“If you are not in prison yet, then this is not your merit, but our shortcoming.” - Felix Dzerzhinsky.

History keeps many secrets and mysteries that historians and scientists will never get tired of working on, considering important events from different angles. Over time, some shocking information is often revealed that radically changes the opinion of others about famous people.

One of these controversial personalities is Felix Dzerzhinsky, after whom cities and streets were once named, monuments were erected. Iron Felix, indeed, made a significant contribution to the history of Russia, but not everyone will agree that this contribution was positive, because the end does not always justify the means.

The son of a small landowner from the Vilna province

Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky was born in 1877 on September 11 in the Dzerzhinovo family estate, consisting of 92 acres of land and a small estate in need of repair. The son of a teacher and the daughter of a professor inherited from his parents only the charismatic appearance and manners of an aristocrat. In addition to Felix, the family had seven more children. In 1882, his father, suffering from tuberculosis, died.

In his studies, Dzerzhinsky did not differ in special talents. After graduating from the gymnasium, the future outstanding statesman received a certificate instead of a certificate, in which there were unsatisfactory grades in Russian and Greek.

Arrests and exile

After leaving the walls of the gymnasium, Dzerzhinsky, who did not have special talents, began to get carried away with the ideas of Marxism. He was engaged in agitation among poorly educated workers and students, which eventually led to the Kovno prison in 1897. The biography of Felix Dzerzhinsky is full of arrests, exiles and escapes. Before the start of the revolution in 1917, Dzerzhinsky was sentenced eleven times to hard labor and prisons.

Revolution Knight

After meeting Lenin in Stockholm at the Sixth Party Congress, Dzerzhinsky goes over to his side. On December 20, 1919, during an extended meeting of the Council of People's Commissars, Dzerzhinsky was appointed chairman of the apparatus specially designed by Lenin to counter the counter-revolution - the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission under the Council of People's Commissars. Dzerzhinsky, who, according to his close Chekist assistant Latsis, volunteered for the position himself, was endowed with unlimited powers.

Reproduction of the letter of awarding Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky the title of Honorary Chekist, 1922. Central Museum of the Federal Border Service of Russia.

Dzerzhinsky constantly said - "The right of execution for the Cheka is extremely important." There were executions without preliminary investigations and court hearings, reprisals against civilians and accidentally caught people - all in defense of the revolution.

As Dzerzhinsky said: “The Cheka is not a court, the Cheka is the defense of the revolution. The Cheka must defend the revolution and defeat the enemy, even if its sword accidentally falls on the heads of the innocent.

bloody terror

Felix Dzerzhinsky spent half of his conscious life in confinement and exile, which could not but affect his personality. The records of the Cheka contain information about the massacre of Dzerzhinsky over a sailor who had accidentally been impudent, whom he shot right in his office.

After attempts on the life of Lenin and Uritsky, in one night in St. Petersburg, the Chekists shot at least 500 people, not without the knowledge of Dzerzhinsky.

The Red Terror, in which Dzerzhinsky was directly involved, was a complex of punitive measures carried out by the Bolsheviks in order to protect the revolution from class enemies - nobles, landowners, priests, scientists, industrialists. Even taking into account the confirmed data, the number goes to thousands of dead, although some historians consider these measures to be a forced defensive response to the White Terror.

Orphanages and club "Dynamo"

After the end of the civil war, more than five million children were left on the street without parents and relatives. It was Felix Dzerzhinsky who initiated the state program to support the affected generation, which was not only fed, clothed and shod in specially organized orphanages, but also raised in the spirit of the new state system.

There were other successful social projects. It was Dzerzhinsky who contributed to the emergence of the mass popularity of sports in the USSR. The popular society "Dynamo" is considered his brainchild.

Felix Dzerzhinsky lived a relatively short life, having managed to make an invaluable contribution to history. He died in 1926 from a heart attack, which led to an emotional dispute with former comrades-in-arms during a party plenum.

Dzerzhinsky became a real Soviet icon, a symbol of law and order and inflexibility. Disputes about his personality will probably never subside, because not all the actions of Iron Felix can be called positive. Everyone must decide for himself who Felix Dzerzhinsky is - a ruthless executioner or a fearless outstanding revolutionary.

From his dying speech, July 20, 1926:

- “In order for the state not to go bankrupt, it is necessary to solve the problem of state apparatuses. Uncontrollable swelling of the states, monstrous bureaucratization of every business - mountains of papers and hundreds of thousands of hacks; captures of large buildings and premises; car epidemic; millions of excesses. This is the legal feeding and devouring of state property by these locusts. In addition to this, unheard of, shameless bribery, theft, negligence, blatant mismanagement, which characterizes our so-called "self-supporting", crimes pumping state property into private pockets.

- “If you look at our entire apparatus, at our entire management system, if you look at our unheard-of bureaucracy, at our unheard-of fuss with all sorts of approvals, then I am horrified from all this. More than once I came to the Chairman of the STO and the Council of People's Commissars and said: let me resign! You can't work like that!"

- “Economic construction must be carried out from such an angle that the USSR will be transformed from a country importing machinery and equipment into a country producing machinery and equipment ... to widely introduce the achievements of scientific and technological progress into production. If this work is not carried out, we are threatened by the closure of our factories and slavery to foreign capital. If we are now wooden, bast-bast Russia, then we must become metal Russia.

Early in the morning, a car stopped near the building of the Supreme Council of National Economy, squealing its tires on the pavement. A man in a long gray overcoat quickly stepped out of it. The man who was loved here, respected and no longer feared very much - Chairman of the Supreme Council of National Economy Felix Dzerzhinsky.

It was for the rest of the country that Dzerzhinsky remained "the watchdog of the dictatorship of the proletariat", the terrible head of the Cheka - the OGPU. He had enough enemies, so the title of the chief executioner of the Revolution stuck to him for a long time. And in a way it was right. Dzerzhinsky simply did not know how to do something half-heartedly. And so he gave all his strength to the fight against the enemies of the revolution. But now the party demanded a new service from him - and Felix Edmundovich came to raise the Soviet economy. And now the personnel of the Supreme Council of the National Economy of the USSR doted on their boss. And all because the views of Felix Edmundovich have changed radically. Now he was not on the side of the class struggle, but wholly and completely on the side of the specialists, completely trusting them. Therefore, both non-party specialists and former Mensheviks could work in peace.

Today Dzerzhinsky had a very difficult day: a serious performance was coming, he was nervous, and his health had recently deteriorated greatly, his heart ached, his nerves often gave out. Completely out of place, Felix Edmundovich recalled the warnings of a doctor from the sanatorium of the Central Committee, where he was persuaded to receive medical treatment several years ago. The wise old Jew, a professor of medicine, directly and clearly told the country's chief security officer that his body was extremely worn out and under such loads, medicine guarantees Dzerzhinsky no more than five years of life. Having then refused medical intervention in his life, Felix Edmundovich did not forget these words, and strove to have time to do as much as possible. And today he remembered this warning. And then he shrugged it off - more than three years have passed, and he is still alive. Most likely, the professor was mistaken, the head of the Supreme Economic Council thought as he entered the building of his department.

First of all, Dzerzhinsky went into his office and gave several orders on administrative matters. Then he summoned Stern, a capable financier and business executive from the former Mensheviks, whom he valued so much that he personally insisted on the transfer of Stern from the People's Commissariat of Finance to the Supreme Economic Council, having quarreled with the People's Commissar over this.
Finance Sokolnikov. Felix even smiled, remembering how passionately the people's commissar spoke at one party meeting, proving that Dzerzhinsky was luring leading specialists from him and did not allow him to work at all. The thing is that Felix was firmly convinced of one thing: the best specialists should work in his institution, regardless of their attitude to communist ideals and the party.

Then Felix Edmundovich remembered that he also needed to look to the editor of the Commercial and Industrial Newspaper to thank him for a wonderful article about problems with metal. A questionnaire published in a newspaper showed that private blacksmiths and cab drivers suffer from
lack of metal for shoeing horses. State organizations refuse them metal. Therefore, shoeing a horse was now extraordinarily expensive, and not every driver could afford to shoe a horse on all four legs. Because of this, horses mutilated their hooves on the cobblestone bridges of cities. And from a tiny and insignificant issue, this issue became vital throughout the country, where the bulk of transport was horse-drawn. According to Dzerzhinsky, this questionnaire revealed to him a whole layer of life that he had not thought about before. A man thinks about soles for his boots, but not about soles for horses. This is the harsh truth of life today. Therefore, the article
was very timely, and yesterday Dzerzhinsky ordered the Glavmet to look into this issue and organize the supply of blacksmiths with metal.

There was a knock on the door and after a response, Stern entered the office: “Did you call, Comrade Dzerzhinsky?”
- Come on, have a seat. I need you. I understand that this is not entirely your part, but I think that you can handle it. At the moment, there is a serious need to reconsider the attitude of the Soviet authorities towards non-Bolshevik specialists. It is impossible for an economist, planner, engineer to work out of fear for their lives and the lives of their loved ones.
Stern, in his usual striped shirt, sat down opposite Dzerzhinsky, opened his notebook and prepared to listen. At first, Felix did not understand why Comrade Stern dressed so poorly. Then it turned out that he sends almost all of his considerable salary to relatives in Ukraine. And this despite the fact that he himself is seriously ill: he had angina pectoris. After that, Dzerzhinsky was imbued with sincere sympathy for his employee, not only as a specialist, but also as a person.
Dzerzhinsky was visibly agitated, walked widely and quickly around the office, finding with difficulty the right words to express his thoughts, this question was so painful for him.
“However, Felix Edmundovich, in our country, after all, everything is decided by the party bodies, and people who are not members of the Bolshevik Party in the field, at industrial and commercial enterprises of the country, are practically powerless,” Stern noted.
- That's it, that's it! You and I must try to protect the specialist. We must put an end to the remnants of arrogance. Without knowledge, without our own learning, without respect for people who know, without the support of technical personnel, without the support of science, we will not be able to fulfill the tasks set before us and, first of all, the task of increasing labor productivity. And this task requires a serious, balanced approach to the problem. The trade unions, party cells and the management of enterprises are shifting the work of calculating output quotas onto the shoulders of non-party specialists. And in principle they do the right thing. To solve a problem, its solution must be entrusted to real professionals. Remember Comrade Stern's civilian experience. The unprofessional Red Army suffered defeats, the ring of fronts was inexorably shrinking around the center of the country. But the arrival in the leadership of the armed forces of former officers of the tsarist General Staff saved the situation. Although even then there were certain distortions in the party's policy towards military experts.

Dzerzhinsky again sat down in an armchair, tiredly closed his eyes and quietly continued - I remember one episode well. In the winter of the 19th, our third army, under pressure from Kolchak's troops, left Perm. Together with Stalin, on the instructions of the Central Committee, I went to Vyatka in order to sort out the causes of what had happened on the spot. Comrade Stalin, unfortunately, had an answer ready back in Moscow - the military leadership of the army and the Eastern Front as a whole was to blame for the failures. On the spot, everything was not so clear. In most cases, the army commander carried out directives and direct orders from People's Commissar Trotsky, the then head of the Revolutionary Military Council. Army commander Lashevich, an old tried and tested Bolshevik, fought against regular military men, but without proper combat experience. Hence the result. So, Comrade Stern, even management requires professional training. And it doesn't matter what you manage - an army, a factory, an office. In the West, this has already begun to be understood, read at least Taylor.

Dzerzhinsky jumped up again, he was impatient to express his thoughts aloud, and in motion he did it better.
- Even today, much in the Soviet economy depends on the position of specialists in the enterprise. A specialist today is deprived of all rights and, because of this, is unable to solve the tasks assigned to him. And this applies not only to labor productivity. Take, for example, the expenditure of material and financial resources by our enterprises. I recently asked a factory director: why do you have cotton waste rotting in the yard, because it can be completely recycled? The idea didn't even cross the director's mind. Used to, you know, to wait for proposals from higher management. Yes, and from the personnel point of view, everything is clear: the director of the factory has been a member of the party since 1903, but before the revolution he was an auxiliary worker at this factory, there is no education. So he can’t handle this question on his own, and he simply won’t listen to his chief engineer, a former member of the Menshevik Party, who has a technical education, who studied both with us and in England! Or, recently, at a Moscow plant, I saw such a picture. Six months ago, the management ordered new equipment for the plant. However, the profile of this equipment did not suit the plant at all and now it is rusting in the yard, in the open air. Who made the decision to purchase this unnecessary equipment? Who squandered public money? The director of the plant refers to the former management, saying that they, slobs, are to blame. And I think that our whole system is to blame. We still have little control over the economic mechanism.
- Yes, Felix Edmundovich, there are many such examples in the editorial office of our departmental newspaper. But after all, technical staff, engineers and specialists cannot yet influence the situation. The management of enterprises does not listen to the opinion of non-Party specialists.
- That is why Comrade Stern needs to create new everyday and more friendly relations with specialists at the enterprises. It is necessary to give them some kind of constitution in the factory and in the management of the factory. Here I am, being the head of the Supreme Council of National Economy, every day I sign a lot of orders and orders. You might think how smart Dzerzhinsky is! However, leading specialists are involved in the development of the order: you, Alexander Borisovich, comrades Sokolnikov, Kafengauz, Ginzburg and others. But nobody knows about it. I shield them, and that's wrong. The country must know its heroes. Therefore, it would be correct if in each order after my signature there is also the signature of the person who prepared this order, even if it was not a party. Your task, Alexander Borisovich, is to develop some kind of instruction, a regulation on the work of specialists at enterprises. We are still training new specialists, the enterprises do not have the necessary practical experience in production management. Therefore, Alexander Borisovich, involve in this work the one whom you yourself consider necessary, I give you complete freedom of action.
- We will work with Felix Edmundovich.
- That's good, go. By the way, how are you? Isn't it time to send you abroad, you have not been treated for a long time, and you look bad.
- Thank you, Comrade Dzerzhinsky, but there is no need to worry. I feel quite well, it’s just that there’s been a lot of work lately, so I’m getting tired

After escorting Stern to the door of the office and saying goodbye to him by the hand, Dzerzhinsky returned to his desk. Suddenly, Felix Edmundovich coughed heavily and clutched his chest. When it became easier to breathe, he poured himself a glass of water from a decanter on the table and drank it greedily.
Having sank heavily into an armchair, Dzerzhinsky gloomily thought about how he had fallen apart at the wrong time - there was still so much serious and interesting work ahead! Today, too, it is imperative to speak at the Plenum. Finally, we must sharply raise the question of Comrade Pyatakov and his work in the apparatus of the Supreme Council of National Economy. Of course, he was an experienced and proven employee, but recently their views on economic policy have begun to diverge sharply. And Felix Edmundovich preferred to work with like-minded people - it’s better for business and more comfortable for him. And it was precisely this personnel problem - the removal of Pyatakov from the apparatus of the Supreme Economic Council that had to be resolved today at the Plenum of the party.

The Chairman of the Supreme Economic Council got up from the table and left the office. Having warned the secretary that he would not return today, Dzerzhinsky went to the office of the editor of the Commercial and Industrial Newspaper. The editor-in-chief, Comrade Savelyev, as always, was not there. However, its main striking force was in the editorial office - Nikolai Valentinov, deputy editor and author of many relevant and interesting materials. He, like many of the employees of the apparatus of the Supreme Council of National Economy in former times, joined the Mensheviks and went to the service only when he considered that the policy of the Council of People's Commissars and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks had undergone significant changes. However, Valentinov served the Soviet government honestly and was an excellent publicist. Although he was not alien to some quite ordinary human weaknesses and old-fashioned habits. So, for example, Nikolai Vladislavovich, even in this difficult time, retained his love for such a headdress as a bowler hat. Dzerzhinsky highly valued this employee and believed that due to the selection of personnel, his department was the best in the country.

Warmly thanking Valentinov for the article about metal, Dzerzhinsky remembered another successful idea of ​​the editors. The fact is that recently Dzerzhinsky spoke and wrote a lot about the introduction of an economy in Soviet industry and trade, he, as always, was literally on fire with this idea, he lived for it 24 hours a day. And the newspaper became a real mouthpiece for him, brightly highlighting his order on the front page of the newspaper. In addition to all this, Dzerzhinsky appreciated in Valentinov that special skill with which he edited the speeches of the head of the Supreme Council of the National Economy. By the nature of his work, Felix had to speak a lot at meetings and meetings. In front of a large audience, he began to get excited, his speech became fast, confused, the strong Polish accent that appeared was very disturbing. Therefore, his speeches were difficult to shorthand and presented in the press. But Valentinov did it all. Once Dzerzhinsky decided to find out how to get rid of the shortcomings of speech.
- What are the shortcomings of my speech, Nikolai Vladislavovich?

There are people who speak about the way they write. For example, with Pyatakov everything is in its place and it is easy to record his speeches. Things were quite different with the speeches of the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars. Vladimir Ilyich's stenographers could never accurately convey the entire complex palette of his speeches. And you Felix Edmundovich has completely different problems. When speaking, you probably mentally pronounce all the phrases of the speech. However, they are not in the language. This happens to a lot of people, it's just that it's more common for you. Therefore, Comrade Dzerzhinsky, it is better for you to first write a speech, and then learn the finished text of your speech.
After this conversation, Felix often sent Valentinov drafts of the manuscripts of his articles.

This happens to a lot of people, it's just that it's more common for you. Therefore, comrade Dzerzhinsky, it’s better for you to write a speech first, and then
learn the finished text of the speech.

After this conversation, Felix began to send Valentinov often drafts of the manuscripts of his articles. And now he gave Nikolai Vladislavovich a large article on the work of the Supreme Council.

Leaving the building of the Supreme Council of National Economy, Dzerzhinsky got into an official car and drove to the Party Plenum. He tried to focus on the upcoming performance, but his thoughts raced. Recently, Dzerzhinsky came to the conclusion that the Bolshevik Party is turning from the country's governing body into a huge bureaucratic apparatus, headed by the General Secretary - Joseph Stalin, Therefore, the country is increasingly moving away from the principles of the new economic
party politics. But Felix Edmundovich sincerely believed that if the policy of the party leadership was corrected in time, then the building of socialism was not far off. Dzerzhinsky was devoted to the party to the end and believed in the inviolability of its basic ideals. However, it was difficult to attribute him to the orthodox Bolsheviks - Dzerzhinsky knew how to change his life position under the influence of facts, because Dzerzhinsky joined the Bolshevik Party when he finally realized that Russian tsarism, which he hated, could only be defeated by revolutionary means, through illegal struggle. And now, for the victory of the socialist revolution throughout the world, it was necessary to build the material base of socialism in the USSR. Therefore, Felix Dzerzhinsky brought all his vitality to this new altar of struggle against world capital.

... The chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin, at the Plenum dozed off a bit and therefore did not hear the beginning of Dzerzhinsky's speech. However, now Kalinin finally woke up. Felix's voice echoed throughout the hall. He was very worried and therefore spoke loudly, gesticulating frantically.

You must not, comrades, underestimate the situation in the countryside. Here is a comrade
Pyatakov said that the countryside was getting richer, that the NEP was
strengthened its position, that it overtakes the growth of the city
industry. This is fundamentally wrong, dear comrades! Here is Pyatakov
speaks of huge accumulated private capital millions.
But it's not. The net profit of the private sector will be not 400
Pyatakov's mythical millions, and only 65 - 70. And these are real
trifles, compared with the revenues of the public sector. Here
it's a misfortune! Comrades, the Bolsheviks are afraid of strengthening the Soviet
villages! But it is impossible to achieve the industrialization of the country if
treat with fear the growth of the well-being of the village. Except
today Pyatakov and his like-minded people offer everything
free funds to throw on industrialization. It's good, it's
very good, comrades! But by what means, that's what
main question today. Pyatakov proposes to greatly increase
wholesale industry prices. This is anti-Soviet, anti-worker
program! This is the liquidation of our entire revolutionary struggle for
growth of the welfare of the worker, for the growth of labor productivity!
You, comrade Pyatakov, are the biggest disorganizer of the Soviet
industry! Soviet trade is no good anyway, growth
prices will simply destroy it. Comrade Kamenev in the People's Commissariat
domestic trading does nothing to improve the situation!

Comrade Dzerzhinsky, I've only been in charge for four months
internal trade and has not yet figured out the situation - tried
defend Lev Kamenev.

You, Comrade Kamenev, if you manage the Commissariat
four months, and forty-four years - you won’t do it anyway
fit. You don't work, you just move back and forth. You do not
work, and engage in politics. I can tell you this, you know what is my difference from you, what is my strength. I do not spare myself, I never spare myself. I am a soldier of the revolution and I am accustomed to devoting myself to the solution of the task set by the Party. Therefore, all of you here, comrades, love me and believe me! I'm never heartbroken. If I see disorder, then I collapse with all my might
on them. And now I think with horror that the Soviet system of government has turned into a constant fuss with all sorts of approvals and unheard of bureaucracy!

Having finished his speech, Dzerzhinsky barely stood, clutching his chest. One of his comrades helped him out of the hall. An ambulance was called. However, it was already too late.

Three hours later, heart failure ended Iron Felix's life. Soviet power has lost one of its most loyal defenders. Almost all of his ideas were forgotten, and the country began to build socialism on the model of Stalin.

And what is called "information for reflection." On November 28, 2017, a meeting of the City Duma was held in Krasnodar. The deputies unanimously voted in favor of naming school No. 32 after Felix Dzerzhinsky. The Duma of Krasnodar approved the petition of the leadership and the parent committee of the school, the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation for the region and the regional Council of veterans of state security agencies. It spoke of "perpetuating the memory of an outstanding statesman."

Iron Felix, a faithful knight of the revolution, the first Chekist - this is how Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky was called in the USSR. Portraits of this man in Soviet times adorned the offices of organizations known as the Cheka, the OGPU, the MGB and the KGB, and in the center of Moscow on Lubyanka Square there was a monument to Dzerzhinsky. And this square, and this monument, and the name of these organizations for a long time inspired fear and terrified many people. When the monument was demolished in 1991, it was a symbolic end to the socialist era, which this man once stood at the creation of.

Childhood

In the family of a poor landowner Edmund Iosifovich Dzerzhinsky in their family estate Dzerzhinovo on September 11, 1877, a son, Felix, was born. His father worked as a gymnasium teacher, and his mother Elena Ignatievna was a housewife, because the family had many children. When Felix was only 5 years old, his father died of tuberculosis, at the age of 17 he lost his mother.

In 1887, Felix entered the first class of the men's gymnasium, from which he graduated in 1895. But Dzerzhinsky never received a certificate of graduation from the gymnasium, because he studied rather mediocrely: the grade “good” was only according to the law of God, and in other subjects there were even unsatisfactory grades. As a child, Felix dreamed of becoming a priest, but the local priest and his mother dissuaded him from this decision.

The beginning of the revolutionary path

While still a schoolboy, Dzerzhinsky embarked on a revolutionary path. In 1895 he became a member of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Organization and was known in party circles under the underground name "Astronomer". As an active member of this organization, Felix was engaged in propaganda work among students of vocational schools. As a result of the denunciation, he was arrested, and he spent almost a year in the Kovno prison, and after that he was exiled to the Vyatka province. But even here Dzerzhinsky did not stop his revolutionary agitation. For this activity, he was sent even further - to the village of Kaigorodskoye, but in August 1899 Felix managed to escape and return to Vilna.

revolutionary activity

During these years, Dzerzhinsky becomes a professional revolutionary: he conducts active Marxist work in the cities of Poland, creates a Polish social democratic organization. In February 1900, a new arrest follows, and imprisonment for two years in the Warsaw citadel and the Sedlec prison, after which he is sent by stage to the Siberian city of Vilyuysk. But the Polish exile manages to escape. This time he finds himself in exile in Germany, where he serves as secretary of the foreign party committee: he organizes the publication of the party newspaper Krasnoye Znamya, delivers banned literature to Poland. In 1906, F. Dzerzhinsky met personally with V. Lenin for the first time in Stockholm, which took place at the VI Congress of the RSDLP.
In 1906-1917, Felix was active in party work in the cities of Poland, Lithuania, as well as in Moscow and St. Petersburg. In 1907 he was elected a member of the Central Committee of the RSDLP. During these years, he was repeatedly arrested, sent to hard labor, from where he escaped. In total, Dzerzhinsky spent about 11 years in prison and in exile, and he himself was only 40 in 1917.
The February Revolution of 1917 found Felix Edmundovich in Butyrka prison, from where he was immediately released, and, despite his failing health, he immediately plunged into revolutionary activity. In the same year, he joined the ranks of the Bolshevik Party - the RSDLP (b) and became one of the prominent Bolsheviks. During the turbulent 1917, Dzerzhinsky's Bolshevik career quickly went up: a member of the Moscow Party Committee, a delegate to the All-Russian Party Conference, a participant in the VI Congress of the Bolshevik Party, a member of the Central Committee and the Secretariat of the Central Committee.

Dzerzhinsky took an active part in the preparation and implementation of the October Revolution: he created armed detachments, led the capture of the most important objects - the Main Post Office and the telegraph office, and was the head of the security of the Bolshevik revolutionary headquarters in Smolny.

"Iron Felix"

After the Bolsheviks came to power, they faced one of the main issues that needed to be urgently addressed - the fight against counter-revolution and sabotage. For this, the Cheka was organized - the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission, endowed with the broadest powers, and at the suggestion of V. Lenin, "Iron Felix" was appointed chairman of the Cheka. He was so devoted to the revolution that in this post, in order to fight political opponents, he welcomed the use of mass terror, executions, even if innocent people accidentally suffer.

In 1918, Dzerzhinsky did not support V. Lenin's decision on the Brest peace treaty, but accepted the position of N. Bukharin and the "Left Communists", but, in order to prevent a split in the ranks of the party, "abstained" from voting.

Work in government posts

During the Civil War, Felix Edmundovich held various leadership positions where the party sent him: he led the Cheka and military counterintelligence, was the people's commissar of internal affairs, headed the Military Councils of the internal service troops and paramilitary guards, and was chairman of the Main Committee of Labor. The party sent him to the fronts of the Civil War more than once: in Ukraine he fought against the insurrectionary movement, supported the revolutionary order in Poland, and established Soviet power on the Crimean peninsula.

After the end of the Civil War, the government transferred Dzerzhinsky to a leading job in industry - People's Commissar of Railways, and in 1924 he was appointed head of the Supreme Council of the National Economy of the country. In this position, he supported the new economic policy of the party, attracted specialists with a royal education, and developed the country's metallurgy.

On June 20, 1926, at the plenum of the Central Committee of the party, Dzerzhinsky made a report that lasted about 2 hours. In a very emotional speech, he criticized the "Trotskyists" whose policies led to the disorganization of industry. On the same day, 49-year-old Felix Edmundovich had a heart attack, which caused his death. The "faithful knight of the revolution" was buried near the Kremlin wall in Moscow.

On September 11, 1877, the founder and head of the Cheka, a Soviet statesman and party leader, an active participant in the Polish and Russian revolutionary movement, Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky, was born.

In honor of the 140th anniversary of Iron Felix, we present to your attention a letter that perfectly reveals the character of this Great Bolshevik.

A. E. and G. A. Bulgak
[Sedlec Prison] Beginning of November 1901

Dear Gedymin and Aldona!

I have received your letters and photographs of the children and am greatly touched by your cordiality. But for some time now, a misunderstanding has crept into our relationship: frankly, it became unpleasant for me, because I realized that you consider me a “returned lost lamb”; Do you think that now my life, my thoughts and actions will be on the “right path”, that “evil” will disappear now, that “God will watch over me”… No!!. As I was before, so I remain; what used to upset me, now upsets me; what I loved before, I love now; what used to please me, continues to please me now; as I acted before, so I act now; as I thought before, so I think now; just as grief and trials did not pass me before, they will not pass me in the future; my path has remained the same; as before I hated evil, so now I hate it; as before, I strive with all my heart to ensure that there is no injustice, crime, drunkenness, debauchery, excesses, excessive luxury, brothels in which people sell their body or soul, or both together; so that there is no oppression, fratricidal wars, national enmity ...

I would like to embrace all mankind with my love, warm it and cleanse it from the dirt of modern life...

Why are you telling me to change the path? Don't ever write to me! I want to love you, because I love you, but you do not want to understand me and tempt me to turn off my path, you want my love for you to become a crime! ..

I would like to write to you more about the power of love, but that is for another time, because today I want to answer your letters. I think that the sharp tone of my letter will not offend you, for where there is faith in one's own cause, there is strength and sharpness, and not sloppiness. I think that any falsehood is the worst evil, and it is better to write what you sincerely think and feel, even if it is unpleasant, than to write a pleasant falsehood ...

As for my lungs, they are not as bad as you think. I don’t even cough, and that I feel heaviness in my chest, it’s hard, after being in prison for almost two years, to be completely healthy. I will receive the verdict, maybe in one or three months, but the Yakut frosts are not as terrible for me as the cold of selfish souls, so I prefer Siberia to the slavery of the soul. And I hope that, in spite of everything, I will see you and your children again. And if it doesn’t work, then it doesn’t hurt my head, and it shouldn’t hurt you either. Life is long and death is short, so there is nothing to be afraid of.

Now I want to write a little about your children. They are as sweet as all children; they are innocent when they do evil or good; they act according to their desires, act as they love, as they feel - there is no falsehood in them yet. The rod, excessive strictness and blind discipline are damned teachers for children. The rod and excessive severity teach them hypocrisy and falsehood, they teach them to feel and desire one thing, and to speak and do another out of fear. The rod can only hurt them if their soul is tender, if this pain forces them to act differently from what they want, then the rod will eventually turn them into slaves of its own weakness, will fall on them like a heavy stone that will forever press on them and will make of them soulless people, with a corrupt conscience, incapable of enduring any suffering. And their future life, full of much more grievous suffering than the pain of a rod, will inevitably turn into a constant struggle between conscience and suffering, and conscience will have to yield.

Look at yourself, at the people around you, at their life: it takes place in a constant struggle of conscience with life, forcing a person to act contrary to conscience, and conscience most often yields.

Why is it so? Because parents and educators, while developing conscience in their children, teaching them how they should live, pointing out what is good and what is bad, do not at the same time grow and develop in them the spiritual strength necessary for doing good; whip them with rods or spank them, shout at them, punish them in various ways; thereby weaken the strength of these future people and themselves oppose the education of conscience in their children. The rod, excessive severity and corporal punishment can never affect the heart and conscience of the child in a desirable way, for for children's minds they will always remain violence on the part of the stronger and instill either stubbornness, even when the child realizes that he has acted badly, or murderous cowardice. and fake...

Only such a remedy can correct, which will make the guilty realize that he acted badly, that he must live and act differently. Then he will try not to do any more evil; the rod only works for a short time; when children grow up and cease to be afraid of her, conscience disappears with her, and children become corrupted, liars, whom everyone they meet can push onto the path of corruption, depravity, for they will not be afraid of the rod, physical punishment, and their conscience will be silent. The rods and corporal punishment for children is a curse for mankind. By intimidation, only meanness, depravity, hypocrisy, vile cowardice, careerism can be cultivated in a child. Fear will not teach children to distinguish good from evil; whoever fears pain will always succumb to evil.

Aldona, you probably remember my mad stubbornness when I was a child? Only thanks to him, and also thanks to the fact that I was not beaten, I have the strength to fight evil today, no matter what. Don't hit your guys. Let your love for them keep you from this, and remember that although with a rod there are fewer worries when raising children, when they are still small and defenseless, but when they grow up, you will not expect joy, love from them, since corporal punishment and excessive by severity you will cripple their souls. You can never hit them, because the mind and heart of a child are so impressionable and receptive that even every little thing leaves a mark on them. And if it ever happens that because of your impatience, which you will not be able to contain, because of worries with so many children or because of irritation, you punish them, shout at them, hit them, then by all means apologize to them later, caress them , show them now, let their hearts feel your maternal love for them, warm them, give them comfort in their pain and shame to erase all traces of your irritation, murderous for them. For a mother educates the souls of her little children, and not vice versa; therefore, remember that they cannot understand you, since they are still children, therefore, you should never be irritated in front of them.

I myself remember how my mother once slapped me, being terribly exhausted by the care of all of us lying solely on her and busy with the housework; neither you nor Yadvisi were there (it seems that you were already in Vilna then, although I don’t remember exactly); I messed up something, and in a moment of mother's irritation I got hit for it; I let's scream with might and main and cry with anger, and when there were not enough tears, I climbed into a corner under a bookcase with flowers and did not come out until it was dark; I remember very well how my mother found me there, hugged me tightly and kissed me so warmly and heartily that I began to cry again, but these were already calm, pleasant tears and already tears not of anger, as before, but of happiness, joy and peace. I felt so good then! Then I got a fresh bun, from which my mother dried crackers, and a lump of sugar, and I was very happy. I don’t remember how old I was then, maybe six or seven, it was with us in Dzerzhinov.

Now you see, dear, how love and punishment affect a child's soul.

Love penetrates the soul, makes it strong, kind, sympathetic, and fear, pain and shame only disfigure it. Love is the creator of everything good, sublime, strong, warm and bright.

Children do not know, do not understand what is good and what is bad, they must be taught to distinguish this. She does not yet have a strong will, so you need to forgive the children for their pranks and not be angry with them. It’s not enough to just say: “Do this, but don’t do this,” to punish when the child does not obey. Then only pain and fear are his conscience, and he will not be able to distinguish good from evil in life.

A child knows how to love someone who loves him. And it can only be nurtured by love. Seeing, feeling the love of parents for himself, the child will try to be obedient so as not to upset them. And if he messes up thanks to his mobility, his childlike liveliness, then he himself will regret his act. And when, with age, his willpower gets stronger, when he learns to control himself better, then his own conscience will control him, and not a bad environment, external living conditions, etc., which so often leads to moral decline.

The child perceives the grief of those he loves. His young soul is affected by the slightest, it would seem, trifle, therefore, one must beware of being immoral, irritable, quarreling, swearing, gossiping and, worst of all, acting contrary to one’s own words in front of children; the child will notice this, and even if he does not remember it, a trace will still remain in him, and from these traces, from these impressions of childhood, the foundation of his soul, conscience and moral strength will be formed. Willpower also needs to be nurtured. Spoiled and pampered children, whose every whim is satisfied by their parents, grow up to be degenerate, weak-willed egoists. For the love of parents should not be blind...

Satisfying every desire of a child, constantly stuffing children with sweets and other delicacies is nothing but mutilation of the child's soul. And here, as an educator, the same reasonable love is needed, which is a hundred times stronger than blind love.

Let me take an example: a sick child asks for black bread, or a healthy one asks for too many sweets, he cries, screams, and until he is given the desired thing, does not want to listen to what his mother says to him. Tell me, whose love is greater: that mother who will give and satisfy the whim of the child, or the one who will not? Again, you need to calm down with affection, and if this does not help, then leave the child without punishing him, let him cry; he will get tired, calm down a little, and then it will be possible to explain to him in a language understandable to him why he cannot get what he wants, and that his crying upsets mom and dad ...

The great task before you is to educate and shape the souls of your children. Be vigilant! For the fault or merit of children to a large extent falls on the head and conscience of the parents. I want to write a lot more about children, but I don’t know how you will take these advice of mine, whether you will find my interference in your affairs inappropriate. In any case, rest assured that I am guided here only by love for your children. Kiss them heartily from me... May they grow up healthy and cheerful, full of love for their parents and for other people; let them grow up bold and strong in spirit and body; let them never sell their conscience; May they be happier than we are and wait for the triumph of freedom, brotherhood and love.

The Bolshevik Party was led by different people. Some of them were brilliant orators, others were distinguished by outstanding organizational skills, others were distinguished by amazing bestial cruelty. Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky occupies a special place in party iconography. Quotes from his speeches and just phrases dropped by him in passing testify to the ambiguity of nature and a peculiar talent. On the one hand, they demonstrate a liveliness of mind, a certain romantic worldview and soundness of reasoning, and on the other hand, they are in direct conflict with the methods of his work. The time, of course, was difficult, but people made it so.

Contradictory icon

In Soviet times, the portrait of Felix Dzerzhinsky adorned the walls of the offices of all organizations that inherited the functions of the Cheka (OGPU, MGB, KGB, MIA), and a monument to him stood in the center directly opposite the building of the former joint-stock company Rossiya, which provided insurance services before the revolution. The AO disappeared, but the fear remained for a long time, all the time of the existence of the USSR. The apparatus of coercion is necessary for the state, especially for the people and the proletariat. At the origins of creation, at the very beginning of the development of the concept of its mechanism, was Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky. The paradox of this situation (perhaps, as a pattern) lies in the fact that he himself spent a significant part of his life in exile and prisons, suffering for his disagreement with the then dominant social system. The experience gained by the "iron Felix" in those years was taken into account by him. The Soviet system of suppressing discontent turned out to be much stronger, tougher and more effective than the tsarist one.

The landowner's family and childhood spent in it

On September 11, 1877, a son named Felix appeared in the family of the gymnasium teacher E.I. Dzerzhinsky, of the Catholic faith. According to the social status of the father of the future chairman of the Cheka, he could be attributed to the landowners, however, small, he owned only the Dzerzhinovo farm.

The family had many children, except for Felix, brothers and sisters grew up in it (Ignatius, Kazimir, Stanislav, Jadwiga, Aldona, Vladislav and Wanda), and apparently, the lack of funds forced the poor gentry to work in the field of public education. When Felix was already a young man, a tragedy occurred on the farm, Edmund Iosifovich's daughter died from an accidental shot. They did not begin to understand who was responsible for Wanda's death, the investigators concluded that the accident had occurred due to negligence.

Gymnasium friend Jozek Piłsudski and academic success

At the age of ten, Felix met another future great Pole, Yuzek. The friends studied together for eight years, not realizing that one of them would become a professional revolutionary, and the other a staunch anti-communist. It will be able to repel the attack of the Red troops in 1920, the rear of which will be commanded by Dzerzhinsky Felix Edmundovich. Nationality for a real Bolshevik is not so important, if necessary, then one can attack one's native country.

The schoolboy Felix did not show any special talents. He was in first grade for two years. The gymnasium cannot be considered finished, he did not receive a certificate, only a certificate stating that “good” (but not “excellent”) he was given the Law of God, but in Latin, French, physics, geometry, algebra and history, his success was evaluated for a solid three. And it was absolutely bad business with the Greek and Russian languages. And all this with satisfactory diligence, behavior and attention.

The beginning of the revolutionary struggle

So, the young man left the walls of the gymnasium. It was clear to everyone: teachers, fellow students, and himself that he did not shine with any special inclinations and talents. A rich inheritance was also not to be expected. And then the young man became interested in Marxism (then this idea actively seized the rebellious minds). Enrolled in an underground circle and Dzerzhinsky Felix Edmundovich. The real name, apparently, seemed to him too Polish and not romantic enough, and he took the nickname Astronomer. Why exactly this, history is silent about that. Conducting campaigning among poorly educated students and apprentices (there was enough education for this), the Astronomer made some kind of mistake, as a result of which one of the low-skilled workers promoted by him wrote a report to the police of the appropriate content - and Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky landed in the Kovno prison (1897 ). After a year in prison, he was sent to Nolinsk under three years of police supervision, but here, too, he worked at a tobacco factory as a printer, and did not give up the revolutionary idea. Link again, then escape.

A life full of romance: arrests, exiles and escapes

Vilna, Lithuania, Poland - these are the places on the geographical map in which Dzerzhinsky Felix Edmundovich acted at the turn of the century. His biography is replete with episodes of arrests and sentences. Warsaw Citadel (1900), Sedlec Central (1901), Vilyui transit prison (1902), Alexander's exile and a romantic escape from Verkholensk by boat. Then emigration, in which, during the Social Democratic Conference of Poland and Lithuania, a party career begins. Now he is the secretary of the foreign committee.

Arrests and releases are getting more interesting

When the war with Japan began, the Polish-Lithuanian social democrats (SDKPiL) did everything to complicate the economic situation of the Russian Empire. Demonstrations, riots, strikes and even sabotage were actively carried out by the militant wing of the party, for which its leaders again ended up in prison. It remains only to be surprised at the mildness of the royal sentences. Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky was thrown into the dungeons in 1905. It was in July, and in October he was already amnestied. December 1906, arrest in Warsaw and trial, and in June he was released on bail. 1909, sentence - lifelong Siberian exile, from which it turned out to be a simple matter to escape, and not just anywhere, but directly to Maxim Gorky in Capri. Can anyone repeat this now?

Before the revolution

In 1910, an important event took place in the life of the party secretary (and part-time treasurer) - he got married. Sofya Mushkat, a comrade-in-arms, became his chosen one. In his diary notes of this time, lines about love appear, which gives strength to endure all hardships. Previously, only in the struggle did Dzerzhinsky Felix Edmundovich see the meaning of life. His brief biography contains information that in 1910-1911 he supported the Leninist position, speaking out against Plekhanov with his legal methods. In 1912, he was arrested again, this time more effective repressions were used against the malicious rebel and fugitive - first three years of hard labor, then six more in Butyrka, where he might have been sitting right up to 1922, if not

Jacobin of the proletarian revolution

After the unification of the SDKPiL with the RSDLP (b), Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky immediately joined in active party work. During this period, there are no dogmas yet, positions are only being determined, and on such an important issue as the self-determination of nations, the secretary opposes the Leninist course, but this is temporary. More important is not the word, but the deed, for example, the organization of an armed coup, the formation of combat detachments of the Red Guard and the capture of communication centers on October 25th. Dzerzhinsky was even Commissar of the Navy for almost the entire summer of 1917, before L. D. Trotsky accepted this post. Lenin called him a Jacobin, which was a compliment. The party urgently needed a person who could create and lead a special body, punishing and merciless, and this business was entrusted to the "iron" Felix.

Terror and some Trotskyism

Children, sports, repression, internal party struggle and death

The civil war was over, and the consequences of this criminal fratricidal slaughter were revealed in all their horror. Industry was destroyed, devastation reigned everywhere, the country was flooded with homeless children. Five million surviving children were left without parents, and the number of dead cannot be counted today. Felix Dzerzhinsky became the initiator of an important state program for raising a generation affected by the war, which should not only be fed, clothed and shod, but also educated in the spirit of a new social order. To this end, children's homes, special reception centers and children's communes were created throughout Russia. This project can be called one of the most successful in Soviet history.

Few people today remember that Dzerzhinsky Felix Edmundovich, whose photos (especially later ones) suggest his ill health, became one of the main initiators of mass sports in the USSR. Moreover, the Dynamo society can be safely called his brainchild.

Remembering his own past, full of vacillations and deviations from the party line, Dzerzhinsky often stood up for the Bolsheviks, who made such ideological flaws. It is quite possible that if he had lived longer, he would have shared the fate of many members of the Central Committee of the Leninist recruitment, and he would have been remembered for all his “Trotskyisms” and other “rykisms-pyatakisms-kamenisms” in 1937 or 1938. In a sense, he was even lucky, at least in the historical sense. During the party plenum of 1926, he argued so emotionally with his former comrades-in-arms and friends Pyatakov and Kamenev that his Bolshevik heart could not stand it, and by evening Comrade Dzerzhinsky died.

He became a Soviet icon, a symbol of inflexibility, plants, factories, schools, divisions, ships and cities were named after him ...