Attacks on opponents of the government, 1917-28

Lenin- The Cheka and the GPU

Lenin on Terror

• Terror an essential part of Lenin's strategy for staying in power- he saw it as a legitimate part of the revolution.
• A temporary measure which should be abandoned once the revolution was secure? 

The Cheka and the Red Terror 

• Embodied Lenin's view on revolutionary violence. 
• Established in Dec 1917 
• Targetted the counter-revolutionaries 
• Head of the Cheka= Felix Dzerzhinsky 1917-26

The Role of the Cheka 

• Protect communist rule in…