Vyacheslav Rudolfovich Menzhinsky was a Bolshevik revolutionary, Soviet statesman and Communist Party official who served as chairman of the OGPU from 1926 to 1934. He was master of more than 10 languages.

The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission, abbreviated as VChK, and commonly known as Cheka, was the first of a succession of Soviet secret-police organizations known for conducting the Red Terror. Established on December 5 1917 by the Sovnarkom, it came under the leadership of Bolshevik revolutionary Felix Dzerzhinsky. By late 1918, hundreds of Cheka committees had sprung up in the Russian SFSR at all levels.