"Felix Dzerzhinsky Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky (Russian: Фе́ликс Эдму́ндович Дзержи́нский; Polish: ""Feliks Dzierżyński"" ; 20 July 1926), nicknamed Iron Felix, was a Bolshevik revolutionary, leader and statesman. From 1917 until his death in 1926, Dzerzhinsky led the first two Soviet state security organizations, the Cheka and the OGPU, establishing a secret police for the post-revolutionary Soviet government. Felix Dzerzhinsky was born on 11 September 1877 at the Dzerzhinovo family estate, about away from the small town of Ivyanets, in the Minsk Region, a part of the Russian Empire (today Belarus). His aristocratic Catholic family belonged to the former Polish-Lithuanian ""szlachta"" (nobility),"
"Cheka The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (), abbreviated as VChK (, ""Ve-Che-Ka"") and commonly known as Cheka (from the initialism ChK), was the first of a succession of Soviet secret police organizations. Established on December 5 (Old Style) 1917 by the Sovnarkom, it came under the leadership of Felix Dzerzhinsky, a Polish aristocrat-turned-communist. By late 1918, hundreds of Cheka committees had sprung up in various cities at the oblast, guberniya, raion, uyezd, and volost levels. The official designation was All-Russian Extraordinary (or Emergency) Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage under the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR (, ""Vserossiyskaya chrezvychaynaya"
"president were created by President Yeltsin's decrees on the basis of the relevant main directorates of the defunct KGB: Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR, the former First Main Directorate) and the Federal Agency of Government Communications and Information (FAPSI, merging the functions of the former 8th Main Directorate and 16th Main Directorate of the KGB). In January 1992, another new institution, the Ministry of Security took over domestic and border security responsibilities. Following the 1993 constitutional crisis, the Ministry of Security was reorganized on 21 December 1993 into the Federal Counter-Intelligence Service (FSK). The FSK was headed by Sergei Stepashin. Before"
"was left with no capable security force, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR established () a secret political police, the ""Cheka"", led by Felix Dzerzhinsky. It gained the right to undertake quick non-judicial trials and executions, if that was deemed necessary in order to ""protect the Russian Socialist-Communist revolution"". The ""Cheka"" was reorganized in 1922 as the State Political Directorate, or GPU, of the NKVD of the RSFSR. In 1922 the USSR formed, with the RSFSR as its largest member. The GPU became the OGPU (Joint State Political Directorate), under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR."
"secret police), and the Russian Gendarmerie. On the Kerensky's ministry issued an order of political amnesty. Following that on there was announced military amnesty and after three days the Ministry of Justice issued a ruling ""On the relief of the fate of persons who have committed criminal offenses"" (). Following the amnesty, on 22 March 1917 bureau of the Central Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (bolsheviks) adopted resolution about the Provisional Government which stated that the main task of Soviets is ""universal arming of people and, in particular, immediate creation of the workers' Red Guards throughout the"
"the Rhodesian Security Forces. This ultimately never happened. After the Russian Revolution in 1917, the use of terrorism to subdue people characterized the new communist regime. Historian Anna Geifman stated that this was ""evident in the regime's very origins."" An estimated 17,000 people died as a result of the initial campaign of violence known as the Red Terror. Lenin stated that his ""Jacobian party would never reject terror, nor could it do so,"" referring to the Jacobian Reign of Terror of 1793-1794 as a model for the Bolshevik Red Terror. Felix Dzerzhinsky, founder of the Cheka (the Soviet secret police),"
"August 1918, the Bolsheviks instructed Felix Dzerzhinsky to commence a Red Terror, announced in the 1 September 1918 issue of the ""Krasnaya Gazeta"" (""Red Gazette""). Regarding the Red Terror Trotsky wrote: In dealing with deserters, Trotsky often appealed to them politically, arousing them with the ideas of the Revolution. Given the lack of manpower and the 16 opposing foreign armies, Trotsky also insisted on the use of former Tsarist officers as military specialists within the Red Army, in combination with Bolshevik political commissars to ensure the revolutionary nature of the Red Army. Lenin commented on this: In September 1918, the"
"5, 1920, all departments of the Soviet secret police Cheka received a top secret order from Feliks Dzerzhinsky to start creating false flag White Army organizations, ""underground and terrorist groups"" to facilitate finding ""foreign agents on our territory"". This was planned partially as a provocation, in order to identify potentially disloyal citizens who might wish to join the Bolsheviks' enemies. A few months later, in February 1921, the Kronstadt rebellion began. This was a left-wing uprising against the Bolshevik regime by soldiers and sailors. Additionally, the Bolsheviks understood that the majority of intelligentsia did not support them. On March 8,"
"Federal Protective Service (Russia) The Federal Protective Service (FSO) ( (Federalnaya Sluzhba Okhrany) of the Russian Federation, official name in English Federal Guard Service of the Russian Federation) is a federal government agency concerned with the tasks related to the protection of several high-ranking state officials, mandated by the relevant law, including the President of Russia, as well as certain federal properties. It traces its origin to the USSR's Ninth Chief Directorate of the KGB and later Presidential Security Service (SBP) led by KGB general Alexander Korzhakov. On May 27, 1996, the law ""On State Protection"" reorganized the GUO (Glavnoye"
"the start of the main military activities of the First Chechen War the FSK was responsible for the covert operations against the separatists led by Dzhokhar Dudayev. In 1995, the FSK was renamed and reorganized into the Federal Security Service (FSB) by the Federal Law ""On the Federal Security Service"" (the title of the law as amended in June 2003) signed by the president on 3 April 1995. The FSB reforms were rounded out by decree No. 633, signed by Boris Yeltsin on 23 June 1995. The decree made the tasks of the FSB more specific, giving the FSB substantial"
"ones. Over time, party cadres would grow increasingly careerist and professional. Party membership required exams, special courses, special camps, schools, and nominations by three existing members. In December 1917, the Cheka was founded as the Bolshevik's first internal security force following the failed assassination attempt on Lenin's life. Later it changed names to GPU, OGPU, MVD, NKVD and finally KGB. The frontiers between Poland, which had established an unstable independent government following World War I, and the former Tsarist empire, were rendered chaotic by the repercussions of the Russian revolutions, the civil war and the winding down World War I."
"known for housing the headquarters of the KGB in its various incarnations. the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) occupies the building. The square was renamed Dzerzhinsky Square for many years (1926–1990) in honor of the founder of the Soviet security service, Felix Dzerzhinsky. Yevgeny Vuchetich's monumental statue of Dzerzhinsky (nicknamed ""Iron Felix"") was erected in the center of the square in 1958. Opposite the FSB building stands the massive Detsky Mir (, ""Children World""), Europe's largest children's store, built between 1953 and 1957, and fully restored in 2014. It hosts in its main atrium the world's largest"
"both as an armed force and an organ of public order. On 10 May 1918 the NKVD decided: ""The police are there as a permanent staff of the persons executing special functions, the organization of the militia should be carried out irrespective of the organization of the Red Army, their functions must be strictly separated."" The formation of the Internal Security bodies of the Russian Socialist Republic was completed in May 1922. The ""Regulations on the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the Soviet Russia"" defined the structure of the Commissariat and other law-enforcement bodies along with their rights and"
"Petrograd and Moscow), and the first day of combat against the occupying Imperial German Army. On 6 September 1918 the Bolshevik militias consolidated under the supreme command of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic (). The first Chairman was Leon Trotsky, and the first commander-in-chief was Jukums Vācietis from the Latvian Riflemen; in July 1919 he was replaced by Sergey Kamenev. Soon afterwards Trotsky established the GRU (military intelligence) to provide political and military intelligence to Red Army commanders. Trotsky founded the Red Army with an initial Red Guard organization, and a core soldiery of Red Guard militiamen and"
"the Leninist vanguard party was to provide the working class with the political consciousness (education and organisation) and revolutionary leadership necessary to depose capitalism in Imperial Russia. After the October Revolution of 1917, Leninism was the dominant version of Marxism in Russia, and, in establishing soviet democracy, the Bolshevik régime suppressed socialists who opposed the revolution, such as the Mensheviks and factions of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. In November 1917, Lenin issued the Decree on Workers' Control, which called on the workers of each enterprise to establish an elected committee to monitor their enterprise's management. That month they also issued"
"parties, sabotaging officials and other criminals. Three sections were created: informational, organizational, and a unit to combat counter-revolution and sabotage. Upon the end of the meeting, Dzerzhinsky reported to the Sovnarkom with the requested information. The commission was allowed to apply such measures of repression as 'confiscation, deprivation of ration cards, publication of lists of enemies of the people etc.'"". That day, Sovnarkom officially confirmed the creation of VCheKa. The commission was created not under the VTsIK as was previously anticipated, but rather under the Council of the People's Commissars. On December 8, 1917, some of the original members of"
"as 120 billion rubles. The Institute for Fire Defense and Scientific Research and 70 special laboratories are responsible for the SFS scientific support, new technologies and methods of work. The first fire service in Russia was established by Czar Alexey Mikhailovich under signed decree named ""Direction on Municipal rescue"", which signed on April 30, 1649, in Moscow. Six months after the October Revolution, on April 17, 1918 Vladimir Lenin has signed a decree on organisation of activities for firefighting, which was considered as the birth date for the Soviet State Fire service. Until 2001 the Fire Services were part of"
"of St. George and became an officer. After the outbreak of the Russian Revolution of 1917 he joined the communists. In 1918 Berzin became a commander of the First Artillery Division of the Red Latvian Riflemen with special responsibilities for Vladimir Lenin's protection. Gaining the trust of Feliks Dzerzhinsky, he soon became a member of the Cheka or secret police. In 1926, Joseph Stalin gave Berzin the task of setting up the Vishera complex of labour camps in the Urals known as Vishlag where cellulose and paper were to be produced. This he did with great enthusiasm and success. The"
"front lines against penetration by spies and ""anti-Soviet elements""; investigating traitors, deserters and self-harm in the Red Army; and checking military and civil personnel returning from captivity. The organisation was officially in existence until 4 May 1946, when its duties were transferred back to the MGB. The head of the agency throughout its existence was Viktor Abakumov, who rose to become Minister of State Security in the postwar years. Joseph Stalin coined the name ""СМЕРШ"" (""SMERSH"") as a portmanteau of the phrase ""Смерть шпионам"" (SMERt' SHpionam, ""Death to Spies""). Originally conceived to combat German spies infiltrating the Russian military, the"
"seizure of state power led by Lenin and the Bolsheviks, who established a new Bolshevik regime, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR). The Provisional Government's Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD), formerly under Georgy Lvov (from March 1917) and then under Nikolai Avksentiev (from ) and Alexei Nikitin (from ), turned into NKVD (People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs) under a People's Commissar. However, the NKVD apparatus was overwhelmed by duties inherited from MVD, such as the supervision of the local governments and firefighting, and the ""Workers' and Peasants' Militsiya"" staffed by proletarians was largely inexperienced and unqualified. Realizing that it"
"chose not to change the date to another): ""The successors of the KGB still haven't renounced anything; they even celebrate their professional holiday the same day, as during repression, on the 20th of December. It is as if the present intelligence and counterespionage services of Germany celebrated Gestapo Day. I can imagine how indignant our press would be!"" Cheka The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (), abbreviated as VChK (, ""Ve-Che-Ka"") and commonly known as Cheka (from the initialism ChK), was the first of a succession of Soviet secret police organizations. Established on December 5 (Old Style) 1917 by the Sovnarkom, it"
"Federal Security Service The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB; ) is the principal security agency of Russia and the main successor agency to the USSR's Committee of State Security (KGB). Its main responsibilities are within the country and include counter-intelligence, internal and border security, counter-terrorism, and surveillance as well as investigating some other types of grave crimes and federal law violations. It is headquartered in Lubyanka Square, Moscow's centre, in the main building of the former KGB. According to the 1995 Federal Law ""On the Federal Security Service"", direction of the FSB is executed by the president"
"by the First Chief Directorate of the KGB. Officially, the SVR RF dates its own beginnings to the founding of the Special Section of the Cheka on 20 December 1920. The head of the Cheka, Felix Dzerzhinsky, created the Foreign Department (""Inostranny Otdel"" – INO) to improve the collection as well as the dissemination of foreign intelligence. On 6 February 1922, the Foreign Department of the Cheka became part of a renamed organization, the ""State Political Directorate"", or GPU. The Foreign Department was placed in charge of intelligence activities overseas, including collection of important intelligence from foreign countries and the"
"Soviet State Political Directorate left the Soviet NKVD and became the all-union Joint State Political Directorate. Felix Dzerzhinsky, chairman of the GPU, became the OGPU's first chief. Like the GPU before it, the OGPU operated - in theory - with more restraint than the original Bolshevik secret police, the Cheka of 1917-1922. The OGPU's powers increased greatly in 1926, when the was amended to include asection on anti-state terrorism. The provisions were vaguely written and very broadly interpreted. Even before then, OGPU had set up tribunals to try the most exceptional cases of terrorism, usually without calling any witnesses. In"
"Dzerzhinsk, Russia Dzerzhinsk () is a city in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia, located along the Oka River, about east of Moscow. Population: It was previously known as ""Rastyapino"" (until 1929). First mentioned in 1606 as Rastyapino (), it is named after Felix Dzerzhinsky, a Bolshevik leader who was the first head of the Soviet Cheka (secret police), since 1929. Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is, together with three work settlements and eleven rural localities, incorporated as the city of oblast significance of Dzerzhinsk—an administrative unit with a status equal to that of the districts. As a municipal division,"
"from the Military Intelligence, Federal Internal Security and the Foreign Intelligence into one branch. Presidential Security Service (Russia) The Presidential Security Service (SBP) () is a federal government agency concerned with the tasks related to the protection of the President of Russia. It traces its origin to the USSR's Ninth Chief Directorate of the KGB, and in the beginning, it was led by KGB general Alexander Korzhakov. From 2000 to 2013, the agency was headed by General Viktor Zolotov. SBP has roughly 2,000 - 3,000 non-uniformed personnel. The Russian Presidential Security Service, although not listed as one of the structural"
"Directorate of State Security (GUGB), State Political Directorate (GPU), MGB, OGPU, NKVD, NKGB, KGB and the First Chief Directorate (PGU). At the time of the GRU's creation, Lenin infuriated the Cheka (the predecessor of the KGB) by ordering it not to interfere with the GRU's operations. Nonetheless, the Cheka infiltrated the GRU in 1919. That worsened a fierce rivalry between the two agencies, which were both engaged in espionage. The rivalry became even more intense than that between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Central Intelligence Agency in the US. The existence of the GRU was not publicized during the"
"in 1918, the members being Felix Dzerzhinsky, Yakov Peters, and Left SR V. Aleksandrovich. The first ""operational troikas"" (оперативная тройка) were introduced in the ""centre"", in the Moscow military okrug in 1929. The qualifier ""operational"" denotes they were based on the ""operational departments"" of the state police (OGPU). The troikas were tasked with administering quick punishment of anti-Soviet elements, without public trial or investigation. The sentences that were doled out, executions, were to be held in secret. In January 1930, as part of the collectivization program, the Soviet Politburo authorized the state police to screen the peasant population of the"
"including the Dubrovka theatre attack. The inability of the federal forces to conduct efficient counter-terrorist operations led to the government to transfer the responsibility of ""maintaining order"" in Chechnya from the FSB to the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) in July 2003. After becoming President, Vladimir Putin launched a major reorganization of the FSB. First, the FSB maybe was placed under direct control of the President by a decree issued on 17 May 2000. Internal structure of the agency was reformed by a decree signed on 17 June 2000. In the resulting structure, the FSB was to have a director,"
"October Revolution of 1917, the changed state ideology caused a corresponding change in the whole system as control of borders and their crossing points became paramount, which was gradually organized in such a way to prevent the penetration of external spies, counterrevolutionaries, politically harmful literature, or other agents of sabotage and terror. On 2 December 1917, Leon Trotsky signed a decree for the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs ""On showing passports upon entry to Russia"". It attempted to restrict the entry into Russia persons without passports that were certified by the Soviet representative abroad. In circumstances where a soviet representative"
"Russian Army, raised in 1815 with the re-designation of the Borisoglebsk Dragoon Regiment which served in Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812. The Internal Guards Corps were founded by an Ukaz of Tsar Alexander II on 17 (29) January 1811 and 27 March (8 April) 1811, officially disbanding the police dragoon troops and the paramilitary police formations, plus military garrison battalions and/or squadrons under the Imperial Army, which were reorganized into Internal Guards brigades and districts, all under the leadership of Adjutant General Yevgraf Fedotovich Komarovskiy, its first commander. The aforementioned decree approved the ""Regulations for the Internal Guard"", according"
"On November 6, 1991, the KGB officially ceased to exist. The FSK was reorganized into the FSB (Federal'naya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti Rossiyskoi Federatsii (Федера́льная слу́жба безопа́сности Росси́йской Федера́ции) Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation) by the Federal Law of April 3, 1995, ""On the Organs of the Federal Security Service in the Russian Federation"", making the new FSB a more powerful organization. Federal Counterintelligence Service The FSK (""Federalnaya Sluzhba Kontrrazvedki"" (""Федера́льная Слу́жба Контрразве́дки""), Federal Counterintelligence Service) was a state security organization, initially of the USSR, and, after its dissolution, of the Russian Federation. The FSK was the successor organization to"
"communist government executed five hundred ""representatives of overthrown classes"" immediately after the assassination of Uritsky. The first official announcement of a Red Terror, published in ""Izvestiya"", ""Appeal to the Working Class"" on 3 September 1918, called for the workers to ""crush the hydra of counterrevolution with massive terror! ... anyone who dares to spread the slightest rumor against the Soviet regime will be arrested immediately and sent to concentration camp"". There followed the decree ""On Red Terror"", issued on 5 September 1918 by the Cheka. On 15 October, the leading Chekist Gleb Bokii, summing up the officially ended Red Terror,"