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p Dzerzhinsky was one of the closest associates and loyal supporters of Lenin, a member of the leadership of the Communist Party which had been brought together by Lenin and which staunchly championed Leninism no matter how complicated and difficult the situation, and after his death remained loyal to the policies mapped out by him.

p “Felix”, reminisced Kliment Voroshilov, a prominent Soviet statesman and Party figure, “followed Lenin’s example in everything he did. Like Lenin, he was humane and attentive to people, and extremely demanding and uncompromising towards the enemies of the revolution and their accomplices.”

p Lenin highly valued the work Dzerzhinsky was doing, trusted him implicitly, and, one may even say, looked after him.

p In his memoires, Bolshevik Ivan Radchenko, a prominent economic executive, described his meeting with Lenin, at which Dzerzhinsky was also present. “After he [ Dzerzhinsky] left, Lenin characterised him as a brilliant worker, speaking with a sort of joy, as about a loyal and dependable friend.

p “Later, too, in tricky situations, when something was going wrong, Lenin used to say: ‘We’d better entrust Dzerzhinsky with this, he’s sure to cope.’~"

p Yelena Stasova, a secretary of the RCP(B) Central Committee, later wrote: “All of us who had come into contact with Lenin on business, saw and sensed the respect and support he gave to Dzerzhinsky. And that was only natural. Dzerzhinsky’s courage, honesty and the purity of his life were known to everyone.”

p For his part, Dzerzhinsky repaid Lenin’s trust and constant support with warm gratitude. “He displayed great 218 attention and enormous confidence in Lenin’s genius when listening to his advice, reading and re-reading his works, to which he looked for answers to the most complicated questions posed by life,” wrote Dzerzhinsky’s wife. “When Felix spoke to Lenin over the telephone, I immediately knew to whom he was talking, even if I did not know what the conversation was about—Felix’s voice was filled with great admiration and respect for Lenin.”

p Lenin constantly communicated to Dzerzhinsky all sorts of instructions, requests, advice and suggestions, and was sure to find an immediate and willing response.

p He never forgot that Dzerzhinsky’s health was not good, and was always urging him to take better care of himself.

p “Learning that Dzerzhinsky was coughing blood but refused to take a rest,” wrote Stasova, “Lenin rang me up and proposed that the Central Committee pass a resolution obliging Dzerzhinsky to take a two weeks’ holiday. He had found a place where Dzerzhinsky could go, one of the state-run farms not far from Moscow, where food was good and which did not have a telephone: consequently Dzerzhinsky would be unable to get in touch with his subordinates and would get a good rest.”

p Lenin was worried about the harsh conditions under which Dzerzhinsky had to work in Siberia during his travel assignment there in 1922 and sent a telegram to Vecheka inquiring about his health. Moreover, Lenin issued instructions to somehow give Dzerzhinsky a medical check-up without telling him why this was being done. He demanded that the results of the check-up and the opinion of consulting doctors be communicated to him straight away.

p Despite the unofficial nature of Lenin’s telegram, Dzerzhinsky learned about it. In a letter to his wife written on February 7, 1922, and sent from Omsk, he remarked: “Of course my work here isn’t very good for my health... But were I to be recalled earlier than I myself feel that my mission here has been to a large extent accomplished, I believe my health would suffer still more.” Dzerzhinsky left Siberia only after his work there had been completed, displaying again the sense of duty that always motivated him in his work.

p While in Siberia in 1922, Dzerzhinsky knew that Lenin was in poor health, and asked him for assistance only when absolutely necessary. He requested others not to bother 219 Lenin either without extreme necessity.

p On January 21, 1924, Lenin died. This was a great loss for Soviet Communists, all the Soviet people, the international working-class movement and the working people throughout the world. Soviet people rallied even closer around the Communist Party. Dzerzhinsky was terribly shaken by Lenin’s death. His wife wrote later: “I had never seen Felix so grief-stricken as in those mournful days. He realised that the Party would find it difficult to carry on without Lenin. But he believed in the strength of the proletariat and its Party, and the victory of Leninism.”

It was a token of appreciation of Dzerzhinsky as.Lenin’s loyal follower that the Party appointed him head of the USSR Central Executive Committee Presidium commission for the arrangement of Lenin’s funeral.

p Dzerzhinsky had many responsibilities as a member of the Party Central Committee. From July 1920, he was an alternate member of the Organising Bureau, and a member from August 1921; from June 1924 till the end of his life, he was an alternate member of the Central Committee Politbureau. He frequently made speeches and reports at Party congresses, Central Committee plenary meetings, and Politbureau meetings. Party congresses and the Central Committee frequently chose him to head major commissions or serve as one of the members.

p Dzerzhinsky was also involved in important work in the field of foreign trade. On February 20, 1924, he spoke concerning a trade agreement between the USSR and Italy at a Politbureau meeting and was appointed a member of its commission for considering a draft agreement.

p Speaking at the October 1925 Central Committee Plenary Meeting, Dzerzhinsky stated: “The rates of development of our foreign trade are still insufficient... All the problems of our national economy, which we are tackling with so much difficulty, have recently come up against the problem of foreign trade.”

p Some participants in the discussion spoke out in favour of relaxing the foreign trade monopoly. Dzerzhinsky opposed this idea, for he considered it a means of protecting the country’s industry. The Plenary Meeting appointed him 220 to a commission to prepare proposals on the forms of exercising this monopoly by the state.

p At the same meeting, Dzerzhinsky spoke on the work of trade unions, advocating the establishment of better working relations between trade union and economic management personnel, and criticising the bureaucracy in the activities of trade unions. He then touched on the attempts of the American automobile manufacturer Henry Ford to motivate the workers to increase production by introducing private enterprise, noting that the socialist system of production possessed more effective incentives which appealed to the hearts and the minds of the working people. He spoke highly of production conferences as one of the most efficient methods for allowing workers to freely discuss production problems and seek their solutions.

p Dzerzhinsky set high standards for the work of each Communist and demanded unswerving loyalty to Party duty. In a February 28, 1923 memo he criticised the lack of cooperation between Communists working on transport and local territorial Party bodies, and proposed a number of concrete steps to consolidate the contacts between them. When the newly-appointed Chairman of the RSFSR Supreme Economic Council, Semyon Lobov, noted that the links between a number of economic executives, members of the Party, and the Moscow Party organisation were too weak, Dzerzhinsky supported him and drew up proposals towards involving the former in Party work.

p Lobov wrote about Dzerzhinsky: “His constant wish was to establish a closer connection between Party members working at the Supreme Economic Council, trusts and syndicates, on the one hand, and the Moscow Party Committee and Moscow factories, on the other, and he was concerned that not everyone was yet involved in this work.”

p Dzerzhinsky’s entire work was an example of selfless dedication to the cause of the Communist Party. His character resume, kept at the Central Party Archives, states that as a member of the RCP(B) Central Committee, he was an example of a true Communist working in close collaboration with rank-and-file Party members. This concise and yet exhaustive description reveals the principal aspect of Dzerzhinsky’s work—his deep and sincere concern for the people.

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p Feliks Kon, who knew Dzerzhinsky well, reminisced: “Put at the helm of the national economy, he bent all his energies and prestige into preventing the smallest deviations from the line of the Central Committee.”

p Dzerzhinsky’s writings contain pieces which reveal his profound understanding of the role of the Marxist- Leninist Party and the ways of its development. Of considerable interest is his letter to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Poland of January 20, 1925, in which he wrote: “The development of the Party means overcoming the mistakes, conscious advancement, i.e., overcoming conservatism, dogmatism... Party traditions, their strength mean ... moving unceasingly towards realising the ultimate goals of communism.”

This was the policy he himself followed in his work.

p Dzerzhinsky’s views and convinctions were profoundly internationalist. But he was also a Polish patriot who dreamed about a socialist, free Poland. Former General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Poland Lenski stated that “he [Dzerzhinsky] had always been the link connecting the revolutionary movement in Poland with the Russian revolution. He played that role ever since the formation of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania and until his death. It was his vision of a workers’ and peasants’ Poland that led him to urge Polish Communists to study the experience of the Russian revolution. He always displayed an interest in the Communist Party of Poland.”

p The Communist Workers’ Party of Poland (the Communist Party of Poland since 1925) was formed on December 16, 1918 as a result of the unification of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania and the Left wing of the Polish Socialist Party. The same kind of merger took place on the territory of Soviet Russia. A Central Executive Committee of the Communist Workers’ Party of Poland in Russia was formed, and Dzerzhinsky was made a member. Through the Committee, he received information about the situation in Poland and the work of the Party. On July 12, 1919, the Central Executive Committee of the groups of the Communist Workers’ Party of 222 Poland in Smolensk sent him a resolution of the Central Committee on joining the Communist International. He also received illegal communist literature printed in Polandleaflets, pamphlets, and books smuggled into Russia with great difficulty.

p Back in Moscow after the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front in September 1920, Dzerzhinsky proposed to the RCP(B) Central Committee Orgbureau that Jakub Dolecki be sent to Berlin to establish communication with members of the Communist Workers’ Party of Poland there, specifically, with Adolf Warski, who in October 1920 was appointed head of the Central Committee Foreign Section of the Communist Workers’ Party of Poland. Via that section, the Polish Bureau of the RCP(B) Central Committee, in which Dzerzhinsky remained a member, received regular reports on the situation in Poland and on the work of the Party.

p Like many other Polish Communists, Dzerzhinsky regarded work in Soviet Russia a good school for Party cadres, and personally followed the training of members of the Communist Workers’ Party of Poland On October 29, 1920, he requested the Central Committee Orgbureau to allow “50 men to come over from Poland to be put through Party courses”. He never lost interest in his homeland and was always asking for first-hand information about Poland, the Party and its needs.

p Dzerzhinsky took part in many -international forums and was the RCP(B) delegate to the First and Second congresses of the Communist International.

p In July 1921, he attended the sessions of the Polish delegation at the Third Congress of the Communist International where a reunion took place between comradesin-arms who had not seen each other for years.

p One of the sessions of the Polish delegation discussed the results of the work of the Provisional Revolutionary Committee of Poland. Voicing the opinion of Polish Communists and former members of the Committee, Dzerzhinsky criticised the Communist Workers’ Party of Poland leadership, which failed to establish relations with it. Expressing his views on the Party’s activities, he advised Polish Communists to make more extensive use of the opportunities for legal work and combine different forms and methods of revolutionary action. The Polish delegation also 223 discussed Party membership. A number of Polish Communists residing in Russia were members of both the RCP(B) and the CWPP. Dzerzhinsky’s proposal on the issue was approved and the delegation took the following decision: Those who wish to be considered Party members must submit to RCP(B) discipline and render material and moral support to the CWPP. Dzerzhinsky was also present at the meeting of the Polish delegation held on July 14 after the congress was closed and devoted to the CWPP’s work in the army. Like the majority of those who took the floor, he advocated thorough preparation for future revolutionary battles (this was also one of the resolutions of the Third Congress of the Communist International aimed at forming a single front against the advance of capital).

p Closely following the progress of events in Poland, Dzerzhinsky made it a point to pass on information to the RCP(B) Central Committee. After receiving materials on the election campaign in Poland on September 13, 1922, he forwarded them to the Central Committee and requested that a report on this question be made by Prochniak, representative of the CWPP at the next Central Committee Politbureau meeting.

p As a result of terror and repressions, thousands of Polish Communists were arrested, and their families remained without any means of sustenance. Back in the summer of 1922, a group of Polish Communists living in the RSFSR issued an “Address to All Polish Communists in the Soviet Republics”. It was signed by Dzerzhinsky and prominent members of Polish working-class movement Julian Marchlewski, Stanislaw Bobinski, Waclaw Bogucki, Stanislaw Budzynski, Feliks Kon, Jakub Hanecki, Josef Unszlicht and Edward Prochniak. The address read: “The way home is closed to us, and our ranks are supplemented with those who have been forced to leave it [Poland] due to fierce persecutions. We have only one right left, which no one can take away from us. It is the right to express solidarity with, the right to help the fighting Polish proletariat and its leader, the CWPP.” The address ended with an appeal for donations to benefit the CWPP and political prisoners.

p Dzerzhinsky thought it important that Polish Communists and Polish working people help build socialism in the USSR. As head of the People’s Commissariat for Transport and then of the Supreme Economic Council, he tried to 224 involve the Poles whom he personally knew well in the activities of these bodies, believing that work in the Soviet economy would prepare them for similar jobs in the future workers’ and peasants’ state of Poland. In 1923, Polish Communists who had been released from prisons arrived in the USSR on an exchange programme. Dzerzhinsky found one of them, Henryk Brand (Lauer), a job in the Supreme Economic Council apparatus. Jan Tannenbaum and Zdislaw Leder were also working there. Polish Communists initiated a campaign to raise funds for Polish schools. Dzerzhinsky as well as other Polish Communists contributed to it.

p The Communist Workers’ Party of Poland appreciated Dzerzhinsky’ assistance and advice. In early 1923, the Party leadership decided to invite him, Marchlewski, Kon, and Unszlicht to its Second Congress, which was held in September 1923 in Bolshevo near Moscow. Taking part were also representatives of the Communist International, of the RCP(B) Central Committee, and of other communist parties.

p Dzerzhinsky’s appearance at the congress provoked a storm of applause. Alexander Lenovich, veteran of the Polish communist movement and a delegate to the Second CWPP Congress, wrote later: “Felix Dzerzhinsky was for us all a legendary figure, the personification of the slogan ’For our and your freedom!’ We were proud that our compatriot, a son of the Polish people, had become one of the jading figures in the Great October Socialist Revolution, a terror for counter-revolutionaries, one of Lenin’s closest associates. We asked him to make a speech but he refused point-blank saying that he had lost touch with the current problems of the Polish workers’ movement. He had absolutely no wish to speak from the congress’s rostrum, but he talked with comrades Adolf Warski, Henryk Walecki, ’old Marcin’ (Grzelszczak) and Kraiewski about the various issues that were vital for the Polish [workers’] movement. I remember him saying to the men surrounding him that we must drastically change our attitude to the agrarian question. He made a number of critical remarks about the stand taken by the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania on this issue, saying that if we had recognised the significance of Lenin’s slogan on the alliance of the workers and the peasants before and during the war, we would now have a socialist Poland independent of the 225 imperialist states. Dzerzhinsky said that it was necessary to examine the nationalities question with great care for ’one must admit that we have blundered considering this question’.”

p Dzerzhinsky attended the Fifth Congress of the Communist International held in June-July 1924. As a member of the RCP(B) delegation, he was also a member of the Polish Commission under the Executive Committee of the Communist International.

p Dzerzhinsky seriously examined the economic position of Poland and the condition of its working people. Seeking to determine the work to be done by the Polish Commission, in November 1925 Dzerzhinsky analysed the country’s international position, its financial situation, the condition of the working class and the peasantry. On February 11, 1926, in a speech at the Extraordinary 23rd Leningrad Conference of the CPSU(B), Dzerzhinsky talked about the difficult economic condition of the Polish proletariat and peasantry which was due to criminal policies of the ruling circles.

p On May 10, 1926, a government headed by Wincenty Witos, leader of the kulak party Piast, came to power in Poland. This provoked even greater discontent among the population. Capitalising on the situation, reactionary leader Josef Pilsudski, who was supported by the Polish Socialist Party and the peasants’ parties Wyzwolenie and Stronnictwo chlopskie, effected a fascist coup in mid-May. The masses of workers, peasants and intellectuals were deceived by the leadership of the Polish Socialist Party and the Wyzwolenie party, which had built up Pilsudski’s image as “the savior of the motherland" and a “democrat”. The leadership of the Communist Party of Poland and its activists, failing to realise that the coup was essentially fascist, supported it, and its organ Czerwony Sztandar even called for armed action to defend Pilsudski. Dzerzhinsky was gravely concerned over the situation in Poland. Back in April 1926, he wrote to Waclaw Bogucki, a representative of the Communist Party of Poland in the Executive Committee of the Communist International: “The slogan in favour of Pilsudski is in my opinion inadmissible and has nothing in common with the Bolshevisation of the party. The slogan of support for Pilsudski will signify the end of the Communist Party of Poland as a party of the working class.”

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p Opposing Piisudski in the days of the coup, Dzerzhinsky at the same time tried to show what the Polish workers and peasants could have attained in a country a socialist society. In his letter to the workers of Dovbysn he spoke of the significance of the effort made by working people in the Polish region in the Ukraine, and urged them “to work in such a way that we might send a delegation of Polish workers and peasants to visit you, so that they would have something to tell, upon returning to the country, the Polish workers and peasants.”

Dzerzhinsky stressed the need to educate Polish Communists and the working people at large in the spirit of internationalism, and to help them strengthen their friendship with the Russians and other nations of the Soviet Union. He repeatedly reminded them about the traditions of the Polish-Russian revolutionary alliance, and urged them to draw on the illustrious past of the Polish working class.

p Dzerzhinsky was involved in a broad range of activities as a statesman. He was a member of the All-Russia Central Executive Committee and the USSR Central Executive Committee, the Council of People’s Commissars and the Labour and Defence Council, and headed a number of major government commissions or was a member.

p Valerian Kuibyshev was accurate in writing: “There was not a branch of the economy or a sector of state activity at large which Dzerzhinsky did not know, in which he was not interested.”

p Dzerzhinsky made an important contribution to the work of public organisations, especially the trade unions. He frequently spoke at trade union congresses and conferences, and CC plenary meetings of the branch trade unions.

p Together with Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Friedrich Tsander and other distinguished scientists and engineers, Dzerzhinsky was elected to the Presidium of the Society for the Study of Problems of Interplanet Communications set up in 1924.

p In November 1925, he greeted the inaugural meeting of the Society of Friends of Soviet Cinema: “Bring cinema and radio into the villages and workers’ communities—let this be your motto, let the cinema and radio help to overcome 227 promptly our cultural backwardness”. Dzerzhinsky was elected Chairman of the Society. In a speech at the Society Council plenary meeting he spoke about the need to render practical assistance in promoting the construction of movie nouses, especially in the country’s outskirts, villages and areas with a predominantly working-class population, and to render regular financial assistance to the film industry.

p For a number of years, until his death, Dzerzhinsky was head of the management board of the first transport joint-stock society, and in 1925-26, deputy chairman of the management board of the USSR Aviakhim society for assisting defence and aviation and chemical construction.

p In answer to one of the questions on a questionnaire distributed among the delegates of the Tenth Party Congress: “What are your trades or professions?”, Dzerzhinsky wrote: “I am only a revolutionary.” And indeed, no matter what he did, he always remained a revolutionary, with a revolutionary’s creative approach to all the work in which he was engaged. Clara Zetkin wrote about Dzerzhinsky: “One feature stood out—his revolutionary convictions, whose burning intensity developed Dzerzhinsky’s outstanding qualities. These convictions were a sacred, primary obligation to him. Kind and sympathetic by nature, for their sake he could, and was even compelled to be, stern, hard and implacable towards others, for, even serving, them, he was incomparably sterner, harder and more implacable towards himself.”

p In his work Dzerzhinsky invariably looked for support to the working class, and also considered the promotion of its interests of primary importance. Strongly .believing in the power of collective creative endeavour, he always submitted questions of major importance for discussion by Communists, managers and workers; often, these discussions were more like open heart-to-heart talks. But Dzerzhinsky never tried to cater to the backward thinking typical of certain strata of the working population. When speaking before workers on the most topical issues, he was always frank and never tried to embellish the harsh conditions in the country in those years. Listening to Dzerzhinsky, they felt imbued with deep confidence in the worthiness of what they were doing, in the targets set by the Communists, and became even more conscientious and staunch supporters of the Bolsheviks.

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p Under the harsh conditions prevailing during the rebuilding of the economy, Dzerzhinsky still never neglected the questions of the workers’ material conditions and their daily life. One thing he did was to open cheap canteens for them. He willingly agreed to become a member of the Council for the Assistance for the Narpit People’s Catering Cooperative Society.

p It was typical of Dzerzhinsky that one of the first USSR SEC Presidium meetings he chaired held on March 5, 1924, considered the question of opening cheap workers’ canteens. The Presidium recognised the far-reaching significance of the Narpit’s activities.

p Dzerzhinsky also wished to build more housing for workers. On April 25, 1924, the Labour and Defence Council appointed him chairman of a commission to prepare a draft resolution for the promotion of cooperative construction of housing for workers and the establishment of a standing committee for this purpose. Its resolution was approved on May 21.

p On August 21, 1924, the USSR Council of People’s Commissars passed a decree which granted Dzerzhinsky the right to sell confiscated valuables, with the money raised to be used to open a fund for the building of housing for workers. On January 20, 1925, the Council of People’s Commissars decided to give Dzerzhinsky control over this fund, and to form a bureau, headed by him, which would supervise the building of model-experimental housing for workers.

p Since state allocations for housing were insufficient, Dzerzhinsky recommended developing individual and group housing construction by granting credits to workers For the purpose. He opposed unjustified expenditure in construction and advocated the use of cheaper materials, mechanisation, and foreign innovations. He suggested that standard model designs for housing be developed with due account for the price of materials, durability of houses, and their geographical location; he also insisted on the need for public control over housing construction.

p Dzerzhinsky always kept in close touch with the people. Mazhimilian Saveliev, editor of the Torgovo- promyshlennaya gazeta (Trade and Industrial Newspaper ) wrote: “Everyone knows about those ’new words’ , those ambitious campaigns which he so passionately fanned up by the ‘furnace’ of his heart, a mighty effort of energy and will ... 229 And he still managed to keep in close contact with broad masses of the revolutionary workers, appeal to the class consciousness of the proletariat on the basis of his truly Leninist approach to dealing with the principal problems of the revolution.”

p Rank-and-file workers sent Dzerzhinsky letters which contained heartfelt expressions of gratitude for the care and attention he invariably displayed and his courage and determination in the campaign against the enemies of the Soviet state. Many such letters were printed by newspapers and magazines. For example, here is a letter from the employees of the Mechanical Factory that was signed by 80 people.

p “Dear Comrade Dzerzhinsky,

p “We, workers and office employees of the Mechanical Factory which bears your distinguished name, address you, our comrade, who has dedicated himself to the defence of the rights of workers, peasants and all honest working citizens of the RSFSR.

p “By your indefatigable work and inexhaustible energy, and with the support of all the working people, you have eradicated counter-revolution and thus given us an opportunity to devote ourselves to the reconstruction of our undermined economy, which we workers have inherited from the bourgeoisie, in particular, to rebuild our transport system, which you, dear Comrade Dzerzhinsky, are heading ...

p “As a token of our respect, please accept our modest gift, a lighter with the inscription: ’To the sponsor of the Mechanical Factory, Comrade Dzerzhinsky, from the factory’s workers’. We want you to know that at your first call, at any time, we are ready to rise to defend the workers’ and peasants’ rights, and to fill the key sectors of our production front, to rebuild the transport system which is so important to our young Republic. We are sure that you will cope with our destroyed transport, rebuild it and completely restore it. We have this conviction because you have proven by deed your dedication to the working class when fighting against all enemies of the working people, and have already done a great deal to restore the transport system.

p “Long live world revolution:

p “Long live our leader in the struggle against economic dislocation in transport, Comrade Dzerzhinsky!”

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p Dzerzhinsky received letters not only from workers but from peasants, too. Their authors especially appreciated the campaign for thriftiness initiated by him. Here is an excerpt from one such letter:

p “Dear Comrade Dzerzhinsky! On behalf of the peasants of a far-off village, allow me to express my proletarian gratitude for the thrift economy drive which will save us. Be healthy and in the future take more steps of this kind aimed at saving the gains of the revolution ... Be daring, we peasants are with you and for you. Proletarian greetings from peasant Ivan Zyuganov.”

p Dzerzhinsky had a rare gift for descovering just the right people to appoint to responsible jobs. An unerring intuition developed throughout years of Party work helped him to give accurate assessments of people’s job capabilities and political convictions. “Work will be successful,” Dzerzhinsky remarked in Kharkov in May 1926, “if it is entrusted to people who like the work and know how to set about it.”

p When staying in Siberia in 1922, Dzerzhinsky met Leonid Kazakov, who some time before was transferred from transport to another job. Talking to him, Dzerzhinsky became convinced that the man used to enjoy his work in transport and was eager to take part in its reconstruction. Dzerzhinsky wrote about him to the People’s Commissariat for Transport, enclosing the man’s short biography, “He produces a most favourable impression as an energetic, honest and responsible person. I request you to promptly collect information about him. In any case, I am sending him to Moscow ... for personal acquaintance”. Dzerzhinsky never missed a chance to enlist the help of willing and useful people, but was at the same time very cautious when selecting new personnel. He was particularly considerate and thoughtful towards those who had rendered an important service to the revolution and the working class. One of the people he helped promote was Yevgeny Losevich, whom Kuibyshev had known well during the time of his exile.

p Dzerzhinsky liked to spend time with his subordinates, and took care to give them’ opportunities for advancement. Vladimir Knyazev, who was the secretary of the People’s Commissar for Transport, said that the moment Dzerzhinsky spotted an able and gifted worker he made inquiries as to the conditions of his daily life and his needs, 231 and continued to take an interest in him for a long time to come.

p But, besides being considerate and kind, Dzerzhinsky was extremely demanding towards his staff. Apart from having talks with the men under him, Dzerzhinsky often sent them short notes. Archives have retained a great number of them. “I have adopted this form of contacts with the members of the Collegium,” he explained, “because personal contacts and contacts at conferences are insufficient, and also because it is easier to give a more precise form to an idea and to affirm known instructions in a note, which helps to unite our huge Collegium in one strong fist.”

p Dzerzhinsky made it a point to investigate each case of abuse of official position or neglect and each difficult situation in a particular sector. Wherever he happened to be working, he managed to create an atmosphere of comradely confidence and openness in relations among employees, and took pains to encourage initiative. Vyacheslav Menzhinsky wrote that, “All his fellow-workers had extremely great scope in their work. This can be explained by the fact that as a gifted, daring organiser, he encouraged employee independence and for this reason preferred, in most cases, to conclude an argument with the words: ’Do as you think best, but remember you are responsible for the outcome’. "

p It was usual with him, having heard a number of opinions on a complicated and controversial issue, to request postponing decision-making for two or three days so as to give it more thought. He was always fighting against “ Window-dressing”, outward show that detracted from real work, and criticised the unwillingness of an employee to thoroughly study a matter and acquire new knowledge.

p In a memo of December 6, 1923, Dzerzhinsky named one of the most valuable qualities in a person, “to be honest above all else, and to be able to pick out honest people who are ready to promote the great cause by doing ’small things’.”

p Ivan Radchenko wrote in his reminiscenses about Dzerzhinsky: “It was easy to work with him, he was so outspoken, sincere, hard-working, resolute and dedicated to what he was doing. Moreover, he was always polite, tactful and considerate.”

p Among Dzerzhinsky’s many great qualities as a leader 232 and a man of a new socialist system were his initiative and openness to everything new. It was he who raised many major economic, state and Party issues before the Party Central Committee and the Soviet Government. Dzerzhinsky vigorously supported each new and valuable idea, each useful initiative. He was responsible for launching a number of new promising industries. Himself a man of high principles and scrupulous honesty, he was intolerant to any abuse of Soviet laws, protectionism and nepotism.

p Dzerzhinsky’s sister Jadwiga described in her memoirs a college head, who at the same time held a high-level post at the Moscow-Kazan Railway. He wanted to promote Jadwiga to a travelling inspector of that railway, which would have increased her salary. Jadwiga told this to her brother, who became very upset and issued an order: “In no case appoint my sister to this responsible position as she is unfit for it due to lack of necessary qualifications; immediately fire from this responsible position on the Kazan Railway the head of the college who is trying to show favouritism to an employee without even questioning her knowledge of the job.”

p Another of Dzerzhinsky’s assets was his speaking ability and his gift as witty conversationalist. Engineer Ivan Bardin, later a distinguished metal scientist and Vice-President of the USSR Academy of Sciences, related his impressions of Dzerzhinsky speaking at a meeting in one of Kharkov’s theatres: “For the first time in my life I was listening to such a fiery orator, a political fighter of this calibre, whose words, it seemed, originated in his very heart, emerged from the crystal depths of the human soul. I was looking around at people who had long had to go without a shave, who were exhausted and emaciated but confident of victory, drunk with the truth with which Dzerzhinsky scorched them as with a flame.”

p Dzerzhinsky lived a modest life. He contributed a silver ink-stand presented to him in 1922 by workers of railway workshops to the relief fund for the famished, considering it inadmissible to be using such an expensive article. Learning that the Semirechye Railway in Turkestan had been named after him without his consent, he wired his objection and also wrote to the Council of People’s Commissars requesting that this decision be reconsidered.

p “Felix was very unassuming in his private life,” 233 reminisced his wife. “More than once he said to me:’ ’We Communists must live in such a way that the working people can say that we are usjng the victory of the revolution and power not for ourselves but for the happiness and welfare of the people.”

p He did not really look after his health at all, although his doctors demanded that he stick to a diet and a regimen. Here is one of the instances bearing out Dzerzhinsky’s exceptional modesty which took place during his trip to Siberia in 1922. “Once,” Dmitry Sverchkov wrote, “when Dzerzhinsky and I were sitting in his railway car, somebody brought him a glass of milk. Dzerzhinsky was acutely embarrassed... He considered milk an absolutely inadmissible luxury, an unpardonable extravagance under the harsh conditions of life prevailing at that time.”

p Dzerzhinsky hardly ever took time to rest. Even when on holiday he continued to work, drafted business letters and memos and requested Moscow to send him all sorts of documents. But in those rare moments when he allowed himself to relax he enjoyed the beauties of nature, liked to swim in the sea, went in for rowing, and was a good rider. He enjoyed fiction and had a good knowledge of Russian and Polish classics. He also loved and had a keen ear for music.

p Everyone who knew him succumbed to his charm. Menzhinsky wrote about him: “By nature he was a very attracting, charming man with a tender, proud and pure soul.”

p As a rule, Dzerzhinsky refrained from complaining about his health. But once, when asked to write reminiscences about a Party member, he said: “I am so exhausted, overworked and ill myself that I am absolutely unable to write anything.” And indeed, his strenuous, selfless work did affect his health, and he suffered frequent heart attacks. The Central Committee repeatedly passed resolutions obliging him to observe a regimen and to rest.

p On December 11, 1924, when considering the question of Dzerzhinsky’s health, the Central Committee Politbureau ruled that he was to work only four days a week and to attend meetings of the Council of People’s Commissars only when something of exceptional importance was being discussed. By a decision of the Central Committee Politbureau of December 18, Dzerzhinsky was granted a two weeks’ leave of absence at the insistence of the doctors. 234 Similar decisions were adopted later, too.

p However, the tension in Dzerzhinsky’s work continued to mount, reaching a climax on Tuesday, July 20, 1926, when he made an impassioned speech at the Central Committee plenary meeting. Representatives of the opposition were trying to paint a distorted picture of the country’s economic development, and a well-substantiated rebuff was strongly needed to dash their hopes and expose their errors. Dzerzhinsky’s report did just that. But even while speaking he felt a sharp pain in his heart. However he carried on to finish his speech and thus helped the Central Committee reach a sound assessment of the country’s economic position.

p After his speech, he went into the next room and lay down on a couch. Feeling desperately ill, he nevertheless summoned participants in the plenary meeting and questioned them about the progress of the debate. When he felt somewhat better, the doctors allowed him to walk to his flat, which was in a building next to the Armoury Chamber across from the Grand Kremlin Palace, where the plenary meeting was being held. Once in his bedroom, he fainted and died instantly. His death occurred at 4.40 p.m.

p The Central Committee and Central Control Committee of the Party announced Dzerzhinsky’s death with an address “To All Party Members. To All Workers. To All Working People. To the Red Army and the Navy”. “Today, the Party has sustained another heavy loss.- A heart attack has taken the life of Comrade Dzerzhinsky, a scourge to the bourgeoisie, a dedicated knight of the proletariat, the noblest fighter of the communist revolution, an indefatigable builder of our industry, the perennial worker and indomitable soldier of great battles...

p “In him, the Party has lost one of its most outstanding and heroic leaders... His noble figure, personal valour, profoundly principled stand on all issues, his straight forwardness and exceptional honesty have given him enormous prestige. His service is tremendous. It cannot be overestimated.

p “...His work was exemplary. His was a wonderful, magnificent life. His death, the death of a soldier on duty, was also magnificent.

p “...We are lowering our battle standards over your body, our fearless friend! We call on all working people, on all 235 proletarians, to pay their last respects to the fighter whose name will never be forgotten, whose cause will conquer the world.

p “Long live communism;

p “Long live our Party!”

p The address issued by the Executive Committee of the Communist International in connection with Dzerzhinsky’s death voiced the deep grief of the international community of Communists, of the world proletariat.

p In the USSR, Party organisations and groups of employees sent to the Party Central Committee, the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People’s Commissars letters and telegrams of condolence which expressed their profound grief and the sincere gratitude they felt towards Dzerzhinsky for everything he had done for the victory of the revolution and the building of socialism in the country.

p Workers of Bryansk, who had assembled for a meeting of mourning, wrote in a telegram; “Let all enemies and slanderers remember that Dzerzhinsky will forever be an example of inexhaustible energy and indomitable will for the working class in realising Lenin’s ideas.”

p One telegram justly called Dzerzhinsky “the symbol of revolutionary conscience and will of the proletariat”. The telegram sent by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Germany read: “For us German Communists Dzerzhinsky also was the symbol of revolutionary commitment to duty...” The telegram from the leadership of the Swedish Communist Party called him “one of the best leaders of the world proletariat.”

Dzerzhinsky was buried in Red Square, next to Lenin’s Mausoleum. To perpetuate Dzerzhinsky’s memory, the USSR Council of People’s Commissars decided to build a refuge for homeless children which would have the form of an industrial labour commune. The Moscow Institute for Transport Engineers was named after him. The People’s Commissariat for Public Education was instructed to publish his works in collections suitable for a broad readership.

p One hundred and ten years have passed since Dzerzhinsky’s birth, over sixty years have passed since his death, 236 yet he retains a place of honour in the community of fighters for social progress, for the victory of communism.

p Dzerzhinsky was one of the fighters for the people’s happiness whom Lenin described in 1910: “The proletariat needs the truth about political leaders, whether living or dead, for those who really deserve to be called political leaders do not become dead as regards politics upon their physical demise."  [236•1 

The life and revolutionary work of Dzerzhinsky were examples of dedicated service to the cause of the working class and all the working people, examples for future generations of Soviet citizens.