Editing Cheka (section)

=== First months ===
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 activities of VCheKa were centralized mainly in the city of Petrograd. It was one of several other commissions in the country which 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 conducted by the Investigatory Commission of Revtribunal. The functions of VCheKa were closely intertwined with the Commission of [[Vladimir Bonch-Bruyevich|V. D. Bonch-Bruyevich]], which beside the fight against wine [[pogrom]]s was engaged in the investigation of most major political offenses (see: [[Bonch-Bruyevich Commission]]).

[[File:Petrovskiy Grigoriy.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|left|Grigory Petrovsky]]

All results of its activities, VCheKa had either to transfer to the Investigatory Commission of Revtribunal, or to dismiss. The control of the commission's activity was provided by the [[Ministry of Justice (Soviet Union)|People's Commissariat for Justice]] (Narkomjust, at that time headed by [[Isaac Steinberg]]) and Internal Affairs (NKVD, at that time headed by [[Grigory Petrovsky]]). Although the VCheKa was officially an independent organization from the [[NKVD]], its chief members such as Dzerzhinsky, [[Martin Latsis|Latsis]], [[Józef Unszlicht|Unszlicht]], and [[Moisei Uritsky|Uritsky]] (all main chekists), since November 1917 composed the collegiate of NKVD headed by Petrovsky. In November 1918, Petrovsky was appointed as head of the All-Ukrainian Central [[Military Revolutionary Committee]] during VCheKa's expansion to provinces and front-lines. At the time of political competition between Bolsheviks and SRs (January 1918), [[Left Socialist-Revolutionaries|Left SRs]] attempted to curb the rights of VCheKa and establish through the [[Ministry of Justice (Soviet Union)|Narkomiust]] their control over its work. Having failed in attempts to subordinate the VCheKa to Narkomiust, the Left SRs tried to gain control of the Extraordinary Commission in a different way: they requested that the Central Committee of the party be granted the right to directly enter their representatives into the VCheKa. [[Sovnarkom]] recognized the desirability of including five representatives of the Left Socialist-Revolutionary faction of VTsIK. Left SRs were granted the post of a companion (deputy) chairman of VCheKa. However, Sovnarkom, in which the majority belonged to the representatives of RSDLP(b) retained the right to approve members of the collegium of the VCheKa.

Originally, members of the Cheka were exclusively [[Bolshevik]]; however, in January 1918, [[Left Socialist-Revolutionaries|Left SRs]] also joined the organization.<ref>Schapiro (1984).</ref> The Left SRs were expelled or arrested later in 1918, following the attempted assassination of [[Lenin]] by an SR, [[Fanni Kaplan]].