On [[December]] 20, 1917 [[Lenin]] appointed him the head of the newly established [[Cheka]]. Dzerzhinsky went on to be the head of an organization that murdered up to 500,000 "counter-revolutionaries". After the [[Cheka]] was integrated with the [[NKVD]], Dzerzhinsky headed its successors, the GPU and then the OGPU. | On [[December]] 20, 1917 [[Lenin]] appointed him the head of the newly established [[Cheka]]. Dzerzhinsky went on to be the head of an organization that murdered up to 500,000 "counter-revolutionaries". After the [[Cheka]] was integrated with the [[NKVD]], Dzerzhinsky headed its successors, the GPU and then the OGPU. |