Dzerzhinsky upheld the spirit of the revolution in a way others could not. He was an exceptionally skilled, if not the most skilled counter intelligence director, and was personally of many virtues. Selfless, and relentless in his commitment to the revolution, an alliance with Stalin is hardly grounds for criticism. Had he lived longer, who knows, the secret police and the military by the mid thirties had been plotting to overthrow Stalin and put Tukhachevsky at helm, and Dzerzhinsky would have most likely been of the secret police.
Dzerzhinsky wasn't a Stalinist because by the time he had passed, Stalinism had not yet fully developed as a state ideology, nor as what... Distinguishes it politically and so on. Did Dzerzhinsky side with Stalin in the face of Trotsky? He did, among many others. Was Dzerzhinsky (wrongly) suspicious of skilled military leaders like Tukhachevsky, as Stalin was? Indeed. That hardly makes him a "Stalinist" though. Had I been as ignorant of the coming political circus, as Dzerzhinsky was, I most likely would have sided with Stalin against Trotsky as well.
Does it bother you that Dzerzhinsky was a massive Stalinist?
