View source for Felix Dzerzhinsky

{{Short description|Soviet revolutionary and politician (1877–1926)}}
{{Family name hatnote|Edmundovich|Dzerzhinsky|lang=Eastern Slavic}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2023}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix    = 
| name                = Felix Dzerzhinsky<br />{{nobold|Феликс Дзержинский}}
| birth_name          = Feliks Dzierżyński
| native_name         = Feliks Dzierżyński
| native_name_lang    = pl
| image               = RIAN archive 6464 Dzerzhinsky.jpg
| caption             = Dzerzhinsky in 1918
| office3             = Chairman of the [[Cheka]]
| premier3            = Vladimir Lenin
| term_start3         = 22 August 1918
| term_end3           = 6 February 1922
| predecessor3        = [[Jēkabs Peterss]]
| successor3          = Himself as Chairman of the GPU
| office2             = Chairman of the [[State Political Directorate|GPU]]
| premier2            = [[Vladimir Lenin]]
| term_start2         = 6 February 1922
| term_end2           = 15 November 1923
| predecessor2        = Himself as Chairman of the Cheka
| successor2          = Himself as Chairman of the OGPU
| office1             = Chairman of the [[Joint State Political Directorate|OGPU]]
| premier1            = {{ubl|[[Vladimir Lenin]]|[[Alexei Rykov]]}}
| term_start1         = 15 November 1923
| term_end1           = 20 July 1926
| predecessor1        = Himself as Chairman of the GPU
| successor1          = [[Vyacheslav Menzhinsky]]
| office4             = 
| premier4            = Vladimir Lenin
| term_start4         = 20 December 1917
| term_end4           = 7 July 1918
| predecessor4        = ''Office established''
| successor4          = [[Jēkabs Peterss]]
| office5             = [[People's Commissar]] of [[VSNKh]]
| term_start5         = 2 February 1924
| term_end5           = 20 July 1926
| office6             = [[People's Commissariat of Communication Routes of the Soviet Union|
People's Commissar of Railways of the USSR]]
| term_start6         = 6 July 1923
| term_end6           = 2 February 1924
| birth_date          = {{OldStyleDate|11 September|1877|30 August}}
| birth_place         = [[Dzerzhinovo|Ozhyemblovo Estate]], [[Minsk Governorate]], Russian&nbsp;Empire
| death_date          = {{Death date and age|1926|07|20|df=y|1877|09|11}}
| death_place         = Moscow, [[Russian&nbsp;SFSR]], Soviet&nbsp;Union
| party               = [[VKP(b)]] (from 1917)
| otherparty          = {{ubl|[[SDKPiL]] (1900–1917)|[[LSDP]] (1896–1900)|SDKP (1895–1896)}}
| religion            = 
| spouse              = {{marriage|[[Sofia Dzerzhinskaya|Zofia Sigizmundovna Muszkat]]|1910}}
| children            = {{ill|v=ib|Jan Dzerzhinsky|lt=Jan Feliksovich|ru|Дзержинский, Ян Феликсович}}
| occupation          = 
| nationality         = Polish
| profession          = 
| alma_mater          = 
| signature           = Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky signature.svg
| resting_place       = [[Kremlin Wall Necropolis]], Moscow
| office7             = [[List of transport ministers of Russia|People's Commissar of Railways of the RSFSR]]
| term_start7         = 14 April 1921
| term_end7           = 6 July 1923
| successor5          = [[Valerian Kuybyshev]]
| predecessor5        = Alexei Rykov
| premier5            = Alexei Rykov
| office8             = [[List of ministers of internal affairs of Russia|People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the RSFSR]]
| office9             = Candidate member of the [[13th Politburo of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)|13th]], [[14th Politburo of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)|14th]] [[Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Politburo]]
| office10            = Member of the [[6th Central Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks)|6th]] [[Secretariat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Secretariat]]
| term_start10        = 6 August 1917
| term_end10          = 8 March 1918
| successor8          = [[Alexander Beloborodov]]
| predecessor8        = [[Grigory Petrovsky]]
| successor7          = Himself (as People's Commissar of Railways of the USSR)
| predecessor7        = Alexander Emshanov
| predecessor6        = Himself (as People's Commissar of Railways of the RSFSR)
| successor6          = [[Jānis Rudzutaks]]
| term_start9         = 2 June 1924
| term_end9           = 20 July 1926
| term_start8         = 30 March 1919
| term_end8           = 6 July 1923
}}

'''Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky''' ({{langx|ru|Феликс Эдмундович Дзержинский}}; {{langx|pl|'''Feliks Edmundowicz Dzierżyński'''|italic=no}} {{IPA|pl|ˈfɛliks ɛdmundɔvʲiʈ͡ʂ d͡ʑɛrʐɨj̃skʲi|}}; {{OldStyleDate|11 September|1877|30 August}} – 20 July 1926), nicknamed '''Iron Felix''' ({{langx|ru|links=no|Железный Феликс}}), was a Soviet revolutionary and politician of Polish origin. From 1917 until his death in 1926, he led the first three Soviet [[secret police]] organizations, the [[Cheka]], the [[State Political Directorate|GPU]] and the [[Joint State Political Directorate|OGPU]], establishing [[Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies|state security organs]] for the [[Bolsheviks|Bolshevik]] government. He was a key architect of the [[Red Terror]]<ref name="Carr2016">{{cite book |last=Carr |first=Barnes |title=Operation Whisper: The Capture of Soviet Spies Morris and Lona Cohen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1s69CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA11 |publisher=University Press of New England |year=2016 |pages=11–13 |isbn=978-1-61168-939-6}}
*{{cite book |last1=Southwell |first1=David |author1-link=David Southwell |last2=Twist |first2=Sean |series=Mysteries and Conspiracies |chapter=The KGB |title=Secret Societies |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sAt0pmf9VFUC |quote=Dzerzhinsky was the mastermind behind the Red Terror that allowed the Communists to seize and hold on to power ... |publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group |location=New York |publication-date=2007 |year=2004 |page=60 |access-date=27 May 2019 |isbn=9781404210844}}
*{{cite book |last=Ryan |first=James |title=Lenin's Terror: The Ideological Origins of Early Soviet State Violence |url=https://www.routledge.com/Lenins-Terror-The-Ideological-Origins-of-Early-Soviet-State-Violence/Ryan/p/book/9781138815681 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=London |quote=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. |year=2012 |page=114 |isbn=9781138815681}}</ref><ref>Часть IV. На гражданской войнe. // ''[[Sergei Melgunov]]'' [http://lib.ru/POLITOLOG/MELGUNOW/terror.txt «Красный террор» в России 1918—1923.] — 2-ое изд., доп. — Берлин, 1924</ref> and [[de-Cossackization]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Lauchlan |first=Iain |chapter=A Perfect Spy Chief? Feliks Dzerzhinsky and the Cheka |editor1-last=Maddrell |editor1-first=Paul |editor1-link=Paul Maddrell |editor2-last=Moran |editor2-first=Christopher |editor3-last=Stout |editor3-first=Mark |editor4-last=Iordanou |editor4-first=Ioanna |title=Spy Chiefs |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E_FGDwAAQBAJ |volume=2: Intelligence Leaders in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia |publisher=Georgetown University Press |quote=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. |date=2018 |access-date=27 May 2019 |isbn=9781626165236}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Havlat |first=Alexander |title=Victims of the Bolsheviks: 1917-1953 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=00o2eO8w06oC |quote=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 ... |publisher=GRIN Verlag |date=2011 |page=5 |access-date=27 May 2019 |isbn=9783640797004}}</ref>

Born to a Polish family of [[Szlachta|noble descent]] in their [[Dzerzhinovo|Ozhyemblovo Estate]] (in 1881 named Dzerzhinovo), in [[Russian Partition|Russian Poland]], Dzerzhinsky embraced revolutionary politics from a young age, and was active in the [[Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania]] party. Active in [[Kaunas]] and [[Warsaw]], he was frequently arrested and underwent several exiles to [[Siberia]], from which he escaped every time. He evaded the tsarist secret police, the [[Okhrana]], whose work he took interest in. Dzerzhinsky participated in the failed [[Russian Revolution of 1905|1905 Revolution]], and after a final arrest in 1912, was imprisoned until the [[February Revolution]] of 1917. He then joined [[Vladimir Lenin]]'s Bolshevik party, and played an active role in the [[October Revolution]] which brought them to power.

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. The [[Russian Civil War]] saw a vast expansion of the Cheka's authority, inaugurating a campaign of mass arrests, detentions (including in newly founded [[Gulag]] 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 the [[State Political Directorate]] (GPU) in 1922, and then as the [[Joint State Political Directorate]] (OGPU) a year later, with Dzerzhinsky remaining as head of the powerful organization. He served as director of the [[Supreme Soviet of the National Economy]] (VSNKh) from 1924.

Dzerzhinsky died of a heart attack in 1926, and was buried in the [[Kremlin Wall Necropolis]]. He was remembered by secret police agents (known as "Chekists" throughout the Soviet era) as a hero of the revolution. [[Monument to Felix Dzerzhinsky, Moscow|A large statue of him]] stood in front of the security service headquarters at Moscow's [[Lubyanka Building]] until 1991. He also became a prominent symbol of repression and brutality to critics of the Soviet Union.

== Early life ==
[[File:POL COA Samson.svg|thumb|left|150px|[[Samson coat of arms]] belonging to Felix's ''[[szlachta]]'' family<ref>Albert P. Nenarokov. Russia in the Twentieth Century. (New York: William Morrow and Co., 1968), 117–118.</ref>]]
Felix Dzerzhinsky was born on 11 September 1877 to ethnically [[Polish people|Polish]] parents of noble descent<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kalic |first=Sean N. |title=Russian Revolution of 1917: the essential reference guide |publisher=[[ABC-Clio]] |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-4408-5092-9 |editor-last=Kalic |editor-first=Sean N. |location=Santa Barbara, CA; Denver, CO |pages=44 |language=en |chapter=Dzerzhinsky, Felix (1877–1926) |quote="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." |editor-last2=Brown |editor-first2=Gates M.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Riga |first=Liliana |year=2006 |title=Reconciling Nation and Class in Imperial Borderlands: the Making of Bolshevik Internationalists Karl Radek and Feliks Dzierżyński in East Central Europe 1 |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-6443.2006.00292.x |journal=Journal of Historical Sociology |language=en |volume=19 |issue=4 |pages=447–472 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-6443.2006.00292.x |issn=0952-1909 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> at the [[Dzerzhinovo|Ozhyemblovo]] family estate, about {{convert|15|km|mi|abbr=on}}, from the small town of [[Ivyanets]] in the [[Minsk Governorate]] of [[Russian Partition|Russian Poland]] (Polish territory after [[Partitions of Poland|partition]] by [[Russian Empire]]; now [[Belarus]])<ref>[http://uni-persona.srcc.msu.ru/students/stud_1840-1901/cards33.html Фамилия: Гулухов]{{Dead link|date=June 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} (in Russian)</ref> In the Russian Empire, his family was of a type known as "[[Uradel|column-listed nobility]]"  ({{langx|ru|столбовое дворянство}}, stolbovoe dvorianstvo),<ref name=belgaz200721>Igor Kuznetsov. ''[http://www.belgazeta.by/ru/1253/society/41096/ The Chekist No.1. The life of terror parent (Чекист № 1. Житие отца террора)]{{Dead link|date=May 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}''. BelGazeta. 21 July 2020</ref> whose nobility was formally acknowledged, but so old that they did not enjoy the privileges of the new nobility.<ref>Грамота на права, вольности и преимущества благородного российского дворянства, 21 апреля 1785 (Полное собрание законов Российской империи, Ч. I, т. XXII, №&nbsp;16187; п. 82)</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://jig.ru/golden/034.html |title=Феликс не всегда был железным... (Felix was not always made of iron...) |author=Veronika Anatolievna Cherkasova |access-date=18 September 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090515154633/http://jig.ru/golden/034.html |archive-date=15 May 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

His father, Edmund-Rufin Dzierżyński graduated from the [[Saint Petersburg State University|Saint Petersburg Imperial University]] in 1863 and moved to [[Vilnius]], 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 in [[Kherson]] gymnasium, he worked as a [[Gymnasium (school)|gymnasium]] teacher of physics and mathematics at the schools of [[Taganrog]] in the [[Don Host Province]], Russia, particularly the [[Chekhov Gymnasium]].<ref name="First chekist">{{cite book | script-title=ru:Дзержинский. Первый чекист России | publisher=Olma Media Group | author=Plekhanov, Alexander Mikhaylovich | year=2007 | page=19 | isbn=978-5-373-01334-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QuzrKbud4HoC&pg=PA19|language=ru|trans-title=Dzerzhinsky. The First Cheikist of Russia}}</ref> In 1875, Edmund Dzierżyński retired due to health conditions and moved with his family to his estate near Ivyanets and [[Rakaŭ]]. In 1882, Felix's father died from [[tuberculosis]].<ref name="First chekist" />

As a youngster Dzerzhinsky became a polyglot, speaking [[Polish language|Polish]], [[Russian language|Russian]], [[German language|German]] and [[Latin]]. He attended the [[Vilnius 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."<ref>Blobaum 1984, p. 30.</ref> 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, of [[Roman Catholicism|Catholic 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".<ref>{{cite news|author=Fedotkina, Tatiana|script-title=ru:Палач Королевства любви|trans-title=The executioner of the Kingdom of love|url=http://www.mk.ru/editions/daily/article/2002/11/21/130978-palach-korolevstva-lyubvi.html|work=[[Moskovskij Komsomolets]]|date=5 September 1998|issue=71|language=ru}}</ref>

==Political affiliations and arrests==
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 a [[Marxism|Marxist]] group, the [[Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania|Union of Workers]] (Socjaldemokracja Królestwa Polskiego "SDKP"), in 1895. In late April 1896, he was one of 15 delegates at the first congress of the [[Social Democratic Party of Lithuania|Lithuanian Social Democratic Party]] (LSDP).<ref>Blobaum 1984, p. 37</ref> In 1897, he attended the second congress of the LSDP, where it rejected independence{{which|date=July 2020}} in favor of national autonomy. On 18 March 1897, he was sent to [[Kaunas]] 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.<ref>Blobaum 1984, p. 42</ref> 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."<ref>Blobaum 1984, p. 46.</ref> Dzerzhinsky envisioned merging the LSDP with the [[Russian Social Democratic Labour Party]] (RSDLP) and took the same position as influential Social Democrat [[Rosa Luxemburg]] on what was referred to in contemporary writings as "The National Question," i.e., the right of nations to self determination.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Rosa Luxemburg: The Polish Question and the Socialist Movement (1905) |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1905/misc/polish-question.htm |access-date=12 February 2023 |website=www.marxists.org}}
*{{Cite web |title=Rosa Luxemburg: The National Question (Chap.1) |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1909/national-question/ch01.htm |access-date=12 February 2023 |website=www.marxists.org}}</ref>

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 the [[Vyatka Governorate]] (city of [[Nolinsk]]) where he worked at a local tobacco factory. There Dzerzhinsky was arrested for agitating for revolutionary activities and was sent {{convert|500|verst|mi|abbr= on}} north to the village of {{ill|Kaigorod|ru|Кай (Верхнекамский район)}}. In August 1899, he returned to Vilnius. Dzerzhinsky subsequently became one of the founders of [[Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania]] ({{langx |pl| Socjaldemokracja Królestwa Polskiego i Litwy}}, SDKPiL) in 1899. In February 1900, he was arrested again and served his time at first in the [[Warsaw Citadel|Alexander Citadel in Warsaw]] and later at the [[Siedlce]] prison. In 1902, Dzerzhinsky was sent deep into Siberia for the next five years to the remote town of [[Vilyuysk]], while ''en route'' being temporarily held at the Alexandrovsk Transitional Prison near [[Irkutsk]]. While in exile, he escaped on a boat and later emigrated from the country. He traveled to [[Berlin]], where at the SDKPiL conference Dzerzhinsky was elected a secretary of its party committee abroad ({{langx |pl| Komitet Zagraniczny}}, KZ) and met with several prominent leaders of the Polish Social Democratic movement, including Rosa Luxemburg and [[Leo Jogiches]]. They gained control of the party organization through the creation of a committee called the ''Komitet 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 newspaper ''Czerwony Sztandar'' ("Red Banner"), and transportation of illegal literature from [[Kraków]] into [[Congress Poland]]. Being a delegate to the IV Congress of SDKPiL in 1903, Dzerzhinsky was elected as a member of its General Board.

Dzerzhinsky visited [[Switzerland]], where his fiancée Julia Goldman, the sister of [[Boris Gorev]] and [[Mikhail Liber]], was undergoing treatment for [[tuberculosis]]. 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 the [[Russian Revolution of 1905]], as Dzerzhinsky became involved with work again. After the revolution failed he was again jailed in July 1905, this time by the [[Okhrana]]. In October, he was released on amnesty. As a delegate to the [[4th 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 in [[Saint 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 the [[5th Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party]] in London in May–June 1907, he was elected ''in absentia'' as a member of the [[Russian Social Democratic Labour Party|Central Committee of the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party]]. In April 1908, Dzerzhinsky was arrested once again in [[Warsaw]] 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 met [[Maxim Gorky]] on [[Capri]]; he then returned to Poland.

Back in [[Kraków]] in 1910, Dzerzhinsky married RSDLP party member [[Zofia Muszkat]], who was already pregnant. A month later she was arrested; she gave birth to their son Janek in [[Pawiak]] 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.<ref>Blobaum 1984, pp. 199–200.</ref>

[[File:Дзержинские в Швейцарии.jpg|thumb|Dzerzhinsky pictured with wife [[Sofia Dzerzhinskaya|Sofia]] and son Janek in [[Lugano]] ([[Switzerland]]), October 1918]]

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 to [[Łódź]] 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.<ref>Blobaum 1984, pp. 212–213.</ref>

==Revolution==
Dzerzhinsky spent the next {{frac|4|1|2}} years in prisons, first at the notorious [[Tenth Pavilion]] of the Warsaw Citadel. When [[World War I]] began in 1914, all political prisoners were relocated from Warsaw into Russia proper. Dzerzhinsky was taken to [[Oryol 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 the [[Moscow]] [[Butyrka 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.<ref>Blobaum 1984, pp. 213–217.</ref>

Dzerzhinsky was freed from Butyrka after the [[February 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 the [[Bolshevik 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 the [[Mossoviet|Moscow Soviet]]. Dzerzhinsky endorsed [[Vladimir Lenin]]'s "[[April Theses]]", demanding uncompromising opposition to the new [[Russian Provisional Government]], the transfer of all political authority to the [[Soviet (council)|Soviets]], 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ed.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.124547!/fileManager/wp-iain-lauchlan-YoungFelix.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=29 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131101192100/http://www.ed.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.124547!/fileManager/wp-iain-lauchlan-YoungFelix.pdf |archive-date=1 November 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name=Dzerzhinsky/>

Subsequently, in late July, Dzerzhinsky was elected to the Bolshevik Central Committee at the Sixth Party Congress. He then relocated from Moscow to [[Petrograd]] 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 the [[Military Revolutionary Committee]] during the [[October Revolution]]. With the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks, Dzerzhinsky eagerly assumed responsibility for making security arrangements at the [[Smolny Institute]] where the Bolsheviks had their headquarters.<ref>Blobaum 1984, pp. 213–222.</ref>

==Director of Cheka==
Lenin regarded Felix Dzerzhinsky as a revolutionary hero and appointed him to organize a force to combat internal threats. On 20 December 1917, the [[Council of People's Commissars]] officially established the All-Russia Extraordinary Commission to Combat Counter-revolution and Sabotage—commonly known as the [[Cheka]] (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 the [[Russian Civil War]] expanded, Dzerzhinsky also began organizing [[Internal Troops|internal security troops]] to enforce the Cheka's authority.

The Cheka became notorious for mass [[summary executions]], performed especially during the [[Red Terror]] and the Russian Civil War.<ref>Robert Gellately. ''Lenin, Stalin and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe.'' [[Alfred A. Knopf|Knopf]], 2007. {{ISBN|1-4000-4005-1}}. pp. 46–48.</ref><ref>George Leggett, ''The Cheka: Lenin’s Political Police.'' [[Oxford University Press]], 1987, {{ISBN|0-19-822862-7}} pp. 197–201.</ref> The Cheka undertook drastic measures as tens of thousands of political opponents and saboteurs were [[Extrajudicial execution|shot without trial]] in the basements of prisons and in public places.<ref>[[Orlando Figes]]. ''A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891–1924.'' [[Penguin Books]], 1997. {{ISBN|0-19-822862-7}}. p. 647</ref> Dzerzhinsky said: "We represent in ourselves organized terror—this must be said very clearly".<ref>J. Michael Waller ''Secret Empire: The KGB in Russia Today.''  Westview Press. Boulder, CO, 1994. {{ISBN|0-8133-2323-1}}.</ref><ref>George Leggett, ''The Cheka: Lenin’s Political Police.'' [[Oxford University Press]], 1987. {{ISBN|0-19-822862-7}}. p. 114.</ref> In 1922, at the end of the Civil War, the Cheka was dissolved and reorganized as the [[State Political Directorate]] (Gosudarstvennoe Politicheskoe Upravlenie, or GPU), a section of the [[NKVD]]. With the formation of the Soviet Union later that year, the GPU was again reorganized as the [[Joint 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 the [[Vesenkha]] (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 its ''de facto'' powers grew even greater than those of the Cheka.

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-00032, Felix Dzierzynski.jpg|thumb|Dzerzhinsky in 1922]]
At his office in [[Lubyanka (KGB)|Lubyanka]], Dzerzhinsky kept a portrait of fellow Polish revolutionary [[Rosa Luxemburg]] on the wall.<ref>Blobaum 1984, p. 231.</ref> 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,<ref>{{cite news |title=Love and hate for 'Iron Felix': Why do Russians still debate the Soviet security services' founder? |url=https://www.rbth.com/history/326867-love-and-hate-for-felix-dzerzhinsky|work=Russia Beyond|access-date=20 July 2019|quote=Apart from that, the top Chekist supervised the establishment of a system of orphanages and child communes, which helped to solve the problem of child homelessness, which was very acute after the Civil War.}}</ref> chaired the Transport Commissariat, organized the embalming of Lenin's body in 1924 and chaired the Society of Friends of Soviet Cinema.<ref name="test">''A Dictionary of 20th Century Communism''. Edited by Silvio Pons and Robert Service. Princeton University Press. 2010.</ref>

==Dzerzhinsky and Lenin==
[[File:19260528 dzerzhinsky kharkov.jpg|thumb|left|Dzerzhinsky, [[Vsevolod Balitsky]] and [[Stanislav Redens]] in [[Kharkov]], [[Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|Ukrainian SSR]], 1926]]

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 the [[Treaty of Brest-Litovsk]], the trade unions, and [[National delimitation in the Soviet Union|Soviet 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."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1930/hrr/ch16.htm |title=Leon Trotsky: The History of the Russian Revolution (1.16 Rearming the Party) |publisher=Marxists.org |date=21 February 2007 |access-date=22 January 2014}}</ref>{{Better source needed|date=October 2020}}

From 1917 to his death in 1926, Dzerzhinsky was first and foremost a Russian Communist, and Dzerzhinsky's involvement in the affairs of the [[Communist Party of Poland|Polish 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.<ref>Blobaum 1984. pp. 230–231.</ref>
[[File:Pomnik Feliksa Dzierżyńskiego plac Bankowy w Warszawie przed 1953.jpg|thumb|A statue of Dzerzhinsky in [[Warsaw]] built in 1951. It was toppled in 1989 to mark the end of the communist era in Poland.]]
{{clear left}}

==Death and legacy==
[[File:The Soviet Union 1951 CPA 1623 stamp (25th death anniversary of Felix Dzerzhinsky (1877-1926), bolshevik revolutionary and official. Portrait).jpg|thumb|Dzerzhinsky honoured on a 1951 stamp]]
[[File:0090 27th of July 2016 in Moscow.jpg|upright|thumb|Dzerzhinsky's tomb in the [[Kremlin Wall Necropolis]]]]
[[File:Дзержинский Феликс Эдмундович (конверт).jpg|thumb|right|A [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] postcard featuring Dzerzhinsky as a national hero on the 100th anniversary of his birth, 1977]]

Dzerzhinsky died of a [[heart attack]] on 20 July 1926 in [[Moscow]], immediately after a two-hour speech to the Bolshevik Central Committee during which, visibly quite ill, he violently denounced the [[United Opposition (Soviet Union)|United Opposition]] directed by [[Leon Trotsky]], [[Grigory Zinoviev]] and [[Lev Kamenev]].<ref>[[Isaac Deutscher]]. ''The Prophet Unarmed: Trotsky 1921–1929.'' [[Oxford University Press]], 1959, {{ISBN|1-85984-446-4}}. p. 279.</ref> Upon hearing of his death, [[Joseph Stalin]] eulogized Dzerzhinsky as "a devout knight of the proletariat".<ref>{{cite book|author-link=Simon Sebag Montefiore|first=Simon Sebag |last=Montefiore |title=Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson |year=2003 |isbn=1842127268 |page=76}}</ref> Dzerzhinsky was buried in the  [[Kremlin Wall Necropolis]]. Today his grave is one of the twelve individual tombs located between the [[Lenin Mausoleum]] and the [[Kremlin Wall]].

Dzerzhinsky was succeeded as chairman of the OGPU by [[Vyacheslav Menzhinsky]].

[[Dzierżyńszczyzna]], one of the two [[Polish Autonomous District]]s in the Soviet Union, was named to commemorate Dzerzhinsky. Located in [[Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic|Belarus]], near [[Minsk]] and close to the Soviet-Polish border of the time, it was created on 15 March 1932, with the capital at [[Dzyarzhynsk]] (in Russian Dzerzhynsk, formerly known as Kojdanów), not far from the family estate. The Dzerzhinsky estate itself remained inside Poland from 1921 to the [[Soviet invasion of Poland]] in 1939. The district was disbanded in 1935 at the onset of the [[Great 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. In [[Russia]], there is the city of [[Dzerzhinsk, Russia|Dzerzhinsk]], a village of Dzerzhinsk, and three other cities called Dzerzhinskiy; in other former Soviet republics, there was a city named for him in [[Dzerzhinski, Armenia|Armenia]] and the aforementioned Dzyarzhynsk in Belarus. To comply with [[Decommunization in Ukraine|decommunization laws]],<ref>[https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32267075 Goodbye, Lenin: Ukraine moves to ban communist symbols], [[BBC News]] (14 April 2015)<br />{{in lang|uk}} [http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2016/07/14/7114702/Verkhovna Rada renamed Kirovograd]{{Dead link|date=April 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, [[Ukrayinska Pravda]] (14 July 2016)</ref> the Ukrainian cities Dzerzhynsk and Dniprodzerzhynsk reverted to their historic names [[Toretsk]] and [[Kamianske]] in February and May 2016.<ref>[http://www.unian.info/society/1255225-decommunisation-continues-rada-renames-several-towns-and-villages.html Decommunisation continues: Rada renames several towns and villages], [[UNIAN]] (4 February 2016)<br />{{cite web|url=http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2016/02/4/7097833/ |title=Rada de-communized Artemivsk as well as over hundred cities and villages |date=4 February 2016 |publisher=Pravda.com.ua |language=uk |access-date=4 February 2016 }}<br />{{cite news|url=http://www.unn.com.ua/uk/news/1572273-rada-pereymenuvala-dniprodzerzhinsk-na-kamyanske-dopovneno |script-title=uk:Рада перейменувала Дніпродзержинськ на Кам'янське |date=19 May 2016 |publisher=Українські Національні Новини |language=uk |access-date=19 May 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160519213554/http://www.unn.com.ua/uk/news/1572273-rada-pereymenuvala-dniprodzerzhinsk-na-kamyanske-dopovneno |archive-date=19 May 2016 |title= }}</ref> A Ukrainian village in the [[Zhytomyr Oblast]] was also named Dzerzhinsk until 2005, when it was renamed to Romaniv. The Dzerzhinskiy Tractor Works in [[Stalingrad]] were named in his honor and became a scene of [[Battle of Stalingrad|bitter fighting]] during the [[World War II|Second World War]]. The [[FED (camera)|FED]] camera, produced from 1934 to around 1996, is named for him,<ref name="fed">{{cite journal |url=http://www.fedka.com/Useful_info/Commune_by_Fricke/commune_A.htm | title=The Dzerzhinsky Commune: Birth of the Soviet 35mm Camera Industry | author=Fricke, Oscar | journal=History of Photography |date=April 1979 | volume=3 | issue=2| pages=135–155 | doi=10.1080/03087298.1979.10441091 | url-access=subscription }}</ref> as was the [[Russian locomotive class FD|FD class steam locomotive]].

During the [[History of Poland (1945–1989)|Communist 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 of [[Bank Square, Warsaw|Bank Square]] in Warsaw.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Jabłoński |first=Rafał |date=26 November 2009 |title=Utracony nos czekisty |url=https://www.zw.com.pl/artykul/419450.html |access-date=15 January 2023 |website=Życie Warszawy |language=pl}}</ref> The square bore Dzerzhinsky's name ({{langx |pl| Plac Dzierżyńskiego}}) until 1989. The statue was toppled on 16 November 1989, one of the many Soviet-era symbols removed that year to mark the [[End of Communism in Poland (1989)|end of Communism in Poland]]. The square was subsequently renamed Plac Bankowy (Bank Square).<ref name=":0" />

==Iron Felix==
{{main|Monument to Felix Dzerzhinsky, Moscow}}
[[File:NKVD1936.jpg|thumb|Picture of Dzerzhinsky at a parade in Moscow's [[Red Square]], 1936]]

A 15-ton iron monument of Dzerzhinsky, which once dominated the [[Lubyanka Square]] in Moscow, near the [[KGB]] headquarters, also became known as "Iron Felix" ({{langx |ru| Железный Феликс}} – ''Zheleznyj Feliks''). Sculpted in 1958 by [[Yevgeny Vuchetich]], it served as a Moscow landmark during late Soviet times. Symbolically, the [[Memorial (society)|Memorial]] society erected the [[Solovetsky Stone]], a memorial to the victims of the Gulag (using a simple stone from the [[Solovki prison camp]] in the [[White Sea]]) beside the Iron Felix statue on 30 October 1990). The Moscow Soviet ([[Mossovet]]) had the Dzerzhinsky statue removed to the [[Fallen Monument Park]] and laid on its side in August 1991, after the failed [[1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt|coup 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 the [[International Spy Museum]] in [[Washington, 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 the [[Moscow City Duma]] rejected the proposals due to concerns that the proposed return would cause "unnecessary tension" in society.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/russian/russia/2014/02/140211_dzerzhinsky_return_mosgorduma |title= Дзержинскому еще раз отказали в месте на Лубянке |publisher= BBC|date= 11 February 2014 |access-date= 22 January 2014}}</ref> According to a December 2013 [[Russian Public Opinion Research Centre|VTsIOM]] poll, 46% of Russians favour the restoration of the statue to the Lubyanka Square, with 17% opposing it.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/russian/russia/2013/12/131205_dzerzhinsky_monument_return_opinion |title= Опрос: 45% россиян хотят вернуть памятник Дзержинскому |publisher= BBC|date= 5 December 2013 |access-date= 22 January 2014}}</ref> The statue remained in a yard for old Soviet memorials at the Central House of Artists.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cha.ru/ |title=Центральный дом художника (ЦДХ) |date=24 November 2018 |website= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181124072349/https://www.cha.ru/ |archive-date=24 November 2018 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite news | title= Russia Plans To Restore Toppled 'Iron Felix' Statue |url=http://www.ipotnews.com/index.php?jdl=Russia_plans_to_restore_toppled__Iron_Felix__statue&level2=newsandopinion&level3=industries&level4=trade&news_id=621572&group_news=ALLNEWS&taging_subtype=BANKING&popular=&search=y&q= | publisher= Ipotnews |date= 16 April 2012}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.forbes.ru/newsroom/obshchestvo/427917-prokuratura-priznala-nezakonnym-snos-pamyatnika-dzerzhinskomu-na | title=Прокуратура признала незаконным снос памятника Дзержинскому на Лубянке | date=26 April 2021 }}</ref>

Finally, the monument was reerected on 11 September 2023, but this time in front of the [[Russian Foreign Intelligence Service]] headquarters outside Moscow.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/11/monument-to-founder-of-soviet-secret-police-unveiled-in-moscow|title=Statue of founder of Soviet secret police unveiled in Moscow|date=September 11, 2023|website=theguardian.com}}</ref>

===Other statues===
A smaller bust of Dzerzhinsky in the courtyard of the Moscow police headquarters at [[Petrovka Street|Petrovka]] 38 was restored in November 2005 (police officers had removed this bust on 22 August 1991).<ref>{{Cite news |date=2008-04-08 |title=Dzerzhinskii Bust Returned To Old Site In Moscow |url=https://www.rferl.org/a/1062764.html |access-date=2025-10-07 |work=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |language=en}}</ref>

A 10-foot bronze replica of the original Iron Felix statue was placed on the grounds of the military academy in [[Minsk]], Belarus, in May 2006.<ref>
{{cite news 
| title= Belarus: monument to founder of Soviet secret police unveiled in Minsk 
|url=http://english.pravda.ru/news/world/26-05-2006/81129-belarus-0/ 
| work= Pravda | date= 26 May 2006
}}</ref>

In 2017, on the 140th anniversary of Dzerzhinsky's birth, a monument to Dzerzhinsky was erected in the city of [[Ryazan]], Russia.<ref>{{cite news
| title= In Ryazan, a monument to Dzerzhinsky was opened
| url= https://www.anews.com/p/89551639-v-ryazani-otkryli-pamyatnik-dzerzhinskomu/
| work= (a)news
| date= 11 September 2017
}}{{Dead link|date=May 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

On 20 January 2017, the People's Public Security Academy in Hanoi, Vietnam, inaugurated a Dzerzhinsky statue.

==Dzerzhinovo==
{{main|Dzerzhinovo}}
[[File:Dzierzynski bialorus foto d.jpg|thumb|A bust of Dzerzhinsky in front of his birthplace]]
In 1943, the manor house of [[Dzerzhinovo]], where Dzerzhinsky was born, was destroyed and family members (including Dzerzhinsky's brother Kazimierz) were killed by the Germans, because of their support for the [[Polish Home Army]]. In 2005, the [[Government of Belarus]] rebuilt the house (now on Belarusian territory) and established a museum. The graduating class of their [[State Security Committee of the Republic of Belarus|KGB]] academy holds its annual swearing-in at the manor.<ref name="Chodakiewicz2012">{{cite book|author=Marek Jan Chodakiewicz|title=Intermarium: The Land between the Black and Baltic Seas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4zSGR3fBfUcC&pg=PA474|date=6 November 2012|publisher=Transaction Publishers|isbn=978-1-4128-4786-5|pages=474–}}</ref><ref name=Dzerzhinsky>{{cite web|url=http://www.magwil.lt/archiwum/archiwum/2007/mag-10/paz-20.htm |title=Krasnyj pomieszczik|publisher=magwil.lt |access-date=22 June 2020}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies]]
* [[Chekism]]
* "[[Separate Operational Purpose Division|Dzerzhinsky Division]]" of the [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] [[Internal Troops]] 
* [[Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment]] now defunct military unit of the [[East Germany|East German]] Ministry for State Security (commonly known as the [[Stasi]])
* [[Monument to F. E. Dzerzhinsky]] in Taganrog
* [[Provisional Polish Revolutionary Committee]]
* [[Polish Autonomous District]]
* [[Kang Sheng]]

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
{{See also|Bibliography of the Russian Revolution and Civil War}}
* Blobaum, Robert. ''Felix Dzerzhinsky and the SDKPiL: A study of the origins of Polish Communism.'' 1984. {{ISBN|0-88033-046-5}}.
* Debo, Richard K. "Lockhart Plot or Dzerhinskii Plot?." ''Journal of Modern History'' 43.3 (1971): 413–439.

==External links==
* {{Commons category-inline}}
* [http://www.xnumber.com/xnumber/pic_felix.htm Picture of the Felix calculator]
* [http://www.rus-camera.com/history.php?page=fed_factory_history_1 FED history] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120328063221/http://www.rus-camera.com/history.php?page=fed_factory_history_1 |date=28 March 2012 }}
* {{PM20|FID=pe/004274}}

{{14th Politburo of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)}}
{{13th Politburo of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)}}
{{Murder of the Romanovs}}
{{Chiefs of Soviet secret police agencies}}

{{Authority control}}

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[[Category:1877 births]]
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