search, the commissioner draws up a protocol and hands a copy of it against signature on the original to the representative of the house committee. During the search, the commissioner must not take household items (tongs, scissors, forks, knives, plates, wearable clothes). If the matter is of a counter-revolutionary nature, attention is drawn mainly to correspondence; in a case of a speculative nature, to goods, money, and correspondence. Gold in products is selected only in cases where their weight exceeds the norm. Gold and silver coins are taken in any quantity.

During the years of the civil war, the gubcheka grew noticeably. By the end of 1921, its personnel numbered 144 people. 87 employees worked in the secret operations department, 12 in the special department, and 45 people in the general part (chauffeurs, couriers, typists, duty officers, stokers, clerks). The Secret Operations Department consisted of six departments. Each was engaged in its own direction (on the left and right parties, clergymen, speculation, sabotage and crimes in office, banditry, operational maintenance of state institutions, etc.). In accordance with the changing operational situation and the instructions of the center, the necessary adjustments were made to the structure of the commission.

The leadership of the Cheka tried to actively get rid of employees who compromise the state security organs with their actions or behavior in everyday life. For this purpose, attestations of Chekists were regularly carried out. According to the order of the Cheka N 406 at the end of 1921, the staff of the gubchek also passed it. The attestation commission included a representative of the provincial party committee.

As a result of the work done, 26 employees of the gubchek were fired. The reasons are different: inconsistency with the official position, unwillingness to work, compromising circumstances and others.

Subscribe to the "SecurityLab" channels in and to be the first to know about news and exclusive materials on information security.

The Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia is celebrating its 20th anniversary. April 3, 1995 Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed the law "On Federal Security Service Bodies in the Russian Federation". In accordance with the document, the Federal Counterintelligence Service (FSK) was transformed into the Federal Security Service.

In 2014, terrorist crimes were committed 2.6 times less than in 2013. Last year, the Service stopped the activities of 52 personnel officers and 290 agents of foreign intelligence services, in the same period it was possible to prevent damage to the state from corruption in the amount of about 142 billion rubles

AiF.ru tells about the FSB and its predecessors, who stood guard over the state interests of the USSR.

Cheka (1917-1922)

The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (VChK) was established on December 7, 1917 as an organ of the "dictatorship of the proletariat". The main task of the commission was the fight against counter-revolution and sabotage. The body also performed the functions of intelligence, counterintelligence and political search. Since 1921, the tasks of the Cheka included the elimination of homelessness and neglect among children.

Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR Vladimir Lenin called the Cheka "a smashing weapon against countless conspiracies, countless attempts on Soviet power by people who were infinitely stronger than us."

The people called the commission "extraordinary", and its employees - "chekists". Headed the first Soviet state security agency Felix Dzerzhinsky. The building of the former mayor of Petrograd, located at Gorokhovaya, 2, was assigned to the new structure.

In February 1918, employees of the Cheka received the right to shoot criminals on the spot without trial or investigation in accordance with the decree "The Fatherland is in danger!".

The death penalty was allowed to apply to "enemy agents, speculators, thugs, hooligans, counter-revolutionary agitators, German spies", and later "all persons involved in White Guard organizations, conspiracies and rebellions."

The end of the civil war and the decline of the wave of peasant uprisings made the continued existence of the expanded repressive apparatus, whose activities had practically no legal restrictions, meaningless. Therefore, by 1921, the party faced the question of reforming the organization.

OGPU (1923-1934)

On February 6, 1922, the Cheka was finally abolished, and its powers were transferred to the State Political Administration, which later became known as the United (OGPU). As Lenin emphasized: "... the abolition of the Cheka and the creation of the GPU does not simply mean a change in the name of the bodies, but consists in changing the nature of all the activities of the body during the period of peaceful state building in a new situation ...".

Until July 20, 1926, Felix Dzerzhinsky was the chairman of the department, after his death this post was taken by the former people's commissar of finance Vyacheslav Menzhinsky.

The main task of the new body was still the same fight against counter-revolution in all its manifestations. Subordinate to the OGPU were special units of the troops necessary to suppress public unrest and combat banditry.

In addition, the following functions were assigned to the department:

protection of railway and waterways;
combating smuggling and border crossing by Soviet citizens);
fulfillment of special instructions of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars.

On May 9, 1924, the powers of the OGPU were significantly expanded. The department began to obey the police and the criminal investigation department. Thus began the process of merging the state security agencies with the internal affairs agencies.

NKVD (1934-1943)

On July 10, 1934, the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR (NKVD) was formed. The People's Commissariat was all-Union, and the OGPU was included in it as a structural unit called the Main Directorate of State Security (GUGB). The fundamental innovation was that the judicial board of the OGPU was abolished: the new department was not supposed to have judicial functions. The new People's Commissariat headed Heinrich Yagoda.

The NKVD was responsible for political investigation and the right to extrajudicial sentencing, the penal system, foreign intelligence, border troops, and counterintelligence in the army. In 1935, traffic control (GAI) was assigned to the functions of the NKVD, and in 1937 NKVD departments for transport were created, including sea and river ports.

On March 28, 1937, Yagoda was arrested by the NKVD, during a search of his house, according to the protocol, pornographic photographs, Trotskyist literature and a rubber dildo were found. In view of the "anti-state" activities, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks expelled Yagoda from the party. The new head of the NKVD was appointed Nikolay Yezhov.

In 1937, the "troikas" of the NKVD appeared. A commission of three people delivered thousands of sentences in absentia to "enemies of the people", based on the materials of the authorities, and sometimes simply according to the lists. A feature of this process was the absence of protocols and the minimum number of documents on the basis of which a decision was made on the guilt of the defendant. The verdict of the Troika was not subject to appeal.

During the year of work by the "troikas" 767,397 people were convicted, of which 386,798 people were sentenced to death. The victims most often became kulaks - wealthy peasants who did not want to voluntarily give their property to the collective farm.

April 10, 1939 Yezhov was arrested in the office George Malenkov. Subsequently, the former head of the NKVD confessed to being homosexual and preparing a coup d'état. The third people's commissar of internal affairs was Lavrenty Beria.

NKGB - MGB (1943-1954)

On February 3, 1941, the NKVD was divided into two people's commissariats - the People's Commissariat for State Security (NKGB) and the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD).

This was done in order to improve the intelligence and operational work of the state security agencies and the distribution of the increased workload of the NKVD of the USSR.

The tasks assigned to the NKGB were:

conducting intelligence work abroad;
combating the subversive, espionage, and terrorist activities of foreign intelligence services within the USSR;
operational development and liquidation of the remnants of anti-Soviet parties and counter-revolutionary formations among various sections of the population of the USSR, in the system of industry, transport, communications, and agriculture;
protection of party and government leaders.

The tasks of ensuring state security were assigned to the NKVD. The military and prison units, the police, and the fire brigade remained under the jurisdiction of this department.

On July 4, 1941, in connection with the outbreak of war, it was decided to merge the NKGB and the NKVD into one department in order to reduce the bureaucracy.

The re-creation of the NKGB of the USSR took place in April 1943. The main task of the committee was reconnaissance and sabotage activities in the rear of the German troops. As we moved west, the importance of work in the countries of Eastern Europe, where the NKGB was engaged in the "liquidation of anti-Soviet elements", increased.

In 1946, all people's commissariats were renamed into ministries, respectively, the NKGB became the Ministry of State Security of the USSR. At the same time, he became Minister of State Security Victor Abakumov. With his arrival, the transition of the functions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the jurisdiction of the MGB began. In 1947-1952, internal troops, police, border troops and other units were transferred to the department (the camp and construction departments, fire protection, escort troops, courier communications remained in the Ministry of Internal Affairs).

After death Stalin in 1953 Nikita Khrushchev displaced Beria and organized a campaign against the illegal repressions of the NKVD. Subsequently, several thousand unjustly convicted were rehabilitated.

KGB (1954-1991)

On March 13, 1954, the State Security Committee (KGB) was created by separating departments, services and departments from the MGB that were related to issues of ensuring state security. Compared to its predecessors, the new body had a lower status: it was not a ministry within the government, but a committee under the government. The chairman of the KGB was a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU, but he was not a member of the highest authority - the Politburo. This was explained by the fact that the party elite wanted to protect themselves from the emergence of a new Beria - a person who could remove her from power for the sake of implementing their own political projects.

The area of responsibility of the new body included: foreign intelligence, counterintelligence, operational-search activities, protection of the state border of the USSR, protection of the leaders of the CPSU and the government, organization and provision of government communications, as well as the fight against nationalism, dissent, crime and anti-Soviet activities.

Almost immediately after its formation, the KGB carried out a large-scale staff reduction in connection with the beginning of the process of de-Stalinization of society and the state. From 1953 to 1955, the state security agencies were reduced by 52%.

In the 1970s, the KGB intensified its fight against dissent and the dissident movement. However, the department's actions have become more subtle and disguised. Such means of psychological pressure as surveillance, public condemnation, undermining a professional career, preventive talks, coercion to travel abroad, forced confinement to psychiatric clinics, political trials, slander, lies and compromising evidence, various provocations and intimidation were actively used. At the same time, there were also lists of "not allowed to travel abroad" - those who were denied permission to travel abroad.

A new "invention" of the special services was the so-called "exile beyond the 101st kilometer": politically unreliable citizens were evicted outside of Moscow and St. Petersburg. Under the close attention of the KGB during this period were, first of all, representatives of the creative intelligentsia - figures of literature, art and science - who, due to their social status and international authority, could cause the most extensive damage to the reputation of the Soviet state and the Communist Party.

In the 1990s, changes in society and the system of state administration of the USSR, caused by the processes of perestroika and glasnost, led to the need to revise the foundations and principles of the activities of state security agencies.

From 1954 to 1958, the leadership of the KGB was carried out I. A. Serov.

From 1958 to 1961 - A. N. Shelepin.

From 1961 to 1967 - V. E. Semichastny.

From 1967 to 1982 - Yu. V. Andropov.

From May to December 1982 - V. V. Fedorchuk.

From 1982 to 1988 - V. M. Chebrikov.

From August to November 1991 - V.V. Bakatin.

December 3, 1991 President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev signed the law "On the reorganization of state security agencies". On the basis of the document, the KGB of the USSR was abolished and, for the transitional period, the Inter-Republican Security Service and the Central Intelligence Service of the USSR (currently the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation) were created on its basis.

FSB

After the abolition of the KGB, the process of creating new state security agencies took about three years. During this time, departments of the disbanded committee were transferred from one department to another.

December 21, 1993 Boris Yeltsin signed a decree establishing the Federal Counterintelligence Service of the Russian Federation (FSK). The director of the new body from December 1993 to March 1994 was Nikolay Golushko, and from March 1994 to June 1995 this post was held by Sergei Stepashin.

Currently, the FSB cooperates with 142 special services, law enforcement agencies and border structures of 86 states. Offices of official representatives of the bodies of the Service are functioning in 45 countries.

In general, the activities of the FSB bodies are carried out in the following main areas:

counterintelligence activities;
fight against terrorism;
protection of the constitutional order;
combating particularly dangerous forms of crime;
intelligence activities;
border activities;
ensuring information security; fight against corruption.

The FSB was headed by:

in 1995-1996 M. I. Barsukov;

in 1996-1998 N. D. Kovalev;

in 1998-1999 V. V. Putin;

in 1999- 2008 N. P. Patrushev;

since May 2008 - A. V. Bortnikov.

The structure of the FSB of Russia:

On December 20, 1917, by a decree of the Council of People's Commissars, the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission under the Council of People's Commissars for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage (VChK) was created ...

Untriumphal procession of Soviet power

VChK - for some, these three letters hide a gloomy sect of pathological sadists and murderers, who have set the extermination of their fellow citizens on stream. For others, these letters mean a kind of “order of warriors of Light”, who fought without fear and reproach for a just future for workers and peasants.

The image of the Chekists is mythologized both by adherents of the Soviet regime and its opponents. In fact, the birth of Soviet security agencies, like many things in our country, happened almost by accident, chaotically, and sometimes just curiously.

The Bolshevik Party was distinguished by a powerful organizational structure, representing, in the apt expression of Lenin, the "headquarters of the revolution." But even in this "headquarters" they did not really understand what they would face after coming to power and how to resist the counter-revolutionaries, whose appearance, oddly enough, was unexpected for many in the party.

The idea that the gains of the revolution should be vigorously defended was supported by everyone in the Bolshevik leadership. But what is hidden behind this "resolutely"? In Soviet textbooks, the period immediately after the victory of the armed uprising in Petrograd was called the “Triumphal March of Soviet Power”.

In practice, things did not look so triumphant. Indeed, there was almost no active resistance to the Bolsheviks on the ground, with the exception of Moscow, where heavy fighting unfolded. But the lack of resistance was caused not so much by the active support of the Bolsheviks as by the complete disorganization of any institutions of power in the localities.

Organized chaos

When it became clear that the Bolsheviks were determined to remain in power for a long time, their opponents began to oppose. Moreover, this opposition took place not only on the ground, but also in Petrograd itself.

The capital of the former empire plunged into chaos. Paralyzed and destroyed, the old law enforcement agencies were not able to maintain even elementary order on the streets. In addition to the usual criminal offenses, the pogroms of wine warehouses became a headache for the Bolsheviks, in which the very workers actively participated, for whose “better future” the Leninist party fought.

But the most formidable problem for the Bolsheviks who took power is the sabotage of government officials.

The leaders of the displaced Provisional Government, as well as the bourgeois parties, very quickly found an effective method of influencing the new regime. The total refusal of officials of state institutions and banks to work under the rule of the Bolsheviks threatened to plunge the country into complete chaos. The paralysis of state bodies made the new government untenable and threatened its fall in the shortest possible time.

These days, the Bolsheviks tried to take state bodies under their control. However, the party simply did not have the required number of managers. The appointment of a conscious sailor or soldier to the position of head of the bank looked revolutionary, but it had no practical meaning - without knowledge and experience, such a “manager” could only aggravate the matter.

"Emergency measures are needed..."

Therefore, it was necessary to return to work the "old shots", and to solve this problem quickly enough.

For the first weeks, all the functions of the fight against criminal elements, pogromists and saboteurs were in the hands of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee. However, this structure, created to organize the coordination of an armed uprising, was not adapted for new functions.

In December 1917, the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee was dissolved, but the question arose of creating a new structure that would take over the functions of combating sabotage.

From a note Vladimir Lenin Felix Dzerzhinsky:

« The bourgeoisie commits the worst crimes, bribing the dregs of society and degraded elements, and soldering them for the purpose of pogroms. The supporters of the bourgeoisie, especially from the top officials, from bank officials, etc., sabotage the work, organize strikes in order to undermine the government in its measures aimed at carrying out socialist transformations. It even comes to the point of sabotaging food work, which threatens millions of people with starvation. Urgent measures are needed to combat counter-revolutionaries and saboteurs…”

On December 18, 1917, the Bolsheviks intercepted a telegram from the Small Council of Ministers of the former Provisional Government, calling on all officials to sabotage on an all-Russian scale. In this situation, it was impossible to delay.

"Robespierre" and "Saint-Just"

The question of who to entrust with the creation and leadership of the new structure was decided by Lenin. Having rejected the candidates for volunteers, the leader chose someone who did not really aspire to this role - Felix Dzerzhinsky.

In his new position, Lenin needed a person who was selflessly and fanatically devoted to the ideals of the revolution, but at the same time not weighed down by a craving for punitive methods. Dzerzhinsky was just such a person.

Yakov Peters, Dzerzhinsky's deputy for the Cheka, later recalled:

« At the meeting of the Council of People's Commissars, where the question of the fight against counter-revolution arose, there were those who wished to head the Commission. But Lenin called Dzerzhinsky ... "a proletarian Jacobin." Felix Edmundovich after the meeting sadly remarked that if he is now Robespierre, then Peters is Saint-Just, apparently. But neither of us is laughing…”

Felix Dzerzhinsky (right) and Yakov Peters (left).

In the protocol No. 21 of the meeting of the Council of People's Commissars of December 20, 1917, it was recorded that the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission was called upon to solve the following tasks:

1. To suppress and eliminate all counter-revolutionary and sabotage attempts and actions throughout Russia, no matter who they come from.

2. Bring all saboteurs and counter-revolutionaries to trial by a revolutionary tribunal and work out measures to combat them.

3. Conduct only a preliminary investigation, as this is necessary to prevent sabotage.

These three points limited the definition of the goals, methods and tasks of the Cheka. No punitive powers were given to the structure. The maximum that the Cheka could do was to identify the saboteur, detain him, determine the degree of his involvement in illegal activities, and either let him go or hand him over to the hands of the tribunal.

23 Chekists throughout Russia

The building of the former mayor of Petrograd, located at Gorokhovaya, 2, was assigned to the new structure. The same Yakov Peters described the impressions of the first working day:

“Yesterday we were at Gorokhovaya. The house of the former mayor is empty, with broken windows. There are twenty-three of us, including typists and couriers. The entire "office" is in Dzerzhinsky's skinny folder; the entire "cash desk" is in my leather jacket pocket. Where to begin?"

We started all at once. On December 23, Izvestia TsIK published a message about the creation of the Cheka, indicated the address of its location and called on conscious citizens to come with complaints about speculators, saboteurs and other counter-revolutionary elements.

The people went in droves. And the first Chekists had to listen to complaints about rising prices, about scandalous neighbors, about everyday problems - in general, a classic story from the series “they wanted the best”.

The naivety of the first days of the existence of the Cheka had more sinister consequences. The revolutionaries fundamentally refused to work undercover, focusing only on open statements of citizens about crimes. The people of Petrograd went to the new government willingly, reported about bandits who had gone rogue, and then the bodies of the applicants were found in the ditches. The criminals, who remained indifferent to the advent of the "new life", simply exterminated the "informers" as a warning to others. The Chekists learned from bitter experience how to take care of witnesses.

To understand what the work of the Cheka looked like in the first months of its existence in Petrograd, and then in Moscow, it is enough to read this note by Dzerzhinsky:

« Check the information that speculators often gather and gamble in the apartment at 12 B. Kozikhinsky Lane».

Having received such a task, the Chekist went to the headquarters of the Red Guard, where he asked for a detachment of revolutionary-minded soldiers and sailors, with whom he went to the "operation".

Dzerzhinsky in the courtyard of the building of the Cheka 1918

There was no talk of any professional training - sometimes security officers came under heavy fire from criminals and suffered serious losses. Even more often, no one was caught at all on such a signal.

The case of the "Union of Unions"

But what about sabotage and the fight against it? Yes, these cases were a priority for the Cheka. The first of these was the case of the Union of Unions of Employees of State Institutions.

Despite the tautology in the name, the "Union of Unions" turned out to be a very effective "sabotage headquarters." Through it, not only organizational activities were carried out, but funds were also distributed to maintain the “morale” of officials who did not go to work.

The "Union of Unions", however, was also imperfect and neglected the rules of conspiracy, which allowed the Chekists, led by Dzerzhinsky, to arrest the leaders of the organization. Felix Dzerzhinsky personally led the investigation into the Soyuz case, headed by an official of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Kondratyev.

The outcome of the case, from the point of view of today's ideas about the Cheka, is completely unexpected. By March 1, 1918, out of 30 detainees, 29 people were released on bail or released for other reasons. The only one who appeared before the commission of inquiry of the revolutionary tribunal was Kondratiev himself.

However, he was released after interrogation. That is, the fact of sabotage was revealed, investigated, confirmed, but the Cheka and the revolutionary tribunal completed this case "without trial and punishment."

First executions

It is no coincidence that these first months of the existence of the Cheka are called the “romantic period”. Moreover, not only the employees of the Cheka, but also its leader himself are romantics. In a note written in January 1918, Dzerzhinsky asks the headquarters of the Red Guard to be sent to work in the banking department of the Cheka " 5–10 items Red Guards, aware of their great mission as revolutionaries, inaccessible either to bribery or to the corrupting influence of gold.

Dzerzhinsky, who himself had been imprisoned in tsarist prisons for many years, indeed spoke in the first months as chairman of the Cheka as a strict champion of the observance of the laws, called for a humane treatment of detainees and was by no means a supporter of repression.

F.E. Dzerzhinsky among the staff of the Cheka. Photo from 1918

But there is no need to harbor rosy illusions either - the tougher the situation became, the more violent the civil conflict in Russia became, the further romance went from the actions of the Chekists.

In connection with the offensive of the German army, a resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of February 21, 1918 "The Socialist Fatherland is in danger!" was adopted. It stated that "enemy agents, speculators, thugs, hooligans, counter-revolutionary agitators, German spies are shot at the scene of the crime."

This document for the first time gives the powers of the Cheka for extrajudicial execution. It was first used on February 26, 1918. It was not the political opponents of the Bolsheviks who were executed, but the bandits - the self-proclaimed Prince Eboli (aka de Grikoli, Naydi, Makovsky, Dalmatov) and his accomplice Britt.

This couple “worked out” quite well for the execution - the raiders, posing as employees of the Cheka, committed a number of robberies and murders. During a search of the apartment where the "prince" lived, looted jewelry, gold, and unique works of art stolen from the Winter Palace were discovered.

Terror replaced romance

The second execution took place two days later - two more raiders were executed, also posing as members of the Cheka. Until June 1918, the total number of death sentences will not exceed 50. Again, we are talking about bandits, speculators, counterfeiters, and not about political enemies.

But the process, as they say, has begun. The turning point in the history of the Cheka was the rebellion of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries in July 1918, and then the murder of Uritsky and the assassination attempt on Lenin by the Socialist-Revolutionaries.

Announcement of the executions of the Vitebsk Cheka. 1918

In response to this, the Bolsheviks announce the "Red Terror", the implementation of which is entrusted to the Cheka. Felix Dzerzhinsky, previously dismissed from his post, after the Left Socialist-Revolutionary rebellion (during which the Cheka showed itself to be an ineffective structure in the fight against the threat to the state system), returns to the leadership of the Chekists and with an iron fist brings down the same punishing sword on the head of the right and the guilty ...

The "romantic period" is over, the bloody everyday life of the civil war has begun...

Reactions to the article

Liked our site? Join or subscribe (you will receive notifications about new topics by mail) to our channel in Mirtesen!

Impressions: 1 Coverage: 0 Reads: 0

Comments

Show previous comments (showing %s of %s)

Oh those myths. However, in Soviet times, the concept of "real Chekist" was the highest assessment of the activities of our KGB law enforcement officers. And among SUCH - there were truly honest and decent people, exclusively devoted to the cause of both law enforcement and the preservation of our very ... Soviet statehood.
Whatever one may say, under the Soviets, the STATE ... of workers and peasants WAS A REALITY. Another thing is that it was led by the party nomenklatura. But the entire DOMESTIC policy of our state was built precisely on the subject of PROTECTING this system, as we then considered - FAIR and socially oriented.
We all lived with the attitude that in our society THERE SHOULD NOT BE RICH.
However, only after many decades we realized that it would be better if we lived with the attitude that THERE SHOULD NOT BE POOR. Text hidden

Reactions to a comment

→ "However, only after many decades we realized that it would be better if we lived with the installation that there SHOULD NOT BE POOR" - this was whispered to us by those 40 who recently met with Putin, according to the law of communicating vessels, if it leaked from somewhere, then it has flowed in somewhere, but they don’t tell us about it, and there is a feeling that these laws will not be taught soon either, the more stupid the people, the richer the “cream” Text hidden

Reactions to a comment

→ And to the eyeballs, as always, the most interesting. One of the most sinister figures surrounded by the Father of Nations. The most terrible Bolshevik ghoul! Not by night will be remembered! "A living component of the Stalinist guillotine" - according to D. Volkogonov.
Ulrich Vasily Vasilyevich (1889 - 1951) - was born in a decent wealthy family, his mother is a writer. He joined the revolutionary movement in 1908, in 1910 he joined the RSDLP, a Bolshevik. Since 1918 he worked in the bodies of the Cheka - the NKVD. Together with Ya. S. Agranov (Sorenson Yankel Shmaevich) in 1919 he participated in the development of provocative operations. Among them - the operation "Whirlwind", "Sebezh business". Since 1919 - Commissar of the Headquarters of the Internal Guard Troops. In February 1922, he led the mass executions of naval officers of the White armies who remained in the Crimea. In 1926 - 1948 - Chairman of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR (replaced by V. A. Trifonov in this post) and at the same time in 1935-38 - Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Court of the USSR. The case of each defendant was considered on average 15 minutes. The sentence was carried out immediately and immediately. (Khodorkovsky was only sentenced for two weeks! - This is a real political trial! Well done Comrade Ustinov! Worthy follower of Comrade Ulrich)
He presided over the trial in the case of the "king of terror" Boris Viktorovich Savinkov. In 1930-31, he presided over falsified trials of "bourgeois specialists, engineers." He was also the chairman of the largest political processes of the era of the Great Terror - on the cases of the "anti-Soviet united Trotskyist-Zinoviev bloc" (August 19-24, 1936), "parallel anti-Soviet center" (January 23-30, 1937), "anti-Soviet center" (March 2-13, 1938), "right-Trotskyist center", "counter-revolutionary military-fascist organization" - the Tukhachevsky-Yakir case (June 01, 1937) and others. On September 27, 1938, the board under his chairmanship “dealt with” the case of S.P. Korolev in 15 minutes. He signed sanctions for the execution of Yagoda, and then Yezhov. His signature is on the death sentences of the most famous "enemies of the people" - Bukharin, Rykov, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Tukhachevsky, Blucher, Yakir ...
One of the main organizers of terror. Instructions on the punishment for the defendants received personally from Stalin. By 1937, Ulrich's reports to the leader had become almost daily. The discreet three-story house No. 23 on October 25 Street, where the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR met, was called the “Execution House”. (Immediately behind the shopping center "Nautilus", slightly to the left of the monument to the pioneer printer Ivan Fedorov). A long tunnel leads to the courtyard of this terrible house directly from the courtyard of the Lubyanka prison.
Plump, outwardly intelligent, radiating self-satisfaction, Ulrich usually announced a break after a few minutes of hearing the case. And the court, as it should be according to the law, left for a meeting, and after another two or three minutes it returned and the sentence was announced to the defendant. The condemned were shot here, in the deaf and dark cellars of the building of the Military Collegium in the very center of Moscow. His good friend - People's Commissar of Justice Nikolai Krylenko - Ulrich personally shot.
In 1938, Ulrich informed L.P. Beria that from October 01, 1936 to September 30, 1938, 30,514 people were sentenced to death by firing squad and 5,643 people to imprisonment. According to historians, Ulrich sentenced as many people to death and hard labor as no other person in the history of mankind has sentenced. The Duke of Alba and Torquemada are resting! The "bloody" Duke of Alba, Ferdinand Alvarez de Toledo, horrified Europe by executing 1,800 people in the rebellious Dutch states! The Grand Inquisitor Thomas Torquemada burned over 10,000 people in Spain in his auto-da-fe (acts of faith) and has remained a symbol of massacres for centuries! And the “polite, laconic” and inconspicuous Latvian Ulrich shot 15,000 people a year! 41 people a day! (if no days off).
On September 8, 1941, without initiating a criminal case, without conducting a preliminary investigation and trial, in absentia, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR, chaired by Ulrich, passed a sentence on 161 prisoners who were serving their sentences in the Oryol prison, convicting them all under the article of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR No. 58-10, part 2 to capital punishment - execution. On the basis of a written order from Ulrich, addressed to the head of the UNKVD for the Oryol region, the sentence was carried out on September 11, 1941. According to Lev Razgon, “All those killed were gagged with specially sewn gags, their hands were tied, they were told that they would be shot now, then they were put into trucks and sent 11 kilometers into the forest, where ditches for the corpses had already been dug.” Among those shot: Olga Okudzhava, 63 years old, "Socialist-Revolutionary Mother of God" - Maria Spiridonova, 57 years old - half-blind, disabled after torture and 10 years of hard labor in Nerchinsk (the first of the political ones was exposed to Soviet punitive psychiatry), Olga Kameneva, 59 years old, Rakovsky, 68 years old, professor Pletnev is 69 years old... And they managed to transport the criminals to other prisons!
In 1948, for excessive indulgence towards the Ukrainian peasants (they were not shot, but only exiled to Siberia), he was dismissed by Stalin. In 1950 he was arrested and died on May 7, 1951 from a stroke in prison. He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery. The obituary says: "Comrade Ulrich has always combined merciless repression against the enemies of the people with the principles of revolutionary legality." He was married to Anna Davydovna Kassel (1892-1974), a member of the RSDLP since 1910, an employee of the secretariat of V. I. Lenin. Personal life failed. He sent his parents to the House of Veterans of the Revolution, divorced his two wives, and was not interested in his son. For most of his life he did not live at home, but in a deluxe room at the Metropol Hotel, not far from the Execution House. There he often drove frightened to death prostitutes. The only passion that consumed him was collecting butterflies and beetles. Like all executioners, he had the most ingenuous appearance - a kind bald man with a Chaplin mustache.
Could not find data: is Ulrich considered repressed? His teacher and first sidekick Yankel Shmulevich Agranov-Sorenson almost got into rehabilitation. In 1955, the Main Military Prosecutor's Office nevertheless refused to review the case of Ya. S. Agranov as being involved in organizing mass repressions.
All attempts by the Memorial to assess the activities of Ulrich were unsuccessful. “In accordance with paragraph 8 of Article 5 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the RSFSR, a criminal case against V.V. Ulrikh on the facts of his unjust sentences cannot be initiated, and the initiated case (about execution in the Oryol prison) is subject to termination: “in relation to the deceased, except in cases where the proceedings are necessary for the rehabilitation of the deceased or the initiation of proceedings against other persons due to newly discovered circumstances. Text hidden It would be better if you did not mention this Memorial. That's a pro-American office. And with the money of the US State Department, we are making our way here.
If our zealous human rights defenders did not fuss in the field of human rights in the interests of ALL people, I would only take off my hat.
But, unfortunately, ALL of them, these human rights activists, eat from the hands of the Yankees. And they exist safely. But they don’t mow, and they don’t reap. so where is the money for such activities.
Then one comrade once wrote to me that I should not touch the Memorial and Alekseev, because, as this senile old woman, it turns out, she hired lawyers for him and saved him from court. And this comrade doesn’t give a damn that they defended him with the money of the State Department. How disgusting. And we HAVE lawyers who defend people in courts for FREE.
And this Memorial...Typical State Department SHIT. Text hidden

Reactions to a comment

How many of the best representatives of the Russian intelligentsia: philosophers, poets, writers, artists, doctors, scientists, just honest people - were ruined by two Latvian half-educated Vahlaks with their own hands or the hands of their executioners! How now to calculate: how many millions of dollars should Latvia pay us for Florensky, Kharms, Gumilyovs Nikolai and Lev, Vladimir Narbut, Artyom Vesely, Platonov, Pilnyak, Shalamov, Mandelstam, Babel, Tsvetaeva, Yesenin, Mayakovsky, in total - more than 1000 Soviet writers, Meyerhold, Zhzhenov, Vera Fedorov, Ruslanova, Maretskaya. What names!!! The list is endless...
I wonder what compensation Russia could demand from Latvia for the destruction of the "cultural layer" of its population in 1918-1923?

And now, for contrast, name at least ten names of Latvian cultural figures! Janis Rainis, Vilis Latsis (a writer - many people know about him, but no one has read anything), Raimonds Pauls, Vija Artmane, Laima Vaikule, Ivar Kalnins - an actor, a famous admirer of Grand Coffee, Blaumanis - the founder of the Latvian theater and some Is Rosenthal an artist or an actor? Is this in their entire history?

But quite different Latvians are well known. Almost everyone knows these names well. Latvia can rightly be proud of it! Here they are - the valiant representatives of the Latvian people, who have made a significant contribution to the development of the history of the USSR! Meet.

Peters Yakov Khristoforovich (1886 - 1938) - during the October putsch of 1917 - a member of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee. One of the founders of the Cheka, chairman of the Revolutionary Tribunal. "Bloody Chekist". He insisted that the Cheka was not under the control of the party and the government. One of the leaders of the liquidation of the Left SR rebellion. In 1920-1922, the representative of the Cheka in Turkestan was at the height of the struggle against the Basmachi. Since 1923 - a member of the board of the OGPU. “Very often, Peters himself was present at the executions. They shot in batches. The Red Army soldiers say that his son, a boy of 8-9 years old, always runs after Peters and constantly pesters him: “Dad, let me!” (“Revolutionary Russia” No. 4, 1920). He received his well-deserved vyshak in 1938, it’s a pity that not earlier ... For some reason he was rehabilitated ... (Although his own - “geb” ...)

Latsis Martyn Ivanovich (Jan Friedrichovich Sudrabs) (1888 - 1938) - also a graduate of the Central Pedagogical School. An active participant in the October coup of 1917 - a member of the Vyborg district headquarters for the preparation of the uprising, a member of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee, since 1917 a member of the board of the NKVD, since 1918 - a member of the board of the Cheka (one of the organizers of the Cheka). One of the most staunch supporters of strengthening the punitive functions of the Cheka, an apologist for the "Red Terror", was distinguished by unparalleled cruelty even among butchers from the Cheka. He constantly demanded more and more executions from the Cheka, emphasizing that in order to pass a death sentence, it was not necessary to prove the guilt of the arrested person, but the "extraordinary" should be guided only by "revolutionary consciousness." He stated that “the Cheka is not an investigative board and not a court, it is a fighting organ of the party of the future, the communist party. But this is not a guillotine that cuts off the head by order of the tribunal. No, she either destroys without trial, catching at the scene of the crime, or isolates from society, concluding in a concentration camp. What a word is a law. Since 1928 - deputy. head department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks for work in the countryside. One of the leaders of collectivization and dispossession operations. Imagine what rivers of blood this "collectivizer" shed in our Russian villages! They slapped their own in 1938, in 1956 he was rehabilitated by his own. His son - journalist Alexander Latsis wrote in the Soviet press numerous enthusiastic memories of "one of the best, tested communists." Text hidden

Reactions to a comment