i'm typing a lot today, so why type extra when i can just make you read what i MUST type anyway

(note, this is copyright ME, they're in fully cited, so if you steal it, i'll kick you)

Intelligence Capabilities of the Cheka

"Previously noted are the ends that were granted the Cheka. However, the means used by this organization to attain those ends were varied and vast. By 1918, the means employed by the Cheka were widely known for their brutality, spurring Dzerzhinsky to issue a Code of Conduct.[1] The behaviors outlined give a good sense of methods used to attain information and make arrests. For example, one code states that “forcible entry…is an evil to which we have to resort…but it must always be remembered that it is an evil…”[2] Subsequent issues state that arrests must not be made on the strength of rumor and suspicion, as well as entreating Chekists to treat suspects with respect when they are searched, arrested, and imprisoned, and “scrupulously refraining from abusive language, threats, and brandishing of firearms,” as well as the threat that a Chekist caught maltreating a prisoner beyond a first offense would go to trial.[3] Widely accepted is the brutality of the Cheka, but rarely addressed is their counterintelligence and operational tactics used to obtain intelligence."


[1] Leggett, George. The Cheka: Lenin’s Political Police 1917-1922. Clarendon Press (Oxford: 1981). p. 187.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.