Born on August 30 (11 September) 1877. the estate of
Felix Dzerzhinsky in Dzerzhinovo Ashmyany County Vilna province in the landed gentry family.
He graduated from the seven classes of Vilna school.
Member RSDLP to 1895.
From December 20, 1917. - Chairman of the Cheka.
Since February 1922. - Chairman of the GPU-OGPU.
At the same time:
August 1919. - Head of the Special Division of the Cheka,
March 1919. July 1923. - People's Commissar of Internal Affairs.
20 July 1926. after speaking at the joint plenum of the CC and CCC, CPSU (B) died of a heart attack.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Born in 1877. He studied at the gymnasium in g.Vilno. In 1894, while in 7 th grade school, I go to the Social-Democratic circle of self-development; in 1895. come into the Lithuanian Social-Democracy, and learning Marxism itself, leading circles of craft and factory pupils. There I was in 1895. and christened Jacek. From the school go out himself voluntarily in 1896, believing that the faith should follow the case and should be closer to the masses and with her own learning. In 1896 the same year, asking friends to send me to the masses, not limited to circles. At that time we have in the organization of the struggle between intellectuals and workers tops that need to be taught literacy, general knowledge, and t. etc., and not meddle case to the masses. Despite this, I managed to become an agitator and penetrate completely untouched by mass on the parties, in taverns, where the workers were going.
The beginning of 1897. I sent the party as an agitator and organizer in Kovno - an industrial city, where there was no Social-Democratic organization, and where the organization has recently failed PPP. It had to enter into the thick of the masses of factory and face unspeakable poverty and exploitation, particularly of female labor. Then I learned how to organize practice strike.
In the second half of the year I was arrested on the street after being denounced by the working teenager, tempted by the ten rubles promised him gendarmes. Not wanting to find his apartment, called the gendarmes Zebrowski. In 1898, Mr.. I was expelled for three years in the Vyatka province - first in Norilsk, . then, . punishment for recalcitrant nature and the scandal with the police, . as well as for, . that was the work of printers on mahorochnoy factory, . expelled for 500 miles farther north, . in Kaigorodskoye,
. In 1899. the boat ran out, as the melancholy too tortured. Return to Vilna. I found the Lithuanian Social-Democratic Party leading negotiations with the PPP to combine. I was the sharpest enemy of nationalism, and thought the greatest sin, . in 1898, . I was in prison, . Lithuanian Social-Democratic Party was not included in a single Rossiyskuyu Social-Democratic Labor Party, . what and wrote from prison to the then head of the Lithuanian Social-Democratic Party, Dr. Domashevichu,
. When I arrived in Vilnius, the old comrades were already in exile - led the student youth. I was not allowed to go to the workers, and hastened to float overseas, which led me to the smugglers, and that took me to a Jewish "balagole" on Vilkomirskomu highway to the border. In this "balagole" I met a lad, who for ten rubles in one of the towns got me a passport. Once you arrive then to the train station, bought a ticket and went to Warsaw, where I had one address Bund.
In Warsaw, there was no Social-Democratic organization. Only the PPP and the Bund. Social Democratic Party was defeated. I was able to engage with the working relationship and will soon restore our organization, splitting off from the PPP at first shoemakers, then the entire group of carpenters, metalworkers, tanners, bakers. Began a desperate fight with the PPP, invariably ending with our success, even though we had neither the means nor literature, nor the intellectuals. Workers nicknamed me then Astronomer and Frank.
In February 1900, at a meeting I had already been arrested and held first in the X Pavilion of the Warsaw citadel, then in Siedlce Prison.
In 1902, exiled for five years in Eastern Siberia. On the way to Vilyuisk summer of that year fled by boat from Verkholensk together with the Socialist Sladkopevtsevym. At this time I went abroad - the crossing, I was taken familiar Bund. Soon after my arrival in Berlin, in August, was convened by our Party - Social Democracy of Poland and Lithuania - Conference, where it was decided to publish "Chervona The flag". Settled in Krakow to work on communication and promotion of the party because of the cordon. Since that time I called Josef.
Until January 1905 I travel from time to time for underground work in Russian Poland, in January, just move and work as a member of the Main Board of the Social Democracy of Poland and Lithuania. In July, arrested at a meeting of the city, frees the October amnesty.
In 1906, I delegate to the Unity Congress in Stockholm. I walked into RSDLP as a representative of the Social Democracy of Poland and Lithuania. In August - October, working in St. Petersburg. At the end of 1906. arrested in Warsaw in June 1907. bail.
Then again arrested in April 1908, the judge, the old and the new case twice, both times the settlement offer and at the end of 1909 deported to Siberia - in Taseyev. After spending some time there for seven days, running through Warsaw, and going abroad. Settle back in Krakow, naezzhaya in Russian Poland.
In 1912 he moved to Warsaw, September 1, I was arrested, tried for escape from the settlement and awarded to three years in prison. In 1914, after the war, are taken to the Eagle, where he served prison; remit to Moscow, where he tried in 1916. Party work for the period 1910 - 1912 period and added another six years in prison. The February revolution set me free from the Moscow central prison. Until August, working in Moscow, in August, delegates to the Moscow party congress, which takes me to the CC. Left to work in Petrograd.
In the October Revolution, take part as a member of the Military Revolutionary Committee, and then, after its dissolution, I am tasked to organize the body combat counter-revolution - Cheka (7/HII 1917), which I was appointed Chairman.
I was appointed People's Commissar of Internal Affairs, and then, April 14, 1921, - and means of communication.
