Editing Vladimir Lenin (section)

===Establishing the Cheka===
On 20 December 1917, "The Whole-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage", the [[Cheka]] (''Chrezvychaynaya Komissiya'' – Extraordinary Commission) was created by a decree issued by Lenin to defend the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Revolution_%281917%29 Russian Revolution]. The establishment of the Cheka, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_police secret service], headed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Dzerzhinsky Felix Dzerzhinsky], formally consolidated the censorship established earlier, when on "17 November, the Central Executive Committee passed a decree giving the Bolsheviks control over all newsprint and wide powers of closing down newspapers critical of the régime. . . .";<span style="font-size:11px;line-height:0px;"> </span>non-Bolshevik soviets were disbanded; anti-soviet newspapers were closed until ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pravda Pravda]'' (''Truth'') and ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izvestia Izvestia]'' (''The News'') established their communications monopoly. According to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Schapiro Leonard Schapiro] the Bolshevik "refusal to come to terms with the [Revolutionary] socialists, and the dispersal of the Constituent assembly, led to the logical result that [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutionary_terror revolutionary terror] would now be directed, not only against traditional enemies, such as the bourgeoisie or right-wing opponents, but against anyone, be he socialist, worker, or peasant, who opposed Bolshevik rule". On 19 December 1918, a year after its creation, a resolution was adopted at Lenin's behest that forbade the Bolshevik's own press from publishing "defamatory articles" about the Cheka. As Lenin put it: "A Good Communist is also a good Chekist."