The book covers the legal foundations of the organization and functioning of the Cheka. An important place is given to the activities of V.I. Lenin and the Soviet government to strengthen the Cheka as an instrument of the dictatorship of the proletariat. Criticism of falsifying literature about the Cheka is given. the need for decisive measures to strengthen the rule of law and protect the socialist system is justified. On the basis of documents, the struggle of the Chekists with counter-revolutionary and other crimes in the fire of the civil war and during the transition to NEP is shown. For a wide range of readers.