Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies to operate as well. Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies <br> There was a succession of Soviet secret police agencies over time. The first secret police after the October Revolution, created by Vladimir Lenin's decree on December 20, 1917, was called "Cheka" (ЧК). Officers were referred to as "chekists", a name that is still informally applied to people under the Federal Security Service of Russia, the KGB's successor in Russia after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. For most agencies listed here secret policing operations were only part of their function; for instance, the KGB was both the secret police
Butovo firing range after Saints Cosmas and Damian) until the 19th century. In 1889 the estate's owner, N.M. Solovov, turned it into a large stud farm with stables and a racetrack. His descendant, I.I. Zimin, donated the farm to the state in the aftermath of the October Revolution in exchange for the right to flee the country. The farm then became the property of the Red Army. In the 1920s, the Red Army ceded the site, now officially named Butovo, to the OGPU, the Soviet secret police, as an agricultural colony. After the OGPU was incorporated into the Security and Intelligence Agency (NKVD)