Editing Cheka (section)

=== Suppression of political opposition ===
{{See also|Red Terror}}
[[File:Red terror 001.jpg|thumb|Corpses of hostages executed by Cheka in 1918 in the basement of Tulpanov's house in [[Kherson]], [[Ukrainian SSR]], [[The Black Book of Communism]]]]
[[File:Red terror 002.jpg|thumb|Corpses of people executed by Cheka in 1918 at a yard in [[Kharkiv]], [[Ukrainian SSR]], [[The Black Book of Communism]]]]
As its name implied, the Extraordinary Commission had virtually unlimited powers and could interpret them in any way it wished. No standard procedures were ever set up, except that the commission was supposed to send the arrested to the Military-Revolutionary tribunals if outside of a war zone. This left an opportunity for a wide range of interpretations, as the whole country was in total chaos. At the direction of Lenin, the Cheka performed mass arrests, imprisonments, and executions of "[[enemies of the people]]". In this, the Cheka said that they targeted "class enemies" such as the [[bourgeoisie]], and members of the [[clergy]].

Within a month, the Cheka had extended its repression to all political opponents of the communist government, including [[Anarchism|anarchists]] and others on the left. On April 11/12, 1918, some 26 anarchist political centres in Moscow were attacked. Forty anarchists were killed by Cheka forces, and about 500 were arrested and jailed after a pitched battle took place between the two groups.<ref>P. Avrich. G. Maximoff</ref> In response to the anarchists' resistance, the Cheka orchestrated a massive retaliatory campaign of repression, executions, and arrests against all opponents of the Bolshevik government, in what came to be known as "[[Red Terror]]". The ''Red Terror'', implemented by Dzerzhinsky on September 5, 1918, was vividly described by the [[Red Army]] journal ''Krasnaya Gazeta'':

<blockquote>Without mercy, without sparing, we will kill our enemies in scores of hundreds. Let them be thousands, let them drown themselves in their own blood. For the blood of Lenin and [[Moisei Uritsky|Uritsky]] … let there be floods of blood of the [[bourgeoisie]] – more blood, as much as possible..."<ref>Applebaum (2003), p. 9.</ref></blockquote>

An early Bolshevik, [[Victor Serge]] described in his book ''Memoirs of a Revolutionary'':

{{blockquote|Since the first massacres of Red prisoners by the Whites, the murders of Volodarsky and Uritsky and the attempt against Lenin (in the summer of 1918), the custom of arresting and, often, executing hostages had become generalized and legal. Already the Cheka, which made mass arrests of suspects, was tending to settle their fate independently, under formal control of the Party, but in reality without anybody's knowledge. The Party endeavoured to head it with incorruptible men like the former convict Dzerzhinsky, a sincere idealist, ruthless but chivalrous, with the emaciated profile of an [[Inquisitor]]: tall forehead, bony nose, untidy goatee, and an expression of weariness and austerity. But the Party had few men of this stamp and many Chekas. I believe that the formation of the Chekas was one of the gravest and most impermissible errors that the Bolshevik leaders committed in 1918 when plots, blockades, and interventions made them lose their heads. All evidence indicates that [[revolutionary tribunal (Russia)|revolutionary tribunals]], functioning in the light of day and admitting the right of defense, would have attained the same efficiency with far less abuse and depravity. Was it necessary to revert to the procedures of the Inquisition?"}}

The Cheka was also used against [[Nestor Makhno]]'s [[Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine]]. After the Insurgent Army had served its purpose in aiding the [[Red Army]] to stop the [[White Army|Whites]] under [[Anton Denikin|Denikin]], the Soviet communist government decided to eliminate the anarchist forces. In May 1919, two Cheka agents sent to assassinate Makhno were caught and executed.<ref>Avrich, Paul, "Russian Anarchists and the Civil War", ''Russian Review'', Volume 27, Issue 3 (July 1968), pp. 296–306.</ref>
[[File:Chinese Cheka spec. CHON units shooting priest 1920 Moscow- White Guard Propaganda Poster.jpg|thumb|[[Chinese in the Russian Revolution and in the Russian Civil War|Chinese Chekists]]  executing an Orthodox priest in Moscow, [[White movement|White Russian]] anti-Bolshevik propaganda poster, c. 1920]]
Many victims of Cheka repression were "bourgeois hostages" rounded up and held in readiness for [[summary execution]] in reprisal for any alleged counter-revolutionary act. Wholesale, indiscriminate arrests became an integral part of the system.<ref>Figes (1996), p. 643.</ref> The Cheka used trucks disguised as delivery trucks, called "Black Marias", for the secret arrest and transport of prisoners.<ref>{{cite book|last=Unknown|url=http://gulaghistory.org/items/show/186|title=Prisoners Exiting a Black Maria|date=17 December 2016|publisher=[[Wayback Machine]]|access-date=2021-12-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150522035058/http://gulaghistory.org/items/show/186|archive-date=2015-05-22|via=Gulag: Many Days, Many Lives}}</ref>

It was during the [[Red Terror]] that the Cheka, hoping to avoid the bloody aftermath of having half-dead victims writhing on the floor, developed a technique for execution known later by the German words "''Nackenschuss''{{-"}} or "''Genickschuss''{{-"}}, a shot to the [[nape]] of the neck, which caused minimal blood loss and instant death. The victim's head was bent forward, and the executioner fired slightly downward at point-blank range. This had become the standard method used later by the [[NKVD]] to liquidate [[Joseph Stalin]]'s [[Great Purge|purge]] victims and others.<ref>Paul, Allen. ''Katyn: Stalin's Massacre and the Seeds of Polish Resurrection''. Naval Institute Press, 1996. {{ISBN|1-55750-670-1}}. pp. 111/112.</ref>