Committees of Public Security

counterrevolutionary organizations established in Russia during October-November 1917 by the anti-Soviet parties (the right Socialist Revolutionaries [SR’s], Mensheviks, Constitutional Democrats, and bourgeois nationalists) to struggle against the socialist revolution. They were similar to the organizations called Committees to Save the Homeland and the Revolution.

In Petrograd the Committee of Public Security was organized on October 24 (November 6) under the chairmanship of the mayor, G. I. Shreider. With the proclamation of Soviet power on October 25 (November 7), the committee terminated its existence; further struggle against Soviet power was headed by the Committee to Save the Homeland and the Revolution, which acted along the same lines. In Moscow the committee of Public Security was established on October 25 (November 7) under the auspices of the city council and was headed by the mayor, the right-SR V. V. Rudnev. The committee headed the armed struggle against the Bolsheviks’ Military Revolutionary Committee. It was defeated and on November 2 (15) was disbanded. In Tbilisi the Provisional Committee of Public Security of the Transcaucasus was established by a counterrevolutionary coalition of Georgian Mensheviks, Armenian Dashnaks, and Azerbaijani Musavatists. When power passed to the Menshevik Commissariat of the Transcaucasus, the committee was abolished.