The article deals with the difficult period of crisis 1920-1921. It forced the leadership of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) (RCP(b)), headed by V.I. Lenin go for a departure from the policy of "war communism". It is an immature attempt to "frontal attack" on the age-old way of economic life of Russian citizens, especially the peasantry. As a result of mass peasant uprisings, the Bolsheviks were forced to replace the surplus tax in kind, free trade and the resolution of some of the reforms on the introduction of market relations in the industrial sector. All these changes have received in the history of the name "New Economic Policy" (NEP). Events of this historical period considered by the author in the context of the history of the country's security. Change of vectors in the economic course painfully affected the activities of the security officers. They have experienced serious economic difficulties experienced obscure conversion, changes in the service name. But, despite the many difficulties, the public security organs continued to effectively deal with the economic and Political Science threats continue being a reliable cover for the Soviet state. Considering the history of the security forces in the first half of the 1920s, the author, however, a certain emphasis is on the regional dimension of their activities, but rather the work of the Cheka - OGPU in the Lower Volga region. For the first time in this paper based on the analysis of archival documents and new research of historians, shows the conflict between Astrakhan Provincial Committee of the RCP(b) and the leadership of the Astrakhan Cheka. Author continues today to work on collecting material on this and many other episodes in the history of the Cheka - OGPU.
