In December 1917, Lenin named Dzerzhinsky head of the newly established All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (Cheka), tasking him with the suppression of counter-revolutionary activities in Soviet Russia. TheRussian Civil War saw a vast expansion of the Cheka's authority, inaugurating a campaign of mass arrests, detentions (including in newly foundedGulag forced labour camps), and executions known as the Red Terror. An estimated 50,000 to 200,000 people were executed by the Cheka during the years of the civil war. The agency was reorganized as theState Political Directorate (GPU) in 1922, and then as theJoint State Political Directorate (OGPU) a year later, with Dzerzhinsky remaining as head of the powerful organization. He served as director of theSupreme Soviet of the National Economy (VSNKh) from 1924.
Dzerzhinsky died of a heart attack in 1926, and was buried in theKremlin Wall Necropolis. He was remembered by secret police agents (known as "Chekists" throughout the Soviet era) as a hero of the revolution.A large statue of him stood in front of the security service headquarters at Moscow'sLubyanka Building until 1991. He also became a prominent symbol of repression and brutality to critics of the Soviet Union.
Felix Dzerzhinsky was born on 11 September 1877 to ethnicallyPolish parents of noble descent[6][7] at theOzhyemblovo family estate, about 15 km (9.3 mi), from the small town ofIvyanets in theMinsk Governorate ofRussian Poland (Polish territory afterpartition byRussian Empire; nowBelarus)[8] In the Russian Empire, his family was of a type known as "column-listed nobility" (Russian:столбовое дворянство, stolbovoe dvorianstvo),[9] whose nobility was formally acknowledged, but so old that they did not enjoy the privileges of the new nobility.[10] His sister Wanda died at the age of 12, when she was accidentally shot with a hunting rifle on the family estate by one of her brothers. At the time of the incident, there were conflicting claims as to whether Felix or his brother Stanisław was responsible for the accident.[11]
His father, Edmund-Rufin Dzierżyński graduated from theSaint Petersburg Imperial University in 1863 and moved toVilnius, where he worked as a home teacher for a professor of Saint Petersburg University named Januszewski and eventually married Januszewski's daughter Helena Ignatievna, who also was of Polish origin. In 1868, after a short period inKherson gymnasium, he worked as agymnasium teacher of physics and mathematics at the schools ofTaganrog in theDon Host Province, Russia, particularly theChekhov Gymnasium.[12] In 1875, Edmund Dzierżyński retired due to health conditions and moved with his family to his estate near Ivyanets andRakaŭ. In 1882, Felix's father died fromtuberculosis.[12]
As a youngster Dzerzhinsky became a polyglot, speakingPolish,Russian,German andLatin. He attended theVilnius Gymnasium from 1887 to 1895. One of the older students at this gymnasium was his future arch-enemy,Józef Piłsudski. Years later, as Marshal of Poland, Piłsudski recalled that Dzerzhinsky "distinguished himself as a student with delicacy and modesty. He was rather tall, thin and demure, making the impression of an ascetic with the face of an icon... Tormented or not, this is an issue history will clarify; in any case this person did not know how to lie."[13] School documents show that Dzerzhinsky attended his first year in school twice, while he was not able to finish his eighth year. Dzerzhinsky received a school diploma which stated: "Dzerzhinsky Feliks, who is 18 years of age, ofCatholic faith, along with a satisfactory attention and satisfactory diligence showed the following successes in sciences, namely: Divine law—"good"; Logic, Latin, Algebra, Geometry, Mathematical geography, Physics, History (of Russia), French—"satisfactory"; Russian and Greek—"unsatisfactory".[14]
Two months before he expected to graduate, the gymnasium expelled Dzerzhinsky for "revolutionary activity" and for posting signs with socialist slogans at the school. He had joined aMarxist group, theUnion of Workers (Socjaldemokracja Królestwa Polskiego "SDKP"), in 1895. In late April 1896, he was one of 15 delegates at the first congress of theLithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP).[15] In 1897, he attended the second congress of the LSDP, where it rejected independence[which?] in favor of national autonomy. On 18 March 1897, he was sent toKaunas to take advantage of the arrest of the Polish Socialist Party (PPS) branch. He worked in a book-binding factory and set up an illegal press.[16] As an organizer of a shoemakers' strike, Dzerzhinsky was arrested for "criminal agitation among the Kaunas workers"; the police files from this time state: "Felix Dzerzhinsky, considering his views, convictions and personal character, will be very dangerous in the future, capable of any crime."[17] Dzerzhinsky envisioned merging the LSDP with theRussian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) and took the same position as influential Social DemocratRosa Luxemburg on what was referred to in contemporary writings as "The National Question," i.e., the right of nations to self determination.[18]
He was arrested on a denunciation for his revolutionary activities for the first time in 1897, after which he served almost a year in the Kaunas prison. In 1898, Dzerzhinsky was exiled for three years to theVyatka Governorate (city ofNolinsk) where he worked at a local tobacco factory. There Dzerzhinsky was arrested for agitating for revolutionary activities and was sent 500 versts (330 mi) north to the village ofKaigorod [ru]. In August 1899, he returned to Vilnius. Dzerzhinsky subsequently became one of the founders ofSocial Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (Polish:Socjaldemokracja Królestwa Polskiego i Litwy, SDKPiL) in 1899. In February 1900, he was arrested again and served his time at first in theAlexander Citadel in Warsaw and later at theSiedlce prison. In 1902, Dzerzhinsky was sent deep into Siberia for the next five years to the remote town ofVilyuysk, whileen route being temporarily held at the Alexandrovsk Transitional Prison nearIrkutsk. While in exile, he escaped on a boat and later emigrated from the country. He traveled toBerlin, where at the SDKPiL conference Dzerzhinsky was elected a secretary of its party committee abroad (Polish:Komitet Zagraniczny, KZ) and met with several prominent leaders of the Polish Social Democratic movement, including Rosa Luxemburg andLeo Jogiches. They gained control of the party organization through the creation of a committee called theKomitet Zagraniczny (KZ), which dealt with the party's foreign relations. As secretary of the KZ, Dzerzhinsky was able to dominate the SDKPiL. In Berlin, he organized publication of the newspaperCzerwony Sztandar ("Red Banner"), and transportation of illegal literature fromKraków intoCongress Poland. Being a delegate to the IV Congress of SDKPiL in 1903, Dzerzhinsky was elected as a member of its General Board.
Dzerzhinsky visitedSwitzerland, where his fiancée Julia Goldman, the sister ofBoris Gorev andMikhail Liber, was undergoing treatment fortuberculosis. She died in his arms on 4 June 1904. Her illness and death depressed him – in letters to his sister, Dzerzhinsky explained that he no longer saw any meaning for his life. That changed with theRussian Revolution of 1905, as Dzerzhinsky became involved with work again. After the revolution failed he was again jailed in July 1905, this time by theOkhrana. In October, he was released on amnesty. As a delegate to the4th Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in Stockholm, Dzerzhinsky entered the central body of the party. From July through September 1906, he lived inSaint Petersburg and then returned to Warsaw, where he was arrested again in December of the same year. In June 1907, Dzerzhinsky was released on bail. At the5th Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in London in May–June 1907, he was electedin absentia as a member of theCentral Committee of the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party. In April 1908, Dzerzhinsky was arrested once again inWarsaw and again exiled to Siberia (Yeniseysk Governorate) in 1909. As before, Dzerzhinsky managed to escape (by November 1909). In 1910, he reached Italy, where he metMaxim Gorky onCapri; he then returned to Poland.
Back inKraków in 1910, Dzerzhinsky married RSDLP party memberZofia Muszkat, who was already pregnant. A month later she was arrested; she gave birth to their son Janek inPawiak prison. In 1911, Zofia was sentenced to permanent Siberian exile, and she left the child with her father. Dzerzhinsky saw his son for the first time in March 1912 in Warsaw. In attending the welfare of his child, Dzerzhinsky repeatedly exposed himself to the danger of arrest. On one occasion, Dzerzhinsky narrowly escaped an ambush that the police had prepared at the apartment of his father-in-law.[19]
Dzerzhinsky continued to direct the Social Democratic Party (SDKPiL), while considering his continued freedom "only a game of the Okhrana". The Okhrana, however, was not playing a game; Dzerzhinsky simply was a master of conspiratorial techniques and was therefore extremely difficult to find. A police file from this time says: "Dzerzhinsky continued to lead the Social Democratic party and at the same time he directed party work in Warsaw, led strikes, published appeals to workers, and traveled on party matters toŁódź and Kraków." The police were unable to arrest Dzerzhinsky until the end of 1912, when they found the apartment where he lived in the name of Władysław Ptasiński.[20]
Dzerzhinsky spent the next4+1⁄2 years in prisons, first at the notoriousTenth Pavilion of the Warsaw Citadel. WhenWorld War I began in 1914, all political prisoners were relocated from Warsaw into Russia proper. Dzerzhinsky was taken toOryol Prison. He was very concerned about the fate of his wife and son, with whom he did not have any communication. Moreover, the Russian guards administered Dzerzhinsky frequent beatings, which caused permanent disfigurement of his jaw and mouth. In 1916, Dzerzhinsky was transferred to theMoscowButyrka prison, where he was soon hospitalized because the chains that he had been forced to wear were causing severe cramps in his legs. Despite the prospects of amputation, Dzerzhinsky recovered and was put to work sewing military uniforms.[21]
Dzerzhinsky was freed from Butyrka after theFebruary Revolution of 1917. Soon after his release, Dzerzhinsky's goal was to organize Polish refugees in Russia, then return to Poland and fight for the revolution there. He wrote to his wife, "Together with these masses, we will return to Poland after the war and become one whole with the SDKPiL." He remained in Moscow where he joined theBolshevik party, writing to his comrades that "the Bolshevik party organization is the only Social Democratic organization of the proletariat, and if we were to stay outside of it, then we would find ourselves outside the proletarian revolutionary struggle." By April, he had entered the Moscow Committee of the Bolsheviks and soon thereafter was elected to the executive committee of theMoscow Soviet. Dzerzhinsky endorsedVladimir Lenin's "April Theses", demanding uncompromising opposition to the newRussian Provisional Government, the transfer of all political authority to theSoviets, and the immediate withdrawal of Russia from the war. Dzerzhinsky's brother Stanisław was murdered on the Dzerzhinsky estate by deserting Russian soldiers that same year.[22][23]
Subsequently, in late July, Dzerzhinsky was elected to the Bolshevik Central Committee at the Sixth Party Congress. He then relocated from Moscow toPetrograd to begin his new responsibilities. In Petrograd, Dzerzhinsky participated in the crucial session of the Central Committee in October, and he strongly endorsed Lenin's demands for the immediate preparation of a coup, after which Felix Dzerzhinsky had an active role with theMilitary Revolutionary Committee during theOctober Revolution. With the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks, Dzerzhinsky eagerly assumed responsibility for making security arrangements at theSmolny Institute where the Bolsheviks had their headquarters.[24]
Lenin regarded Felix Dzerzhinsky as a revolutionary hero and appointed him to organize a force to combat internal threats. On 20 December 1917, theCouncil of People's Commissars officially established the All-Russia Extraordinary Commission to Combat Counter-revolution and Sabotage—commonly known as theCheka (based on the Russian acronym ВЧК). Dzerzhinsky became its director. The Cheka received extensive resources, and became known for ruthlessly pursuing any perceived counterrevolutionary elements. As theRussian Civil War expanded, Dzerzhinsky also began organizinginternal security troops to enforce the Cheka's authority.
The Cheka became notorious for masssummary executions, performed especially during theRed Terror and the Russian Civil War.[25][26] The Cheka undertook drastic measures as tens of thousands of political opponents and saboteurs wereshot without trial in the basements of prisons and in public places.[27] Dzerzhinsky said: "We represent in ourselves organized terror—this must be said very clearly".[28][29] In 1922, at the end of the Civil War, the Cheka was dissolved and reorganized as theState Political Directorate (Gosudarstvennoe Politicheskoe Upravlenie, or GPU), a section of theNKVD. With the formation of the Soviet Union later that year, the GPU was again reorganized as theJoint State Political Directorate (Obyedinyonnoye gosudarstvennoye politicheskoye upravleniye, or OGPU), directly under the Council of People's Commissars. These changes did not diminish Dzerzhinsky's power; he was Minister of the Interior, director of the Cheka/GPU/OGPU, Minister for Communications, and director of theVesenkha (Supreme Council of National Economy) in 1921–24. Indeed, while the (O)GPU was theoretically supposed to act with more restraint than the Cheka, in time itsde facto powers grew even greater than those of the Cheka.
Dzerzhinsky in 1922
At his office inLubyanka, Dzerzhinsky kept a portrait of fellow Polish revolutionaryRosa Luxemburg on the wall.[30] Besides his leadership of the secret police, Dzerzhinsky also took on a number of other roles; he led the fight against typhus in 1918, was chair of the Commissariat for Internal Affairs from 1919 to 1923, initiated a vast orphanage construction program,[31] chaired the Transport Commissariat, organized the embalming of Lenin's body in 1924 and chaired the Society of Friends of Soviet Cinema.[32]
Dzerzhinsky became a Bolshevik as late as 1917. Therefore, it was wrong to assert (as official Soviet historians did subsequently) that Dzerzhinsky had been one of Lenin's oldest and most reliable comrades, or that Lenin had exercised some sort of spellbinding influence on Dzerzhinsky and the SDKPiL. Lenin and Dzerzhinsky frequently had opposing opinions about many important ideological and political issues of the pre-revolutionary period, and also after the October Revolution. After 1917, Dzerzhinsky would oppose Lenin on such crucial issues as theTreaty of Brest-Litovsk, the trade unions, andSoviet nationality policy. During the April 1917 Party Conference, when Lenin accused Dzerzhinsky of Great-Russian chauvinism, he replied: "I can reproach him (Lenin) with standing at the point of view of the Polish, Ukrainian and other chauvinists."[33][better source needed]
From 1917 to his death in 1926, Dzerzhinsky was first and foremost a Russian Communist, and Dzerzhinsky's involvement in the affairs of thePolish Communist Party (which was founded in 1918) was minimal. The energy and dedication that had previously been responsible for the building of the SDKPiL would henceforth be devoted to the priorities of the struggle for Bolshevik power in Russia, to the defence of the revolution during the civil war, and eventually, to the tasks of socialist construction.[34]
A statue of Dzerzhinsky inWarsaw built in 1951. It was toppled in 1989 to mark the end of the communist era in Poland.
Dzerzhinsky honoured on a 1951 stampDzerzhinsky's tomb in theKremlin Wall NecropolisASoviet postcard featuring Dzerzhinsky as a national hero on the 100th anniversary of his birth, 1977
Dzierżyńszczyzna, one of the twoPolish Autonomous Districts in the Soviet Union, was named to commemorate Dzerzhinsky. Located inBelarus, nearMinsk and close to the Soviet-Polish border of the time, it was created on 15 March 1932, with the capital atDzyarzhynsk (in Russian Dzerzhynsk, formerly known as Kojdanów), not far from the family estate. The Dzerzhinsky estate itself remained inside Poland from 1921 to theSoviet invasion of Poland in 1939. The district was disbanded in 1935 at the onset of theGreat Purge, and most of its administration was executed.
Dzyarzhynskaya Hara (the highest point in Belarus), located near Dzyarzhynsk was named after Dzerzhinsky in 1958.
His name and image were used widely throughout the KGB and the Soviet Union and other communist countries; there were numerous places named after him. InRussia, there is the city ofDzerzhinsk, a village of Dzerzhinsk, and three other cities called Dzerzhinskiy; in other former Soviet republics, there was a city named for him inArmenia and the aforementioned Dzyarzhynsk in Belarus. To comply withdecommunization laws,[37] the Ukrainian cities Dzerzhynsk and Dniprodzerzhynsk reverted to their historic namesToretsk andKamianske in February and May 2016.[38] A Ukrainian village in theZhytomyr Oblast was also named Dzerzhinsk until 2005, when it was renamed to Romaniv. The Dzerzhinskiy Tractor Works inStalingrad were named in his honor and became a scene ofbitter fighting during theSecond World War. TheFED camera, produced from 1934 to around 1996, is named for him,[39] as was theFD class steam locomotive.
During theCommunist era (1945–1989) in Poland, Dzerzhinsky was celebrated as a socialist hero. In 1951, a large-scale statue of Dzerzhinsky was designed by Zbigniew Dunajewski and erected in the northern side ofBank Square in Warsaw.[40] The square bore Dzerzhinsky's name (Polish:Plac Dzierżyńskiego) until 1989. The statue was toppled on 16 November 1989, one of the many Soviet-era symbols removed that year to mark theend of Communism in Poland. The square was subsequently renamed Plac Bankowy (Bank Square).[40]
Picture of Dzerzhinsky at a parade in Moscow'sRed Square, 1936
A 15-ton iron monument of Dzerzhinsky, which once dominated theLubyanka Square in Moscow, near theKGB headquarters, also became known as "Iron Felix" (Russian:Железный Феликс –Zheleznyj Feliks). Sculpted in 1958 byYevgeny Vuchetich, it served as a Moscow landmark during late Soviet times. Symbolically, theMemorial society erected theSolovetsky Stone, a memorial to the victims of the Gulag (using a simple stone from theSolovki prison camp in theWhite Sea) beside the Iron Felix statue on 30 October 1990). The Moscow Soviet (Mossovet) had the Dzerzhinsky statue removed to theFallen Monument Park and laid on its side in August 1991, after the failedcoup d'état attempt by hard-line Communist members of the government. A mock-up of the removal of Dzerzhinsky's statue can be found in the entrance hall of theInternational Spy Museum inWashington, D.C.
The figure of Dzerzhinsky remains controversial in Russian society. Between 1999 and 2013, six proposals called for the return of the statue to its plinth. The Monument Art Commission of theMoscow City Duma rejected the proposals due to concerns that the proposed return would cause "unnecessary tension" in society.[41] According to a December 2013VTsIOM poll, 46% of Russians favour the restoration of the statue to the Lubyanka Square, with 17% opposing it.[42] The statue remained in a yard for old Soviet memorials at the Central House of Artists.[43]
In April 2012, the Moscow authorities stated that they would renovate the "Iron Felix" monument in full and put the statue on a list of monuments to be renovated, as well as officially designating it an object of cultural heritage.[44] On 26 April 2021, it was announced by the prosecutor office of Moscow that the removal of the statue had no legal basis and was therefore illegal.[45]
A smaller bust of Dzerzhinsky in the courtyard of the Moscow police headquarters atPetrovka 38 was restored in November 2005 (police officers had removed this bust on 22 August 1991).[47]
A 10-foot bronze replica of the original Iron Felix statue was placed on the grounds of the military academy inMinsk, Belarus, in May 2006.[48]
In 2017, on the 140th anniversary of Dzerzhinsky's birth, a monument to Dzerzhinsky was erected in the city ofRyazan, Russia.[49]
On 20 January 2017, the People's Public Security Academy in Hanoi, Vietnam, inaugurated a Dzerzhinsky statue.
In 1943, the manor house ofDzerzhinovo, where Dzerzhinsky was born, was destroyed and family members (including Dzerzhinsky's brother Kazimierz) were killed by the Germans, because of their support for thePolish Home Army. In 2005, theGovernment of Belarus rebuilt the house (now on Belarusian territory) and established a museum. The graduating class of theirKGB academy holds its annual swearing-in at the manor.[50][23]
Southwell, David; Twist, Sean (2004). "The KGB".Secret Societies. Mysteries and Conspiracies. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group (published 2007). p. 60.ISBN9781404210844. Retrieved27 May 2019.Dzerzhinsky was the mastermind behind the Red Terror that allowed the Communists to seize and hold on to power ...
Ryan, James (2012).Lenin's Terror: The Ideological Origins of Early Soviet State Violence. London:Routledge. p. 114.ISBN9781138815681.Estimates of the total number of executed victims of the Terror vary. Rat'kovskii puts the figure at 8,000 for the period from 30 August until the end of the year, Nicolas Werth at between 10,000 and 15,000. The majority of the Terror's targets were former Tsarist officers and representatives of the Tsarist regime.
^Lauchlan, Iain (2018). "A Perfect Spy Chief? Feliks Dzerzhinsky and the Cheka". InMaddrell, Paul; Moran, Christopher; Stout, Mark; Iordanou, Ioanna (eds.).Spy Chiefs. Vol. 2: Intelligence Leaders in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Georgetown University Press.ISBN9781626165236. Retrieved27 May 2019.The Cheka's first mass operation—'Decossackization,' the deportation in April 1919 of an estimated 300,000 people—was more akin to the actions of an invading army than a police measure; it was carried out to secure the southern front against the White armies.
^Havlat, Alexander (2011).Victims of the Bolsheviks: 1917-1953. GRIN Verlag. p. 5.ISBN9783640797004. Retrieved27 May 2019.In the course of the so called deCossackization, (i.e. the planned annihilation of the Cossacks as a social class) between 300 000 and 500 000 Don Cossacks were killed or deported in the years 1919/20, out of a total population of 3 million ...
^Albert P. Nenarokov. Russia in the Twentieth Century. (New York: William Morrow and Co., 1968), 117–118.
^Kalic, Sean N. (2017). "Dzerzhinsky, Felix (1877–1926)". In Kalic, Sean N.; Brown, Gates M. (eds.).Russian Revolution of 1917: the essential reference guide. Santa Barbara, CA; Denver, CO:ABC-Clio. p. 44.ISBN978-1-4408-5092-9.Conflicting accounts place his birth in either Vilno or Dzerzhinovo on September 11, 1877, where he was born into a Polish family that had noble ties.
^Грамота на права, вольности и преимущества благородного российского дворянства, 21 апреля 1785 (Полное собрание законов Российской империи, Ч. I, т. XXII, № 16187; п. 82)
%2c_bolshevik_revolutionary_and_official._Portrait).jpg)
.jpg)
