Editing Felix Dzerzhinsky (section)

==Iron Felix==
{{main|Monument to Felix Dzerzhinsky, Moscow}}
[[File:NKVD1936.jpg|thumb|Picture of Dzerzhinsky at a parade in Moscow's [[Red Square]], 1936]]

A 15-ton iron monument of Dzerzhinsky, which once dominated the [[Lubyanka Square]] in Moscow, near the [[KGB]] headquarters, also became known as "Iron Felix" ({{langx |ru| Железный Феликс}} – ''Zheleznyj Feliks''). Sculpted in 1958 by [[Yevgeny Vuchetich]], it served as a Moscow landmark during late Soviet times. Symbolically, the [[Memorial (society)|Memorial]] society erected the [[Solovetsky Stone]], a memorial to the victims of the Gulag (using a simple stone from the [[Solovki prison camp]] in the [[White Sea]]) beside the Iron Felix statue on 30 October 1990). The Moscow Soviet ([[Mossovet]]) had the Dzerzhinsky statue removed to the [[Fallen Monument Park]] and laid on its side in August 1991, after the failed [[1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt|coup d'état attempt]] by hard-line Communist members of the government. A mock-up of the removal of Dzerzhinsky's statue can be found in the entrance hall of the [[International Spy Museum]] in [[Washington, D.C.]]

The figure of Dzerzhinsky remains controversial in Russian society. Between 1999 and 2013, six proposals called for the return of the statue to its plinth. The Monument Art Commission of the [[Moscow City Duma]] rejected the proposals due to concerns that the proposed return would cause "unnecessary tension" in society.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/russian/russia/2014/02/140211_dzerzhinsky_return_mosgorduma.shtml |title= Дзержинскому еще раз отказали в месте на Лубянке |publisher= BBC|date= 11 February 2014 |access-date= 22 January 2014}}</ref> According to a December 2013 [[Russian Public Opinion Research Centre|VTsIOM]] poll, 46% of Russians favour the restoration of the statue to the Lubyanka Square, with 17% opposing it.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/russian/russia/2013/12/131205_dzerzhinsky_monument_return_opinion.shtml |title= Опрос: 45% россиян хотят вернуть памятник Дзержинскому |publisher= BBC|date= 5 December 2013 |access-date= 22 January 2014}}</ref> The statue remained in a yard for old Soviet memorials at the Central House of Artists.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cha.ru/ |title=Центральный дом художника (ЦДХ) |date=24 November 2018 |website= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181124072349/https://www.cha.ru/ |archive-date=24 November 2018 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

In April 2012, the Moscow authorities stated that they would renovate the "Iron Felix" monument in full and put the statue on a list of monuments to be renovated, as well as officially designating it an object of cultural heritage.<ref>{{cite news | title= Russia Plans To Restore Toppled 'Iron Felix' Statue |url=http://www.ipotnews.com/index.php?jdl=Russia_plans_to_restore_toppled__Iron_Felix__statue&level2=newsandopinion&level3=industries&level4=trade&news_id=621572&group_news=ALLNEWS&taging_subtype=BANKING&popular=&search=y&q= | publisher= Ipotnews |date= 16 April 2012}}</ref> On 26 April 2021, it was announced by the prosecutor office of Moscow that the removal of the statue had no legal basis and was therefore illegal.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.forbes.ru/newsroom/obshchestvo/427917-prokuratura-priznala-nezakonnym-snos-pamyatnika-dzerzhinskomu-na | title=Прокуратура признала незаконным снос памятника Дзержинскому на Лубянке | date=26 April 2021 }}</ref>

Finally, the monument was reerected on 11 September 2023, but this time in front of the [[Russian Foreign Intelligence Service]] headquarters outside Moscow.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/11/monument-to-founder-of-soviet-secret-police-unveiled-in-moscow|title=Statue of founder of Soviet secret police unveiled in Moscow|date=September 11, 2023|website=theguardian.com}}</ref>

===Other statues===
A smaller bust of Dzerzhinsky in the courtyard of the Moscow police headquarters at [[Petrovka Street|Petrovka]] 38 was restored in November 2005 (police officers had removed this bust on 22 August 1991).{{citation needed|date=February 2020}}

A 10-foot bronze replica of the original Iron Felix statue was placed on the grounds of the military academy in [[Minsk]], Belarus, in May 2006.<ref>
{{cite news 
| title= Belarus: monument to founder of Soviet secret police unveiled in Minsk 
|url=http://english.pravda.ru/news/world/26-05-2006/81129-belarus-0/ 
| work= Pravda | date= 26 May 2006
}}</ref>

In 2017, on the 140th anniversary of Dzerzhinsky's birth, a monument to Dzerzhinsky was erected in the city of [[Ryazan]], Russia.<ref>{{cite news
| title= In Ryazan, a monument to Dzerzhinsky was opened
| url= https://www.anews.com/p/89551639-v-ryazani-otkryli-pamyatnik-dzerzhinskomu/
| work= (a)news
| date= 11 September 2017
}}{{Dead link|date=May 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

On 20 January 2017, the People's Public Security Academy in Hanoi, Vietnam, inaugurated a Dzerzhinsky statue.