After everything that has been said, it is completely clear why our Party, soon after the victory of the October Socialist Revolution, proceeded to organise a special organ — the VChK — for the struggle against internal and external counter-revolution. For our Party, from the very first days of October, the necessity of creating such an organ was entirely clear, an organ which would be able in time to uncover the plots of internal and external counter-revolution. It was clear to the Party that the capitalist world would resort to every villainous method and, together with internal counter-revolution, would struggle with all its forces for the overthrow of the dictatorship of the working class. That is why the Party created the VChK.

Before the creation of the VChK, the struggle against counter-revolutionary plots was carried out by the investigative commission under the Military-Revolutionary Committee, which directed the October uprising.

By creating the VChK, our revolution made a gigantic step in the defence of the great conquests of the proletariat.

Lenin said: “A revolution is worth something only if it knows how to defend itself.”

Our revolution was able to defend itself against numerous attacks of foreign intelligence services and internal counter-revolution, because it created a special organ of defence of the revolution, into which the Party directed its best representatives.

At the head of the VChK, the Party placed one of the leaders of the proletarian revolution, merciless to the enemies, Felix Dzerzhinsky.

Speaking about the role of the VChK, Lenin pointed out: “For us it is important that the Cheka directly carry out the dictatorship of the proletariat, and in this respect their role is invaluable; there is no other way of liberating the masses except by suppressing the exploiters by means of violence — this is precisely what the Cheka do. In this lies their service to the proletariat” (Vol. XXIII, p. 274).

The Party created the VChK in order to respond with “repression, merciless, swift, immediate, relying on the sympathy of the workers and peasants” (Lenin, Vol. XXVII, p. 139) to all the machinations of internal and external counter-revolution.

In December 1917, on the eve of the creation of the VChK, Lenin wrote to Dzerzhinsky that “the bourgeoisie, the landlords, and all the wealthy classes are making desperate efforts to undermine the revolution, which must secure the interests of the workers, the toilers, the exploited masses... Extraordinary measures are necessary for the struggle against counter-revolutionaries and saboteurs” (Vol. XXII, p. 126).

On 20 December 1917, the Council of People’s Commissars adopted the decision to create the VChK.

In the decree of the Council of People’s Commissars it was stated:

“To name the commission the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission under the Council of People’s Commissars for combating counter-revolution and sabotage, and to approve it.

Tasks of the commission:

1) To pursue and liquidate all counter-revolutionary and sabotage attempts and actions throughout Russia, regardless of by whom they may originate.

2) To bring all saboteurs and counter-revolutionaries before the Revolutionary Tribunal and to elaborate measures for the struggle against them.”

The organs of the VChK were entrusted with the task of combating both internal and external counter-revolution, since the Party took into account the inevitability of a fierce struggle of the capitalist world against the first country of the dictatorship of the working class.

Enjoying the boundless support of the Party, under the leadership of Comrade Dzerzhinsky, the VChK soon became “the terror of the bourgeoisie, the vigilant guardian of the revolution, the unsheathed sword of the proletariat” (Stalin).

The history of the VChK is the history of the continuous struggle of our country against numerous plots of internal and external counter-revolution for the strengthening and preservation of the great socialist achievements.