Yakov Khristoforovich Peters (Яков Христофорович Петерс) (December 3 (old-style November 21), 1886 - April 25, 1938) was a deputy director of the Cheka in the Soviet Union and acting director from July 7 to August 22 1918. In English he was known as "Jacob Peters" or "Jan Peters".

Born in Latvia, he lived in London for a time after the 1905 Revolution. He and four others were arrested and put on trial in the aftermath of the Sidney Street Siege that followed a failed jewelry store robbery at Houndsditch. They were acquitted, much to the dismay of the then Home Secretary Winston Churchill.

He married Maisie Freeman, the daughter of a London banker, and they had a daughter. He returned to Russia in May 1917 and his wife later divorced him. He participated in the events of the Russian Revolution and joined the Cheka.

In later life he lived in Tashkent and perished in the Great Purge in 1938.

External links

• FSB biographical info (in Russian)