Felix Dzerzhinsky

Felix Dzerzhinsky, one of the great revolutionaries, was a steadfast Communist, a staunch defender of the revolution, a fighter for a better future for his own country and people and the whole of mankind. He was a man to be feared by the enemies of the revolution, a man whose life was a never-ending struggle to realise the ideals of communism. Though short, his life was full and eventful. A convinced BolshevikLeninist[1], who had spent eleven years-a quarter of his life- in prison and exile, Dzerzhinsky helped govern the world's first socialist state of workers and peasants. He was a truly 3 popular hero who struck terror into the bourgeoisie. Fellow- Bolsheviks nick-named him "iron Felix", paying tribute to his loyalty to the cause of revolution. Dzerzhinsky joined the ranks of fighters for the emancipation of the working class at the age of 17. His career as a revolutionary began in the working-class environment of Kaunas and Vilnius in Lithuania. Soon, he was a professional revolutionary, a leader of the working- class movement in the Northwest of the Russian Empire and in Poland. His dedicated work had done much to unite the Polish and Russian revolutionary movement, enhance internationalism among the Polish working class, bring the two fraternal proletarian parties closer together, and strengthen the Bolshevik Party. Dzerzhinsky was a consistent and firm Leninist. He became personally acquainted with Lenin in 1906 at the Fourth Congress of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP)[2] in Stockholm. But at a much earlier time he had "met" Lenin through his works. Dzerzhinsky thought highly of Lenin's activities as an organiser of the Communist Party and the fact that he consistently championed a truly revolutionary strategy and tactics in the working- class movement.
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