Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree to name the Federal Security Service (FSB) academy after Felix Dzerzhinsky, the founder of the Soviet-era secret police — the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (known among the people as the Cheka).
Medianews.az reports that Dzerzhinsky, of Polish origin and nicknamed "Iron Felix," led the Cheka for many years after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. This organization is considered a predecessor of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) and the Committee for State Security (KGB). In this respect, the current Federal Security Service (FSB) can also be considered its successor.
The Cheka carried out mass executions during the Russian Civil War and the "Red Terror" period.
Putin’s decree emphasizes that Dzerzhinsky made a "great contribution to ensuring state security."
Dzerzhinsky’s name was removed from the academy, known as the KGB’s higher education institution, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1992.
Putin, a former KGB and later FSB officer, considers the collapse of the USSR "the greatest geopolitical disaster of the 20th century" and is gradually restoring symbols from the Soviet era.
In 2023, a monument to Dzerzhinsky was erected at the headquarters of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service. This statue is a replica of the huge monument that was once installed in Moscow, on Lubyanka Square, and was toppled by protesters during the attempted coup in the USSR in August 1991.