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
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counterrevolutionary crimes. Then, they were given powers of justice and became a group that instilled terror. They lead a terror campaign against the propertied classes and the Bolshevik enemies.
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
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and there was little to stand against the Secret Police. “They had come to a time when no one dared speak his mind, when fierce, growling dogs roamed everywhere, and when you had to watch your comrades torn to pieces after confessing to shocking crimes.” (Page 87) There were very few people that actually had any power over them. All they had to do was say you were an enemy and you would be as good as dead.
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
they needed to get rid of. They didn't follow up on rumors of revolt. They basically just kept their leader safe. All in all, the overall accuracy was at minimum levels. To sum up, the Cheka were a dangerous bunch. They killed thousands of people and worked towards a greater evil for their leader. Orwell represented them as such in his allegory of the Russian Revolution. They played the parts assigned to them well and people suffered for it.
telling them of his plans. This resulted in them being filled with terror as they do not know if
people were not allowed to act on their beliefs, instead their thoughts and actions were controlled
that their power was being taken away slowly he gave them positions in the army
Mob violence was a persuasive feature of the Revolutionary War in every port city, particularly Boston. These mobs, which were often described as motley crews, were central to protests and ultimately played a dominant role in significant events leading up to the American Revolution. Throughout the years, leading up to the American Revolution, many Americans were growing tired of British rule and thus begun to want to break free from Britain and earn their own independence. Some of these Americans, out of anger, madness, and in defense of their rights, began terrorizing towns, sometimes even to the point of paralysis highlighting grievances and concerns that the common man couldn’t say with mere words. These groups would then be absorbed into a greater organization called the Sons of Liberty. With the use of violence and political strategy , these radicals defending their rights, struck terror into anyone opposing them but also carried out communal objectives ultimately pushing for change which was a central theme for the American Revolution. It will be proved that these men through their actions not only were the driving force behind resistance but also proved to be the men who steered America toward revolution.
In 1934, Sergey Kirov a rival to Stalin was murdered. Stalin is believed to have been behind the assassination, he used it as a pretext to arrest thousands of his other opponents who in his words might have been responsible for Kirov’s murder. These purges not only affected those who openly opposed Stalin but ordinary people too. During the rule of Stain o...
from the military. Over 260,000 blacks were volunteered or drafted in the war. While the
were put to death. Even though the original opinion of the people about the uprising wasn’t in favor of it, after the death of the leaders they were outraged. (Coogan,”Troubles” pgs. 19-25)
It is significant to understand what the KGB was and what it did, since this book is centered around the actions of this organization. The KGB was the main security agency for the Soviet Union from 1954 until its collapse in 1991. The KGB was also considered to have been a military service and was governed by army laws and regulations. Its main focuses included foreign intelligence, counterintelligence, operative-investigatory activities, guarding the State Boarder of the USSR and the leadership of the Soviet Government, organization and ensuring of government communications as well as fighting off nationalism and anti-Soviet activities. The KGB failed to rebuild most of its U.S. illegal resident networks, and the last major illegal resident was betrayed by his own assistant in 1957. Recruitment then put emphasis on mercenary agents. This approach was successful in espionage that was specifically scientific...
there were still many people who were not free from our rule. One group of
... founders and soon became a shadowy network of arms dealers, fraudulent companies, and secret bank accounts. It was a government on its own, some joked that it even had own navy.
Unification established a new order as well as a convoluted manner by which the law was carried out. The new professional magistrate was typically comprised of former Sicilian nobles who sided with moneyed interests and could not be bothered with the notion of “blind justice.” (Lupo 34) It was left to the police, or gendarmerie, which were seemingly incapable of maneuvering among a range of divergent groups, factions, bandits as well as promine...
In the early times of the 20th century, Russia experienced many changes in their political system, which has progressed from the single-party Communist state into a current semi-presidential republic. After the October Revolution of in 1916, the Council of People’s Commissars was formed in the Russian Republic. Serving as an executive organ of the Central Executive Committee, the members of the Council were elected for two years, and helped structure the country to form the Soviet Union. Over time, this eventually became the highest government authority of executive power under the Soviet System. Following the creation of the USSR in 1922, the Unions became modeled after the first Sovnarkom, but to deal with domestic matters, the Soviet republics maintained their own governments. By 1946, the Council of People’s Commissars transformed into the Council of Ministers, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics changed the People’s Commissariats into Ministries. As head of the executive branch, the council was responsible for issuing declarations, and they had obligatory jurisdictional power over the territories within the Union.
the Bolshevik party and gave them the idea that a revolution was necessary. With this
longer had a ruler, fear of the Filth-Sammich kept the locals in line. In order