[The following is in relation to the Revolutionary Russian Cheka, an early form of ‘secret police,’ which would eventually become the infamous NKVD.]
The pertinent clause of the secret resolution setting up the Cheka read as follows:
The tasks of the [Extraordinary] Commission: (1) to suppress [presek(at’)] and liquidate all attempts and acts of counterrevolution and sabotage throughout Russia, from every quarter; (2) to turn over all saboteurs and counterrevolutionaries to the court of the Revolutionary Tribunal and to work out the means of combating them; (3) the Commission conducts only a preliminary investigation to the extent that this is necessary to bar [counterrevolution and sabotage].
In the first published versions of this resolution (1924, 1926) one critical word was changed. As is now known, in the manuscript of the resolution the word “to suppress” – “presekat’” – appeared in an abbreviated form as “presek[at’]” In the earlies published versions, this word was altered to read “presledovat’,” which means “to prosecute.”
The transposition and substitution of a few letters had the effect of giving the Cheka judiciary powers. This forgery, revealed only after Stalin’s death, allowed the Cheka and its successors (GPU, OGPU, NKVD) to sentence political prisoners, by summary procedures conducted in camera, to a full range of punishments, including death. The Soviet security police was deprived of this right, which had claimed the lives of millions, only in 1956.
Source:
Pipes, Richard. "The Red Terror." The Russian Revolution. New York: Knopf, 1990. 801. Print.
Original Source(s) Listed:
Lenin I VChK, 36-37.
PR, No. 10/33 (1924), 5.
M. Pokrovskii in Pravda, No. 390/3,822 (December 18, 1927), 2.
Further Reading:
чрезвыча́йная коми́ссия (Emergency Committee) / ЧК (Cheka)
State Political Directorate / State Political Administration / GPU
Народный комиссариат внутренних дел (People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs) / НКВД (NKVD)
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