Accessibility links

Breaking News

Soviet Secret Service Founder's Statue Unveiled In Moscow, Faces Northwest 'Threat'


A statue of Feliks Dzerzhinsky, Bolshevik leader and head of the first Soviet secret police organization in a park of Soviet monuments in central Moscow in 2021
A statue of Feliks Dzerzhinsky, Bolshevik leader and head of the first Soviet secret police organization in a park of Soviet monuments in central Moscow in 2021

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." To read the original story by Current Time, click here.

RFE/RL has been declared an "undesirable organization" by the Russian government.

If you are in Russia or the Russia-controlled parts of Ukraine and hold a Russian passport or are a stateless person residing permanently in Russia or the Russia-controlled parts of Ukraine, please note that you could face fines or imprisonment for sharing, liking, commenting on, or saving our content, or for contacting us.

To find out more, click here.

XS
SM
MD
LG