A bronze statue of 'Iron Felix' Dzerzhinsky, the ruthless founder of the Soviet secret police and architect of the Red Terror which followed the 1917 revolution, was unveiled on Monday at the headquarters of Russia's foreign spy service.
Director of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service Sergei Naryshkin delivers a speech during a ceremony unveiling the monument to founder of the Soviet secret police Felix Dzerzhinsky at the service's headquarters in Moscow, Russia, September 11, 2023.
"Colleagues, the sculpture in front of which we are standing is a somewhat reduced copy of the famous monument to Dzerzhinsky installed on Lubyanka Square in Moscow in 1958," Naryshkin said on the anniversary of Dzerzhinsky's birthday. The statue at the SVR looks remarkably similar to the one that once stood on Lubyanka Square. In both, Dzerzhinsky stands, staring forward in a long coat, with his hand in one pocket.For some Russians, the return of Dzerzhinsky to such a public pedestal is an indicator of the repression they say prevails in wartime Russia - and the extent to which the country has abandoned its post-Soviet pivot towards the West.
As one of Vladimir Lenin's most loyal lieutenants, Dzerzhinsky helped establish the revolutionary government using ruthless Leninist tactics: the brutal persecution of opponents - or anyone even suspected of being an opponent. The OGPU's functions were later transferred to the NKVD, the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, which carried out the worst of Stalin's repression.
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