Church Opposes Dzerzhinksy Statue

Toppling the statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky on Lubyanka Square, Moscow, August 22, 1991

The Union of Orthodox Citizens has responded negatively to the proposal of deputy chairman of the State Duma Security Committee Vladimir Kolesnikov to re-erect the monument to Felix Dzerzhinsky on Lubyanka Square, in front of FSB headquarters, in downtown Moscow. Instead, it proposes to find the Russian special services a heavenly protector. The Russian Orthodox Church has supported the citizens organization’s position. The statue of the chairman of the VChK (one of a string of predecessors to the FSB) was erected in front of the then KGB in 1958 and toppled in 1991 after the unsuccessful attempt by the State Emergencies Committee to oust Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev. The statue is now in the Museon art park outside the Central Artists’ House in Moscow.

“Dzerzhinsky was a demonic enemy of the Russian Orthodox Church whose hands are stained with the blood of modern martyrs and confessors. His political rehabilitation is contrary to President [of Russia Dmitry] Medvedev’s course toward the restoration of a great Russia, for Dzerzhinsky was one of the symbols of Bolshevik Russophobia,” the Union of Orthodox Citizens’ statement reads. “We hold that such statements [as Kolesnikov’s] still appear because the Russian special services have yet to receive, as many other types of forces have, their own heavenly protector.”

“For example, the protector of the Federal Security Service [FSB] could be the holy blessed Prime Alexander Nevsky,” said head of the Union of Orthodox Citizens Moscow branch Kirill Frolov, “and his words ‘He who comes to us with a sword will die by the sword’ can be the motto of every counterintelligence officer.” Many agencies already have such protectors. The Union of Orthodox Citizens is well-known for its militant defense of the interests of the Russian Orthodox Church in Russia and Ukraine.

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