DZERZHINSKY, FELIKS EDMUNDOVICH (1877–1926).Born
into a family of Polish landowners, Dzerzhinsky joined the Social-
ist Democratic Party of Poland and Lithuania while a student. As a
political activist, he was arrested and imprisoned by the tsarist au-
thorities on several occasions, and the February 1917 revolution
found him in a Moscow prison cell. As a revolutionary and a pris-
oner, Dzerzhinsky took great interest in operational tradecraftand
the counterintelligence operations of the tsarist secret service,
Okhrana. Dzerzhinsky specialized in ferreting out informers from
among revolutionaries.
Following the Bolshevikcoup of 7 November 1917, Vladimir
Leninasked Dzerzhinsky to form a security service, which took the
name All Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Coun-
terrevolution and Sabotage (Chrevzuychanaya komissiya po borbe s
kontrarevolutsei i sabotazhem). Dzerzhinsky’s Cheka—as it was re-
ferred to by most citizens—became a secret police empire responsi-
ble for the security of the state and the party. Dzerzhinsky described
the Cheka as “the party’s fighting detachment.” Most of his deputies
were not Russians but came from the Polish, Latvian, and Jewish mi-
norities. Many had served in the Bolshevik underground in and out-
side the tsarist state.
During the Russian civil war, Dzerzhinsky often traveled as the
party’s representative to various military fronts as a troubleshooter,
and he was instrumental in ordering and managing the Red Terrorin
1918 that followed the attempted assassination of Lenin. On the first
day of the terror, the Cheka executed without trial more than 500 men
and women. During its short existence, the Cheka executed close to
150,000 Soviet citizens and imprisoned tens of thousands in forced
labor camps. Dzerzhinsky publicly noted that the Cheka stood for ter-
ror, and regretfully that sometimes the sword of the revolution fell on
the innocent as well as the guilty.
Given his long political apprenticeship outside the Bolshevik
Party, Dzerzhinsky kept out of party politics as long as Lenin was
alive. However, following Lenin’s death in 1924, Dzerzhinsky sup-
ported Joseph Stalinin his struggle with Leon Trotsky. As a result,
the Cheka, which Dzerzhinsky created, became the Stalinist NKVD,
a weapon that the leadership could use against dissidentswithin the
party. The interrogators who had destroyed countless intellectuals,74 •DZERZHINSKY, FELIKS EDMUNDOVICH (1877–1926)06-313 A-G.qxd 7/27/06 7:55 AM Page 74