Lawmakers Back Restoring KGB Statue
Russia’s Communist-dominated lower house of parliament, the Duma, voted in favor of restoring a monument to Felix E. Dzerzhinsky, founder of the feared Soviet secret police. Dzerzhinsky, known as “Iron Felix,” founded the Bolshevik Cheka, which ruthlessly eliminated political opponents and established a tradition of repression that was to lead to the KGB and its network of labor camps in which millions died. Dzerzhinsky’s statue in front of KGB headquarters in Moscow was toppled by jubilant crowds in 1991 after a failed coup by Communist hard-liners.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
