PROTECTING THE REVOLUTION

Felix Dzerzhinsky: a biography

Chapter Five
PROTECTING THE REVOLUTION

The success of the October Revolution opened up a period of drastic change in all aspects of social life. Needless to say, this work provoked fierce opposition on the part of the overthrown classes and their stooges, Mensheviks and SRs. Egged on by international imperialist quarters and supported by them, they spared no effort and scorned no methods, including armed action, to smash Soviet power and restore the bourgeois system. The country was faced with a task of paramount importance: to defend what the revolution had accomplished. In this campaign, Dzerzhinsky played a truly outstanding part. The years after the revolution were probably the most important in his life. He became one of Lenin’s closest associates in the work to organise the defence of the revolution and to build socialism.

After the October events, Dzerzhinsky continued work on the Petrograd Revolutionary Military Committee. Late in the month, it was placed directly under the All-Russia Central Executive Committee and its functions had substantially expanded. Specifically, it was to fight counter- revolutionary activities, maintain public order in the country, pull down the old state apparatus and build a new one. The RMC was in charge of supplying food to towns and the army, distributing weapons and money, requisitioning buildings, vehicles and surplus goods in the greatest demand from the bourgeoisie, and conducting propaganda.

Dzerzhinsky was one of the leading figures in the RMC. He took part in nearly all of its plenary meetings, proving himself to be a steady champion of the Bolshevik line on all issues. He was elected to the RMC headquarters and later to its executive commission. At its meetings, Dzerzhinsky often spoke before worker and soldier delegates to explain the events underway in the country and expose the lies and slander of the bourgeois press against the Bolsheviks.

In the complicated situation that prevailed in the first days after the Revolution, Dzerzhinsky was Lenin’s staunchest supporter and dealt firmly with counterrevolutionaries and defeatists inside the Party.

After helping to suppress the revolt masterminded by Kerensky and General Krasnov, Dzerzhinsky worked to break up the Petrograd City Duma, a major counterrevolutionary centre.

A serious threat to the existence of the young Soviet state was posed by the bourgeois press, which was spreading lies about the Bolsheviks and inciting counter-revolutionary elements to unleash a civil war. On October 27, the Council of People’s Commissars passed a decree on the press which banned all publications trying to stir up opposition or insubordination to the government, sow discontent or provoke criminal acts. The Revolutionary Military Committee immediately began to introduce the decree. A number of mandates, including those on the confiscation of counter- revolutionary publications and the closing down of the printing presses and offices of bourgeois newspapers, were signed by Dzerzhinsky. As member of the RMC, and from mid- November a member of the People’s Commissariat for International Affairs Collegium, Dzerzhinsky headed the campaign against sabotage which threatened to disrupt the building of the Soviet state, introduce chaos into the country’s political and economic life, and provoke dissatisfaction with the new authorities. The RMC declared the saboteurs enemies of the people who were liable to arrest. On November 14, the RMC arrested a group of office workers under the former Ministry for State Charitable Institutions. On Dzerzhinsky’s order the saboteurs were released only after they had submitted the keys and documents to the Soviet authorities. On November 23, Dzerzhinsky signed a warrant for the arrest of a group of State Bank employees who refused to work under the new system.

Dzerzhinsky’s duties in the Revolutionary Military Committee were many. He organised and supervised the guarding of wine cellars and the requisitioning of goods from profiteers, and sanctioned meetings and assemblies; he helped organise the defence of the country’s state borders, was in charge of dispatching armaments and propaganda literature to the provinces and supplying army units and offices with food, clothes and fuel; he instituted the search for valuables stolen from the Winter Palace, saw to the opening of a cheap canteen for lower-ranking office personnel, provided maimed war veterans with artificial limbs, and did much more.

In the second half of November, Dzerzhinsky made an important contribution to the restructuring of Petrograd militia, which had been set up under the Provisional Government. After the October Revolution, its top-ranking personnel refused to work under the RMC and chose to engage in sabotage. Dzerzhinsky sanctioned the arrest of its chief. However, the organisation also incorporated a body of men who were willing to cooperate with the new authorities. About 6,000 militiamen declared they were ready to work under the RMC; only 600 refused. This made it possible to use the old militia for maintaining public law and order up to the time when a new, revolutionary militia could be established.

Dzerzhinsky’s work in the Revolutionary Military Committee was not confined to Petrograd and its outskirts. He gave valuable assistance to local Party bodies and Soviets righting to consolidate the Soviet system and combat counter-revolutionary activities.

As the Soviet state apparatus became better organised, it became apparent that in many spheres the functions of the RMC and the People’s Commissariats began to overlap. On November 25, the Council of People’s Commissars decided to take some of the work load from the RMC and handed over some of its functions to pertinent bodies. It stated that the RMC should concern itself mainly with combating counter-revolutionary activities. On November 21, Dzerzhinsky had suggested that a commission of five for the struggle against counter-revolution be set up within the Revolutionary Military Committee.

On December 5, the RMC adopted a resolution on the cancellation of all its departments and the handing over of materials to the appropriate sections of the All- Russia Central Executive Committee (CEC), the Council of People’s Commissars, and the Petrograd City and district Soviets. The abolition of the RMC concluded one of the most important stages in Dzerzhinsky’s work to establish and build up the Soviet state and defend the achievements of the October Revolution.

In early December 1917, the political situation in the country deteriorated further. The counter-revolutionary elements stepped up their activities, civil war flared up in the country’s outlying regions, sabotage continued to grow, and the campaign of lies and slander launched by the bourgeois, SR and Menshevik press was as vicious as ever. The situation was particularly grave in Petrograd, where the personnel of former ministries, the State Bank, the treasury and the City Council had been on strike for over a month. The pensions and grants to widows, orphans and war invalids had been stopped. At some factories, the workers were no longer receiving wages. The saboteurs disrupted the distribution of fuel thus posing a very real threat to the future operation of the industry. The Union of the State Office Personnel Associations decided to go on a nation-wide political strike.

In the capital, matters were further aggravated by a rising wave of pogroms and robberies. Groups of bandits incited by counter-revolutionaries broke into and smashed wine cellars, shops and drugstores and supplied alcohol to the garrison soldiers. The Committee for the Struggle Against the Pogroms set up by the Petrograd Soviet on December 2 uncovered an organisation which printed and distributed appeals for the overthrow of Soviet power. Also discovered were caches of weapons, secret flats and correspondence between counter-revolutionary groups. The Soviet state was indeed severely threatened.

On December 6, 1917, the Council of People’s Commissars discussed the pending strike of office workers. Dzerzhinsky was instructed to set up a commission for finding ways of preventing the strike. On December 7, Lenin sent him a note stating that urgent measures must be taken in order to suppress the counter-revolutionaries and saboteurs.

That very day, Dzerzhinsky reported to the Council of People’s Commissars on the membership, structure, objectives and rights of such a commission. “Its purpose,” he remarked, “is (1) to cut short and foil all counter- revolutionary efforts and sabotage activities throughout Russia, no matter from where they may proceed.

“2) To turn over to the Revolutionary Tribunal all saboteurs and counterrevolutionaries, and to develop methods of combating them.

“3) The commission will conduct only a preliminary investigation, to the extent required by effective counteraction”.

The commission, Dzerzhinsky proceeded to say, should concentrate above all on combating the anti-Soviet press, eliminating sabotage, and suppressing the criminal activities of counter-revolutionary elements. It should be granted the right to confiscate property, evict criminals from their lodgings, take away their food coupons, publish lists of the counter-revolutionaries’ names, etc.

After listening to Dzerzhinsky’s report, the Council of People’s Commissars decided: “To call the commission the All-Russia Extraordinary Commission at the Council of People’s Commissars to Combat Counter-revolution and Sabotage, and to approve its establishment.” Dzerzhinsky was appointed chairman.

The next day, which was December 8, the All-Russia Extraordinary Commission (Vecheka) meeting elected its presidium consisting of five people and headed by Dzerzhinsky. The organisational structure of the commission was soon evolved, too. It incorporated departments on combating counter-revolution, sabotage and profiteering, as well as the organisational department which was to keep in touch with the local Soviet bodies and help them combat internal enemies. The core of the Commission was formed by veteran Bolsheviks and professional revolutionaries Jams Peters, Ivan Ksenofontov, Dmitry Yevseyev, Vassily Fomhrand Stepan Shchukin.

The formation of the All-Russia Extraordinary Commission signified the emergence of state security bodies of a new, socialist type which protected the achievements of the revolution, the vital interests of the working class, the peasantry, and all toiling people.

After the Council of People’s Commissars approved the membership of the All-Russia Extraordinary Commission, Dzerzhinsky .devoted himself to building up its efficiency. One of his first steps was to recruit competent and reliable personnel. Dzerzhinsky believed that the men should come predominantly from the working class, be staunch supporters of the Soviet system, and to be moral and incorruptible. He appealed to the RSDLP(B) Central Committee, the Petrograd Soviet and the Red Guards headquarters to recommend unquestionably honest men “aware of their great mission as revolutionaries, who cannot be bribed or succumb to the corrupting influence of gold”. The staff of the Extraordinary Commission was recruited quite quickly.

Dzerzhinsky coordinated the work of all departments, channelling their efforts to achieve a common goal. He was a figure of tremendous authority, and in addition to his significant political experience, loyalty to the ideals of the revolution, scrupulous honesty and considerate attitude to others, he was a superb organiser. Quickly perceiving the special talents of each man, he competently appointed them, making sure that they were aware of the significance of the work with which they had been entrusted.

Dzerzhinsky justly believed that the success of the Vecheka in the fight against the opponents of Soviet power would, to a large extent, depend on popular support. He stressed that the workers, soldiers and peasants should be given a good idea of the activities of the Commission and be appealed to for help in case of need.

The documents of the Soviet government, which Dzerzhinsky helped draw up, clearly defined the competence and rights of the All-Russia Extraordinary Commission, and its relationship with other state bodies. They confirmed the Vecheka’s direct subordination and accountability to the Council of People’s Commissars and its right to institute a search for counter-revolutionary elements and take the necessary steps to curtail criminal activities, and defined the procedure by which its staff was to be recruited.

Dzerzhinsky not only exercised general leadership over the Vecheka’s work but was personally involved in many of its operations against counter-revolutionaries, saboteurs and profiteers. He was present at searches and arrests, investigated quite a number of cases, and did shift duty at the All-Russia Extraordinary Commission’s presidium. We possess numerous notes taken by Dzerzhinsky during his shift duty recording the information submitted by citizens of Petrograd about the criminal activities of enemies of the Soviet system.

Dzerzhinsky was a believer in prompt action. Cheka men would be dispatched to make a search and an arrest, and some infiltrated anti-Soviet organisations and eventually blew them up.

The Extraordinary Commission was instrumental in eliminating sabotage in Petrograd. On December 22, a search was conducted in the building where the Union of the State Office Personnel Associations, a nest of saboteurs, had its headquarters. Cheka men found mimeographed bulletins of the central strike committee, subscription sheets, and visiting cards and notebooks. Dzerzhinsky personally studied the papers and questioned the arrested men, worked to discover the financial sources for the running of the organisation, and the degree of the members’ personal involvement in its activities and their political views. He then drew up a detailed plan for further investigation, and a list of the organisers and most active participants in sabotage activities. On December 30, 1917, they were arrested by the Vecheka.

It was found that the Union and the strike committee operating under it were a major centre of sabotage not only in Petrograd but throughout the country. They received money from Russian and foreign capitalists and banks. The Commission uncovered strike committees functioning at ministries and offices.

In the course of the investigation the Commission destroyed the strike committee apparatus and isolated its leaders from rank-and-file members. The men who gave a written promise no longer to engage in sabotage were released.

In the late 1917-early 1918 the Commission was informed of the existence in the city of anti-Soviet centres which recruited and shipped officers to the River Don area where they joined the White Cossack units.[1] The Extraordinary Commission was to uncover and destroy these centres. Dzerzhinsky personally helped put an end to the Organisation for the Struggle Against Bolshevism and the Recruiting of Troops for Kaledin, Everything for the Homeland, The White Cross, The Black Dot, The Alliance for the Assistance to Invalid Officers, The Military League and a number of other groups.

In late February 1918, when German troops were advancing towards Petrograd, Soviet power was threatened. Counter-revolutionary elements became active once more. White Guards units, which had contacts with German imperialist circles, were preparing a rebellion in Petrograd. The city was teeming with criminals who terrorised the population. On February 21, at Lenin’s suggestion, the Council of People’s Commissars passed the decree “The Socialist Fatherland Is in Danger!" which contained a plan for mobilising all available forces in order to rebuff the enemy. The last, eighth point of the Decree granted the revolutionary bodies, including the Vecheka, extraordinary powers in the campaign against hooliganism, enemy agents, profiteers, counter-revolutionary agitators and German spies. On Dzerzhinsky’s proposal, the Extraordinary Commission issued a statement informing the citizens that no mercy would be shown towards the enemies of the Soviet system.

As the Germans advanced towards Petrograd, Dzerzhinsky channelled the efforts of his staff into fighting gangsterism. In late February-early March the Vecheka uncovered and disbanded several gangs, whose leaders were severely punished. Gradually, the wave of terror in Petrograd began to roll back, and revolutionary order was re-established.

The Cheka was also involved in combating profiteering. As was reported in the CEC Izvestia newspaper, the efforts of Dzerzhinsky’s Commission to check speculation in gold were “crowned with brilliant success after a very short time”. Alongside with gold, large amounts of consumer goods and foodstuffs were confiscated.

Work on the Extraordinary Commission consumed a great deal of Dzerzhinsky’s time and energy, and yet he remained active in other fields as well. He was regularly present at the RSDLP(B) Central Committee meetings, which at that time were devoted mostly to the withdrawal of the Soviet Republic from the imperialist war. In the course of peace talks, Germany and its allies demanded that the Soviet Government permit the German troops to remain in Poland, the Ukraine, Byelorussia and the Baltic area. The alternative to these humiliating terms would be a revolutionary war against German imperialism, which Soviet Russia was simply unable to wage. The old army had almost entirely fallen apart, while a new, Red Army was only being formed. The workers and peasants were longing for peace; continuation of the war would have doomed the revolution. Lenin was convinced that to save the Soviet Republic, a peace treaty with Germany had to be signed immediately whatever its terms. But not everyone in the Central Committee was of the same opinion. Dzerzhinsky, too, adopted a different stand, believing that a peace treaty would strengthen German imperialism and offer no guarantee against further ultimatums. “Signing this peace treaty, we snail save nothing,” he said.

The peace talks held in Brest were interrupted. On February 18, 1918, the German army assumed the offensive and began to advance deeper into the country.

On February 23, Germany submitted another, harsher ultimatum whose terms called for slicing off the Baltic area and part of Byelorussia from Soviet Russia, forcing the Soviet Government to recognise the bourgeois Central Rada of the Ukraine, demobilise the army, and pay a huge indemnity. At the Central Committee meeting which convened on that same day, Lenin demanded that these terms be accepted. Thanks to his determination, the Central Committee agreed to accept immediately the German ultimatum. Dzerzhinsky abstained from voting.

On March 3, 1918, the peace treaty with Germany was signed in Brest. The Extraordinary Seventh Congress of the RCP(B)[2] held a few days later approved this step. On March 8, the congress elected a new Central Committee, with Dzerzhinsky as one of its members.

At around that time, the Soviet Government moved from Petrograd to Moscow, and so did the Extraordinary Commission. The bulk of the cases under investigation was handed over to the newly-established Petrograd Extraordinary Commission headed by Moissei Uritsky.

The situation in Moscow, as elsewhere in the country, was extremely complicated. The exploiter classes which had suffered a defeat in open combat now engaged in underground subversive activities. In the spring of 1918, a number of large paramilitary secret organisations sprang up, including The Union for the Defence of the Motherland and Freedom, The Right Centre and The Union of Resurrection, which set themselves the goal of overthrowing the Soviet system. They received financial assistance from abroad.

Profiteers, bribe-takers, hooligans and gangsters posed a serious threat to the Soviet Republic. They disrupted state discipline and public order and introduced chaos into the life of society. In many cities and towns, anarchist gangs captured buildings, raided offices, and robbed the people. The bourgeois, SR and Menshevik press continued to disseminate slander against the policies of the Communist Party and the Soviet Government. The need to suppress these activities was even more urgent than in the first months after the October Revolution.

The Extraordinary Commission Collegium issued a decree on the immediate establishment of local Chekas to combat counter-revolution, profiteering, abuse of official position and the subversive activities of the press. In April 1918, the Chekas were formed in Kaluga, Astrakhan and many other towns.

On May 11, the All-Russia Central Executive Committee Presidium banned the newspapers which were sowing panic among the people and provoking dissatisfaction with the Soviet system. These newspapers were to be fined and their editors arrested. In view of its urgency, the execution of this decision was entrusted to the Extraordinary Commission.

Dzerzhinsky organised and reinforced the armed units at the disposal of the Vecheka and saw to it that their personnel were well-trained.

As the Commission’s functions gained in scope, it became essential to further build up its staff. On May 18, Dzerzhinsky raised this issue at the RCP(B) Central Committee meeting, which considered his report and decided to appoint prominent Soviet statesmen and Party functionaries Martyn Lacis and Varvara Yakovleva to responsible positions in the Extraordinary Commission. In addition, the Central Executive Committee, the Moscow RCP(B) Committee and district Party committees were required to send Communists to work there.

Seeking to reinforce the ranks of his organisation with ideologically mature and dedicated people, Dzerzhinsky stressed the need for enhancing political awareness. Speaking at the Collegium meetings, he repeated time and again that only those who were prepared to sacrifice all for the cause of the revolution, had a well-developed sense of duty and were willing to follow orders of their superiors promptly were fit for work at the Cheka. He also requested that those who were not prepared to assume full responsibility for their work and who had not always performed their duties well be asked to leave. On April 26, at the Collegium meeting, he talked about the need to purge the Commission.

Dzerzhinsky insisted that the Cheka’s staff should never overstep the boundaries of law, and that those people placed under arrest should be treated with courtesy. When he learned that one of his men hit the person he was questioning, he personally investigated the matter. He wrote on the cover of the examination record: “The commission has investigated the matter and has decided to severely reprimand the guilty party, and in the future, to institute court proceedings against anyone who so much as lays a finger on a detainee.” Dzerzhinsky considered it impermissible to use provocation and taught his staff to act before a crime that would entail arrests and other repressive acts took place. In his words, the principal goal of the Cheka was “to prevent crime, which, of course, might not produce impressive results but is actually much more productive”.

Dzerzhinsky urged the Cheka’s personnel to expand and strengthen ties with the working people, for he considered this a necessary condition for efficient work.

In the spring of 1918, acting on Dzerzhinsky’s plan, the Extraordinary Commission broke up a number of anarchist groups in Moscow. In the small hours of the morning of April 12, the units of the Moscow garrison and Cheka detachments surrounded the buildings occupied by anarchists. About 600 people were arrested, most of whom were not convinced anarchists but burglars and gangsters.

Soon, the same sort of operation was carried out in Petrograd, Saratov, Voronezh, and other towns and cities. The elimination of anarchist groups helped consolidate Soviet power and strengthened the security of the people.

Another series of blows was dealt against profiteers. In March and April, Dzerzhinsky investigated a number of cases of illegal sales of spirits to owners of Moscow’s tearooms and dining halls. The persons guilty of the speculation were deported from Moscow, and their property confiscated. A major operation was conducted against the Russian Union for the Commerce and Industry to Advance the Domestic and Foreign Exchange of Goods, which was headed by big factory-owners in Moscow who had sold from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of poods[3] of articles to Moscow profiteers and intermediaries. Under a Vecheka decree, the Union’s property was confiscated. Soon, the Soviet Government nationalised the companies associated with it.

The Cheka uncovered criminal contacts between Russian profiteers and employees of the German embassy. German diplomats and representatives of trade firms were buying up stock and other securities of factories to be nationalised at extremely low prices. Under the terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (the old name of Brest), they could present them to the Soviet Government to be reimbursed in gold at face value. However, the Cheka, which had previously sentenced a number of big-time profiteers to death for high treason and illegal transactions involving sales of stock, prevented this speculation.

The Cheka was also in charge of cases involving abuse of official position. Under Dzerzhinsky’s immediate guidance, it uncovered and investigated a great number of cases of embezzlements, bribe-taking, extortion, and counterfeiting.

Another of its functions was to combat the counter-revolutionary press. In May and June, it terminated the activities of Vperyod (Forward), Rodina (Motherland), Zemlya i Volya (Land and Freedom), Narodnoye Slovo (People’s World), and Novosti Dnya (Daily News), SR and Menshevik publications issued in Moscow and Petrograd, which slandered the Soviet Government’s foreign and domestic policies. A number of similar publications, as well as “non- partisan" gutter sheets, were closed down in other towns, too.

The Cheka waged a successful campaign against counterrevolutionary activities. In late March, it uncovered and suppressed the Landowners’ Union, which maintained contacts with the White Guard generals Kornilov and Kaledin. In April, it concluded its investigation into the activities of a counter-revolutionary group which numbered among its members the American citizen W. A. Barri, ex-officers of the White Army, and Countess Lanskaya. The group failed in its attempt to create a storm unit which it hoped to move it to the Don area, with the men disguised as Red Guards. The Barri organisation had a great deal of money at its disposal which was used to render “material assistance" to the volunteers and supply them with food and clothing. This case was handed over to the Moscow Revolutionary Tribunal for further investigation.

In May 1918, Dzerzhinsky’s Commission was successful in uncovering the counterrevolutionary Union for the Defence of the Motherland and Freedom. The first information about its existence came from a worker of the Moscow Kauchuk Factory, who reported that one of the nearby private clinics was visited by suspicious-looking men who posed as patients but who, judging from their bearing, were probably officers.

At about the same time, the commander of the Lettish regiment reported to Vecheka Deputy Chairman Janis Peters that a nurse at the Iverskaya Hospital had told him about an armed uprising under preparation in Moscow. She herself had learned about it from a military cadet she knew. Dzerzhinsky ordered that the hospital, the private clinic, and the military cadet be kept under surveillance.

In the early hours of the morning of May 29, a group of men headed by Peters surrounded the house where the conspirators had assembled and arrested the lot. The search produced the seal and documents of the Union for the Defence of the Motherland and Freedom, scraps of a torn-up letter, half of a visiting card torn along a zigzag line, and address and telephone books. Other members of the Union were arrested, too.

Together with Martyn Lacis, Dzerzhinsky began to question the men and study the documents confiscated during the search. The investigation revealed that the Union was a large and efficiently operated secret military organisation which numbered about 5,000 counter-revolutionaries and had branches in a number of cities. The conspirators had found ways to infiltrate Soviet government bodies, army units, and military organisations. The main objective of the Union was to overthrow the Soviet system, establish a military dictatorship headed by Boris Savinkov, an SR leader, and re-enter the war against Germany.

It was no easy task to destroy the Union. It was necessary to master the art of uncovering the activities of sophisticated secret counter-revolutionary organisations which used codes and passwords and had an intricate structure. Dzerzhinsky’s investigation set an example for all his staff to follow. Even the most impatient commissars and investigating officers,” wrote Janis Peters, “learned from him how insignificant scraps of paper could be valuable leads in uncovering counter-revolutionary plots.”

The White Guards were not the only group plotting against the Soviet state; SRs and Mensheviks were also waging their own vigorous campaigns. In the spring and summer of 1918, right-wing SRs and Mensheviks launched a large-scale propaganda campaign, hoping to incite the people to take up arms against the Soviet government and help set up “a general democratic" government.

They were involved in the revolt in Yaroslavl staged by the Union for the Defence of the Motherland and Freedom, and provoked anti-Soviet actions in Kostroma, Saratov, Volsk, Tambov and a number of other cities. They tried to instigate strikes among factory workers and to trigger kulak[4] revolts in the countryside.

On May 23, 1918, the Council of People’s Commissars enjoined the Vecheka to step up its campaign against the hostile activities of counter-revolutionary parties. Rightwing SR and Menshevik leaders were put under surveillance. On June 13, the Extraordinary Commission was informed that an SR and Menshevik conference was to be convened in a certain club-house to devise a plan for anti-Soviet struggle. To disguise its purpose, the conference organisers referred to it as “An Extraordinary Assembly of Representatives of Moscow’s Factories and Workshops”. Right-wing SRs and Mensheviks from Petrograd, Tula, Bryansk and Penza were expected to attend the conference. On the same day, the Cheka arrested the participants at the counter- revolutionary gathering and confiscated a large number of anti-Soviet documents, including the “Appeal to the Workers of Moscow”, “Instruction of the Delegation to Moscow Workers”, “Instruction to Petrograd Workers”, and draft resolutions of the conference which urged the workers to overthrow the Soviet government. There was evidence indicating that the counter-revolutionaries had requested the allies to send a landing force and open an anti-German front on the territory of Russia, and had slandered the Bolshevik Party and its leaders. Dzerzhinsky was personally involved in the investigation of this affair.

Most of Dzerzhinsky’s time and effort went into the struggle against anarchism, gangsterism and abuse of office, and uncovering the schemes hatched by White Guards, SRs and Mensheviks. He was rarely at home, spending days and nights at the Cheka. A narrow iron bed covered with an army blanket stood in his office behind a screen, and he often slept there at night. “I’m in the very fire of the struggle,” he wrote to his wife on May 27, 1918. “It is the life of a soldier who can have no rest, for our home must be saved. There is no time to think about one’s nearest and dearest, or about oneself. The work and the struggle are hell.”

Dzerzhinsky’s goal was to turn the Cheka into an efficient body that would serve the proletarian state, the punishing sword of the revolution. “Our task,” he said in an interview with a Novaya Zhizn (New Life) reporter, “is to combat the enemies of Soviet power and the new system of life. Such enemies are both our political opponents and all the gangsters, swindlers, profiteers and other criminals who are undermining the foundations of the socialist system. With respect to them, we are merciless.”

However, left-wing SRs made it difficult to introduce effective methods of struggle against the enemies of the country. Using the right or veto, they prevented the passage of the Vecheka resolutions to severely punish the most active members of The Union for the Defence of the Motherland and Freedom.

Left-wing SRs undermined the Bolshevik Party’s activities not only at the Cheka. At that time, they were preparing a revolt in Moscow, which was to be instigated by the assassination of the German Ambassador Wilhelm Mirbach. One of the Cheka detachments commanded by left-wing SR D. Popov was planned to act as the principal strike force. In late June-early July Popov sent nearly all men loyal to the Soviet Government to the front and replaced them with demoralised Black Sea Fleet sailors and anarchists.

On July 6, 1918, left-wing SRs Blyumkin and Andreyev, who had been provided with a false Cheka mandate, entered the German Embassy and killed Mirbach. The assassination of this high-ranking official placed Soviet-German relations in great jeopardy and threatened a renewal of war. Simultaneously, left-wing SRs launched a revolt against the Soviet Government and attempted to seize major, strategically important buildings and locations in Moscow.

When the news reached Dzerzhinsky, he took steps to ascertain whether the assassination was Blyumkin’s private decision or a plot devised by the left-wing SR Party. Mindless of the danger involved, he, accompanied by three Cheka men went straight to the rebels’ headquarters, where they were arrested by the SRs. Dzerzhinsky did not show any fear and sharply berated the traitors. He tried to explain to the deceived men what they had been made party to.

The news that the Vecheka Chairman was being detained by the SRs provoked strong indignation and anxiety among the people. Everyone realised that his life was in grave danger. Meetings were held at factories where the workers demanded that Dzerzhinsky and the other captured Bolsheviks be set free at once.

Lenin was greatly concerned when he learned about what had happened. “It would be wrong to say that Lenin turned pale—he turned virtually white,” wrote Vladimir Bonch-Bruyevich afterwards. “He looked like this when he was angry or much shaken by dangerous unforeseen circumstances.”

On July 7, the revolt was suppressed. When the Soviet troops began firing at SR headquarters, the leaders of the revolt fled ignominiously. Dzerzhinsky and the other Bolsheviks were set free. Dzerzhinsky was shattered by the leftwing SRs’ treachery. He could not forgive himself for not having foreseen their intentions earlier. He submitted a request to the Council of People’s Commissars asking to be released from his duties as Chairman of the Vecheka and from any employment there, for he was one of the main witnesses for the Mirbach assassination case. The Council of People’s Commissars granted his request, but ordered him to remain on the new Vecheka Collegium. Janis Peters was temporarily appointed the Vecheka Chairman.

Chapter Six

WORK AS THE VECHEKA CHAIRMAN DURING THE CIVIL WAR AND FOREIGN ARMED INTERVENTION

Notes

[1] At that time, an anti-Soviet revolt of wealthy Cossacks headed by Ataman (Cossack chieftain) Kaledin flared up in the Don region.

[2] The Congress renamed the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks) into the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), or the RCP(B).

[3] Pood equals 16 kg.

[4] Kulaks – Russian term (literally “fist”) for the rural bourgeoisie which emerged as a result of the social differentiation of the peasantry.