Felix Dzerzhinsky
Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky (Polish: Feliks Dzierżyński, Russian: Фе́ликс Эдму́ндович Дзержи́нский; 11 September 1877 – 20 July 1926) was a Soviet statesman and a prominent member of Polish and Russian revolutionary movements. He is better known under his nickname as the Iron Felix or abbreviation FD. His party pseudonyms were Yatsek, Yakub, Pereplyotchik, Franek, Astronom, Yuzef, and Domanski.
He was a member of several revolutionary committees such as the Polish Revkom as well as several Russian and Soviet official positions. Dzerzhinsky is best known for establishing and development of the Soviet State Security forces under their original name Cheka (1917–26). Later he was a member of the Soviet government heading several commissariats, while being the chief of the Soviet secret police. Cheka became notorious for torture and mass summary executions, performed especially during the Red Terror and the Russian Civil War.
Read more about Felix Dzerzhinsky: Early Life, Political Affiliations and Arrests, Revolution, Director of Cheka, Dzerzhinsky and Lenin, Death, Iron Felix
Famous quotes containing the word felix:
“The legend of Felix is ended, the toiling of Felix is done;
The Master has paid him his wages, the goal of his journey is won;
He rests, but he never is idle; a thousand years pass like a day,
In the glad surprise of Paradise where work is sweeter than play.”
—Henry Van Dyke (1852–1933)