Editing Cheka (section)

== Name ==
The official designation was '''All-Russian Extraordinary''' (or '''Emergency''') '''Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage under the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR''' ({{langx|ru|Всероссийская чрезвычайная комиссия по борьбе с контрреволюцией и саботажем при Совете народных комиссаров РСФСР}}, ''Vserossiyskaya chrezvychaynaya komissiya po borbe s kontrrevolyutsiyey i sabotazhem pri Sovete narodnykh komisarov RSFSR'').<ref>'''Tcheka''' – Official designation pertaining to [[State Archive of the Russian Federation]] «ф. 130, оп. 1, д. 1, л. 31 об.»</ref>

In 1918 its name was changed, becoming '''All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution, Profiteering and Corruption'''.

A member of Cheka was called a ''chekist'' ({{lang-rus|чеки́ст|r=chekíst|p=t͡ɕɪˈkʲist|a=Ru-чекист.ogg}}). Also, the term ''chekist'' often referred to Soviet [[secret police]] throughout the Soviet period, despite official name changes over time. In ''[[The Gulag Archipelago]]'', [[Alexander Solzhenitsyn]] recalls that ''[[White Sea–Baltic Canal#Commemoration|zeks]]'' in the [[Gulag|labor camps]] used ''old chekist'' as a mark of special esteem for particularly experienced camp administrators.<ref name="Solzhenitsyn cite">{{cite book |title=The Gulag Archipelago |last=Solzhenitsyn |first=Alexander |author-link=Alexander Solzhenitsyn |year=1974 |publisher=[[Harper Perennial]] |location=New York |isbn=978-0-06-092103-3 |volume= II |pages= 537–38|quote=''An old Chekist''! Who has not heard these words, drawled with emphasis, as a mark of special esteem? If the zeks wish to distinguish a camp keeper from those who are inexperienced, inclined to fuss, and do not have a bulldog grip, they say: 'And the chief there is an o-o-old Chekist!' ... 'An old Chekist' – what that means at the least is that he was well-regarded under [[Genrikh Yagoda|Yagoda]], [[Nikolai Yezhov|Yezhov]] and [[Lavrenti Beria|Beria]]. He was useful to them all.}}</ref> The term is still found in use in Russia today (for example, President [[Vladimir Putin]] has been referred to in the Russian [[News media|media]] as a ''chekist'' due to his career in the [[KGB]] and as head of the KGB's successor, [[Federal Security Service|FSB]]<ref>{{cite news|last=Davidoff|first=Victor|date=2011-05-10|title=A Stalin Slip and Putin Trick &#124; Opinion|newspaper=The Moscow Times|publisher=[[Wayback Machine]]|url=http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/a-stalin-slip-and-putin-trick/436470.html|url-status=dead|access-date=2021-12-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511025828/http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/a-stalin-slip-and-putin-trick/436470.html|archive-date=2011-05-11}}</ref>).

The Chekists commonly dressed in black leather, including long flowing coats, reportedly after being issued such distinctive coats early in their existence.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UBbSGEaFZkIC&q=cheka+head+to+toe+black+leather&pg=PA34|title=The Russian Civil War (1): The Red Army|first=Mikhail|last=Khvostov|year=1995|publisher=Bloomsbury US|via=Google Books|isbn=978-1855326088}}{{Dead link|date=April 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yi3ow3TU8-4C&q=cheka+leather+coats&pg=PA70 |title=Stalin and His Hangmen: The Tyrant |via=Google Books |date= 2007|access-date=2011-07-27|isbn=978-0307431837 |last1=Rayfield |first1=Donald |publisher=Random House Publishing }}</ref> Western [[communism|communists]] adopted this clothing fashion. The Chekists also often carried with them Greek-style [[worry beads]] made of amber, which had become "fashionable among high officials during the time of the 'cleansing'".<ref>Louis Rapoport, ''Stalin's war against the Jews: the doctors' plot and the Soviet solution'', 1991, p. 44</ref>
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