Dzerzhinsky-Polish born butcher of Russia

[pjotr]

This is old news, 2 years old but probably interesting, because Felix Dzerzhinsky was a Polish member of the first Sovjet government.

Russian Orthodox Church protests monument to KGB founder

Moscow - The Russian Orthodox Church said it was "appalled" Monday by a proposal to set again in front of the secret service headquarters in central Moscow the statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky, the founder of the Cheka, the forerunner to the infamous Soviet era secret service agency KGB.


Felix Dzerzhinsky

When the statue of the man known as Iron Felix was uprooted with the end of communism in 1991, it was for many a sign that the repression he sponsored was forever gone.

Human rights activists now see the move to reinstate Dzerzhinsky as an indication of the bent of Russian politics back towards authoritarianism under the continuing influence of former president and ex-KGB agent Vladimir Putin.

The country's Orthodox Church in 2001 canonized thousands of "New Martyrs and Confessors Russia," men of the cloth and laity who were victims of Soviet repressions enacted by the KGB and by the brutal methods invented by the first Chekist.

"Dzerzhinsky is the demonic enemy of Russian Orthodox Church whose hands are steeped in blood of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia. The rehabilitation of Dzerzhinsky is contrary to the authorities' course for the revival of great Russia," the Union of Orthodox Believers said in a statement Monday.

The push to raise the statue anew came from the Union of Veterans of State Security, who were angered that Dzerzhinsky's effigy was lying in ruins outside Moscow.

Russia's lower house of parliament last week applauded the proposal by Moscow's former prosecutor general to reinstate the statue with lawmakers seemingly split over whether the move was meant to honour Dzerzhinsky, to recognize history or to serve as a warning of actions that must not be repeated.

The death last month of author and Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who worked tirelessly to record the crimes within communist prison camps, highlighted how difficult it has been for Russia to face its history.

No national museum exists to commemorate the victims of the Soviet Gulag concentration camps. In the place were the Dzerzhinsky statue once stood and where he would be re-erected now stands a stone from one of the Gulag Islands, about which Solzhenitsyn wrote.

But the Orthodox Church has found a bargaining chip that it hopes will prevent Dzerzhinsky's reappearance.

The church, which has grown close to the state under Putin, has blessed many branches of Russian officialdom, including the Defence Ministry's division in charge of the storage and upkeep of Russia's nuclear arsenal.

Claiming that the bid to return the statue is retaliation for the secret services not having been awarded its own protector saint, the Orthodox Union on Monday suggested St Prince Alexander Nevsky become the patron saint of Russia's FSB secret services.

His slogan would be: "The one who comes to us with the sword shall perish by the sword," it said. (dpa)

P.S.- I know that Felix Dzerzhinsky is disliked in Poland and that after the collapse of Communist Poland streets with his name were renamed. I don't know if there were any statues of Dzerzhinsky in Poland?

[Bonobo]

Sept 23, 2010 11:34:28 GMT 1 pjotr said:

This is old news, 2 years old but probably interesting, because Felix Dzerzhinsky was a Polish member of the first Sovjet government.

Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky (Polish: Feliks Dzierżyński [ˈfɛliks dʑerˈʐɨɲski], Russian: Феликс Эдмундович Дзержинский; 11 September [O.S. 30 August] 1877–July 20, 1926) was a Communist revolutionary, famous as the founder of the Bolshevik secret police, the Cheka, later known by many names during the history of the Soviet Union. The agency became notorious for large-scale human rights abuses, including torture and mass summary executions, carried out especially during the Red Terror and the Russian Civil War.

Feliks Dzierżyński was born into a Polish szlachta (noble) family of the Samson coat of arms in the Dziarzhynava estate near Ivyanets and Rakaw in Western Belarus (in present-day Minsk Voblast), then part of the Russian Empire. As an irony of history, one of the older students at this gymnasium was his future archenemy Józef Piłsudski. Years later, as Marshal of the interwar Polish state, Piłsudski generously recalled that Dzierżyński "distinguished himself as a student with delicacy and modesty. He was rather tall, thin and demure, making the impression of an ascetic with the face of an icon. ... Tormented or not, this is an issue history will clarify; in any case this person did not know how to lie.



Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin regarded Dzierżyński as a revolutionary hero, and appointed him to organize a force to combat internal political threats. On December 20, 1917, the Council of People's Commissars officially established the All-Russia Extraordinary Commission to Combat Counter-revolution and Sabotage - usually called the Cheka (based on the Russian acronym ВЧК). Dzierżyński became its head. The Cheka received a large amount of resources, and became known for ruthlessly pursuing any perceived counterrevolutionary elements. As the Russian Civil War expanded, Dzierżyński also began organizing internal security troops to enforce the Cheka's authority.

As the Russian Civil War went on, the Cheka took drastic measures. Tens of thousands of political opponents were shot without trial in the basements of prisons and in public places throughout Russia[9] — and not only opponents. People who happened to be intellectuals, capitalists and priests were shot simply for who they were.[10] Dzerzhinsky himself boasted that: "We represent in ourselves organized terror -- this must be said very clearly."[11] and “[The Red Terror involves] the terrorization, arrests and extermination of enemies of the revolution on the basis of their class affiliation or of their pre-revolutionary roles.”

P.S.- I know that Felix Dzerzhinsky is disliked in Poland and that after the collapse of Communist Poland streets with his name were renamed. I don't know if there were any statues of Dzerzhinsky in Poland?

There was only one - in Warsaw.

His monument in "Dzerzhinsky Square" (pl. Plac Dzierżyńskiego), in the center of Warsaw, was so hated by the population of the Polish capital as a symbol of Soviet oppression that it was toppled in 1989, as soon as the PZPR started losing power. The name of the square was soon changed to its pre-Second World War name, "Bank Square" (pl: Plac Bankowy)

Dzierżinski was literallly hanged in Warsaw. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
In this way, we avenged thousands of decent Russians who perished at his orders. Monster!













Oh, my God, mob`s anger was really intense.











My comment:

Poles pulled down the butcher monument in 1989.

Russians did the same a bit later in Moscow.

Then, some Russians started thinking of rebuilding their monument.

Fortunately, they were stopped by their reasonable compatriots.

So, is there hope for Russia?

I hope so.