Feliks Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky

Feliks Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky , 1877-1926, Russian Bolshevik leader, organizer, and first chairman (1917-21) of the Cheka (see secret police ). He was the son of Polish aristocrats. Under his direction, the reign of terror against anti-Bolsheviks reached its height in 1918. Dzerzhinsky also headed the agencies that succeeded the Cheka (the OGPU and the GPU) and held other high posts.

Dzerzhinsky, Feliks Edmundovich (b. 11 Sept. 1877, d. 20 July 1926). Soviet politician Born in Dzerzhinovo, near Minsk, as the son of a Polish nobleman, he became a revolutionary for the Lithuanian-Polish Marxist parties in 1896. He was subsequently arrested six times, and was eventually released after the February Revolution, 1917. He became one of the principal organizers of Lenin's October Revolution (Russian Revolutions, 1917), and in December 1917 founded perhaps the most ruthless organization of state terror of its day, the Cheka. Through the establishment of prison camps and the use of torture, hostages, and assassinations, he played a central part in breaking domestic opposition to Communist rule. In addition, as People's Commissar (i.e. Minister) for Transport, he promoted industrialization while remaining sensitive to the need for sound agricultural policies. He became chairman of the Supreme Council of the National Economy in 1924. He died of heart failure.