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66-421: Iron Felix or Iron Feliks may refer to one of the following Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky . Monument to Felix Dzerzhinsky, Moscow Pinwheel calculator Feliks . Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Iron Felix . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change

132-492: 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

198-939: A Moscow landmark during late Soviet times. Symbolically, the 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

264-577: A formal trial in the Soviet judicial system . OGPU troops took part in Soviet invasion of Xinjiang . Menzhinsky's health had deteriorated rapidly during his directorship of the OGPU and Stalin tended to deal with his first deputy, Genrikh Yagoda , who essentially took over as head in the late 1920s. Menzhinsky spent his last years as an invalid until his death in May 1934, for which Yagoda would later be blamed in

330-729: 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

396-426: 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". Two months before he expected to graduate, the gymnasium expelled Dzerzhinsky for "revolutionary activity" and for posting signs with socialist slogans at

462-709: 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)

528-674: 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 . 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

594-639: 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 1905 Revolution , and after a final arrest in 1912,

660-484: A youngster Dzerzhinsky became a polyglot, speaking Polish , Russian , 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

726-644: Is named for him, as was the FD class steam locomotive . During the 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 in Warsaw. The square bore Dzerzhinsky's name ( Polish : Plac Dzierżyńskiego ) until 1989. The statue was toppled on 16 November 1989, one of

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792-685: The Moscow City Duma rejected the proposals due to concerns that the proposed return would cause "unnecessary tension" in society. According to a December 2013 VTsIOM poll, 46% of Russians favour the restoration of the statue to the Lubyanka Square, with 17% opposing it. The statue remained in a yard for old Soviet memorials at the Central House of Artists. In April 2012, the Moscow authorities stated that they would renovate

858-736: The Russian Civil War expanded, Dzerzhinsky also began organizing 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. The Cheka undertook drastic measures as tens of thousands of political opponents and saboteurs were shot without trial in the basements of prisons and in public places. Dzerzhinsky said: "We represent in ourselves organized terror—this must be said very clearly". In 1922, at

924-565: The Russian Empire (now Belarus ). In the Russian Empire, his family was of a type known as " column-listed nobility " ( Russian : столбовое дворянство , stolbovoe dvorianstvo), whose nobility was formally acknowledged, but so old that they did not enjoy the privileges of the new nobility. 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

990-799: 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

1056-710: The secret police for the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) and was successor to the Cheka . It was responsible to the Council of People's Commissars , which functioned as the highest executive body of the Soviet Union after the formation. On 15 November 1923, the GPU was dissolved and reformed into the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) with its jurisdiction covering

1122-596: 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. 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. Finally, the monument was reerected on 11 September 2023, but this time in front of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service headquarters outside Moscow. A smaller bust of Dzerzhinsky in

1188-603: 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 ( Polish : 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

1254-875: 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. Lenin regarded Felix Dzerzhinsky as

1320-485: 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 , 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

1386-528: 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 500 versts (330 mi) north to the village of Kaigorod  [ ru ] . In August 1899, he returned to Vilnius. Dzerzhinsky subsequently became one of

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1452-551: 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. He was arrested on a denunciation for his revolutionary activities for the first time in 1897, after which he served almost a year in

1518-428: The OGPU could not shoot " counter-revolutionaries " at will, and most suspected political criminals had to be brought before a judge. The OGPU's powers increased greatly in 1926, when the Soviet criminal code  [ ru ] was amended to include Article 58 , a section on anti-state terrorism . The provisions were vaguely written and very broadly interpreted. Even before then, OGPU had set up tribunals to try

1584-672: The October Revolution. After 1917, Dzerzhinsky would oppose Lenin on such crucial issues as the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk , the trade unions, and 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." From 1917 to his death in 1926, Dzerzhinsky

1650-473: 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. Dzerzhinsky spent the next 4 + 1 ⁄ 2 years in prisons, first at

1716-738: 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

1782-749: The Ukrainian cities Dzerzhynsk and Dniprodzerzhynsk reverted to their historic names Toretsk and Kamianske in February and May 2016. 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 bitter fighting during the Second World War . The FED camera, produced from 1934 to around 1996,

1848-523: The arrest of the Polish Socialist Party (PPS) branch. He worked in a book-binding factory and set up an illegal press. 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." Dzerzhinsky envisioned merging

1914-486: The chairman of the State Political Directorate and of the Cheka, was appointed as the OGPU's first chief. The OSNAZ ( ОСНАЗ ), a militarised section of the Cheka, had originated in 1921; it became a component of OGPU. The OGPU, like the GPU before it, was in theory supposed to operate with more restraint than the Cheka, which had orchestrated the Red Terror from 1918 to 1922. Unlike the Cheka,

1980-700: The city of Ryazan , Russia. On 20 January 2017, the People's Public Security Academy in Hanoi, Vietnam, inaugurated a Dzerzhinsky statue. 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

2046-555: The communist régime. Exiled Russians gave "the Trust" large sums of money and supplies, as did foreign intelligence agencies. Soviet agents finally succeeded in luring one of the leading anti-communist operators, Sidney Reilly , into Russia to meet with the Trust. Once in the Soviet Union in September 1925, Reilly was arrested and executed. The Trust was then dissolved, having become a huge propaganda success. Dzerzhinsky died in 1926 and

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2112-621: The country, persecuting political criminals and opponents of the Bolsheviks such as White émigrés , Soviet dissidents , and anti-communists . Following the formation of the Soviet Union in December 1922, the ruling Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) saw the need for a unified intelligence service to exercise control over state security throughout the new union. At the time, the State Political Directorate (GPU) served as

2178-508: The courtyard of the Moscow police headquarters at Petrovka 38 was restored in November 2005 (police officers had removed this bust on 22 August 1991). 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. In 2017, on the 140th anniversary of Dzerzhinsky's birth, a monument to Dzerzhinsky was erected in

2244-647: 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

2310-673: The entirety of the Soviet Union. Its official full name was the Joint State Political Directorate under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR ( Объединённое государственное политическое управление при СНК СССР , Ob"yedinyonnoye gosudarstvennoye politicheskoye upravleniye pri SNK SSSR ), though the name is also translated as the All-Union State Political Administration or as Unified State Political Directorate. Felix Dzerzhinsky , who had served as

2376-410: The failed 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

2442-441: The founders of Social 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 the 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

2508-488: The house (now on Belarusian territory) and established a museum. The graduating class of their KGB academy holds its annual swearing-in at the manor. Joint State Political Directorate The OGPU played an important role in the Soviet Union's forced collectivization of agriculture under the leadership of Joseph Stalin , crushing resistance and deporting millions of peasants to the growing network of Gulag forced labor camps. The OGPU operated both inside and outside

2574-422: 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." 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 Catholic faith , along with

2640-651: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Iron_Felix&oldid=1087108859 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky (Russian: Феликс Эдмундович Дзержинский ; Polish : Feliks Edmundowicz Dzierżyński [ˈfɛliks ɛdmundɔvʲiʈ͡ʂ d͡ʑɛrʐɨj̃skʲi] ; 11 September [ O.S. 30 August] 1877 – 20 July 1926), nicknamed " Iron Felix ",

2706-417: The many Soviet-era symbols removed that year to mark the end of Communism in Poland . The square was subsequently renamed Plac Bankowy (Bank Square). 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" ( Russian : Железный Феликс – Zheleznyj Feliks ). Sculpted in 1958 by Yevgeny Vuchetich , it served as

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2772-424: The most exceptional cases of terrorism, usually without calling any witnesses. In time, the OGPU's de facto powers grew even greater than those of the Cheka. The OGPU achieved perhaps its most spectacular success with the Trust Operation of 1924–1925. OGPU agents contacted White émigrés and anti-communists in Western Europe and pretended to represent a large group, known as "the Trust", working to overthrow

2838-455: 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

2904-402: 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

2970-425: The police had prepared at the apartment of his father-in-law. 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

3036-428: 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 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 Soviets , and the immediate withdrawal of Russia from

3102-446: The proletariat". 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 Districts in the Soviet Union, was named to commemorate Dzerzhinsky. Located in Belarus , near Minsk and close to

3168-461: The prosecution of a group of supposed industrial saboteurs allegedly involved in a hostile conspiracy. That would be the first of many trials during Stalin's rule. The OGPU planned and set up the Gulag system, and also became the Soviet government's arm for the persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church , the Greek Catholics , the Roman Catholic Church , Islam and other religious organizations, in an operation headed by Yevgeny Tuchkov . The OGPU

3234-412: 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

3300-425: The school. He had joined a Marxist group, the 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 Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP). In 1897, he attended the second congress of the LSDP, where it rejected independence in favor of national autonomy. On 18 March 1897, he was sent to Kaunas to take advantage of

3366-414: The security service headquarters at Moscow's Lubyanka Building until 1991. Meanwhile, 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 ethnically Polish parents of noble descent, at the Dzerzhinovo family estate, about 15 km (9.3 mi) from the small town of Ivyanets in the Minsk Governorate of

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3432-411: The tasks of socialist construction. 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 directed by Leon Trotsky , Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev . Upon hearing of his death, Joseph Stalin eulogized Dzerzhinsky as "a devout knight of

3498-437: The time of the incident, there were conflicting claims as to whether Felix or his brother Stanisław was responsible for the accident. His father, Edmund-Rufin Dzierżyński graduated from the 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

3564-425: The wall. 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, chaired the Transport Commissariat, organized the embalming of Lenin's body in 1924 and chaired the Society of Friends of Soviet Cinema. Dzerzhinsky became

3630-403: The war. Dzerzhinsky's brother Stanisław was murdered on the Dzerzhinsky estate by deserting Russian soldiers that same year. Subsequently, in late July, Dzerzhinsky was subsequently 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

3696-449: 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. At his office in Lubyanka , Dzerzhinsky kept a portrait of fellow Polish revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg on

3762-485: Was a Soviet revolutionary and politician of Polish origin. From 1917 until his death in 1926, he led the first two Soviet secret police organizations, the Cheka and the OGPU , establishing state security organs for the Bolshevik government. He was a key architect of the Red Terror and de-Cossackization . Born to a Polish family of noble descent in the Minsk Governorate of the Russian Empire (now in Belarus ), Dzerzhinsky embraced revolutionary politics from

3828-437: 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

3894-447: Was also the principal secret police agency responsible for the detection, arrest, and liquidation of anarchists and other dissident left-wing factions in the early Soviet Union. It also enforced the Dekulakization campaigns during the First Five-Year Plan through extrajudicial special troikas of local OGPU agents, Communist Party officials, and state procurators with the authority to sentence suspects to exile or death without

3960-675: 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 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

4026-422: Was first and foremost a Russian Communist, and Dzerzhinsky's involvement in the affairs of the 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

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4092-424: 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

4158-470: 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 , a village of Dzerzhinsk, and three other cities called Dzerzhinskiy; in other former Soviet republics, there was a city named for him in Armenia and the aforementioned Dzyarzhynsk in Belarus. To comply with decommunization laws ,

4224-425: Was of Polish origin. In 1868, after a short period in Kherson gymnasium, he worked as a gymnasium teacher of physics and mathematics at the schools of Taganrog in the Don Host Province , Russia, particularly the Chekhov Gymnasium . 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 . As

4290-417: Was succeeded as chief of the OGPU by deputy chairman Vyacheslav Menzhinsky . From 1927 to 1929, the OGPU engaged in intensive investigations of an opposition coup d'etat . Soviet leader Joseph Stalin issued a public decree that any and all opposition views should be considered dangerous and gave the OGPU the authority to seek out "hostile elements." That led in March 1928 to the Shakhty Trial , which saw

4356-477: 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. 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

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