Felix Dzerzhinsky: a biography
INTRODUCTION
The Soviet people undertaking enormous effort in all areas of the work to build communism have already achieved great successes in developing productive forces, economic and social relations, socialist democracy, and culture, and in moulding the new man. The world’s first socialist country has entered the stage of developed socialism. The attainments scored by the Party and the people have been recorded in the updated edition of the CPSU Programme adopted by the 27th Party Congress.
The historic achievements of the Soviet people in building a new society, their victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45, the country’s confident advance towards higher stages of social, economic and cultural progress, and the growth of the Soviet Union’s influence on the course of world development are inseparably linked with the Communist Party s activities. It is the inspirer and organiser of the creative endeavour of the people, Soviet society’s leading and guiding force.
Today, the Party has advanced the strategy of accelerating the country’s socio-economic development which is aimed at accomplishing a qualitative change in all aspects of the Soviet people’s life.
The impressive social and economic changes that have taken place in the country and the peaceful creative work of the Soviet people have embodied the dreams and truly heroic efforts or many generations of revolutionaries, above all, political figures and statesmen of the Leninist school who have entered the political arena in the revolutionary epoch.
Felix Dzerzhinsky, one of the great revolutionaries, was a steadfast Communist, a staunch defender of the revolution, a fighter for a better future for his own country and people and the whole of mankind. He was a man to be feared by the enemies of the revolution, a man whose life was a never-ending struggle to realise the ideals of communism. Though short, his life was full and eventful. A convinced Bolshevik- Leninist[1], who had spent eleven years—a quarter of his life— in prison and exile, Dzerzhinsky helped govern the world’s first socialist state of workers and peasants. He was a truly popular hero who struck terror into the bourgeoisie. Fellow- Bolsheviks nick-named him “iron Felix”, paying tribute to his loyalty to the cause of revolution.
Dzerzhinsky joined the ranks of fighters for the emancipation of the working class at the age of 17. His career as a revolutionary began in the working-class environment of Kaunas and Vilnius in Lithuania. Soon, he was a professional revolutionary, a leader of the working-class movement in the
Northwest of the Russian Empire and in Poland. His dedicated work had done much to unite the Polish and Russian revolutionary movement, enhance internationalism among the Polish working class, bring the two fraternal proletarian parties closer together, and strengthen the Bolshevik Party.
Dzerzhinsky was a consistent and firm Leninist. He became personally acquainted with Lenin in 1906 at the Fourth Congress of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP)[2] in Stockholm. But at a much earlier time he had “met” Lenin through his works. Dzerzhinsky thought highly of Lenin’s activities as an organiser of the Communist Party and the fact that he consistently championed a truly revolutionary strategy and tactics in the working-class movement.
Dzerzhinsky was directly involved in the preparation and accomplishment of the October 1917 armed uprising in Petrograd. He was one of the members of the Party Centre directing it, and was personally in charge of key sectors of the revolutionary struggle which effectively foiled the counterrevolutionary plans of the bourgeoisie.
After the revolution, Dzerzhinsky was appointed by the Party and by Lenin personally as head of the All- Russia Extraordinary Commission to Combat Counter-Revolution, Sabotage and Profiteering (Vecheka).
Since its establishment, the Commission acted as an alert and capable guardian of the young Soviet
Republic, and it is as its head that Dzerzhinsky’s qualities as an organiser and staunch Bolshevik were most clearly revealed.
Since March 1919, Dzerzhinsky had headed the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs, alongside with the Extraordinary Commission, and actively participated in the creation of the Soviet state apparatus. He made an important contribution to the establishment and maintenance of revolutionary law and order throughout the country.
In April 1921, Dzerzhinsky was also appointed head of the Commissariat for the Transport. He personally did a great deal to rehabilitate the country’s transport, and especially the railways, an essential condition for overcoming economic dislocation, famine and territorial isolation.
Another responsible position held by Dzerzhinsky was that of Chairman of the Supreme Economic Council. In that capacity, he made a great personal contribution to the implementation of Lenin’s ideas and the Party’s economic policy of the country’s industrialisation. He was directly involved in the establishment of ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, the aviation industry, and tractor- and agricultural machine-building. Dzerzhinsky stressed the importance of scientific research and was known for his efforts to promote science in the Soviet Union.
From the very first days of the existence of the Soviet state, Dzerzhinsky was repeatedly elected a delegate to congresses of the Soviets, and to the All-Russia Central Executive Committee and the USSR Central Executive Committee (since 1924), the highest body of the country’s state authority.
He was actively involved in solving various issues of state-building in the young republic, distinguished himself again as head of the All-Russia Central Executive Committee commission on the improvement of the condition of children. This work revealed his kindness and humanitarian
qualities.
Felix Dzerzhinsky’s career was fruitful, multifaceted and scrupulously honest. A Bolshevik of the Leninist school, he was in charge of key sectors of the Party’s political and organisational work. Needless to say, he invariably enjoyed the complete confidence of fellow Bolsheviks.
Dzerzhinsky’s work as a state, public and economic leader was terminated unexpectedly. He died on July 20, 1926—a soldier killed in battle. The Party Central Committee and the Central Control Commission stated in an address to all Party members, the working people, and the Red Army and Navy: “In the torture-chambers of tsarist Russia and in Siberian exile, during the interminable years of penal servitude, in prison and during the years of freedom, in underground work and when holding government jobs, in the Extraordinary Commission and at the head of construction work—Felix Dzerzhinsky was forever in the line of fire...”
PARTY WORK ON THE EVE OF AND DURING THE FIRST RUSSIAN REVOLUTION (1899-1907)
Chapter Three
THE YEARS OF REACTION AND THE NEW REVOLUTIONARY UPSURGE. PRISON AND EXILE (1907-February 1917)
Chapter Four
Chapter Four
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