Editing Felix Dzerzhinsky (section)

==Death and legacy==
[[File:The Soviet Union 1951 CPA 1623 stamp (25th death anniversary of Felix Dzerzhinsky (1877-1926), bolshevik revolutionary and official. Portrait).jpg|thumb|Dzerzhinsky honoured on a 1951 stamp]]
[[File:0090 27th of July 2016 in Moscow.jpg|upright|thumb|Dzerzhinsky's tomb in the [[Kremlin Wall Necropolis]]]]
[[File:Дзержинский Феликс Эдмундович (конверт).jpg|thumb|right|A [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] postcard featuring Dzerzhinsky as a national hero on the 100th anniversary of his birth, 1977]]

Dzerzhinsky died of a [[heart attack]] on 20 July 1926 in [[Moscow]], immediately after a two-hour speech to the Bolshevik Central Committee during which, visibly quite ill, he violently denounced the [[United Opposition (Soviet Union)|United Opposition]] directed by [[Leon Trotsky]], [[Grigory Zinoviev]] and [[Lev Kamenev]].<ref>[[Isaac Deutscher]]. ''The Prophet Unarmed: Trotsky 1921–1929.'' [[Oxford University Press]], 1959, {{ISBN|1-85984-446-4}}. p. 279.</ref> Upon hearing of his death, [[Joseph Stalin]] eulogized Dzerzhinsky as "a devout knight of the proletariat".<ref>{{cite book|author-link=Simon Sebag Montefiore|first=Simon Sebag |last=Montefiore |title=Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson |year=2003 |isbn=1842127268 |page=76}}</ref> Dzerzhinsky was buried in the  [[Kremlin Wall Necropolis]]. Today his grave is one of the twelve individual tombs located between the [[Lenin Mausoleum]] and the [[Kremlin Wall]].

Dzerzhinsky was succeeded as chairman of the OGPU by [[Vyacheslav Menzhinsky]].

[[Dzierżyńszczyzna]], one of the two [[Polish Autonomous District]]s in the Soviet Union, was named to commemorate Dzerzhinsky. Located in [[Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic|Belarus]], near [[Minsk]] and close to the Soviet-Polish border of the time, it was created on 15 March 1932, with the capital at [[Dzyarzhynsk]] (in Russian Dzerzhynsk, formerly known as Kojdanów), not far from the family estate. The Dzerzhinsky estate itself remained inside Poland from 1921 to the [[Soviet invasion of Poland]] in 1939. The district was disbanded in 1935 at the onset of the [[Great Purge]], and most of its administration was executed.

[[Dzyarzhynskaya Hara]] (the highest point in Belarus), located near Dzyarzhynsk was named after Dzerzhinsky in 1958.

His name and image were used widely throughout the KGB and the Soviet Union and other communist countries; there were numerous places named after him. In [[Russia]], there is the city of [[Dzerzhinsk, Russia|Dzerzhinsk]], a village of Dzerzhinsk, and three other cities called Dzerzhinskiy; in other former Soviet republics, there was a city named for him in [[Dzerzhinski, Armenia|Armenia]] and the aforementioned Dzyarzhynsk in Belarus. To comply with [[Decommunization in Ukraine|decommunization laws]],<ref>[https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32267075 Goodbye, Lenin: Ukraine moves to ban communist symbols], [[BBC News]] (14 April 2015)<br />{{in lang|uk}} [http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2016/07/14/7114702/Verkhovna Rada renamed Kirovograd]{{Dead link|date=April 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, [[Ukrayinska Pravda]] (14 July 2016)</ref> the Ukrainian cities Dzerzhynsk and Dniprodzerzhynsk reverted to their historic names [[Toretsk]] and [[Kamianske]] in February and May 2016.<ref>[http://www.unian.info/society/1255225-decommunisation-continues-rada-renames-several-towns-and-villages.html Decommunisation continues: Rada renames several towns and villages], [[UNIAN]] (4 February 2016)<br />{{cite web|url=http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2016/02/4/7097833/ |title=Rada de-communized Artemivsk as well as over hundred cities and villages |date=4 February 2016 |publisher=Pravda.com.ua |language=uk |access-date=4 February 2016 }}<br />{{cite news|url=http://www.unn.com.ua/uk/news/1572273-rada-pereymenuvala-dniprodzerzhinsk-na-kamyanske-dopovneno |script-title=uk:Рада перейменувала Дніпродзержинськ на Кам'янське |date=19 May 2016 |publisher=Українські Національні Новини |language=uk |access-date=19 May 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160519213554/http://www.unn.com.ua/uk/news/1572273-rada-pereymenuvala-dniprodzerzhinsk-na-kamyanske-dopovneno |archive-date=19 May 2016 |title= }}</ref> A Ukrainian village in the [[Zhytomyr Oblast]] was also named Dzerzhinsk until 2005, when it was renamed to Romaniv. The Dzerzhinskiy Tractor Works in [[Stalingrad]] were named in his honor and became a scene of [[Battle of Stalingrad|bitter fighting]] during the [[World War II|Second World War]]. The [[FED (camera)|FED]] camera, produced from 1934 to around 1996, is named for him,<ref name="fed">{{cite journal |url=http://www.fedka.com/Useful_info/Commune_by_Fricke/commune_A.htm | title=The Dzerzhinsky Commune: Birth of the Soviet 35mm Camera Industry | author=Fricke, Oscar | journal=History of Photography |date=April 1979 | volume=3 | issue=2| pages=135–155 | doi=10.1080/03087298.1979.10441091 }}</ref> as was the [[Russian locomotive class FD|FD class steam locomotive]].

During the [[History of Poland (1945–1989)|Communist era]] (1945–1989) in Poland, Dzerzhinsky was celebrated as a socialist hero. In 1951, a large-scale statue of Dzerzhinsky was designed by Zbigniew Dunajewski and erected in the northern side of [[Bank Square, Warsaw|Bank Square]] in Warsaw.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Jabłoński |first=Rafał |date=26 November 2009 |title=Utracony nos czekisty |url=https://www.zw.com.pl/artykul/419450.html |access-date=15 January 2023 |website=Życie Warszawy |language=pl}}</ref> The square bore Dzerzhinsky's name ({{langx |pl| Plac Dzierżyńskiego}}) until 1989. The statue was toppled on 16 November 1989, one of the many Soviet-era symbols removed that year to mark the [[End of Communism in Poland (1989)|end of Communism in Poland]]. The square was subsequently renamed Plac Bankowy (Bank Square).<ref name=":0" />