Soviet secret police monument opened

[Rose Siding]

MINSK, Belarus -- Belarus' authoritarian president opened a memorial to the founder of the Soviet secret police Thursday, praising "Iron Felix" Dzerzhinsky as the sort of man Belarus could use today.

During a ceremony in Dzerzhinsky's hometown, some 20 miles east of the capital Minsk, President Alexander Lukashenko called for increased cooperation between Belarusian and Russian intelligence agencies, citing their common past.

"We are living through a very difficult period," Lukashenko said. "It is somewhat like the period when the mighty organization (was) founded by a great person -- Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky."

The memorial complex includes a museum and a bust of Dzerzhinsky, which stands not far from the foundation of the home where Dzerzhinsky was born.

Dzerzhinsky, deeply reviled by critics of the Soviet era, helped establish the first Soviet secret service, called the Cheka, in 1917 under Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin. The Cheka, which was the forerunner of the KGB, was responsible for mass arrests and executions.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2004/10/07/soviet_secret_police_monument_opened/

[MisterP]

1. Lukashenko's Belarus is an autocracy

the rest of Eastern Europe are as well, only in secret

[JuniorPlankton]

2. Unbelievable

A monument for Dzerzhinsky.
I couldn't have dreamed it would happen!

[David__77]

3. Many in the former Soviet republics are fond of that period.

It is clear that from 1917 to the 1970s, the country went from a feudal, destitute backwater, to a superpower acknowledged as a world leader, with an unequaled scientific sector. You will certainly see the occasional monument to Lenin, Dzerzhinsky, and even Stalin. Interestingly, though, you'll never see Brezhnev.