Workaholic, "Astronomer" and patron saint of children: Little-known pages from the life of Felix Dzerzhinsky

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In August 1991, a monument to Felix Dzerzhinsky was dismantled on Lubyanskaya Square in Moscow. The history of mass repressions was associated with the name of the main Soviet Chekist, and in the early nineties such a symbol could no longer adorn one of the central squares of the capital. “Iron Felix” is remembered today as the creator of the Cheka. But the biography of Dzerzhinsky was rich in other facts that were not always related to repression and the "iron" image of an unyielding Bolshevik.

Polish Catholic

Among the Russian revolutionaries there were nobles - the leader of the Bolsheviks, Lenin, for example, was the son of the actual state councilor Ilya Ulyanov. There were also people from religious circles - Stalin studied at a theological seminary. But the origin of Felix Dzerzhinsky was original in its own way. His family led history from the Polish noble family of the 17th century. And although the Dzerzhinsky were not large magnates and sometimes served at the houses of other noble families, they had their own estate with peasants.

As a child, as befits a Polish nobleman, Felix Dzerzhinsky was very devout. According to the Law of God in the gymnasium, he received A's, actively participated in the patriotic circle "Heart of Jesus", quarreled with his older brother, forcing him to pray regularly, and once even said: “If I ever come to the conclusion that there is no God, I’ll let myself bullet in the forehead."

The teacher of the Law of God finally convinced Felix not to move from the gymnasium to the theological seminary: according to the priest, Dzerzhinsky was too cheerful and flirtatious for such a service, and besides, he loved to look after the schoolgirls - and they fell head over heels in love with him.

Romantic with Poor Health

From an early age, many noted Dzerzhinsky's soreness: a pale, anemic face, frequent complaints of fatigue and poor sleep. In his younger years, he suspected that he might be diagnosed with trachoma. Oddly enough, health problems only pushed Felix to the romanticism of the revolutionary underground: he told his comrade that he had no more than seven years to live, “so you need to live those seven years properly, fully use it for work”.

His underground nickname - "Astronomer" can also speak of Dzerzhinsky's romantic nature. Indeed, his reasoning was too philosophical and almost heavenly. Here, for example, what poems he wrote in the senior grades of the gymnasium:

For participation in workers' circles, Dzerzhinsky was exiled to the Vyatka province, where he turned 21 - the time of examination in the military medical commission. The commission recognized him unfit for military service and considered that in the coming years, seriously ill Dzerzhinsky, most likely, would die. As a result, Felix decided to break off the correspondence with his beloved Margarita Nikolaeva and arrange an escape - in order to have time to do something worthwhile for the revolution.

The local doctor, after re-examining Dzerzhinsky, said that the commission's conclusions were hasty. The love correspondence continued, but Nikolaeva's arrival to the place of exile convinced young Felix: the political struggle attracts him much more. Having escaped from exile, he finally embarked on the path of revolution.

Children's Ombudsman

The creator and head of the Cheka in Soviet times became famous not only for terror. Dzerzhinsky was keenly interested in the issue of child homelessness during the Civil War. Perhaps this was influenced by the fate of his own son: his wife Sophia was arrested more than once for revolutionary activities, and the son of the Dzerzhinsky Yan was born in prison and grew up without a father for many years.

"Iron Felix" discussed in the government the issues of creating a system of free baby food and children's food stamps in the country, organized orphanages. Sometimes he personally met with the children: the Chekists caught homeless children in Moscow and took them to the Lubyanka … to feed them tea and sandwiches. During one such meeting, Dzerzhinsky talked with little Kolya Dubinin, who then entered Moscow State University and became a major geneticist and academician - one might say that the efforts of the Chekists were not in vain.

People's Commissar of Education Lunacharsky recalled that when talking about these problems, Dzerzhinsky was very worried, his nostrils flared and his eyes burned - he was so emotionally worried about the fate of the unfortunate children.

Party member

Dzerzhinsky could disagree with the opinion of the party majority. He took the suppression of the Kronstadt uprising in 1921, when the crews of the Baltic Fleet ships mutinied against the Bolshevik policy. Felix Edmundovich said that he could no longer fulfill the duties of the head of the Cheka - he was used to carrying out terror against "class enemies", but not against sailors from workers and peasants. However, his party comrades persuaded him to stay.

After Lenin's death, a struggle for power began in the party, and Dzerzhinsky supported Stalin in it. He actively opposed the opposition in the person of Trotsky, Zinoviev and others. It seemed to him that it was among the oppositionists that a possible dictator, “the burial of the revolution,” “no matter what red feathers were on his suit, could be hiding,” he wrote to Kuibyshev shortly before his death. It seems that instinct let Dzerzhinsky down, and in fact, having taken the side of Stalin, he only helped to bury the revolution and establish an individual dictatorship.

Uniron Felix

Doctor Dzerzhinsky more than once sent him to rest and advised him to eat right. Right at the height of the Civil War, in the fall of 1918, he even traveled to Switzerland to rest and visit his wife and son.

However, it is impossible to regard such facts as sybarism. Dzerzhinsky worked for wear: slept little, ate poorly, was on the road. "Felix lives poorly, he will burn," Sverdlov said shortly before Dzerzhinsky's Swiss trip. And the departure to Europe was in many ways a cover for contacts with German revolutionaries who tried to conduct underground work in Germany.

The last two years of his life, Dzerzhinsky combined leadership in the OGPU with the post of chairman of the Supreme Council of National Economy (Supreme Council of the National Economy). In this position, he often had to inspect the state of industry in the regions, and such business trips, naturally, were exhausting. On June 20, 1926, Dzerzhinsky went to the OGPU, then to the Supreme Council of the National Economy, and then to the plenum of the Central Committee of the party. Somewhere during a break, he wrote in his diary: "I feel bad," but still decided to make a report at the meeting of the plenum. After that, he was seized by an attack of weakness, and, having arrived home, he died.

Felix Dzerzhinsky really burned out, he was only 48 years old. Nevertheless, the life of a charismatic revolutionary was very intense and contradictory. Therefore, even today, someone can see in him "iron Felix", and someone - a romantic, in love with the revolution.

It remains to say that Felix Dzerzhinsky was not the only famous native of Poland. It was still Privy Councilor, Revolutionary, Marshal of Victory and other immigrants from Poland who went down in the history of Russia.