Chekism (; from Cheka, a colloquial name of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission, the first Soviet secret police organization) is a term to describe the situation in the Soviet Union where the secret police strongly controlled all spheres of society. It is also used by critics of the current Kremlin authorities to describe the power enjoyed by law-enforcement agencies in contemporary Russia.
Soviet Union
Chekism is described as a product of the set of beliefs, practices, and assumptions in the security police introduced and developed for more than a decade by Felix Dzerzhinskii. The systems he had put in place led to the strengthening of the concept that legitimized and romanticized political terror. Nazi collaborator Abdurakhman Avtorkhanov put forward the idea of the secret political police as a backbone of Soviet society. Avtorkhanov wrote in his The Technology of Power (1959):
Others shared similar ideas, including journalist John Barron, retired KGB Major General Oleg Kalugin, and researcher on KGB subjects Evgenia Albats. Chekism evolved into some form of a cult that is based on the so-called virtues of the Cheka mentalite. According to Albats, most KGB leaders, including Lavrenty Beria, Yuri Andropov, and Vladimir Kryuchkov, have always struggled for power with the Communist Party and manipulated the ostensible communist leaders. The sacralization of chekism allowed leaders such as Dzerzhinskii to forge special relationship with the secret police members while promoting the otherness of the party founders.
Commenting on the Soviet regime of the early 1980s, Yegor Gaidar writes: "The authority of the regime was based on an effective secret police." Along with that, "since 1968, before the death of Brezhnev, no weapons were used to suppress the dissent. The regime has learned to do without extreme forms of violence". According to the data provided by Gaidar, "In 1958–1966 people convicted for anti-Soviet agitation amounted to 3448. In 1967–1975, 1583 people were convicted. In 1971–1974, KGB "took care" of 63 thousand people. Potential dissidents must realize that their activities are known to the authorities and there's an alternative—to be jailed or to express loyalty to the authorities."
Contemporary Russia
According to former Russian Duma member Konstantin Borovoi, "Putin's appointment is the culmination of the KGB's crusade for power. This is its finale. Now the KGB runs the country." Olga Kryshtanovskaya, director of the Moscow-based Center for the Study of Elites, has found that up to 78% of 1,016 leading political figures in Russia have served previously in organizations affiliated with the KGB or FSB. She said: "If in the Soviet period and the first post-Soviet period, the KGB and FSB people were mainly involved in security issues, now half are still involved in security but the other half are involved in business, political parties, NGOs, regional governments, even culture... They started to use all political institutions."
The KGB or FSB members usually remain in the "acting reserve" even if they formally leave the organization ("acting reserve" members receive a second FSB salary, follow FSB instructions, and remain "above the law" being protected by the organization, according to Kryshtanovskaya). As Vladimir Putin said, "There is no such thing as a former KGB man". Soon after becoming prime minister of Russia, Putin also perhaps somewhat jokingly claimed that "A group of FSB colleagues dispatched to work undercover in the government has successfully completed its first mission." Moreover, the FSB has formal membership, military discipline, and an extensive network of civilian informants, hardcore ideology, and support of population (60% of Russians trust FSB), which according to Yevgenia Albats and Catherine A. Fitzpatrick makes it a perfect totalitarian political party.
Some observers note that the current Russian state security organization FSB is even more powerful than KGB was, because it does not operate under the control of the Communist Party as the KGB in the past. Moreover, the FSB leadership and their partners own the most important economic assets in the country and control the Russian government and the State Duma. According to Ion Mihai Pacepa,