Feliks Dzerzhinsky

Felix Dzerzhinsky
Dzerzhinsky in 1918
Director of the OGPU
In office 15 November 1923 – 20 July 1926
Premier	Vladimir Lenin Alexei Rykov
Preceded by	Himself as the Director of the GPU
Succeeded by	Vyacheslav Menzhinsky
Director of the GPU
In office 6 February 1922 – 15 November 1923
Premier	Vladimir Lenin
Preceded by	Himself as Director of the Cheka
Succeeded by	Himself as Director of the OGPU
Director of the Cheka
In office 20 December 1917 – 6 February 1922
Premier	Vladimir Lenin
Preceded by	Office created
Succeeded by	Himself as Director of the GPU
People's Commissariat of VSNKh
In office 2 February 1924 – 20 July 1926
Premier	Alexei Rykov
Preceded by	Alexei Rykov
Succeeded by	Valerian Kuybyshev
Candidate member of the 13th, 14th Politburo
In office 2 June 1924 – 20 July 1926
Member of the 6th Secretariat
In office 6 August 1917 – 8 March 1918
Personal details
Born	Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky 11 September [O.S. 30 August] 1877 Ivyanets, Ashmyany county, Vilna Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	20 July 1926 (aged 48) Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Political party	VKP(b) (1917–26)
Other political affiliations	SDKPiL (1900–17) LSDP (1896–00) SDKP (1895–96)
Spouse(s)	Sofia Sigizmudovna Muszkat
Children	Jan Feliksovich Dzerzhinsky

Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky (Russian: Фе́ликс Эдму́ндович Дзержи́нский; Polish: Feliks Dzierżyński [ˈfɛlʲiks dʑerˈʐɨɲskʲi]; 11 September [O.S. 30 August] 1877 – 20 July 1926), nicknamed Iron Felix, was a Polish and Russian Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet statesman. His party pseudonyms were Yatsek, Yakub, Pereplyotchik (meaning "bookbinder"), 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 developing the Soviet secret police forces, serving as their director from 1917 to 1926. Later he was a member of the Soviet government heading several commissariats, while being the chief of the Soviet secret police. The Cheka soon became notorious for mass summary executions, performed especially during the Red Terror and the Russian Civil War.

Felix Dzerzhinsky was born on 11 September 1877 at the Dzerzhinovo family estate, about 15 km (9.3 mi) away from a small town of Ivyanets, in the Minsk Region, a part of the Russian Empire (today Belarus). His family belonged to the former Polish-Lithuanian szlachta (nobility), of the Sulima coat of arms. As a child, before taking to Marxist ideology, Felix considered becoming a Jesuit priest. His sister Wanda died at the age of 12, when she was accidentally shot with a hunting rifle on the family estate by one of the brothers. At the time of the incident, there were conflicting claims as to whether Felix or his brother Stanisław was responsible for the accident.