Putin puts terror chief back on a pedestal in Moscow.

"We stand for organized terror." So declared Felix Dzerzhinsky, the first head of the Soviet Union's dreaded secret police, the Cheka, forerunner of the KGB. In 1918, he launched the massive campaign of arrests, executions, and torture known as the Red Terror. Along with Lenin and Stalin, he is one of the most hated symbols of communism throughout Russia and the former Soviet bloc countries. For decades his cruel visage glowered down upon Muscovites and visitors from a giant 16-ton statue that stood in Moscow's Lubyanka Square, outside the KGB headquarters. In 1991, Muscovites--and freedom lovers the world over--cheered as the statue was toppled and removed.

However, the current Soviet "president," Vladimir Putin, is an unabashed admirer of Dzerzhinsky. That is not surprising, as he is a life-long careerist in the KGB and its current incarnation, the Russian FSB. He has made the birth date of Dzerzhinsky's infamous Cheka, December 20, a day of national celebration as "Security Organs Day." In 2002, Putin and Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov proposed to restore Dzerzhinsky's statue to Lubyanka Square, but dropped the plan due to overwhelming popular sentiment against it. Nevertheless, Putin did succeed in restoring other important communist symbols in 2002: the Red Star, as Russia's official military emblem; the Red Banner, as Russia's military flag; and the music of the old Soviet anthem, albeit with new words.

Now, a bust of Dzerzhinsky has been put in a place of honor outside the Lubyanka headquarters of the Interior Ministry (Russia's main police apparatus). Without fanfare, but not without notice, the bust appeared during the first week of November--in plenty of time for this year's celebration of "Security Organs Day." Putin has been steadily reconstituting the concentrated power structures of Soviet control and building his own cult of personality--in the pattern of all communist dictators. At this rate, it will not be long before he restores "Iron Felix's" giant statue to Lubyanka Square, regardless of the level of opposition. If that should occur, a new Red Terror may not be far behind.