| has gloss | eng: Chekism is a term used by some historians and political scientists to emphasize the omnipotence and omnipresence of secret political police in the Soviet Union and contemporary Russia. Derived from Cheka, the name of the first Soviet secret police organization that conducted Red Terror in Russia, the word emphasizes the importance and political power of Cheka and the successor Soviet and Russian secret police services: the NKVD, KGB, and FSB. Some politologists define Chekism also as an imperial ideology that includes an aggressive anti-Americanism. Irina Pavlova even traces this ideology from the Russian empire and cites philosopher Peter Struve: "It is only the omnipotence of political police that makes Russian State so exceptional. That is what sets us apart of the remaining world as a matter of our national... |
