Literary and historical notes of a young technician. Felix Dzerzhinsky - biography, information, personal life

Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky (Polish Feliks Dzierżyński; nicknames Iron Felix, FD, party pseudonyms: Jacek, Jakub, Bookbinder, Frank, Astronomer, Jozef, Domanski). Born on August 30 (September 11), 1877 in the family estate of Dzerzhinovo (Oshmyany district, Vilna province - now Volozhin district, Minsk region) - died on July 20, 1926 in Moscow. Revolutionary, Soviet statesman, head of a number of people's commissariats, founder of the Cheka. Member of the Party Central Committee (1917-1926). Member of the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) (1919-1920, 1921-1924), candidate member of the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) (1921, 1924-1926). Candidate member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (1924-1926).

The son of a small nobleman, the owner of the Dzerzhinovo farm (15 km from Ivenets), a gymnasium teacher Edmund Iosifovich Dzerzhinsky. At baptism he received two names - Felix Szczesny, Latin and Polish, both mean happy; in honor of a successful birth - his mother fell into an open cellar on the eve of giving birth, but she was lucky not to crash and give birth to a healthy child ahead of schedule. There were nine children in the family when in 1882 the father died of tuberculosis, Felix was five years old, the eldest of the Aldone sisters was 12, and the youngest was just over a year old. As a child, Felix dreamed of becoming a priest.

In his youth, according to one version, he accidentally shot his sister Wanda (according to another, his brother Stanislav shot with a gun).

From 1887 to 1895 he studied at the gymnasium, where in the fall of 1895 he joined the Lithuanian Social Democratic organization (underground nickname Astronomer).

From the documents it follows that he spent two years in the first grade, but did not finish the eighth, having received a certificate stating: “Dzerzhinsky Felix, who was 18 years old, of the Catholic faith, with satisfactory attention and satisfactory diligence, showed the following successes in the sciences.” , namely: the law of God - “good”, logic, Latin, algebra, geometry, mathematical geography, physics, history, French - “satisfactory”, and Russian and Greek - “unsatisfactory”. He conducted propaganda in circles of craft and factory students. In 1897, he was arrested following a denunciation and imprisoned in Kovno prison, where he remained for almost a year. In 1898, he was exiled for 3 years under police supervision to the Vyatka province (city of Nolinsk). Here he became a recruiter at a tobacco factory and began to conduct propaganda among the workers. For this, he was exiled 500 versts north of Nolinsk to the village of Kai, from where in August 1899 he escaped by boat and made his way to Vilna.

Dzerzhinsky became a professional revolutionary. He was a supporter of the entry of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party into the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party and a follower of Rosa Luxemburg on the national question. In 1900 he participated in the first congress of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (SDKPiL).

In February 1900, he was arrested and imprisoned in the Warsaw Citadel, later in the Siedlce Prison. In January 1902, he was exiled to Vilyuysk for 5 years, and for some time was in the Transfer Prison of the Alexander Central. On the way to the place of settlement, he again fled by boat from Verkholensk and emigrated; At the SDKPiL conference in Berlin, he was elected secretary of the party’s foreign committee. Organized the publication of the newspaper “Chervony Shtandar” (“Red Banner”) and the transportation of illegal literature from Krakow to the Kingdom of Poland.

Delegate to the 4th Congress of the SDKPiL (July 1903), elected member of its Main Board. During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, he organized worker revolts and sabotage in Poland, during the revolutionary events of 1905 he led the May Day demonstration, and acted in a military revolutionary organization. In July 1905 he was arrested in Warsaw, and in October he was released under an amnesty.

Delegate to the 4th Congress of the RSDLP (1906), introduced to the editorial board of the central body of the party, was a representative of the Polish Social Democrats in the military-revolutionary organization of the RSDLP. From July to September 1906 he was in St. Petersburg, then again in Warsaw, where he was arrested in December; in June 1907 he was released on bail. At the 5th Congress of the RSDLP (1907) he was elected in absentia as a member of the Central Committee of the RSDLP. In April 1908, he was arrested again in Warsaw. In 1909, he was sentenced to deprivation of all rights to his estate and lifelong settlement in Siberia (the village of Belskoye, then Sukhovo and Taseevo, Yenisei province), from where he fled in November 1909 to Capri. In 1910 he returned and continued his activities in Poland.

In March 1910, he acted as secretary and treasurer of the main board of the party in Krakow, where he married S.S. Muskat. He actively opposed making the party’s activities “as legal as possible, and the social revolution as peaceful and less painful as possible”; in connection with disagreements within the editorial office of the newspaper “Social Democrat”, he wrote in February 1911 that he was in solidarity with politics.

After illegally returning to Warsaw in January 1912, he was arrested again in September and sentenced to 3 years of hard labor in April 1914; served them in the Oryol Central. In 1916, he was additionally sentenced to another 6 years of hard labor; he served it in Butyrka prison in Moscow, from where he was released on March 1, 1917 after the February Revolution.

Together with his party, he became a member of the RSDLP (b), elected a member of the Moscow committee of the RSDLP and the executive committee of the Moscow council. He was a delegate to the 7th (April) All-Russian Conference of the RSDLP(b), where he spoke out against the right of nations to self-determination; and the 6th Congress of the RSDLP(b), at which he was elected to the Central Committee of the RSDLP(b) and the Secretariat of the Central Committee. Participant of the Democratic Conference (September 1917).

He led active preparations for the October Revolution and organized Red Guard detachments in Moscow. On October 10 (23), 1917, he participated in a meeting of the Central Committee of the RSDLP, which decided on an armed seizure of power, was included in the Military Revolutionary Center, and was involved in organizing a coup. He took part in the work of the 2nd All-Russian Congress of Soviets, was elected a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, and on October 21 - a member of the executive committee of the Petrograd Soviet. He opposed the agreement with Vikzhel on expanding the party composition of the Soviet government. During the revolution on October 25, he captured the Main Post Office and Telegraph. He was People's Commissar of Defense from June 17 to August 31.

On December 6 (19), 1917, the Council of People's Commissars, discussing the question “On the possibility of a strike of employees in government institutions on an all-Russian scale,” instructed Dzerzhinsky to “form a special commission to find out the possibilities of fighting such a strike through the most energetic revolutionary measures,” and the very next day on At the meeting of the Council of People's Commissars, he made a report “On the organization and composition of the commission to combat sabotage” - with the approval of the Council of People's Commissars, the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission to Combat Counter-Revolution and Sabotage was formed, Dzerzhinsky was appointed its chairman and remained so until its transformation into the GPU in February 1922 (with a break in 1918, more on that below).

As a left communist, he opposed the signing of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty in the Central Committee, but, considering a split in the party unacceptable, he abstained from voting on February 23, 1918. On July 7, 1918, he resigned as chairman of the Cheka as a witness in the case of the murder of the German ambassador W. Mirbach by members of the Cheka; On August 22, he was reappointed to this post. As the head of the Cheka, he pursued a brutal policy of repression against opponents of the Bolshevik regime. He was the initiator of mass terror, the institution of hostages, etc. He considered the main function of the Cheka to be the fight against counter-revolution through direct repression. He objected to limiting the powers of the Cheka, and in response to criticism of the abuses of the Cheka, he stated that “where the proletariat has used mass terror, there we do not encounter betrayal” and that “the right of execution is extremely important for the Cheka,” even if “its sword accidentally falls on the heads of the innocent."

According to the statement, he joined the Trotskyists.

“Dzerzhinsky voted for Trotsky, not just voted, but openly supported Trotsky under Lenin against Lenin. Do you know this? He was not a man who could remain passive in anything. He was a very active Trotskyist, and he wanted to raise the entire GPU to defend Trotsky. He failed... The best thing is to judge people by their deeds, by their work. There were people who hesitated, then retreated, retreated openly, honestly, and in the same ranks with us they fought very well with the Trotskyists. Dzerzhinsky fought very well, Comrade Andreev fights very well. There are also such people. I could count two or three dozen people who have moved away from Trotskyism, moved away firmly and are fighting it very well. It could not have been otherwise, because throughout the history of our party, facts have shown that Lenin’s line, since the Trotskyists began an open war with him, turned out to be correct. Facts have shown that subsequently, after Lenin, the line of the Central Committee of our party, the line of the party as a whole turned out to be correct. This could not but influence some former Trotskyists. And it is not surprising that people like Dzerzhinsky, Andreev and two or three dozen former Trotskyists figured it out, saw that the party line was correct and came over to our side” (I.V. Stalin).

In January 1919, together with Joseph Stalin, he formed a commission of the Central Committee and the Defense Council, which in Vyatka found out the reasons for the defeats of the Red Army in the Perm region. From March 1919 to July 1923 he was simultaneously the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs and the chairman of the military council of the VOKhR troops, and from November 1920 - the VNUS troops. From August 1919 to July 1920, part-time head of the Special Department of the Cheka. In September 1919 and October 1920, Chairman of the Moscow Defense Committee. Since February 1920, Chairman of the Main Committee for General Labor Service (Glavkomtrud). Since April, a candidate member of the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), since 1921, a member of the Organizing Bureau.

After the assassination attempt on Lenin, he carried out the “Red Terror”. He led the fight against the insurgency in Ukraine. During the war with Poland in 1920, he was the head of the rear (he headed the protection of the revolutionary order) and a member of the Provisional Revolutionary Committee of Poland and the Polish Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), and at the same time was a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Workers' Party of Poland, operating in Smolensk. He was one of the organizers of mass terror in Crimea from November 1920 to March 1921. After the end of the Civil War, he chaired the commission to develop measures to strengthen the protection of state borders.

In 1922-1923 - Chairman of the GPU (OGPU). At the beginning of 1923, heading the Central Committee commission to investigate the conflict between the Transcaucasian regional committee and the Georgian communists, he justified the neutralist line of the regional committee and its chairman Grigory Ordzhonikidze as meeting the directives of the Central Committee.

By decision of the party, he moves to command positions in industry (People's Commissar of Communications, from April 14, 1921), at the same time - People's Commissar of Internal Affairs in 1919-1923, from February 1922 - Chairman of the Main Political Directorate (GPU) under the NKVD of the RSFSR, from September 1923 chairman of the OGPU under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR.

While heading the communist economy, he was also the chairman of the commission “to improve the lives of children” (that is, to combat child homelessness). As chairman of the commission, Dzerzhinsky organized a system of children's institutions - reception centers (temporary stays), orphanages, "communes" and children's "towns". In these institutions, thousands of disadvantaged children received medical care, education, nutrition, and most importantly, the opportunity for further self-realization. On the basis of one of the communes, an entire enterprise was created where teenagers worked, creating one of the most modern cameras for those years called “FED”, that is, the first letters of his name, patronymic and surname. Eight former street children later became academicians of the USSR Academy of Sciences, including the world-famous geneticist Nikolai Petrovich Dubinin. It should be noted that at that time, according to official data, about 5,000,000 children were homeless.

Dzerzhinsky understood how important good physical shape is for law enforcement officers. On his initiative, the DSO "Dynamo" was created. On April 18, 1923, the founding meeting of the company took place. The best sports personnel from Moscow were recruited as coaches. The established sports society quickly expanded its activities. By 1926, the Dynamo sports society included more than 200 cells. And today Dynamo is one of the most popular sports societies.

Since 1924, candidate member of the Politburo of the Party Central Committee. Since February 1924, Chairman of the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR. He considered the main factor in the development of industry to be “orientation towards the broad peasant market” and emphasized that “you cannot industrialize if you talk about the welfare of the village with fear”; he advocated the development of small private trade, in order to put the private trader “in healthy conditions”, protecting it from local administrators. He sought to reduce production costs and prices for industrial products by accelerating the growth of labor productivity in relation to wages. He supported VSNKh specialists - former Mensheviks - as “wonderful workers.”

He was very actively involved in the development of the country's metallurgical complex. In 1924, on his initiative, instead of Glavmetal of the Supreme Economic Council of the RSFSR, the MetalChK commission was created, which he headed.

He participated in the struggle against the left and united oppositions, since, in his opinion, they threatened the unity of the party and the implementation of the NEP. At the same time, in 1925-1926 he expressed disagreement with the government’s economic policy, and therefore asked for resignation. He challenged the opinion about the priority of the state and, in particular, the army as the basis for the development of the metal industry. He considered it necessary to radically change the management system in order to overcome the bureaucratic “paralysis of life,” believing that otherwise the country “will find its dictator, the funeral buryer of the revolution, no matter what red feathers are on his suit.”

He headed the commission for organizing Lenin's funeral.

On July 20, 1926, at a plenum of the Central Committee dedicated to the state of the USSR economy, Dzerzhinsky gave a two-hour report, during which he looked sick. In it, he sharply criticized G.L. Pyatakov, whom he called “the biggest disruptor of industry,” and Lev Kamenev, whom he accused of not working, but of being engaged in politicking.

He became ill due to a nervous breakdown. He died of a heart attack that same day.

Family of Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky:

brothers: Vladislav Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky (1881-1942) - professor of medicine - neurologist, executed by the Nazis in Zgierz (Poland)
Stanislav Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky (1872-1917) - killed in early July 1917
Ignatius Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky (1879-1953) - geography teacher at a gymnasium in Warsaw
his grandson - Andre Dzerzhinsky (born 1936) - now a famous British artist
Kazimir Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky (1875-1943) - shot by the Germans on July 24, 1943 for active participation in the Iwieniec uprising of the Home Army.

sisters: Aldona Edmundovna Dzerzhinskaya (1870-1966)
Wanda (1878-1892)
Jadwiga (1871-1949).

Wife - Sofya Sigismundovna Dzerzhinskaya (Mushkat) (1882-1968).

son - Yan Feliksovich Dzerzhinsky
grandson - Felix Yanovich Dzerzhinsky
cousin - Roman Alexandrovich Pillar
great-nephew - V. M. Dzerzhinsky.

Polish and Russian Marxist revolutionary, Soviet statesman and party leader, founder and first leader of the Cheka-OGPU (1917-1926).

Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky was born on August 30 (September 11), 1877 in the family of a small Polish nobleman Edmund Iosifovich Dzerzhinsky (1838-1882), owner of the Dzerzhinovo estate, Oshmyany district, Vilna province (now in Belarus).

In 1887-1896, F. E. Dzerzhinsky studied at the 1st Vilnius Gymnasium (now in Viljuns in Lithuania). In 1895 he joined the Lithuanian Social Democratic organization in Vilna and the following year left the gymnasium, becoming a professional revolutionary.

In 1897, F. E. Dzerzhinsky carried out revolutionary work in Kovno (now Kaunas in Lithuania), publishing an illegal newspaper “Kovensky Rabochiy” in Polish. In July 1897 he was arrested and in August 1898 exiled to the Vyatka province for 3 years. In August 1899 he escaped from exile.

In 1899-1900, F. E. Dzerzhinsky lived in Warsaw (now in Poland), participated in the restoration of the Social Democratic organization destroyed by the police. In January 1900 he was arrested again and in January 1902 he was exiled for 5 years. Due to illness, he stayed in, from where he fled in June 1902 and returned to Warsaw.

In July 1903, at the IV Congress of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (SDKP and L) in Berlin, F. E. Dzerzhinsky was elected a member of the Main Board of the SDKP and L. He actively participated in the Revolution of 1905-1907: in 1905 as a member The main board of the SDKP and L. F. E. Dzerzhinsky led the May Day demonstration in Warsaw, worked in the Warsaw military revolutionary organization of the RSDLP. In July 1905 he was arrested at the Warsaw Party Conference and imprisoned in the Warsaw Citadel; in October he was released under an amnesty.

In 1906, F. E. Dzerzhinsky was a delegate to the IV Congress of the RSDLP in Stockholm, where he first met with. By the decision of the congress, the Polish revolutionary was introduced to the editorial board of the central body of the party, and became the representative of the Polish Social Democrats in the military-revolutionary organization of the RSDLP. From July to September 1906, F. E. Dzerzhinsky was in, then again in Warsaw, where he was arrested in December. In June 1907 he was released on bail. At the V Congress of the RSDLP in 1907, F. E. Dzerzhinsky was elected in absentia as a member of the Central Committee of the RSDLP. In April 1908 he was arrested again. In 1909, the revolutionary was sentenced to deprivation of all rights to his fortune and lifelong settlement in Siberia, from where he fled in November 1909, first to Berlin, and then was sent to Capri to A. M. Gorky. In March 1910, F. E. Dzerzhinsky continued his revolutionary activities in Krakow.

In 1910-1912, F. E. Dzerzhinsky worked in party organizations in Warsaw, Częstochowa, and Dombrowski district. In 1911, he participated in a meeting of members of the Central Committee of the RSDLP who lived abroad, convened by V.I. Lenin in Paris. In September 1912, F. E. Dzerzhinsky was arrested and imprisoned in the Warsaw Citadel. In April 1914, he was sentenced to 3 years of hard labor, which he served in the Oryol convict central. In 1916 he was again sentenced to 6 years of hard labor.

During the February Revolution of 1917, F. E. Dzerzhinsky was released from Butyrka prison in. He immediately became involved in active party work: he was a delegate to the 1st Moscow City Party Conference (April 1917), the VII (April) Conference of the RSDLP (b) and the VI Congress of the RSDLP (b), at which he was elected a member of the party Central Committee. In October 1917, F. E. Dzerzhinsky joined the Military Revolutionary Party Center for the leadership of the armed uprising and was elected by the Petrograd Soviet to the Military Revolutionary Committee. He became one of the organizers of the October Uprising in, led the connection between Smolny and the rebel detachments.

On December 7 (20), 1917, at the suggestion of F.E. Dzerzhinsky was appointed chairman of the Cheka. In this post, he carried out significant work to combat counter-revolutionary conspiracies and rebellions. In 1920, by resolution of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, F. E. Dzerzhinsky was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

Since January 1921, F. E. Dzerzhinsky headed the Commission for Improving the Lives of Children under the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, which did a lot of work to save street children from hunger and epidemics. Since April 192, he headed the People's Commissariat of Railways, remaining simultaneously the chairman of the Cheka and the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs. Since February 1924, F. E. Dzerzhinsky was chairman of the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR, remaining as chairman of the United State Political Administration under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR.

F. E. Dzerzhinsky was a delegate to the VIII, X-XIV party congresses, and was elected a member of its Central Committee. From April 1920 he was a candidate member of the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), from June 1924 - a candidate member of the Politburo of the Party Central Committee. He was a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Central Executive Committee of the USSR.

F. E. Dzerzhinsky died on July 20, 1926 after a meeting of the United Plenum of the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, at which he criticized the Trotskyist opposition. He is buried at the Kremlin wall behind the Mausoleum

Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky. DZERZHINSKY Felix Edmundovich (1877 1926), from 1917 chairman of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (from 1922 State Political Administration, Special State Political Administration), People's Commissar of Internal... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

Soviet statesman and party leader, an active participant in the Polish and Russian revolutionary movement. Born in a small estate... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

Dzerzhinsky F. E. (1877 1926) son of a small nobleman. He studied at the Vilna gymnasium, in 1894, being in the 7th grade of the gymnasium, he entered the village. d. self-development circle, in 1895 joined the “Lithuanian Social Democracy”, led circles of crafts and... ... Large biographical encyclopedia

- (1877 1926) politician. One of the leaders of the Revolution of 1905 07 (Warsaw). During the October Revolution, he was a member of the party Military Revolutionary Center and the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee (VRK). Since 1917, Chairman of the All-Russian... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

- (1877 1926), party and statesman. Member of the Communist Party since 1895. Since 1903 one of the leaders of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania. In August 1906 he arrived in St. Petersburg. In 1907, at the 5th Congress of the RSDLP, he was elected... ... St. Petersburg (encyclopedia)

Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky Feliks Dzierżyński Dzerzhinsky in 1919 ... Wikipedia

- (1877 1926), political and statesman. Since 1895 in the revolutionary movement. Participant in the Revolution of 1905 07 (Warsaw). In October 1917, a member of the Military Revolutionary Center party and the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee. Since December 1917, Chairman of the Cheka (from 1922 GPU ... Encyclopedic Dictionary

Dzerzhinsky Felix Edmundovich- Monument to F. E. Dzerzhinsky. Monument to F. E. Dzerzhinsky. Saint Petersburg. Dzerzhinsky Felix Edmundovich (1877-1926), party and statesman. Member of the Communist Party since 1895. Since 1903 one of the leaders of Social Democracy... ... Encyclopedic reference book "St. Petersburg"

Dzerzhinsky, Felix Edmundovich- (30.08 (11.9). 1877, village Dzerzhinovo, Oshmyansky district, Vilna province. 20. 07.1926, Moscow) part. and owls state activist From the nobles. He studied at the Vilna gymnasium (1887 1896). Member Social Democratic Party of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (1895), RSDLP (1906). IN… … Ural Historical Encyclopedia

Dzerzhinsky, Felix Edmundovich- born in 1877. In 1895 he joined the Lithuanian Social Democracy. He was a participant in the party congress in Stockholm. In 1006 he joined the Central Committee of the RSDLP as a representative from the village. d. Poland and Lithuania. Was one of the most prominent... ... Popular Political Dictionary

Felix Dzerzhinsky is a faithful “knight” of the revolution, who went down in Soviet history as an outstanding statesman and political figure who fought for the liberation of the working people. The revolutionary activity of the “Iron Felix” in modern society is assessed ambiguously - some consider him a hero and “threat of the bourgeoisie,” while others remember him as a ruthless executioner who hated all humanity.

Dzerzhinsky Felix Edmundovich was born on September 11, 1877 in the family estate of Dzerzhinovo, located in the Vilna province (now the Minsk region of Belarus). His parents were educated and intelligent people - his father, a Polish nobleman, worked as a gymnasium teacher and court councilor, and his mother was a professor's daughter.

The future knight of the revolution was born prematurely and received the name Felix, which translated meant “happy.” He became not the only son of his parents - there were only 9 children in the Dzerzhinsky family, who in 1882 became half-orphans after the death of the head of the family from tuberculosis.

Left alone with her children in her arms, Dzerzhinsky’s 32-year-old mother tried to raise her children as worthy and educated people. Therefore, already at the age of seven, she sent Felix to the Imperial Gymnasium, where he did not show good results. Absolutely not knowing the Russian language, Dzerzhinsky spent two years in the first grade and, at the end of the eighth grade, graduated with a certificate in which the grade “good” was only according to the Law of God.

The reason for his poor studies was not his weak intellect, but constant friction with his teachers. At the same time, from his very youth he dreamed of becoming a priest (Polish Catholic clergyman), so he did not try to gnaw on the granite of science.

In 1895, at the gymnasium, Felix Dzerzhinsky joined the Social Democratic circle, in the ranks of which he began to conduct active revolutionary propaganda. For his activities in 1897, he went to prison, after which he was sent to Nolinsk. In exile, already as a professional revolutionary, Felix Edmundovich continues his agitation, for which he was exiled even further, to the village of Kai. From his distant exile, Dzerzhinsky fled to Lithuania and then to Poland.

Revolutionary activities

In 1899, after escaping from exile, Felix Dzerzhinsky created the Russian Social Democratic Party in Warsaw, for which he was again arrested and sent into exile in Siberia. But he manages to escape again. This time the revolutionary’s escape ended abroad, where he became acquainted with the newspaper Iskra, the content of which only strengthened his revolutionary position.

In 1906, Dzerzhinsky was lucky enough to personally meet Lenin in Stockholm, and since then he has become a constant supporter of the “leader of the world proletariat.” He was accepted into the ranks of the RSDLP as a representative of Poland and Lithuania. From that moment until 1917, Felix Edmundovich was imprisoned 11 times, which was always followed by exile and painful hard labor, but each time he managed to escape and return to his “business.”

The February Revolution of 1917 was a breakthrough in Dzerzhinsky's revolutionary career. He was included in the Moscow Bolshevik Committee, in the ranks of which he began to direct the entire Bolshevik party towards an armed uprising. His zeal was appreciated by Lenin - at a meeting of the Central Committee of the party, Felix Edmundovich was elected a member of the Military Revolutionary Center, as a result of which he became one of the organizers of the October Revolution, supporting and helping him in the creation of the Red Army.

Head of the Cheka

In December 1917, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR decided to create an All-Russian Extraordinary Commission to combat counter-revolution. The Cheka became an organ of the “dictatorship of the proletariat”, which fought against opponents of the new government. The organization included only 23 “chekists” led by Felix Dzerzhinsky, who defended the new government of workers and peasants from the actions of counter-revolutionaries.

At the head of the “punitive apparatus” of the Cheka, Dzerzhinsky became not only a fighter against the “white terror”, but also the “savior” of the Soviet Republic from devastation. Thanks to his frantic activity at the head of the Cheka, more than 2,000 bridges, almost 2,5 thousand locomotives and 10 thousand kilometers of railway were restored.

Dzerzhinsky also personally went to Siberia, which at the time of 1919 was the most productive grain region, and supervised the procurement of food, which made it possible to supply about 40 million tons of bread and 3.5 million tons of meat to the starving regions of the country.

In addition, Felix Dzerzhinsky actively helped doctors save the country from typhus by organizing an uninterrupted supply of medicines. The head of the Cheka also took up the task of saving the younger generation of Russia - he headed the children's commission, which helped establish locally hundreds of labor communes and orphanages, which were transformed from country houses and mansions taken from the rich.

In 1922, while remaining as head of the Cheka, Felix Dzerzhinsky headed the Main Political Directorate of the NKVD. He was directly involved in the development of the new economic policy of the Soviet state. On the initiative of the chief security officer, joint-stock communities and enterprises were organized in the country, the development of which attracted foreign investment.

In 1924, Felix Dzerzhinsky became the head of the Supreme National Economy of the USSR. In this post, the revolutionary with complete dedication began to fight for the socialist reorganization of the country. He advocated the development of private trade, for which he demanded the creation of favorable conditions. Also, “iron” Felix was actively involved in the development of the metallurgical industry in the country.

At the same time, he fought the left opposition, as it threatened the unity of the party and the implementation of the New Economic Policy. Dzerzhinsky advocated a complete transformation of the country's governance system, fearing that a dictator would come to head the USSR and “bury” all the results of the revolution.

Thus, the “merciless and ruthless” Felix Dzerzhinsky went down in history as an eternal worker. He was very modest and quite unselfish; he never drank or stole. In addition, the head of the Cheka gained a reputation as an absolutely incorruptible, unshakable and persistent person who calmly achieved his goals at the cost of the lives of the “infidels.”

Personal life

The personal life of Felix Dzerzhinsky was always in the background for the main “chekist”. However, he was not alien to human passions and love, which he carried with him through three revolutions and the Civil War.

Felix Dzerzhinsky's first love was Margarita Nikolaeva, whom he met during his first exile in Nolinsk. She attracted him with her revolutionary views.

But this love did not have a happy ending - after escaping from exile, the revolutionary corresponded with his beloved for several years, to whom in 1899 he proposed to stop the love correspondence, as he became interested in another revolutionary, Yulia Goldman. But this relationship was short-lived - Goldman was sick with tuberculosis and died in 1904 in a sanatorium in Switzerland.

In 1910, the heart of the “iron” Felix was captured by Sofia Mushkat, who was also an active revolutionary. A few months after they met, the lovers got married, but their happiness did not last long - Dzerzhinsky’s first and only wife was arrested and imprisoned, where in 1911 she gave birth to a son, Ian.

After giving birth, Sofia Muskat was sentenced to eternal exile in Siberia and deprived of all rights to her fortune. Until 1912, she lived in the village of Orlinga, from where she fled abroad using forged documents.

The Dzerzhinsky couple, after a long separation, met only 6 years later. In 1918, when Felix Edmundovich became the head of the Cheka, Sofia Sigismundovna had the opportunity to return to her homeland. After this, the family settled in the Kremlin, where the couple lived until the end of their days.

Death

Felix Dzerzhinsky died on July 20, 1926 at the plenum of the Central Committee. The cause of the revolutionary’s death was a heart attack, which happened to him during a two-hour emotional report on the state of the USSR economy.

It is known that heart problems were discovered in the head of the Cheka back in 1922. Then the doctors warned the revolutionary about the need to shorten his working day, since excessive workload would kill him. Despite this, 48-year-old Dzerzhinsky continued to devote himself completely to work, as a result of which his heart stopped.

The funeral of Felix Dzerzhinsky took place on July 22, 1926. The revolutionary was buried near the Kremlin wall on Red Square in Moscow.

The name of Felix Dzerzhinsky is immortalized in many cities and villages throughout the post-Soviet space. Almost 1.5 thousand streets, squares and alleys in Russia bear his name.

Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky is one of the most famous figures of the Great October Revolution and the next decade. After the revolution, many settlements began to be named after this revolutionary figure. Dzerzhinsky was born in September 1877 near Minsk. He spent his childhood in Vilnius. There were thoughts about devoting his life to serving God, but his relatives dissuaded him. In 1884, an “acquaintance” between Dzerzhinsky and the ideas of Marxism took place. Ideas consumed him and he even abandoned his studies. The next 20 years were very difficult for Dzerzhinsky, and consisted of many arrests and exiles. In 1906, he met Vladimir Ilyich Lenin at the RSDLP congress in Sweden, where Dzerzhinsky was staying illegally.

After the February Revolution of 1917, he was released from prison. By the end of the summer of 1917, he became a member of the Central Committee of the RSDLP, the Military Revolutionary Committee. Actively participated in the organization and preparation of the October Revolution. Some time after the Bolsheviks seized power, he received the post of chairman of the Cheka. Dzerzhinsky did not like dissent and quickly began to fight it, thus becoming the organizer of the Red Terror. He was one of the initiators of the persecution of the intelligentsia and clergy. In the 1920s, he received the post of Commissioner of Railways, then headed the commission to combat homelessness, and in 1924 he took the post of chairman of the Supreme Economic Council. Died after the plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in 1926.

For his straightforwardness, Felix Dzerzhinsky received the nickname “Iron Felix.” Indeed, arguing with him as a couple was very difficult, and sometimes completely pointless. But still, he went down in the history of our state as a person who broke all previous foundations and traditions on the fly and completely, often without replacing them with new rules and customs. The destruction of the intelligentsia was a completely unnecessary measure; you need to be friends with the intelligentsia. After all, the intelligentsia is a social group that shapes the ideals of the entire society. But all the same, Dzerzhinsky’s work and his contribution to the Great October Revolution are immeasurable. He devoted his entire life to the ideas of Marxism.

Biography of Felix Dzerzhinsky about the main thing

He was born on September 11, 1877 on the Dzerzhinovo farm, in the family of a minor Polish nobleman. His father was a teacher at a gymnasium, and his mother was from an intelligent family.

In 1887, Dzerzhinsky entered the gymnasium, where he studied until 1895, but made no progress in his studies. In 1895 he joined the circle of Social Democrats. Promoted Marxism among workers. In 1897 he was arrested and a year later sent into exile for 3 years in Nolinsk. Here he continued his propaganda activities, for which he was exiled even further, to the village of Kai. From there, Dzerzhinsky fled to the capital of Poland. In 1900, he attended a meeting of the Social Democratic Congress of Poland and Lithuania. Soon after this he was taken into custody. In the winter of 1902 he was exiled to Vilyuysk for a settlement. From there he fled to Germany, where he became party secretary. He also worked in Switzerland, publishing the newspaper “Red Banner”.

During the revolutionary events of 1905, he headed the May Day demonstration. Then he was imprisoned several times. Two years later he was recognized in absentia as an employee of the Central Committee of the RSDLP. The year 1909 turned out to be tragic for Dzerzhinsky. He was deprived of all his property and exiled to Siberia, but he fled from there to the island of Capri, then to Poland. In 1910, he fell in love with Sofya Sigismundovna Mushkat. Soon they got married. For some time he worked in Krakow as treasurer and secretary of the party branch. In 1811, in a newspaper article he supported Lenin's cause.

A series of arrests follow. In 1917, after the events of the February Revolution, Dzerzhinsky was released from Butyrka prison. Then he became a member of the RSDLP(b). At the end of October, Felix led the assault on the main post office. He was in charge of the security of the Bolshevik headquarters in the building of the Smolny Institute. From June 17 to August 31 - head of the People's Commissar of Defense.

In December of the same year, Lenin appointed Dzerzhinsky chairman of the Cheka. It was a system of suppressing the enemies of the new government. The most brutal methods were used for this. One day a grenade flew into Dzerzhinsky’s office on Lubyanka, but he managed to hide in a large iron safe, for which he later received the nickname “Iron Felix.”

He led the suppression of rebels in Ukraine. Commanded troops in the war with Poland in 1920.

Since 1922 he has led the successor to the Cheka, the GPU, under the NKVD. This body could exile and execute enemies of Soviet power. Through his mediation, in 1922, most of the Russian intelligentsia was sent abroad. Persecution against the clergy began.

In the winter of 1924, when Lenin died, Dzerzhinsky was appointed head of the Central Executive Committee and oversaw the funeral. He also headed the All-Russian Committee of National Economy, but economics was a little-known science for him.

On July 20, 1926, Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky died of heart failure. There is a version about his poisoning because... he became displeasing to Kamenev and Zinoviev, as a supporter of Stalin. He was buried in Moscow near the Kremlin wall.

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