Red terror. The punishing sword of the revolution

Created in December 1917, the Cheka - the All -Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counterrevolution and Sabotage - not only laid the foundation for the history of the Soviet special services, but also became for many the ominous personification of the October Revolution. The book of the leading historian terror of the Civil War, candidate of historical sciences, associate professor of the Institute of History of St. Petersburg State University I.S. Ratkovsky, on the basis of an extensive circle of sources in all details, illuminates the red terror of the Cheka, debunking the established myths about the activities of the Chekists.
What contribution did Lenin and Dzerzhinsky make to the construction of the Cheka?
What role did the attempts on the first persons of Soviet Russia play in the start of terror and what was the main reason for the Bolsheviks introduced the death penalty?
Was the red terror a response to the terror of white movement and foreign interventionists, the strict suppression of revolutions in Germany and Finland?
How did the Cheka fight with counter -revolutionary underground, crime, opposition parties and movements?
What was the staff of the Chekists and did they all be able to withstand the test of power?
What is the real scale of the repressions of the Soviet regime and what was the result of the policy of red terror?
3rd edition, supplemented