Editing Felix Dzerzhinsky (section)

==Director of Cheka==
Lenin regarded Felix Dzerzhinsky as a revolutionary hero and appointed him to organize a force to combat internal threats. On 20 December 1917, the [[Council of People's Commissars]] officially established the All-Russia Extraordinary Commission to Combat Counter-revolution and Sabotage—commonly known as the [[Cheka]] (based on the Russian acronym ВЧК). Dzerzhinsky became its director. The Cheka received extensive resources, and became known for ruthlessly pursuing any perceived counterrevolutionary elements. As the [[Russian Civil War]] expanded, Dzerzhinsky also began organizing [[Internal Troops|internal security troops]] to enforce the Cheka's authority.

The Cheka became notorious for mass [[summary executions]], performed especially during the [[Red Terror]] and the Russian Civil War.<ref>Robert Gellately. ''Lenin, Stalin and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe.'' [[Alfred A. Knopf|Knopf]], 2007. {{ISBN|1-4000-4005-1}}. pp. 46–48.</ref><ref>George Leggett, ''The Cheka: Lenin’s Political Police.'' [[Oxford University Press]], 1987, {{ISBN|0-19-822862-7}} pp. 197–201.</ref> The Cheka undertook drastic measures as tens of thousands of political opponents and saboteurs were [[Extrajudicial execution|shot without trial]] in the basements of prisons and in public places.<ref>[[Orlando Figes]]. ''A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891–1924.'' [[Penguin Books]], 1997. {{ISBN|0-19-822862-7}}. p. 647</ref> Dzerzhinsky said: "We represent in ourselves organized terror—this must be said very clearly".<ref>J. Michael Waller ''Secret Empire: The KGB in Russia Today.''  Westview Press. Boulder, CO, 1994. {{ISBN|0-8133-2323-1}}.</ref><ref>George Leggett, ''The Cheka: Lenin’s Political Police.'' [[Oxford University Press]], 1987. {{ISBN|0-19-822862-7}}. p. 114.</ref> In 1922, at the end of the Civil War, the Cheka was dissolved and reorganized as the [[State Political Directorate]] (Gosudarstvennoe Politicheskoe Upravlenie, or GPU), a section of the [[NKVD]]. With the formation of the Soviet Union later that year, the GPU was again reorganized as the [[Joint State Political Directorate]] (Obyedinyonnoye gosudarstvennoye politicheskoye upravleniye, or OGPU), directly under the Council of People's Commissars. These changes did not diminish Dzerzhinsky's power; he was Minister of the Interior, director of the Cheka/GPU/OGPU, Minister for Communications, and director of the [[Vesenkha]] (Supreme Council of National Economy) in 1921–24. Indeed, while the (O)GPU was theoretically supposed to act with more restraint than the Cheka, in time its ''de facto'' powers grew even greater than those of the Cheka.

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-00032, Felix Dzierzynski.jpg|thumb|Dzerzhinsky in 1922]]
At his office in [[Lubyanka (KGB)|Lubyanka]], Dzerzhinsky kept a portrait of fellow Polish revolutionary [[Rosa Luxemburg]] on the wall.<ref>Blobaum 1984, p. 231.</ref> Besides his leadership of the secret police, Dzerzhinsky also took on a number of other roles; he led the fight against typhus in 1918, was chair of the Commissariat for Internal Affairs from 1919 to 1923, initiated a vast orphanage construction program,<ref>{{cite news |title=Love and hate for 'Iron Felix': Why do Russians still debate the Soviet security services' founder? |url=https://www.rbth.com/history/326867-love-and-hate-for-felix-dzerzhinsky|work=Russia Beyond|access-date=20 July 2019|quote=Apart from that, the top Chekist supervised the establishment of a system of orphanages and child communes, which helped to solve the problem of child homelessness, which was very acute after the Civil War.}}</ref> chaired the Transport Commissariat, organized the embalming of Lenin's body in 1924 and chaired the Society of Friends of Soviet Cinema.<ref name="test">''A Dictionary of 20th Century Communism''. Edited by Silvio Pons and Robert Service. Princeton University Press. 2010.</ref>