Global InformationFelix Dzerzhinsky information
Felix Dzerzhinsky | |
|---|---|
Феликс Дзержинский | |
 Dzerzhinsky in 1918 | |
| Chairman of the OGPU | |
| In office 15 November 1923 – 20 July 1926 | |
| Premier |
|
| Preceded by | Himself as Chairman of the GPU |
| Succeeded by | Vyacheslav Menzhinsky |
| Chairman of the GPU | |
| In office 6 February 1922 – 15 November 1923 | |
| Premier | Vladimir Lenin |
| Preceded by | Himself as Chairman of the Cheka |
| Succeeded by | Himself as Chairman of the OGPU |
| Chairman of the Cheka | |
| In office 20 December 1917 – 6 February 1922 | |
| Premier | Vladimir Lenin |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Himself as Chairman of the GPU |
| People's Commissar of VSNKh | |
| In office 2 February 1924 – 20 July 1926 | |
| Premier | Alexei Rykov |
| Preceded by | Alexei Rykov |
| Succeeded by | Valerian Kuybyshev |
| Candidate member of the 13th, 14th Politburo | |
| In office 2 June 1924 – 20 July 1926 | |
| Member of the 6th Secretariat | |
| In office 6 August 1917 – 8 March 1918 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Feliks Dzierżyński 11 September [O.S. 30 August] 1877 Dzerzhinovo estate, Minsk Governorate, Russian Empire |
| Died | July 20, 1926 (aged 48) Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union |
| Resting place | Kremlin Wall Necropolis, Moscow |
| Nationality | Polish |
| Political party | VKP(b) (from 1917) |
| Other political affiliations |
|
| Spouse |
Zofia Sigizmundovna Muszkat
(m. 1910) |
| Children | Jan Feliksovich |
| Signature |  |
Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky (Russian: Феликс Эдмундович Дзержинский;[a] Polish: Feliks Dzierżyński [ˈfɛliɡz d͡ʑɛrˈʐɨj̃skʲi];[b] 11 September [O.S. 30 August] 1877 – 20 July 1926), nicknamed "Iron Felix", was a Bolshevik revolutionary and politician. 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 post-revolutionary Soviet regime. He was one of the architects of the Red Terror[2][3] and de-Cossackization.[4][5]
Born to a Polish family of noble descent in the Minsk Governorate of the Russian Empire (now Belarus), Dzerzhinsky embraced revolutionary politics from a young age and was active in Kaunas as an organizer for the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party. He was frequently arrested and underwent several exiles to Siberia, from which he repeatedly escaped. He participated in the 1905 Russian Revolution and pursued further revolutionary activities in Germany and Poland. Following another arrest in 1912, he spent 4+1⁄2 years in prison before his release after the 1917 February Revolution. He then joined Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik party and played an active role in the October Revolution that brought the Bolsheviks 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 the expansion of the Cheka's authority, inaugurating a campaign of mass executions known as the Red Terror. The Cheka was reorganized as the State Political Directorate (GPU) in 1922 and then the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) a year later, with Dzerzhinsky remaining head of the powerful organization. In addition, he served as director of the Supreme Soviet of the National Economy (VSNKh) from 1924.
Dzerzhinsky died of a heart attack in 1926. He became widely celebrated in the Soviet Union, Poland and other communist countries in the following decades, with numerous places (including the city of Dzerzhinsk) named in his honour, and is among the few Soviet figures to be buried in an individual tomb in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis. Meanwhile, he also became a prominent symbol of repression and brutality to critics of the Soviet regime.
- ^ Abramovitch, Raphael (1962). The Soviet Revolution: 1917–1938. New York City: International Universities Press. ISBN 9781315401720.
- ^ Carr, Barnes (2016). Operation Whisper: The Capture of Soviet Spies Morris and Lona Cohen. University Press of New England. pp. 11–13. ISBN 978-1-61168-939-6.
- Southwell, David; Twist, Sean (2004). "The KGB". Secret Societies. Mysteries and Conspiracies. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group (published 2007). p. 60. ISBN 9781404210844. Retrieved 27 May 2019.
Dzerzhinsky was the mastermind behind the Red Terror that allowed the Communists to seize and hold on to power ...
- Ryan, James (2012). Lenin's Terror: The Ideological Origins of Early Soviet State Violence. London: Routledge. p. 114. ISBN 9781138815681.
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.
- Southwell, David; Twist, Sean (2004). "The KGB". Secret Societies. Mysteries and Conspiracies. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group (published 2007). p. 60. ISBN 9781404210844. Retrieved 27 May 2019.
- ^ Часть IV. На гражданской войнe. // Sergei Melgunov «Красный террор» в России 1918—1923. — 2-ое изд., доп. — Берлин, 1924
- ^ Lauchlan, Iain (2018). "A Perfect Spy Chief? Feliks Dzerzhinsky and the Cheka". In Maddrell, Paul; Moran, Christopher; Stout, Mark; Iordanou, Ioanna (eds.). Spy Chiefs. Vol. 2: Intelligence Leaders in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Georgetown University Press. ISBN 9781626165236. Retrieved 27 May 2019.
The Cheka's first mass operation—'Decossackization,' the deportation in April 1919 of an estimated 300,000 people—was more akin to the actions of an invading army than a police measure; it was carried out to secure the southern front against the White armies.
- ^ Havlat, Alexander (2011). Victims of the Bolsheviks: 1917-1953. GRIN Verlag. p. 5. ISBN 9783640797004. Retrieved 27 May 2019.
In the course of the so called deCossackization, (i.e. the planned annihilation of the Cossacks as a social class) between 300 000 and 500 000 Don Cossacks were killed or deported in the years 1919/20, out of a total population of 3 million ...
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