Free Republic

A statue of Feliks Dzerzhinsky, the founder of the Soviet secret police, Cheka, was unveiled in front of the headquarters of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) in Moscow on September 11. The statue is a replica of a larger Dzerzhinsky statue, one of the symbols of Soviet repression, which was pulled from its pedestal outside KGB headquarters in August 1991. SVR Director Sergei Naryshkin said at the ceremony for the statue's unveiling that Dzerzhinsky's face on the original and new statues is turned toward Poland and Baltic states "because the threat to Russia from the northwest remains."

Why the idea to return Dzerzhinsky monument to Lubyanka is too bad. Two news almost simultaneously came this week. News is number one. Communist Party leader Zyuganov appealed to Putin with a request to restore the monument to Dzerzhinsky on Lubyanka Square. News number two. According to polls, the leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Zyuganov fell to the third place in the list of the most popular presidential candidates: not only Putin, but Zhirinovsky (of Liberal Democrat Party of Russia), is ahead of Gennady Andreyevich. The coincidence in the time of these two news, of course,...

Moscow Police Retrieves Iron Felix. The Moscow city police has given itself a present for the Police Day and set up the monument of Felix Dzerzhinsky at the square in front of the Interior Ministry’s headquarters in central Moscow where it once stood. The monument of the notorious founder of the Soviet secret police was put down during the 1991 coup. Now the sculpture has been re-installed at the initiative of the Council of Veterans of the Moscow Department for the Interior who laud Dzerzhinsky on “his activities to tackle the issue of homeless children” and “crime fighting”. Social organizations...

Belarus Unveils Memorial to KGB Founder Dzerzhinsky MosNews Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko, criticized in the West for his authoritarian tendencies, presented the public with a new memorial to Soviet secret police founder Felix Dzerzhinsky at a ceremony in the Minsk region Thursday. “The united principles and high aims established by our predecessors are a good foundation for strengthening ties between our special forces,” Interfax quoted the Belarus president as saying at the opening ceremony, held in Dzerzhinsky’s home town, now named Dzerzhinovo, where the memorial was erected. Russia has forged close ties with the former Soviet state, now its closest...