Chekism
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Chekism is a term that relates to the situation in the Soviet Union where the secret police strongly controlled all spheres of society. It is also used to point out similar circumstances in post-Soviet intelligence states such as modern Russia. The term can refer to the system of rule itself, and to the underlying ideology that promotes and popularizes political police violence and arbitrariness against real and imagined enemies of the state.
The Lubyanka Building in Moscow has served as the headquarters for Soviet and Russian intelligence agencies since 1917, and the term Lubyanka has become a metonym for the secret police.
A 1932 Soviet propaganda poster with the text "15 Years of Guarding the October Gains" shows a list of alleged anti-Soviet conspiracies getting struck by Cheka—OGPU lightning.
Yevgenia Albats
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Yevgenia Markovna Albats is a Russian investigative journalist, political scientist, writer and radio host.
Albats at the Bolotnaya protests in Moscow, 2012