Feliks Dzerhinsky

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What do you know about him and how do you feel about him?


Also what about quotes "from" him, which ones are misquoted or false?

[Tim Cornelis]

What I know about him is that he was a big figure in the Red Terror and the Cheka. What I associate the Red Terror with is systematic excesses and gas poison attacks against peasants and concentration camps. I don't know in how far he can be associated with that though.

[Alexios]

Dzerzhinsky was an early supporter of Stalin and one of of the chief architects of the Gulag system. There's even one documented case of him ordered the deaths of one thousand people who were quickly after found to be completely innocent. It's pretty weird how a lot of leftists worship him considering he was such a maniac.

[Geiseric]

Dzherinsky was a polish philosophy teacher, turned secret police chief. He did what you'd expect somebody in that job position to do. On top of that he helped Stalin with the ethnic chauvanism in Georgia, after he was sent by Lenin to stop oppression of the Muslims in the region by the Red Army.

[Questionable]

There's even one documented case of him ordered the deaths of one thousand people who were quickly after found to be completely innocent.

Source for this?

Anyway, I like him. I'm kind of surprised he's getting so much hate because I remember a thread on the Cheka a year or so back where a ton of prominent users praised him. Then again, now that many Marxist-Leninists and the most militant Trots have been banned, this board is more anti-Lenin than ever.

[reb]

Source for this?

Anyway, I like him. I'm kind of surprised he's getting so much hate because I remember a thread on the Cheka a year or so back where a ton of prominent users praised him. Then again, now that many Marxist-Leninists and the most militant Trots have been banned, this board is more anti-Lenin than ever.

Stalinists and Trots, hand in hand forever! Doo doo doo do doooo!

He was part of the restoration of state power over worker power. It's no coincidence that stalinists like him then.

[Os Cangaceiros]

I'm ambivalent about him. He committed terrible ruthless acts but it was during a time period when the opposition to his side also committed terrible ruthless acts, so it was a "hot terror" (the suppression of the peasantry is a legitimate criticism and in my opinion it was reprehensible but viewed in the context of the time it's at least more comprehensible than the "cold terror" of the 1930's). With that being said, all his efforts basically amounted to nothing in the final analysis. As an individual he wasn't responsible for the ultimate decay of the Russian Revolution but from what I remember reading about him, he'd probably be a supporter of some of the worst excesses of Stalinism which he didn't live to see.

[Sasha]

Don't know much about him but the way he is used by those who praise him he comes off as the stalinoid Strasser or Hess. Just as much (or worse) an asshole but less tainted by being commonly known, a dogg whistle for those in the know and a smokescreen for those that dont at the same time.

[Dave B]

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUScheka.htm

[Alexios]

Source for this?

Anyway, I like him. I'm kind of surprised he's getting so much hate because I remember a thread on the Cheka a year or so back where a ton of prominent users praised him. Then again, now that many Marxist-Leninists and the most militant Trots have been banned, this board is more anti-Lenin than ever.

I found it in David Shub's biography of Lenin.

"At meetings of the Sovnarcom, Lenin often exchanged notes with his collegues. On one occasion he sent a note to Dzerzhinsky: 'How many vicious counter-revolutionaries are there in our prisons?' Dzerzhinsky's reply was 'About fifteen hundred.' Lenin read it , snorted something to himself, made a cross beside the figure, and returned the note to Dzerzhinsky. Dzerzhinsky rose and left the room without a word. No one paid any attention to Lenin's note or to Dzerzhinsky's departure. The meeting continued. But the next day there was excited whispering. Dzerzhinsky had ordered the execution of all the fifteen hundred "vicious counter-revolutionaries" the previous night. He had taken Lenin's cross as a collective death sentence. There would have been little comment had Lenin's gesture been meant as an order for wholesale liquidation. But, as Fotyeiva, Lenin's secretary explained: "There was a misunderstanding. Vladimir Illich usually puts a cross on memoranda to indicate that he had read them and noted their contents." This 'misunderstanding' cost fifteen hundred human beings their lives."

[Questionable]

I found it in David Shub's biography of Lenin.

"At meetings of the Sovnarcom, Lenin often exchanged notes with his collegues. On one occasion he sent a note to Dzerzhinsky: 'How many vicious counter-revolutionaries are there in our prisons?' Dzerzhinsky's reply was 'About fifteen hundred.' Lenin read it , snorted something to himself, made a cross beside the figure, and returned the note to Dzerzhinsky. Dzerzhinsky rose and left the room without a word. No one paid any attention to Lenin's note or to Dzerzhinsky's departure. The meeting continued. But the next day there was excited whispering. Dzerzhinsky had ordered the execution of all the fifteen hundred "vicious counter-revolutionaries" the previous night. He had taken Lenin's cross as a collective death sentence. There would have been little comment had Lenin's gesture been meant as an order for wholesale liquidation. But, as Fotyeiva, Lenin's secretary explained: "There was a misunderstanding. Vladimir Illich usually puts a cross on memoranda to indicate that he had read them and noted their contents." This 'misunderstanding' cost fifteen hundred human beings their lives."

Can you list where Shub gets his evidence for this?

It reminds me of those stories about Stalin killing the first person in the room who stopped clapping when he gave a speech, or having his guards executed for daring to wake him up while he was sleeping.

Maybe Felix actually did this, but I'm sure you can understand why I'm casting a skeptical shadow over it.

[Brutus]

I refer you to this: http://www.revleft.com/vb/felix-dzerzhinsky-t181120/index.html?t=181120&highlight=Dzerzhinsky

[Alexios]

Can you list where Shub gets his evidence for this?

It reminds me of those stories about Stalin killing the first person in the room who stopped clapping when he gave a speech, or having his guards executed for daring to wake him up while he was sleeping.

Maybe Felix actually did this, but I'm sure you can understand why I'm casting a skeptical shadow over it.

It's from an account of Nagolovsky, who was a Bolshevik. I believe it's written in Russian.