Cheka (ЧК - чрезвыча́йная коми́ссия chrezvychaynaya komissiya, Emergency Commission Russian pronunciation: [tɕɛ.ˈka]) was the first of a succession of Soviet state security organizations. It was created by a decree issued on December 20, 1917, by Vladimir Lenin and subsequently led by aristocrat-turned-communist Felix Dzerzhinsky. After 1922, the Cheka underwent a series of reorganizations into bodies whose members continued to be referred to as "Chekisty" (Chekists) into the late 1980s and with Vladimir Putin's rise to power reference to the FSB people as "Chekists" returned and is very much alive still today, with an obvious negative connotation when used by the opposition.

From its founding, the Cheka was an important military and security arm of the Bolshevik communist government. In 1921 the Troops for the Internal Defense of the Republic (a branch of the Cheka) numbered 200,000. These troops policed labor camps; ran the Gulag system; conducted requisitions of food; subjected political opponents to torture and summary execution; and put down rebellions and riots by workers and peasants, and mutinies in the desertion-plagued Red Army.

Michael Stuart (born January 9, 1975) is an American salsa singer and actor.

Stuart was born in New York City, to Puerto Rican parents who settled in the 1960s after emigrating from Puerto Rico. There Stuart received his primary and secondary education. He was musically influenced by his uncle Israel "Timbalero" Stuart. Stuart grew up listening to hip hop and rock music. He grew to love many kinds of music, especially Latin music. His uncle "Timbalero" was a professional musician and bandleader. Stuart would accompany his uncle to many rehearsals where he would sing and play the maracas or congas. He taught himself to play the trumpet and most of the times he would sing to the tones of Héctor Lavoe and El Gran Combo. It was Domingo Quiñones who had influenced Stuart's style of singing.