All language subtitles for Forgotten Leaders. Episode 1. Felix Dzerzhinsky. Documentary. English Subtitles. StarMediaEN

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Oryol Governate prison,
Oryol, Russian Empire. 1914

Here, at one of the biggest
penal colonies of Tzarist Russia,

a revolutionary is held who is destined
to become famous the world over.

All in all he'll spend
11 years incarcerated,

and he will dedicate his
entire life to the cause.

He is still yet to become
a legend of state security,

but even his first letters to
his family show his iron will.

Felix Dzerzhinsky. Decades later,

they will call him the
Knight of the Revolution and

the Apostle of Terror. He will
be remembered as Iron Felix,

and his deeds will be the subject
of heated discussions for many years.

But even the staunchest
opponents of Dzerzhinsky agree

that he was a truly remarkable person.

LAND OF THE SOVIETS:
FORGOTTEN LEADERS

FELIX DZERZHINSKY

Dzerzhinovo Mansion

Yelena Ignatyevna and
Edmund Rufin Iosifovich

Dzerzhinovo village, Vilnius Province,

Russian Empire, September 11, 1877.

Felix means Happy in Latin.

That's what the Dzerzhinskys
decided to call their son

after his mother started giving
birth prematurely, but the boy

was born healthy despite
the circumstances.

The Dzerzhinsky family was
an old Polish nobility line,

but they weren't rich.
They lived close to Vilnius,

in the Dzerzhinovo village.
Like many other Poles,

Dzerzhinskys didn't consider
themselves subjects of the Russian Tzar.

They only spoke Polish
at home, and every Sunday,

they would go to mass
to a Catholic church.

And they dreamed of their
homeland's independence in secret.

Polish Kingdom.

At the start of the 19th
century, the Polish Kingdom

was added to the Russian Empire.

After the suppression of
the 1863 uprising, there was

a campaign of Russification
of the population.

Polish was banned from use
at schools, in public places,

in official correspondence. The ban
included religious books in Polish,

and nobles and Catholics
were being forced out

of governmental institutions.

At the age of ten, Felix enrolled
into the 1st Vilnius Gymnasium.

This privileged school was
famous for its strict rules,

and it counted the Russian
prime minister Pyotr Stolypin

and the famous artist Vasily
Kachalov among its alumni.

Felix was forced to
repeat the first grade.

He spoke Russian badly and
would talk back to the teachers.

Oftentimes he would spend the
day in the disciplinary cell

instead of the classroom.

He was only interested in one
class: Scripture Knowledge.

Dzerzhinsky's memoirs:
“I was very religious,

“I was even going to go to
the Roman Catholic seminary.

“But that never happened.
When I was in 6th grade,

“a sudden change took
place. I spent an entire year

“thinking about how there was no
God and telling everybody about it.”

There are many legends
surrounding Iron Felix's person,

and according to one of them,
it was a freak accident that

shook the faith in the young man's soul.

Felix and his brother
Stanislav were target practicing

with their father's rifle, and they
accidentally shot their own sister,

who died on the spot.

According to a different version,
Dzerzhinsky was disillusioned

with God's existence
for a different reason:

one of his gymnasium friends
had given him Karl Marx's works.

Karl Marx, German
philosopher, economist.

The founder of Marxism,
a theory of a just society

where all the ruling classes and
private property are destroyed,

all the members of society are equal,

granted equal rights and
opportunities. Marx's ideas resonated

with Social Democrats the world over.

Felix really did trade his
faith in God to faith in Marxism,

but he never stopped being idealistic.

Having gotten a passion
for revolutionary ideas,

Dzerzhinsky joined the
Lithuanian Social Democratic Party

and dropped out of the gymnasium.

In his Kaunas apartment, a
copying machine called a hectograph

began to operate. Using
this underground typography,

Dzerzhinsky would print
propaganda leaflets and

a newspaper called the Kaunas
Worker, encouraging the workers

to fight for their rights.

On July 17, 1897, Felix was walking,

hiding a batch of fresh leaflets
on him. He was planning to

secretly hand them over to his
friend for him to pass them around

the factory. He was awaiting
Dzerzhinsky at a park bench, but as soon

as Felix handed the young man the
leaflets, policemen ran up to him.

The friend turned out to be
a secret police informant.

The gendarmes tried to make
Dzerzhinsky give up all of his

revolutionary connections, they
demanded a “heartfelt confession,”

they deprived him of food, beat him
with birch sticks, but he kept silent

and never gave any statements
about any of his comrades.

Preliminary incarceration
lasted for around a year.

In a note to his sister from the
Kaunas prison, Felix adamantly

rejects her pitiful tone:

“You call me a 'poor soul'
and you are greatly mistaken.

“I can say with conviction
that I am much happier

“than those who lead
pointless lives 'in freedom.'

“And if I had to choose between
prison and a pointless life outside,

“I would choose the former, there would
be no reason in existing otherwise.

“So even though I am in
prison, I do not feel down.

“Prison is only horrible
for the weak of heart.”

Dzerzhinsky was convicted
to three years of exile

in the city of Nolinsk
in the Vyatka Governorate

for distribution of illegal literature.

That's where he met Margarita
Nikolaeva, the girl was in exile, too.

On Wednesdays she would hold
Marxist club meetings at her home.

The two young people started
to hold correspondence.

The exiled had to regularly check
in at the local police department.

The procedure was formal,
and usually, the record clerk

at the station would do it. But
one day, Dzerzhinskly was asked

to see the police captain himself.

The local police department
head demanded that Felix

stop the propaganda among
the workers, and then started

The young man couldn't hold back
his temper and called the captain

“a bastard and a scumbag.” For
insulting a government functionary,

Dzerzhinsky was exiled 500 versts
east of Nolinsk, to the village of

Kaigorodskoye in Slobodsky Uyezd.

Kaigorodskoye, Vyatka
Governate, Russian Empire. 1899

From time to time, Dzerzhinsky
would go to the woods for a few days

to fish and hunt, and
the local police quickly

got used to these long absences.
That's what started an escape plan.

One time, the young revolutionary
never returned to the village.

The policemen only
announced the alarm on day 7,

sending out telegrams about
an exiled person running away.

But it was too late.
Felix had already reached

the nearest train station by boat.

From there, he went to Vyatka,
and in the same year of 1899,

he reached Warsaw.

Later, exiled yet again,
Dzerzhinsky would write Margarita:

“By rights, we should
not correspond at all,

“for it will only aggravate
both you and myself.

“I am a rogue, and making friends
with a rogue spells grief for you.

“I beg of you, do not
write to me at all.”

And so Dzerzhinsky's
illegal life started.

At daytime, he would hide in safehouses,

write leaflets and articles. He
would only go out into the street

at night to speak in
front of the workers.

When Dzerzhinsky was put in
charge of the secret police,

his experience with illegal
work would come in handy

for finding and arresting criminals.

Soon, he was arrested again.

He spent two years in prison, and
in 1902, he was exiled for 5 years.

This time, to Siberia. A life like
that was bound to affect his health:

Felix was taken ill with tuberculosis.

In 1905, after escaping exile
again, Dzerzhinsky returns to Warsaw,

into the very thick of it. He
kept doing revolutionary work:

organizing strikes and
protests for Polish workers,

heading the Warsaw Party Conference.

In Warsaw, he was arrested again,
but amnestied in just 3 months.

Before his next incarceration,
Felix managed to meet Vladimir Lenin.

Their meeting took place in Stockholm,

at the 4th Congress of the Russian
Social Democratic Labor Party.

At the same time,
Dzerzhinsky met his true love.

Warsaw, Polish Kingdom,
Russian Empire, 1906

Her name was Sofia Muszkat. The
future wife of Felix Dzerzhinsky

was born in a rich Jewish family.
She received brilliant education,

graduated from the Warsaw
Conservatory specializing in piano,

but when she joined the ranks
of the Russian Social Democratic

Labor Party, she started
living the life her beloved

had already gotten used to:
arrests, prisons, exiles, escapes...

In early 1908, for illegal
activity and escaping prison,

Felix Dzerzhinsky is arrested again
and exiled to Siberia permanently.

The revolutionary's
health kept getting worse,

his tuberculosis progressed. But
even that fact didn't keep him

from escaping yet again. In
1910 Felix Dzerzhinsky and

Sofia Muszkat got married,
and in a few months Sofia,

who was expecting a child,
was sent to Warsaw by the party

to do illegal work,
where she was arrested.

Dzerzhinsky's first and only
son Jan was born in 1911,

in the Serbia prison for women.
Then Sofia was sentenced again

to exile to Eastern Siberia
permanently, but soon after

she ran away to abroad with
her son using forged papers.

In emigration she found out
Dzerzhinsky was arrested again.

He would only see his son
for the first time in 8 years.

Oryol Governate prison,
Oryol, Russian Empire. 1914

In September 1912, after
illegally returning to Warsaw,

Felix Dzerzhinsky was
arrested, and in April 1914,

he was sentenced to three
years of penal servitude.

He served his sentence
at the Oryol prison,

which was infamous for
particularly cruel conditions

which would lead to illnesses
en masse and high mortality

and suicide rates among the convicts.

Dzerzhinsky states this in a letter:

“What you have found out about
our living conditions is all true.

“They are simply unbearable.
Owing to them, every day someone

“gets brought out of here… in
a casket. Out of our category,

“political prisoners, 5 people
have died over the last 6 weeks,

“all of them from consumption.”

These years were the darkest
period of Dzerzhinsky's life.

Almost all the time he was wearing
shackles, in solitary cells or

in barracks overcrowded with people
dying of typhus and tuberculosis.

Scars from shackles on his ankles
would stay with him his whole life.

In 1916 Felix was sentenced
to 6 more years of penal labor

which he served in the
Butyrskaya Prison in Moscow.

All in all, Dzerzhinsky spent
11 years in penal colonies,

prisons and exile, and
it was exactly this fact

that forged Felix's
character, which is why he was

rightfully nicknamed Iron Felix.

When after the February
revolution of 1917 the workers

came to free Dzerzhinsky, the
one who walked out of that prison

was the same resilient man they
knew and were ready to follow.

By that time the Russian Empire
had already gotten involved in WWI.

There were anti-war protests all
over it, strikes, and bread riots.

Dzerzhinsky now handled
propaganda in army regiments.

He changed his prisoner uniform to
a soldier's blouse and trenchcoat:

that outfit seemed comfortable to
him and it became part of his image.

In August, Felix Dzerzhinsky decided
for good: he would follow Lenin.

In Petrograd, at the sami-legal 6th
Congress of the Bolshevist Party,

he was elected to the Central
Committee. Dzerzhinsky becomes

an important figure of the
Bolshevist military wing.

Central Executive Committee is the
highest governing body of the Party

in between the Congresses.
The Central Executive Committee

governed over all Party
activities and local Party bodies,

it handled staff policy. The
Committee guided the work of

key governmental and
social organizations,

created various political bodies,
departments and enterprises,

appointed editorial staffs of
key newspapers and journals,

allocated budget funds. Over
the course of various periods

of its existence in the Russian
Empire and the Soviet Union

the Communist Party had several names:

1898-1917: Russian Social
Democratic Labor Party, RSDRP

1917-1918: Russian Social
Democratic Labor Party (Bolshevist)

1918-1925: Russian Communist
Party (Bolshevist), RKP (b)

1925-1952: All-Soviet Communist
Party (Bolshevist), VKP (b)

1952-1991: Communist Party
of the Soviet Union, KPSS

The Bolshevist uprising started
in Petrograd in the night

of October 24, 1917. Felix
Dzerzhinsky was tasked with

coordinating the captures of bridges,
the telegraph, the power station

and other critically important objects.

Soon, the news of a new government
spread to every Russian city

via telegraph. Meanwhile, the
country was plunging into chaos.

From Dzerzhinsky's memoirs:

“It was a time when we took
position in every possible ministry

“to find nothing but empty boxes
and locked cabinets without keys.

“None of the functionaries of
the key offices were willing

“to recognize Soviet power. Our
departments were swamped with

“opportunists who wanted
to line their pockets

“and fix their shady
deals. And at the same time,

“in Petrograd and other cities,
counterrevolutionary organizations

“were being created.”

Mobs would raid wine
warehouses and stores.

On the night of December 4, in
Petrograd alone there were recorded

69 pogroms and 611
various criminal offenses.

There was a lack of
fuel, the transport system

was almost completely idle…

Petrograd, RSFSR, 1917

To handle the situation in the
country, it was decided to create

an organization to fight
internal counterrevolution,

sabotage and black markets. It was named

the All-Russian Extraordinary
Commission, and Felix Dzerzhinsky

was appointed its chairman,
having already proved himself to be

a good leader.

On December 10, 1917, the Izvestia
newspaper announced the creation

of the All-Russian Extraordinary
Commission, stating its address,

Petrograd, 2 Gorokhovaya
St., and visiting hours.

The chairman of the Commission
received just 30 men at his disposal,

selected among the trusted Bolsheviks.
They had no knowledge or skills

in investigating, but they did have
experience with underground work.

In those days, the Commission's
main task was fighting crime,

including preventive actions. It was
authorized to confiscate property,

evict people out of their
houses and apartments,

depriving them of food stamps.

Death by firing squad was not
used by the Commission at the time,

since at first, the Bolsheviks
banned capital punishment in Russia.

WWI was still going on,
and German forces were

getting close to Petrograd.
Anti-Bolshevik groups were working

behind the Russian Army lines.

On January 1, 1918, an attempt on
Vladimir Lenin's life took place.

With the situation that had formed,
the Soviet government decided to

transfer the capital to the safer
city of Moscow, and issued an edict

called “Socialist Motherland in danger!”

It was this edict that reinstated
capital punishment in the country.

It is usually agreed upon that
it happened at the suggestion of

Dzerzhinsky himself, who asserted that

“the right to execute is extremely
important for the Commission”,

even if “its sword may accidentally
fall upon innocent heads.”

The first sentence to execution
by firing squad was passed

by the Commission on February 24, 1918.

The persons convicted by it were a
robber calling himself Prince Eboli

and his associate Britty.

They would rob apartments
and government institutions,

and they had stolen a
considerable amount of jewelry

from the Winter Palace. From
February to June of 1918,

50 people were shot at the behest
of the Extraordinary Commission.

Meanwhile, the political
situation became incredibly tense

as a result of a terrorist attack
with Dzerzhinsky at its center.

The Bolsheviks were getting ready
to sign a separate peace treaty

with Germany and take
Russia out of the war.

The Socialist Revolutionary
Party opposed it vehemently.

The SRs who had become Lenin's
allies after the revolution

decided to mount an uprising
in the summer of 1918.

The Socialist Revolutionary Party
is a revolutionary political party

of the Russian Empire, later
the Russian Republic and RSFSR.

Shortly after the February revolution
of 1917, the SRs turned into

a massive political power, its
numbers reaching a million members.

Its representatives held several
key positions in the government.

The population found its ideas
of democratic socialism and

a peaceful transition to it attractive.

But despite all this, the SRs didn't
manage to hold onto their power.

To sabotage the peace treaty with
Germany, the SRs organized the

assassination of the German ambassador
in Moscow Wilhelm von Mirbach.

The main actor of the assassination,
an 18 year old SR Yakov Blumkin

who served under Dzerzhinsky
in the Extraordinary Commission.

Moscow, RSFSR. June 6, 1918

To set up the assassination,
Blumkin used papers

with forged Dzerzhinsky's
signature. The one who forged it was

the First Deputy to the
Chairman of the Commission,

Vyacheslav Aleksandrovich.
Aleksandrovich and Blumkin

came into Dzerzhinsky's office
together, took the stamp from the safe,

and stamped the papers. The
conspirators discussed the details and

were already getting ready
to leave when Aleksandrovich

accidentally looked behind the
privacy screen in the corner.

It is hard to imagine
what he felt when he saw

Dzerzhinsky sleeping
behind it. Iron Felix,

being remarkably hard-working, had
had a rest right at his workplace.

As it happened, he literally
slept through the terrorist attack

that complicated the political
situation and almost proved fatal

for Dzerzhinsky himself.

On July 6, 1918, Blumkin and
his assistant Andreev arrived

to the German embassy on
Denezhny Alley in Moscow.

After showing their false papers
they came in to see Mirbach.

When already talking to the
ambassador, Blumkin took out

his revolver and opened fire.
He shot almost all the rounds,

but he was so nervous he
didn't his target once.

Mirbach ran to the adjoining
room. Andreev threw a bomb

at the ambassador's feet, but
it didn't explode. Then Andreev

punched Mirbach and he fell
down. Blumkin grabbed the bomb

and threw it at the ambassador
again. An explosion sounded...

Having left their hats, the revolver,
the papers and a briefcase with

an extra bomb on the table, the
terrorists escaped through a window

and hid inside the Morozov
mansion on Trekhsvyatitelsky Alley.

This is where the most numerous
Extraordinary Commission squad was,

under the command of Popov, an
SR. Dzerzhinsky arrived to arrested

Blumkin and Andreev, but
he was disarmed and arrested

by his own subordinates.

Arrests of other
Bolsheviks started as well.

The SR uprising was barely
suppressed, and Dzerzhinsky himself

was dismissed from his position
as the Commission chairman

until judgment was passed. The
investigators were trying to find out

whether he took part in the plot
himself, since he had a motive.

Just like the SRs, Dzerzhinsky
had spoken out against

signing the peace treaty, since
according to its conditions,

Russia would lose the Polish
lands that were his homeland…

Felix said again and again that
he didn't know anything about

the upcoming plot against Mirbach,
and his signature had been forged.

They believed him, and
reinstated him in his job.

From March 1919 to July
1923, he simultaneously became

Minister of the Interior
and chairman of the

Military Council of the
Extra-Departmental Police Forces.

Apart from that, Dzerzhinsky
headed the Extraordinary Commission.

He would go to sleep at 3 to 4 AM,
and he would be at his desk at 9.

On February 20, Dzerzhinsky
was also appointed chairman of

the People's Commissariat
for Labor. His health,

damaged in prisons and penal
colonies, was getting worse:

tuberculosis, heart problems…
But there was no time to rest,

there was still a Civil
War in the country.

The population had split
up into two rival movements:

the Reds and the Whites. The
situation was worsened by intervention

from foreign powers.

In the summer of 1918, English
troops landed in Arkhangelsk and Baku.

Vladivostok was occupied by
Japanese and French regiments.

On Soviet heartland, foreign
intelligence operatives became active.

One of them was Sidney Reilly.

Sidney Reilly was a British spy.
His call sign was 007, and he was

one of the prototypes of James
Bond. He was fluent in 6 languages,

including Russian. He worked in
Russia starting from late 1917.

Among other things, Reilly had
free passage into the Kremlin

granted by legitimate
Extraordinary Commission papers

issued to a Sidney Relinsky.

On August 28, 1918, a
grand operation was supposed

to take place headed by Sidney Reilly.

The location was the Bolshoi
Theater where a Central Committee

session would take place. With
2 million rubles, Reilly bribed

the head of the Kremlin guard
detail, Latvian Riflemen Commander

Eduard Berzin. On the day in
question, he was supposed to

have everybody loyal to
him help him shoot every

Committee member
present including Lenin.

The same night, 60,000 Tzarist
officers were supposed to rise up.

Reilly handed Berzin another
1,200,000 rubles for the expenses.

He never as much as suspected that
Berzin was Dzerzhinsky's agent.

Sidney Reilly's operation
failed. He escaped abroad

but was sentenced to execution
in absence. The sentence was only

carried out 7 years later, when
Dzerzhinsky's people managed to

lure Reilly to Moscow once again.

The plot was liquidated on
time, but yet another attempt

on Lenin's life happened anyway.
On August 30, 1918, Fanny Kaplan

wounded him in the courtyard
of the Michelson Factory.

The same day in Petrograd, an
SR named Leonid Kannegiser killed

the chairman of the Petrograd
Extraordinary Commission Moisei Uritsky.

Anti-Bolshevik riots became
more frequent, often accompanied

by murder and armed conflict.
Bolsheviks announced that

the Soviet Republic was a military
camp. So-called Red Terror began.

Red Terror was a complex of
punitive measures carried out

by the Bolsheviks during the Civil
War against its class enemies:

nobles, landlords, officers,
priests, kulaks, cossacks,

and also all counterrevolutionaries.
Red Terror was a reaction

to White Terror, the extreme
form of the repressive policies

of Anti-Bolshevik forces.

Moscow, 1918. Dzerzhinsky's
letter to his wife:

“I was brought to the
front lines, and my will

“is to fight and look with my
eyes wide open upon the danger

“of this severe situation,
and to be ruthless myself...

“Physically, I am tired,
but I hold on with my guts.

“I almost don't leave
my office, I work here,

“and here, in the corner,
behind the screen, is my bed.

“I have been in Moscow
for several months.

“My address is 11 Lubyanka.”

In 1918, the Commission became
the main force of Red Terror.

At the end of 1917 it
counted only 30 employees,

and now, 30,000 people served there.

There were 40 Governorate
and 365 County Commissions.

In the areas where martial
law was declared, the Chekists

were authorized to arrest
people indefinitely without

proving their guilt, and to shoot
the enemies of the Revolution

on the spot without
passing the case to court.

The Commission functionaries
took former landlords,

merchants, bankers, Tzarist
Army officers and relatives

of White Guard members hostage.

For this purpose, small
concentration camps were created.

And yet, Dzerzhinsky spoke out
against torture and senseless

destruction of the enemy
whether real or imagined.

There were cases when on his orders,

after beating a suspect,
a Commission employee

would be fired, imprisoned, and in
case of aggravating circumstances,

shot to death. But it was
precisely Dzerzhinsky who was called

the Red Butcher. Iron Felix
wasn't bothered by it since it was

the foreign press that wrote that.
It even benefitted the Revolution

since now people trembled in
fear of its punishing sword.

Dzerzhinsky wrote to his sister Aldona:

“For many, there is no
name scarier than mine.”

At the height of Red Terror,
following persistent advice

from Yakov Sverdlov and
Vladimir Lenin, Dzerzhinsky

went to meet his family. 8
years had passed since he was

separated from his wife.
He never got to see his son.

It was an uneasy time for
a vacation, but in October

the Red Army was already attacking,
many plots had been uncovered.

Dzerzhinsky shaved off his beard
and moustache, shaved his head,

dressed like he was foreign
and got into the train

with papers issued to a Felix Domansky.

His family was living in
emigration in Switzerland.

It was only from the rare
letters from his wife that he knew

how Jan was growing up. But
seeing him, embracing him,

meeting him was something
Dzerzhinsky only managed to do now.

This trip to Switzerland in
the middle of the Civil War

still causes much
discussion among historians.

He probably had some other
assignment from Lenin,

because it's hard to imagine
he would be let out abroad

during such harsh times
just to meet his family.

But as to what that assignment
was, it's still a mystery.

Bern, Switzerland, 1919.

It was only in the spring of
1919 that Sofia and her son

moved to Moscow. The
Dzerzhinskys moved to a 2-bedroom

apartment in the Kremlin.
Jan went to school, and Sofia

started Party work, having
received a job at the

People's Commissariat
of Education. Dzerzhinsky

would still see his family rarely:
having several jobs, he worked

to exhaustion, and he was constantly
on the road: he'd get sent to

Minsk, Bialystok, Wilno,
Kharkov. He would need to restore

the coal industry, organize
foodstuffs supplies.

June 13, 1920. From a letter
from Dzerzhinsky to his wife:

“And I am unhappy with myself.
I can see and feel that I could

“give more than what I am giving.
I could... Perhaps I am too

“mentally exhausted, I can't
concentrate and get a grip

“to make myself spare my energy
more, so it could possibly

“yield more with the least fatigue.”

Dzerzhinsky continued his
work at the Commission.

After traveling the country, he
realized that Red Terror that was

originally aimed at fighting the
enemy began killing simple folk too.

In 1920, in the Tambov Governorate,
a rebel regiment was liquidated,

where out of 11,000 dead most
were simple peasants. In 1921,

after the Kronstadt uprising,
over 2,000 people were shot.

Dzerzhinsky could never
come to terms with that.

Out of a Dzerzhinsky speech
at the 10th Congress of RKP(b):

“Comrades, you name me candidate
to the Central Committee,

“possibly with a view that I go
on working as Commission Chairman.

“But I do not want, and most
importantly, cannot work there anymore.

“You know my hand has never shaken
as I aimed the punishing sword

“at the heads of our class
enemies. You know, my comrades,

“that I spared no effort in the
revolutionary struggle, in fighting

“for better lives for workers and
peasants. And now I have to repress

“them, too. But I cannot, hear
me, I cannot! I ask you to withdraw

“my candidacy.”

Dzerzhinsky's request was denied.
Someone had to do that job,

and it was precisely the revoutionary
fanatic Iron Felix who had

the qualities of a born Chekist:
a cold head and a hot heart.

Betwen 1921 and 1929, the
Commission arrested 1,004,956 people,

only 20% of them were convicted.
Dzerzhinsky still tried not to be

a butcher in his work. Head
of the Commission was worried

about the Chekists' health.
Dzerzhinsky realized how important

sports were, for Commission men as well.

So on a personal initiative
from Felix Dzerzhinsky, in 1923,

the famous sports club Dinamo
was founded specifically for

the Internal Affairs workers.

Moscow, RSFSR, 1920.

Apart from that Dzerzhinsky occupied
himself with the street children.

After WWI and the Civil War, there
were about 5,000,000 in the country.

Memoirs of Sergei Tikhomolov,
Dzerzhinsky's personal driver:

“Once we were driving down Myasnitskaya
St. which was being asphalted.

“It was boiled in the streets in
special cauldrons, and at night,

“street children would sleep
in them. Dzerzhinsky asked me

“to stop the car next to one of
them. ...he walked up to the bowl

“and took the kids out of there.
Some of them got scared and ran.

“Dzerzhinsky stroke up a
conversation with the rest

“and took them into our car. We
went to the Commission building

“on Lubyanka. ...he walked
the kids into his office,

“fed them and talked them into
going to live at an orphanage.”

In January, 1921,
Dzerzhinsky proposed to the

People's Commissary of
Education Anatoly Lunacharsky

to create a Committee for
Bettering Children's Lives.

It soon started work, and
every Chekist would donate 10%

of his monthly paycheck towards
maintanance of the orphanages.

By 1924, the country already
had over 280 orphanages,

420 labor communes, and 880 playgrounds.

Over 90,000 teenagers were
educated in 927 factory schools.

The famous FED photo camera
(a copy of the German Leica II)

was manufactured by the Kharkov
Labor Commune. The idea of

creating such communes came to the
famous pedagogue Anton Makarenko,

and Dzerzhinsky actively
assisted its realization.

The abbreviation FED itself stands
for Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky.

Dzerzhinsky received many
letters from commuyne members

and foster children in 1925 and
1926. There were some framed photos

at his work desk next to
a picture of his son Jan.

In just 7 years the number of
street children in the USSR went down

from 5 million to 200,000.
Working with children seemed like

the best way to prevent counterrevolution
and terror to Dzerzhinsky.

April 25, 1920, First Marshal
of Poland Juzef Pilsudsky

starts his Kiev offensive. Poland
was supported by Western powers,

and Pilsudsky seriously hoped to restore

the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
in its historical borders.

He managed to get together
an army of 700,000 soldiers.

Felix Dzerzhinsky would always
emphasize that he was a Bolshevik first

and not a Pole, but the fate
of his homeland bothered him.

He saw the future of Poland
as being part of the USSR.

At the end of July Dzerzhinsky went
to Wilno, and then to Bialystok,

a big industrial city in Northern
Poland which had already been taken

by the Red Army. Here, the
prototype for a future government of

Socialist Poland was created: the
Polish Revolutionary Committee.

They eagerly took to composing
manifestos to address Poles with.

Dzerzhinsky was being
exceptionally active.

In the first two weeks of
August, he spoke at rallies,

organized the supply of
foodstuffs and industrial goods,

demanded the Central Committee
send Communist Poles...

And it was all in vain. The Polish
people didn't accept the government

created by Soviet Russia.

Pilsudsky's Army gradually
pushed the Red Army out of all

Polish cities, and in March, 1921,
the Communists were forced to sign

an unfavorable peace treaty
that ceded large parts of Ukraine

and Belarus to Poland. That
is how the fight between two

revolutionary movements
ended in the Polish Kingdom.

Social Democrat Dzerzhinsky lost
Poland to the nationalist Pilsudsky.

It became a personal
tragedy for Iron Felix.

On April 14, 1921, Dzerzhinsky
got a new appointment.

While functioning as
Extraordinary Commission Chairman,

he became the People's
Commissary for Railways.

Dzerzhinsky himself described
the situation like this:

“Our railroads are one single big
horror. Thievery in train cars,

“thievery in ticket offices,
thievery in warehouses, thievery

“in work contracts,
thievery in stockpiles.”

It was no surprise that the
Central Committee decided that

head of the Extraordinary Commission
was to become head of transport.

The railroads of the country
were in terrible condition.

In the Civil War 2000 versts of
railways, or 80% of the rail system.

4322 bridges were out of
commission, 400 workshops and depots,

60% of the locomotives,
1/3 of the train cars.

On an assignment from
Dzerzhinsky, a group of Chekists

came to see the Tzarist
Railway Minister Ivan Borisov.

They weren't there to
arrest him but to coax him.

They brought Borisov food,
wood and, most importantly,

proposed that he get back
to work as assistant to

Commissar for Railways
Felix Dzerzhinsky.

And the next day, Borisov started
the inventory of the railway.

Dzerzhinsky had one more
problem to solve: railroad crime.

Entire special trains got
stolen from freight stations

with forged waybills. The
Commission began its investigation.

Soon, secret workshops
manufacturing fake stamps were

uncovered in Moscow. Among
the confiscated evidence,

a brand new stamp with Dzerzhinsky's
own signature was found.

At the end of 1921, Lenin decided
that it was time to get rid of

the Extraordinary Commission. The
country needed foreign investment,

and Westerners were afraid to
invest into a country that had

such a fearsome organization.
That's why instead of it,

in February 1922 State Political
Directorate, or GPU, was created.

It was headed by Felix Dzerzhinsky.

The structure of the new department
was borrowed from the Commission.

The main objective of the new
service weren't mass shootings

or actions behind White Army lines,
it was meticulous and inconspicous

work with the opposition inside
the country, intelligence work

among the anti-Soviet
emigres and in foreign states.

Unlike the Commission, GPU
didn't have unlimited authority.

According to the law, it was to become a

preliminary investigative
agency under the prosecutor.

People still called GPU workers
Chekists. The word GPUshnik

never became popular.
On September 2, 1922,

the Anti-Corruption
Committee was formed.

Eloiminating corruption was
Felix Dzerzhinsky's job as well.

In 1922, the number of bribery
convictions reached 3254

in 49 governorates alone, which
was twice the number of those

convicted for crimes against the state.

Bribery meant capital punishment.

Meanwhile, the country was
being overtaken by famine.

34 governorates were hit with
drought. There wasn't enough bread

to feed the hungry or enough
seeds to sow the fields.

Considerable foodstuff
reserves were held in Siberia:

23 million pounds of bread and a
million and a half pounds of meat.

To send that mountain of food
to the hungry central regions,

it was necessary to send
228 train cars every day.

But the railway lacked
fuel and workforce.

Dzerzhinsky left for Siberia.
He spent over 50 days there.

The railway workers who hadn't
been paid in 3 months got their pay.

A system of bonuses was
introduced for train engineers

for saving coal and working without
accident. By March 1922, trains

carrying food would go in one
direction: East to West. Day and night.

On January 21, 1924, Lenin
died. Dzerzhinsky was entrusted

with organizing his funeral. According
to one version, it was head of

now-GPU who came up with
embalming the leader and

constructing the Mausoleum. And inside
the Party, power struggles began.

Dzerzhinsky asked to be let go from
the position of Railway Commissary

to become head of the Supreme
Soviet of the National Economy.

In essence, he headed the
entire economy of the USSR.

As an economist, Dzerzhinsky
turned out to be very pragmatic.

He stood for the
wellbeing of the peasants.

Apart from that, he was
a proponent of developing

small scale private trade which
would allow to lower the prices

of food and household goods. It
was Dzerzhinsky who was the first

to occupy himself with
the question of developing

the metallurgial complex of
the country and industrializing

the entirety of the Soviet economy.

By 1924, the USSR had
overcome an agricultural, fuel

and transport crises. Gross
output of major industries doubled.

A monetary reform took place.
The ruble became a free currency

and it cost about 6 USD at
the international market.

Soviet economy managed to
achieve such results thanks to the

New Economic Policy, or
NEP, which Dzerzhinsky spent

a lot of effort on introducing.
However, iron and steel smelting

were 7% and 17% their
pre-Revolutionary level.

A severe shortage of metal products
could be felt in the country.

Even though throughout 1924 and
1925 the industry gross product

rose 62% compared to the preceding
year, villagers were still

too poor to buy anything from
the city. There was a sales crisis

of industrial goods. Factories
had no money to develop.

Meanwhile Dzerzhinsky started
having health problems more often.

The years he'd spent in
prison and the colonies showed.

On March 5, 1925, the Politburo
discussed the question of

Dzerzhinsky's health.
The decision was to get

together a medical committee.
According to its recommendations,

Dzerzhinsky was only allowed
to work over 6 hours a day

if there was any urgent state
business. He was forbidden from speaking

at Party meetings. He was prescribed
two days' rest, outside Moscow

if possible. In late 1925,
Dzerzhinsky had a major heart attack.

His doctor Ioann Baumholtz advised
him to cut his workday to 4 hours.

Dzerzhinsky adamantly
rejected the doctor's demands

despite being tortured
by wheezing and coughing.

Before speaking at the July Plenary
Assembly of the Committee in 1926,

Dzerzhinsky had worked all night
on his speech about the terrible

state of the country's economy.
The clerks noted his depression

and sickly look. But after lunch,
he still left for the Assembly.

Memoirs of Bohumir
Smeral, the founder of the

Czechoslovak Communist Party:

“I was sitting across from him
when he was speaking at the stand.

“He would often press his left
hand to his heart. Then he started

“pressing both of his hands
against his heart and you could

“mistake it for a rhetorical
gesture. But now we now that

“he gave his last big speech
despite great physical suffering.”

After the speech, Dzerzhinsky
felt bad. Others helped him

get out of the hall and lay
him down on a sofa. Dr Wulman

who was called gave him
a camphor shot and some

lily-of-the-valley drops.
They never had the time

to help him with anything else.

Abram Belenky, Special
Department Head of OGPU Collegium,

described Iron Felix's
last minutes like this:

“When the first fit of weakness
had passed, he got up and

“walked down the hall, wavering.
When asked to give his briefcase,

“he said, 'I can carry it myself.'
When he'd gotten to his apartment,

“he walked up to his bed
and, refusing help again,

“said incredibly quietly: 'I
can...' And he fell down instantly.”

He wasn't even 50 at the time of
his death. He died on July 20, 1926,

aged 48. His cause of
death was cardioplegia.

His ideas, his ideals, and
his cause were what he stayed

fanatically loyal to until the very end.

From Dzerzhinsky's letters:

“...man, like all living
things, is in constant motion,

“something dies in him all
the time and is born again,

“his every moment is a new
life, revealing latent energy,

“abilities: life is in flux,
and that is its beauty.”