Felix Dzerzhinsky

Felix Dzerzhinsky
Iron Felix
Felix Dzerzhinsky in 1919
Allegiance	Soviet Union
Service	Cheka
Born	11 September [O.S. 30 August] 1877 Ivyanets, Russian Empire
Died	20 July 1926 (aged 48) Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Nationality	Russian, Soviet
Religion	none(Atheism)
Residence	Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Spouse	Sofia Sigizmundovna Dzerzhinskaya
Occupation	Founder and head of Cheka

Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky (Polish: Feliks Dzierżyński [ˈfɛliks dʑerˈʐɨɲski], Russian: Феликс Эдмундович Дзержинский; 11 September [O.S. 30 August] 1877 – 20 July 1926) was a Soviet state and Communist Party leader, and a prominent member of Polish and Russian revolutionary movements. He was the head of several Soviet government ministries and the first chairman of the Cheka, the Soviet state security force.

Early life

Felix Dzerzhinsky was born into a purported Polish szlachta (noble) family of the Samson coat of arms on 11 September 1877. His father, Edmund-Rufin Dzerzhinsky graduated from the Saint Petersburg University and worked as a gymnasium teacher of physics in Taganrog, Russia.^[1] In 1882 Felix's father died^[1] and the family moved to their Dziarzhynava estate near Ivyanets and Rakaw, Russian Empire (today Belarus). As a youngster Dzerzhinsky was fluent in three languages: Polish, Russian and Hebrew. He attended the Russian gymnasium at Vilnius 1887–95. One of the older students at this gymnasium was his future archenemy, Józef Piłsudski. Years later, as Marshal of Poland, Piłsudski generously 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."^[2]

Two months before graduating, Dzerzhinsky was expelled from the gymnasium for "revolutionary activity". He had joined a Marxist group—the Union of Workers (SDKP) in 1895. In late April 1896 he was one of 15 delegates at the first congress of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP).^[3] He was subsequently one of the founders of Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (SDKPiL) in 1899. He spent a large part of his early life in various prisons. In 1897 he attended the second congress of the LSDP where it rejected independence in favour of national autonomy. On 18 March 1897 he was sent to Kovno, 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.^[4] As an organizer of a shoemaker's strike, Dzerzhinsky was arrested for "criminal agitation among the Kovno workers" and the police files from this time state that: "Felix Dzerzhinsky, considering his views, convictions and personal character, will be very dangerous in the future, capable of any crime."^[5]

Dzerzhinsky's mug shots 1909, 1914 and 1916

He was arrested for his revolutionary activities in 1897 and 1900, sent to Siberia, but escaped both times. He then travelled to Berlin and met with Rosa Luxemburg and Leo Jogiches, two prominent leaders of the Polish Social Democratic movement. 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.

Dzerzhinsky went to Switzerland where his fiancee Julia Goldman was undergoing treatment for tuberculosis. She died in his arms on 4 June 1904. Her illness and death depressed him, and 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 was involved with work again. After the revolution failed, he was again jailed, this time by the Okhrana. He later escaped after which he spent much time abroad, and together with Jogiches reorganized the party. In many ways the SDKPiL began to be more similar philosophically to the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party.

Back in Kraków in 1910 Dzerzhinsky married party member Zofia Muszkat, who was already pregnant. A month later she was arrested and she gave birth to their son Janek in Pawiak prison. In 1911 Zofia Dzerzhinska 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.^[6]

Dzerzhinsky remained to direct the Social Democratic Party, 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 here [in Warsaw], he led strikes, he published appeals to workers ... and he traveled on party matters to Łódź and Kraków". The police however were unable to arrest Dzerzhinsky until the end of 1912, when they found the apartment where he lived, by the name of Władysław Ptasiński.^[7]

Revolution

Dzerzhinsky would spend the next four and one-half years in tsarist 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 initially to Oryol. He was very concerned about the fate of his wife and son, with whom he did not have any communication. Moreover, Dzerzhinsky was beaten frequently by the Russian prison guards, which caused the permanent disfigurement of his jaw and mouth. In 1916 Dzerzhinsky was moved to the Moscow Butyrka prison, where he was soon hospitalized because the chains that he was forced to wear had caused severe cramps in his legs. Despite the prospects of amputation, Dzerzhinsky recovered and was put to labor sewing military uniforms.^[8]

Felix 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 and then go back to Poland and fight for the revolution there, writing to his wife: "together with these masses we will return to Poland after the war and become one whole with the SDKPiL". However, 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 of the proletarian revolutionary struggle".

Dzerzhinsky as the Sword of Revolution cartoon by Nikolai Bukharin, 1925

Already in April he 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 Russian Provisional Government, the transfer of all political authority to the Soviets, and the immediate withdrawal of Russia from the war.

Dzerzhinsky was elected subsequently to the Bolshevik Central Committee at the Sixth Party Congress in late July. He then moved 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 rebellion, after which Felix Dzerzhinsky had an active role with the Military Revolutionary Committee during the October Revolution. With the acquisition of power by the Bolsheviks, Dzerzhinsky eagerly assumed responsibility for making security arrangements at the Smolny Institute where the Bolsheviks had their headquarters.^[9]

Director of Cheka

Vladimir 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—usually known as the Cheka (based on the Russian acronym ВЧК). Dzerzhinsky became its director. The Cheka received a large amount of resources, and became known for ruthlessly pursuing any perceived counterrevolutionary elements.

Dzerzhinsky believed that the success of the Cheka depended largely on popular support. He emphasized that workers and peasants be informed about the activities of the Cheka and be appealed to in case of the need for help. ^[10]

In late 1917 and early 1918, the Cheka helped to eliminate sabotage in Petrograd. On December 22, 1917, a search was conducted of where the Union of the State of Office Personnel Associations, which consisted of saboteurs, had its headquarters. Dzerzhinsky personally studied the documents of the group's members, exposed the financial sources for the running of the organization, and the degree of the members' personal involvement in its activities. On December 30, the members of the group were arrested by the Cheka.^[11]

In late 1918, with German troops advancing toward Petrograd, the Soviet Government was threatened. White Guard units, tied to German agents, were preparing a rebellion in Petrograd. Conditions in Moscow and other cities were complicated. Large numbers of paramilitary secret organisations sprang up, such as the Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom, the Right Center and the Union of Resurrection, which sought to overthrow the Soviet system. In many towns and cities, there was disorder, with criminal bands capturing buildings and committing robberies. On Dzerzhinsky's proposal, the Cheka issued a statement that firm measures would be employed against the enemies of the Soviet system.^[12]

Dzerzhinsky insisted that the Cheka staff should never act outside of the law, and that those placed under arrest be treated with courtesy. When he learned that one of his men hit the person he was questioning, Dzerzhinsky personally investigated the matter. He wrote on the cover of the examination record “The commission has investigated the matter and has decided to severely reprimand the guilty party, and in the future, to institute court proceedings against anyone who so much as lays a finger on a detainee.” Dzerzhinsky considered it impermissible to use provocation and taught his staff to act before a crime that would entail arrests and other repressive acts took place. In his words, the principal goal of the Cheka was “to prevent crime, which, of course, might not produce impressive results but is actually much more productive”. ^[13]

In the spring of 1918, acting on Dzerzhinsky's plan, the Cheka broke up several anarchist groups in Moscow. About 600 people were arrested, most of whom were not politically active but were in fact ordinary criminals and burglars. The same sort of operation was carried out in other cities of Russia, which helped to strengthen Soviet authority and safeguard law and order.^[14]

Much of Dzerhzinsky's time and effort went into uncovering the plots organized by White Guards and anti-Soviet forces. He was rarely at home, spending days and nights at his job. He often slept on a narrow iron bed with an army blanket in his office. He wrote to his wife on May 27, 1918, “It is the life of a soldier who can have no rest, for our home must be saved. There is no time to think about one’s nearest and dearest, or about oneself. The work and the struggle are hell.”^[15]

During the Left SR-led revolt in Moscow in July 1918, Dzerzhinsky was captured by the rebels as he went to the rebels' headquarters. He did not show fear and berated his captors. The news of this provoked indignation among Russians, with meetings held at factories demanding that Dzerzhinsky and other captured Bolsheviks be set free. Dzerzhinsky was disappointed with the revolt and how he had not been ale to foresee it. He submitted a request to the government to be released from his duties as Cheka chairman. The Government granted his request, but ordered to remain on the new VCHK Collegium. ^[16]

Civil War in Russia intensified due to the Czechoslovak invasion May 1918 that was supported by the Entente powers, ^[17]. Anti-Soviet forces as they advanced committed terror against the population, with thousands of people killed. In particular, the total number of victims of the White Terror in Central Russia at the hands of the Czechoslovaks and the SR-led Komuch regime amounted to more than 5000 people killed in the summer and autumn of 1918.^[18] After the White Cossacks led by Krasnov seized control of the Don Province, more than 40,000 people were killed by Krasnov's regime. ^[19] In addition to White Terror, individual terrorism against the Soviet forces significantly increased as 1918 progressed. In the summer of 1918 in Petrograd, Socialist-Revolutionary cells organized plots of assassinations against leading Soviet officials Volodarsky, Zinoviev, and Uritsky, as well as Lenin, Trotsky, and other officials of the Soviet state. Individual terror against the Soviet government killed 339 people. The end of August 1918 marked a new surge of individual terrorism directed against the Soviet state.^[20]

Following the assassination attempt against Lenin, there developed a campaign of repression against anti-Soviet forces on August 30, 1918. With the issuing of the Red Terror decree on 5 September 1918, the Cheka was entrusted with "direct repression against the organizers and active participants in the armed conspiracies and revolts. At the same time, it was granted the right to take hostages from among the former landlords, capitalists, police officers, and dignitaries...The Red Terror was a forced emergency measure of self-defense of the proletarian state, introduced in response to White Terror." There were lists of hostages from Petrograd numbering 476 people to be executed. Among these hostages were 407 former officers of the imperial army, 13 Right SRs, 5 grand dukes, and 2 members of the Provisional Government. ^[21]

In early October, 1918, Dzerzhinsky left for Switzerland to see his family, and get some rest. His wife Sofia and son Jacek, who had emigrated from Russia before the First World War, lived in Bern. Dzerzhinsky had not seen his wife for eight years, and knew his son, who was born in prison, only from photographs. Dzerzhinsky spent part of his leave in Bern with his family, and part in Lugano, by the lake. In late October, he left for Soviet Russia via Germany, where a revolution was in progress, stopping over in Berlin. ^[22]

In 1922, at the end of the Civil War, the Cheka was renamed as the GPU (State Political Directorate), a section of the NKVD. This 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) from 1921–24 .

At his office in Lubyanka, Dzerzhinsky kept a portrait of Rosa Luxemburg on the wall.^[23]

Dzerzhinsky and Lenin

Pallbearers Carrying Lenin's Coffin during his funeral, from Paveletsky Rail Terminal to the Labor Temple. Felix Dzerzhinsky at the front with Timofei Sapronov behind him and Lev Kamenev on the left

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Dzerzhinsky became a Bolshevik as late as 1917. Therefore it is wrong to claim, as the official Soviet historians later did, 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 Brest-Litovsk peace, the trade unions, and Soviet nationality policy. He had creative organizational ability and was willing to perform unwelcome and difficult tasks.

From 1917 to his death in 1926, Dzerzhinsky 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 proletarian power in Russia, to the defense of the revolution during the civil war, and eventually, to the tasks of socialist construction.^[24]

Death

Picture of Dzerzhinsky in a parade in Moscow Red Square in 1936

Dzerzhinsky died of heart failure on 20 July 1926 in Moscow, immediately after a two-hour long 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.^[25] Upon hearing of his death Joseph Stalin eulogized Dzerzhinsky as "...a devout knight of the proletariat."^[26] Nicholas Roerich and his son George were waiting in the Cheka office to see Dzerzhinsky when they heard of Dzerzhinsky's death.^[27]

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 the Soviet-Polish border of the time, it was created on 15 March 1932, with the capital at (Dzyarzhynsk, Dzerzhynsk, formerly known as Kojdanów). The district was disbanded in 1935 at the onset of the Great Purge and most of its administration was executed.

His name and image were used widely throughout the KGB and the Soviet Union—and other socialist countries: there were six towns named after him. The town Kojdanava, which is not very far from the estate, was renamed to Dzyarzhynsk. In Russia there is a city of Dzerzhinsk and three other cities called Dzerzhinskiy; in former Soviet republics, there are cities named Dzerzhinski (Armenia), Dzyarzhynsk (Belarus), and Dzerzhinsk (Ukraine). A Ukrainian village in the Zhytomyr Oblast was also named Dzerzhinsk until 2005 when it was renamed 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 1990, is named for him.^[28] There is a museum dedicated to him in his birth place in Belarus.

Iron Felix

"Iron Felix" also refers to his 15-ton iron monument, which once dominated the Lubyanka Square in Moscow, near the KGB headquarters. It was built in 1958 by sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich and was a Moscow landmark during Soviet times. Symbolically, the Memorial to the Victims of the Gulag (a simple stone from Solovki) was erected beside the Iron Felix and the latter was removed in August 1991, after the failed rebellion of hard-line Communist members of government. The memorial to Dzerzhinsky was toppled by a cheering crowd which wanted Russia to be an independent nation instead of being a part of the U.S.S.R. with the help of a crane. 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.

In 2002, Moscow mayor Yuriy Luzhkov proposed returning the statue to its plinth, but the plan was ended by opposition from liberals and the national government. The statue remained in a yard for old Soviet memorials at the Central House of Artists, although a smaller bust of Dzerzhinsky in the courtyard of the Moscow police headquarters at Petrovka 38 was restored in November 2005 (this bust had been removed by the police officers on 22 August 1991)^{[citation needed]}.

His monument in "Dzerzhinsky Square" (pl. Plac Dzierżyńskiego), in the center of Warsaw, was so hated by the population of the Polish capital as a symbol of Soviet oppression that it was toppled in 1989, as soon as the PZPR started losing power. The name of the square was soon changed to its pre-Second World War name, "Bank Square" (pl: Plac Bankowy).

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.^[29]

Notes

• Robert Blobaum. Felix Dzerzhinsky and the SDKPiL: A study of the origins of Polish Communism. 1984. ISBN 0880330465

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky

• Picture of the Felix calculator
• FED history
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