Felix Dzerzhinsky
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Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky (Polish: Feliks Dzierżyński [ˈfɛliɡz dʑɛrˈʐɨj̃skʲi]; Russian: Фе́ликс Эдму́ндович Дзержи́нский; 11 September [O.S. 30 August] 1877 – 20 July 1926), nicknamed "Iron Felix", was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet official.
Biography edit
Felix Dzerzhinsky was born to two Polish parents of noble descent. He was born on September 11, 1877 in the Dzerzhinovo family estate, His father, Edmund-Rufin Dzierżyński became a graduate in 1863 from the Saint Petersburg Imperial University. He later moved to Wilno, where he pursued his career as a home teacher of a professor named Januszewski of the Saint Petersburg University. He eventually married Januszewski's daughter Helena Ignatievna, who was also of Polish descent. In 1868, after a short amount of time at the Chekhov Gymnasium he became a gymnasium teacher who taught physics and mathematics at the gymnasiums of Taganrog in the Don Host Province, Russia, particularly the Chekhov Gymnasium.
When he was young he became fluent in four languages: Polish, Russian, Yiddish, and Latin. He attened school at the Wilno gymnasium from 1887 to 1895. School documents revealed that Dzerzhinsky attended his first year in school twice, while he was unable to finish his eighth year. Two months before he was expelled for "revolutionary activity" and for posting communist slogan signs at the school. In 1897 he was arrested for revolutionary activities.
During the Russian Revolution he was arrested in Tsarist prisons for four-and-a-half years. After the February Revolutoon he was freed from Butyrka. He later became the director of the Cheka which is known for mass summary executions which are executed during the Red Terror and the Russian Civil War.