Felix Dzerzhinsky
1877 – 1926 Polish-Russian Founder of the Cheka secret police
The 'Iron Felix' who founded the Soviet secret police and the Red Terror.
- Religion
- Born into a Polish Catholic family and once devout, he became a militant atheist revolutionary.
- Affiliations
- Bolshevik Party; founder and head of the Cheka, the first Soviet secret police, which ran the Red Terror.
Dzerzhinsky spent years in tsarist prisons before Lenin put him in charge of the Cheka in 1917. He built the secret police that carried out the Red Terror, mass arrests, and executions of the regime's enemies. Ruthless and personally austere, he became the model of the loyal Chekist and died of a heart attack in 1926.
Connections
- rival of Fanny Kaplan — Her attack led his Cheka to unleash the Red Terror.
- mentor of Genrikh Yagoda — Yagoda rose through the Cheka he founded to lead its successor.
- student of Genrikh Yagoda — Rose through the secret police Dzerzhinsky founded.
- influenced Lavrentiy Beria — Later secret-police chiefs claimed his mantle.
- ally of Vladimir Lenin — Lenin's trusted enforcer, chosen to head the secret police.
- associate of Vladimir Lenin — Appointed him to run the Cheka secret police.
- associate of Vladimir Lenin — Built the Cheka on Lenin's authority.
In the timeline
- 1917 Cheka founded as the Bolshevik secret police mentioned
- 1917 The Cheka is founded mentioned