On December 20, 1917, under the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution, Profiteering and Crime ex officio was created - the first Soviet special service. 

"Everything was created from scratch"

In 1917, against the backdrop of revolutionary events and a vacuum of power in Russia, a difficult situation arose in the sphere of ensuring state and public security.

According to historians, during the February Revolution, most of the services that ensured state security in the Russian Empire were liquidated by the Provisional Government.

According to experts, many of the representatives of the revolutionary forces did not see the need for the existence of special services.

This also applied to the Bolsheviks, who came to power during the October Revolution of 1917.

“When the October Revolution took place and the formation of a new government began, there were no special services in Soviet Russia.

The Bolsheviks at first assumed that they would not be needed.

Therefore, the Cheka arose only a month and a half after the revolution, ”said Vasily Khristoforov, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Law, professor at the Russian State Humanitarian University, chief researcher of the IRI RAS, in an interview with RT.

However, representatives of the new government, according to historians, faced massive sabotage by ideological opponents within the country and the vigorous activity of foreign intelligence services.

Against this background, Vladimir Lenin decided to create his own special services in Soviet Russia.

On December 20, 1917, by a decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission was created to combat counter-revolution, speculation and crimes ex officio (until August 1918 - to combat counter-revolution and sabotage).

It was entrusted with tasks in the field of suppressing and eliminating counter-revolutionary actions and sabotage, combating conspiracies, rebellions and anti-Soviet propaganda, countering espionage and sabotage, and later also intelligence, counterintelligence, protection of railway and water transportation.

“A universal special service was created, which took upon itself the solution of diverse tasks and coped well with them during the years of the Civil War,” said Dmitry Surzhik, Associate Professor of GAUGN, in a conversation with RT.

  • Felix Dzerzhinsky

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  • © Pictures From History/Universal Images Group

Felix Dzerzhinsky became chairman of the Cheka.

To manage the first Soviet special service, a presidium and collegium of the Cheka were created.

The commission included departments that corresponded to the main directions of its work.

The Cheka was an organization with strict discipline.

The allowances of its employees corresponded to those of the army.

“There was no continuity between the tsarist special services and the Cheka: they did not accept employees of the tsarist secret police, they did not take a single departmental document into service.

Everything was created from scratch,” said Vasily Khristoforov.

Since 1918, the Chekists were responsible for the implementation of military counterintelligence.

A military department was created, on the basis of which a special department of the Cheka later arose.

By the end of 1918, 40 provincial and 356 district emergency commissions were already operating in the Cheka system.

In addition, the Cheka coordinated the activities of state security agencies under the governments of the Soviet republics.

Moreover, in some of them, the emergency commissions outlived the Cheka itself.

For example, in Transcaucasia they operated until 1926.

  • Members of the collegium of the Cheka

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  • © Slava Katamidze Collection

In 1918, the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR "The socialist fatherland is in danger!" was issued, according to which the Cheka received the right to extrajudicial repression against counter-revolutionaries, enemy spies, saboteurs and saboteurs.

“The Cheka used rather harsh methods.

She responded to the White Terror with the Red Terror.

Both sides waged a war not for life, but for death, ”said Vasily Khristoforov.

During the years of the Civil War, the Cheka stopped recruiting personnel for the White movement, crushed active anti-Soviet organizations and suppressed a number of major anti-Bolshevik uprisings.

In December 1921, at the IX All-Russian Congress of Soviets, it was proposed to limit the powers of the Cheka.

A few weeks later, its transformation into the State Political Administration under the NKVD of the RSFSR began.

Intelligence and counterintelligence

The GPU under the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of Soviet Russia lasted about a year and a half.

In 1923, on its basis, a state security body common to the entire USSR arose - the United State Political Administration (OGPU).

According to historians, in the 1920s, employees of the Soviet special services had to solve strategic problems on which the existence of the young state depended.

Soviet Russia, and then the USSR, for some time were in almost complete international isolation.

Many foreign governments did not recognize the new government in Russia and therefore actively tried to overthrow it, relying on emigrants and the anti-Bolshevik underground in the USSR.

In the 1920s, the Soviet state security agencies carried out a number of large-scale operations to curb the intelligence and sabotage and terrorist activities of emigrant centers and foreign special services.

The most famous of them are "Trust" and "Syndicate".

The Chekists created organizations of allegedly anti-Soviet underground, which came into contact with foreign anti-Soviet structures.

As a result of this activity, it was possible to defeat foreign centers that coordinated activities directed against the USSR, and some of their leaders and curators were lured to the Soviet Union and arrested.

In the early 1920s, the powers of the GPU under the NKVD of the RSFSR were significantly limited, but after the creation of the OGPU, they began to expand again.

A Special Conference was created, at the meetings of which (with the obligatory participation of representatives of the prosecutor's supervision) decisions could be made on expulsion, exile and imprisonment for up to three years.

And the board of the OGPU received the right to pass sentences up to the highest measure.

In 1934, as part of a large-scale reform of law enforcement agencies, the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR was created, which included units of the OGPU - on their basis the Main Directorate of State Security of the NKVD arose.

The GUGB was responsible for intelligence, counterintelligence, the fight against anti-Soviet manifestations and the protection of the government.

Membership in the CPSU (b) was mandatory for employees of the Main Directorate of State Security.

According to historians, the activities of the GUGB in the field of intelligence and counterintelligence in the 1930s and 1940s were highly effective.

“The structures responsible for counterintelligence in the NKVD did their job well.

The enemy could not steal Soviet scientific achievements.

Therefore, for example, during the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet T-34 and KV tanks became an unpleasant surprise for the Germans.

You can also recall our defense lines, many of the structures of which were not on German maps at all, ”Andrey Gorbunov, head of the scientific and methodological department of the Victory Museum, emphasized in a conversation with RT.

Employees of the intelligence structures of the NKVD also actively fought against the opponents of the USSR abroad.

One of the most famous operations was the liquidation in 1938 by the NKVD officer Pavel Sudoplatov in Rotterdam of one of the leaders of the Ukrainian nationalists, Yevgeny Konovalets, who maintained close relations with the Nazi secret services.

  • Liquidation of Ukrainian nationalist Yevhen Konovalets

  • Legion Media

  • © The History Collection

At the same time, experts note that the units responsible for ensuring state security within the NKVD became one of the instruments for mass political repression in the USSR in the 1930s.

Many of the leaders of the GUGB were also declared "enemies of the people" during this period.

At the beginning of 1941, on the basis of the units of the GUGB, a department separate from the NKVD was created - the People's Commissariat for State Security, but soon after the start of the Great Patriotic War they were again united.

During the war, along with solving problems in the field of intelligence, counterintelligence and the fight against saboteurs, the NKVD bodies were engaged in countering desertion, looting, and the spread of panic rumors.

In addition, the units of the People's Commissariat were responsible for reconnaissance and sabotage activities behind the front line and the creation of partisan detachments.

Employees of the NKVD obtained valuable intelligence information, disrupted enemy communications, and eliminated a significant number of prominent Nazi and collaborationist functionaries.

In 1943, the People's Commissariat of State Security, as well as special departments, were again separated from the NKVD, on the basis of which Smersh military counterintelligence units were created.

  • Unveiling of a monument to Soviet intelligence officer Pavel Sudoplatov in Donetsk

  • RIA News

  • © Alexey Maishev

“The contribution of the Soviet special services to the overall victory over Nazi Germany was great.

Soviet intelligence officers and counterintelligence officers outplayed the secret services of the Third Reich and its allies in a secret war, ”Vasily Khristoforov emphasized.

In 1946, as part of the general administrative reform that took place in the Soviet Union, the NKGB was renamed the USSR Ministry of State Security.

According to historians, the post-war years of the activities of the Soviet special services are still very poorly studied, since a significant amount of material for this period has not yet been declassified.

Shortly after the death of Joseph Stalin, a single department was created on the basis of the MGB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, from which the State Security Committee was separated in 1954.

His activity, according to experts, has become a new era in the work of the Soviet special services.