Monument to Felix Dzerzhinsky, Moscow

Monument to Felix Dzerzhinsky in Moscow

File:Monument to F. Dzershinsky (1991).jpg The monument in 1987 in its original location in front of the Lubyanka Building
Coordinates
Location	Muzeon Park of Arts, Moscow
Designer	Grigory Zakharov
Material	Granite (statue) Steel (pedestal)
Opening date	20 December 1958 (Dzerzhinsky Square) 1992 (Muzeon Park of Arts)
Dedicated to	Felix Dzerzhinsky
Dismantled date	22 August 1991 (KGB location)

The Monument to Felix Dzerzhinsky (Russian: Памятник Дзержинскому), also known by the nickname Iron Felix (Russian: Железный Феликс), commemorates Felix Dzerzhinsky, Bolshevik revolutionary and head of the first two Soviet state-security organizations, the Cheka and the OGPU. The monument, designed by Grigory Zakharov and incorporating a statue of Dzerzhinsky sculpted by Yevgeny Vuchetich, was erected on Dzerzhinsky Square, Moscow in 1958, next to the Lubyanka Building.

History

Construction and unveiling

In 1918, the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission was located in the buildings on Lubyanska Square, the founder and first head of which was Felix Dzerzhinsky, who later headed other state security agencies that were located there. In the autumn of 1926, shortly after Dzerzhinsky's death, Lubyanka Square was renamed Dzerzhinsky Square by the decision of the Presidium of the Moscow City Council.

In 1940, a competition was announced for the project of a monument to Dzerzhinsky, which was won by Sarra Lebedeva, who created a lifesized sculptural portrait of Dzerzhinsky, but her project was not implemented.

Construction of the monument began in July 1958, with the statue sculpted by Yevgeny Vuchetich, and the overall design by Grigory Zakharov. The monument was opened to the public on 20 December 1958, outside the Lubyanka Building, which housed the headquarters of the Soviet security services, in turn the OGPU, NKVD, NKGB, MGB and KGB.

August coup and Muzeon Park relocation

File:The overthrow of the monument to Dzerzhinsky in front of the KGB on Lubyanka in Moscow.jpg

Protesters on Lubyanka Square on 22 August 1991, seeking to dismantle the statue

On the evening of 22 August 1991, shortly after the failure of the coup attempt undertaken by the State Emergency Committee, thousands of people began to gather around the KGB building on Lubyanka Square, seeking to topple Dzerzhinsky's statue, seeing it as a symbol of the brutal Soviet past. People sprayed the words "executioner", “antichrist”, “Felix is finished” and the symbol of the Russian Orthodox Church on the pedestal.

By the evening of the same day, people climbed onto the statue and affixed ropes to it, attached to a truck. Toppling the monument in this way risked damaging the adjacent Lubyanka metro station. To avoid this, deputy chairman of the Moscow City Council Sergei Stankevich, addressed the crowd and introduced a resolution with the Moscow City Council to remove the monument. It was then dismantled with a construction crane and taken to wasteland close to the new building of the Tretyakov Gallery. In 1992, the monument was moved to the Fallen Monument Park, where other Soviet-era monuments were collected.

See also

• Monument to Felix Dzerzhinsky, Ufa