Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- (in the Soviet Union) the state secret-police organization (1917–22), succeeded by the GPU.
noun
- Russian history the secret police set up in 1917 by the Bolshevik government: reorganized in the Soviet Union in Dec 1922 as the GPU
early Soviet secret police, 1921, from Russian initials of Chrezvychainaya Komissiya “Extraordinary Commission (for Combating Counter-Revolution);” set up 1917, superseded 1922 by G.P.U.