Page "Cheka" Paragraph 16

In the first months of its existence, VCheKa consisted of only 40 officials.

It commanded a team of soldiers, the Sveaborgesky regiment, as well as a group of Red Guardsmen.

On January 14, 1918, Sovnarkom ordered Dzerzhinsky to organize teams of " energetic and ideological " sailors to combat speculation.

By the spring of 1918, the commission had several teams.

In addition to the Sveaborge team, it had an intelligence team, a team of sailors, and a strike team.

Through the winter of 1917-1918, all the activities of VCheKa were centralized mainly in the city of Petrograd.

It was one of the several other commissions in the country that fought against counterrevolution, speculation, banditry, and other activities perceived as crimes.

Other organizations included: the Bureau of Military Commissars, and an Army-Navy investigatory commission to attack the counterrevolutionary element in the Red Army, plus the Central Requisite and Unloading Commission to fight speculation.

The investigation of counterrevolutionary or major criminal offenses was conducting by the Investigatory Commission of Revtribunal.

The functions of VCheKa were closely intertwined with the Commission of V. D. Bonch-Bruyevich, which beside the fight against wine pogroms was engaged in the investigation of most major political offenses ( see: Bonch-Bruyevich Commission ).