The Russian Secret Police

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Open Up! It's A Secret!

The Russian Secret Police were quite a menace to society. George Orwell portrayed them in

his book, The Animal Farm, as such. He wrote the book during World War II about the Russian

Revolution. Instead of portraying the people as themselves by using their real names, he

portrayed them as animals on a farm. He changed their names, but kept them the same in the

ways of how they acted. They were brutish, cruel, and not real smart.



The Russian Secret Police, also known as the Cheka, were a cruel bunch formed on December

20, 1917. They were originally a group to be disbanded after Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks

had a more solid power base. They were only suppose to investigates rumors of …show more content…

Many people viewed the Cheka's with an intense disgust, but knew that they were

important to the survival of the new regime. They disbanded in 1921, once their civil war had

ended. Their functions were given to the state political directorate. With them, the power had

lessened and the population repression had decreased. In 1934, Joseph Stalin allowed the Secret

Police to regain power. He renamed it The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs. They were

no longer restricted by the law and came back more wicked than ever.



The resurgence of the Cheka was brought on by Joseph Stalin wanting to use them as a direct

instrument to use against the party and the country. They hunted down people who were rumored

to be enemies of the state. They had a list of people who were suspected as being those enemies.

Anyone who had fought for the Whites during the Civil War, anyone who was a former officer in

the Imperial Army, and anyone who had property values over 10,000 roubles were among the

ones who were high on their list. They had a full support of Vladimir Lenin, who wanted a swift

roundup of these people. This gave them an almost infinite amount of power of the people …show more content…

If anyone was to question what they were doing, they would answer

with "we did it for the people". A former member confessed that they killed around 50,000

people. A good number of those people were believed to be killed just based on their religious

views. The Cheka were the judge, jury, and executioner to the unlucky captive. Their main goal

of hunting down enemies and their swift execution was soon to became known as the "Red

Terror" around the world.



In real life the Cheka played a big role in the Russian Revolution. In the book based off these

events and written by Orwell, they didn't play a role as big. "Napoleon himself was not seen in

public as often as a fortnight. When he did appear, he was attended not only by his retinue of

dogs..." (Page 92) They were portrayed in the book as Napoleon's bodyguards. They were always with him,

protecting him from anyone ever getting near. They were brainless tools who did what they

needed to do when they were told to do it. They killed when told, they guarded when told, and

anything else. In fact, they kept most people from coming even close to him. They didn't kidnap

animals while they slept and kill them at dawn. They didn't have their own set list of people

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