The Cheka used this excuse to penetrate all Soviet organizations. And because it retained unlimited power over human lives, its administrative supervision became yet another form of terror, which no Soviet wage earner, Communist or not, could escape. It was natural, therefore, that in March 1919 Dzerzhinskii, while retaining the directorship of the Cheka, was appointed Commissar of the Interior.
In line with its expanded mandate, in mid-1919 high Cheka officials acquired the authority preventively to arrest any citizen and to inspect any and all institutions. What these powers meant in practice can be gathered from the credentials issued to members of the Cheka Collegium. These empowered the bearers to: (1) detain any citizen whom they knew to be guilty or suspected of being guilty of counterrevolutionary activity, speculation, or other crimes, and turn him over to the Cheka; and (2) to have free entry into all state and public offices, industrial and commercial enterprises, schools, hospitals, communal apartments, theaters, as well as railroad and steamship terminals.120
The Cheka gradually took over the management and supervision of a broad variety of activities which would not normally be regarded as affecting state security. To enforce ordinances against “speculation”—that is, private trade—in the second half of 1918 the Cheka assumed control over railroads, waterways, highways, and the other means of transport. To carry out these responsibilities efficiently, Dzerzhinskii was appointed, in April 1921, Commissar of Communications.121 The Cheka supervised and enforced all forms of compulsory labor and enjoyed wide discretionary powers to punish those who evaded this obligation or performed it unsatisfactorily. Execution by shooting was a common method used to this end. We have a valuable insight into the methods the Cheka employed to enhance economic performance from an eyewitness, a Menshevik timber specialist in Soviet employ who happened to be present when Lenin and Dzerzhinskii decided on the means to increase the production of lumber:
A Soviet decree was then made public, obliging every peasant living near a government forest to prepare and transport a dozen cords of wood. But this raised the question of what to do with the foresters—what to demand of them. In the eyes of the Soviet authorities, these foresters were part and parcel of that sabotaging intelligentsia to whom the new government gave short shrift.
The meeting of the Council of Labor and Defense, discussing this particular problem, was attended by Felix Dzerzhinsky, among other commissars.… After listening a while, he said: “In the interests of justice and equality I move: That the foresters be made personally responsible for the fulfilment of the peasants’ quota. That, in addition, each forester is himself to fulfil the same quota—a dozen cords of wood.”
A few members of the council objected. They pointed out that foresters were intellectuals not used to heavy manual labor. Dzerzhinsky replied that it was high time to liquidate the age-old inequality between the peasants and the foresters.
“Moreover,” the Cheka head declared in conclusion, “should the peasants fail to deliver their quota of wood, the foresters responsible for them are to be shot. When a dozen or two of them are shot, the rest will tackle the job in earnest.”
It was generally known that the majority of these foresters were anti-Communist. Still, one could feel an embarrassed hush in the room. Suddenly I heard a brusque voice: “Who’s against this motion?”
This was Lenin, closing the discussion in his inimitable way. Naturally, no one dared to vote against Lenin and Dzerzhinsky. As an afterthought, Lenin suggested that the point about shooting the foresters, although adopted, be omitted from the official minutes of the session. This, too, was done as he willed.
I felt ill during the meeting. For more than a year, of course, I had known that executions were decimating Russia—but here I myself was present while a five-minute discussion doomed scores of totally innocent men. I was shaken to my innermost being. A cough was choking me, but it was more than the cough of one of my winter colds.
It was plain to me that, when within a week or two the executions of those foresters took place, their deaths would not have moved things forward one single iota. I knew that this terrible decision stemmed from a feeling of resentment and revenge on the part of those who invoked such senseless measures.122
There must have been many such decisions which left no trace in the documentation.
