Establishment of the Cheka
Soviet of People's Commissars, Establishment of the Extraordinary Commission to Fight Counter-Revolution. December 20, 1917
Original Source: Pravda, 18 December 1927, p. 2.
The Commission is to be named the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission and is to be attached to the Soviet of People's Commissars. This commission is to make war on counter-revolution and sabotage ...
The duties of the Commission will be:
To persecute and break up all acts of counter-revolution and sabotage all over Russia, no matter what their origin.
To bring before the Revolutionary Tribunal all counter-revolutionaries and saboteurs and to work out a plan for fighting them.
To make preliminary investigation only--enough to break up. The Commission is to be divided into sections: (a) the information section, (b) the organization section (in charge of organizing the fight against counter-revolution all over Russia) with branches, and (c) the fighting section.
The Commission will be formed tomorrow The Commission is to watch the press, saboteurs, strikers, and the Socialist-Revolutionaries of the Right. Measures include confiscation, confinement, deprivation of food cards, publication of the names of the enemies of the people, etc.
Source: V. I. Lenin and J. Stalin, The Russian Revolution (New York: International Publishers, 1938), pp. 276.