Felix Dzerzhinsky was born into a family of a Polish nobleman, a gymnasium teacher. He studied at the Vilna (Vilnius) gymnasium. In 1895, he joined the Lithuanian Social Democratic organization and dropped out of school. Dzerzhinsky participated in the First Congress of Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (SDKPiL), advocating his party’s entry into the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP). He was an active participant in the Revolution of 1905–1907, and a delegate to the 4th Congress of the RSDLP (1906), at which SDKPiL joined it. Since 1907, he was a member of the Central Committee of the RSDLP. Bolshevik. From 1906 through 1917, he was arrested several times, all in all, spent 11 years in prison, exile, and katorga [hard labour].

 During the February Revolution of 1917, Dzerzhinsky was released from the Butyrka prison in Moscow. In August 1917, the 6th Congress of the RSDLP(b) elected Dzerzhinsky as a member of the Party’s Central Committee and the Secretariat of the Central Committee. During the October coup of 1917, he was a member of the Military Revolutionary Center and the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee and supervised the activity of post and telegraph offices in Petrograd. He participated in organizing the defeat of Aleksander Kerensky’s and Pyotr Krasnov’s forces near Petrograd.

In 1917–1922, Dzerzhinsky was the Chairman of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage (VChK), which gradually gained broad powers up to the infliction of the death penalty. After the attempted assassination of Vladimir Lenin (August 30, 1918), he was an organizer of the Red Terror, pursued a policy of repression against “class opponents”.

Since January 1919, he was a member of the Central Committee Commission and the Council of Defense (together with Joseph Stalin), investigated the reasons for the defeats of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army in the Perm region (1918). In 1919–1923, he held the post of People’s Commissar of Interior of the Russian SFSR and Chairman of the Military Council of the paramilitary troops of State Security (VOKHR). In 1919–1920, Dzerzhinsky headed the Special division of the VChK (military counterintelligence). He was Chairman of the Moscow Defense Committee (September 1919 – October 1920). In 1920, he headed the Border guard service and the Internal Troops (VNUS). Since February 1920, Dzerzhinsky was Chairman of the Main Committee for the General Labour Conscription (Glavkomtrud). During the Soviet-Polish war, he was the Chief procurement officer of the Southwestern Front (May–July 1920). In July–September 1920, he was a member of the Provisional Polish Revolutionary Committee and the Polish Bureau of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party of the Bolsheviks — RCP(b). In August–September 1920, Dzerzhinsky was a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Western Front.

Since January 1921, he was Chairman of the Commission for the Improvement of Children’s Lives under the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK). In 1921–1923, he held the post of the People’s Commissar of Railways of the Russian SFSR (in 1923–1924, the USSR). In 1922–1926, Dzerzhinsky was Chairman of the State Political Administration (GPU) under the People’s Commissariat of Interior of the Russian SFSR (since 1923, the All-Union State Political Administration (OGPU) under the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR). Since February 1924, Chairman of the Supreme Board of the National Economy (VSNKh). On July 20, 1926, Dzerzhinsky died of a heart attack after he spoke at the Plenum of the Central Committee. He was buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.