Editing Felix Dzerzhinsky (section)

== Early life ==
[[File:POL COA Samson.svg|thumb|left|150px|[[Samson coat of arms]] belonging to Felix's ''[[szlachta]]'' family<ref>Albert P. Nenarokov. Russia in the Twentieth Century. (New York: William Morrow and Co., 1968), 117–118.</ref>]]
Felix Dzerzhinsky was born on 11 September 1877 to ethnically [[Polish people|Polish]] parents of noble descent<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kalic |first=Sean N. |title=Russian Revolution of 1917: the essential reference guide |publisher=[[ABC-Clio]] |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-4408-5092-9 |editor-last=Kalic |editor-first=Sean N. |location=Santa Barbara, CA; Denver, CO |pages=44 |language=en |chapter=Dzerzhinsky, Felix (1877–1926) |quote="Conflicting accounts place his birth in either Vilno or Dzerzhinovo on September 11, 1877, where he was born into a Polish family that had noble ties." |editor-last2=Brown |editor-first2=Gates M.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Riga |first=Liliana |year=2006 |title=Reconciling Nation and Class in Imperial Borderlands: the Making of Bolshevik Internationalists Karl Radek and Feliks Dzierżyński in East Central Europe 1 |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-6443.2006.00292.x |journal=Journal of Historical Sociology |language=en |volume=19 |issue=4 |pages=447–472 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-6443.2006.00292.x |issn=0952-1909 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> at the [[Dzerzhinovo|Ozhyemblovo]] family estate, about {{convert|15|km|mi|abbr=on}}, from the small town of [[Ivyanets]] in the [[Minsk Governorate]] of [[Russian Partition|Russian Poland]] (Polish territory after [[Partitions of Poland|partition]] by [[Russian Empire]]; now [[Belarus]])<ref>[http://uni-persona.srcc.msu.ru/students/stud_1840-1901/cards33.html Фамилия: Гулухов] (in Russian)</ref> In the Russian Empire, his family was of a type known as "[[Uradel|column-listed nobility]]"  ({{langx|ru|столбовое дворянство}}, stolbovoe dvorianstvo),<ref name=belgaz200721>Igor Kuznetsov. ''[http://www.belgazeta.by/ru/1253/society/41096/ The Chekist No.1. The life of terror parent (Чекист № 1. Житие отца террора)]''. BelGazeta. 21 July 2020</ref> whose nobility was formally acknowledged, but so old that they did not enjoy the privileges of the new nobility.<ref>Грамота на права, вольности и преимущества благородного российского дворянства, 21 апреля 1785 (Полное собрание законов Российской империи, Ч. I, т. XXII, №&nbsp;16187; п. 82)</ref> His sister Wanda died at the age of 12, when she was accidentally shot with a hunting rifle on the family estate by one of her brothers. At the time of the incident, there were conflicting claims as to whether Felix or his brother Stanisław was responsible for the accident.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://jig.ru/golden/034.html |title=Феликс не всегда был железным... (Felix was not always made of iron...) |author=Veronika Anatolievna Cherkasova |access-date=18 September 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090515154633/http://jig.ru/golden/034.html |archive-date=15 May 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

His father, Edmund-Rufin Dzierżyński graduated from the [[Saint Petersburg State University|Saint Petersburg Imperial University]] in 1863 and moved to [[Vilnius]], where he worked as a home teacher for a professor of Saint Petersburg University named Januszewski and eventually married Januszewski's daughter Helena Ignatievna, who also was of Polish origin. In 1868, after a short period in [[Kherson]] gymnasium, he worked as a [[Gymnasium (school)|gymnasium]] teacher of physics and mathematics at the schools of [[Taganrog]] in the [[Don Host Province]], Russia, particularly the [[Chekhov Gymnasium]].<ref name="First chekist">{{cite book | script-title=ru:Дзержинский. Первый чекист России | publisher=Olma Media Group | author=Plekhanov, Alexander Mikhaylovich | year=2007 | page=19 | isbn=978-5-373-01334-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QuzrKbud4HoC&pg=PA19|language=ru|trans-title=Dzerzhinsky. The First Cheikist of Russia}}</ref> In 1875, Edmund Dzierżyński retired due to health conditions and moved with his family to his estate near Ivyanets and [[Rakaŭ]]. In 1882, Felix's father died from [[tuberculosis]].<ref name="First chekist" />

As a youngster Dzerzhinsky became a polyglot, speaking [[Polish language|Polish]], [[Russian language|Russian]], [[German language|German]] and [[Latin]]. He attended the [[Vilnius Gymnasium]] from 1887 to 1895. One of the older students at this gymnasium was his future arch-enemy, [[Józef Piłsudski]]. Years later, as Marshal of Poland, Piłsudski recalled that Dzerzhinsky "distinguished himself as a student with delicacy and modesty. He was rather tall, thin and demure, making the impression of an ascetic with the face of an icon... Tormented or not, this is an issue history will clarify; in any case this person did not know how to lie."<ref>Blobaum 1984, p. 30.</ref> School documents show that Dzerzhinsky attended his first year in school twice, while he was not able to finish his eighth year. Dzerzhinsky received a school diploma which stated: "Dzerzhinsky Feliks, who is 18 years of age, of [[Roman Catholicism|Catholic faith]], along with a satisfactory attention and satisfactory diligence showed the following successes in sciences, namely: Divine law—"good"; Logic, Latin, Algebra, Geometry, Mathematical geography, Physics, History (of Russia), French—"satisfactory"; Russian and Greek—"unsatisfactory".<ref>{{cite news|author=Fedotkina, Tatiana|script-title=ru:Палач Королевства любви|trans-title=The executioner of the Kingdom of love|url=http://www.mk.ru/editions/daily/article/2002/11/21/130978-palach-korolevstva-lyubvi.html|work=[[Moskovskij Komsomolets]]|date=5 September 1998|issue=71|language=ru}}</ref>