From Red Terror to the playground: Dzerzhinsky honoured at children's camp

The initiative was spearheaded by Dmitry Kostennikov, a deputy in the Nizhny Tagil City Duma representing the ruling United Russia party, who purchased the former camp site in 2023.

After acquiring the site, Kostennikov began transforming it into a sports and patriotic youth camp called Pervy ("The First"), which has also been named after Dzerzhinsky.

The unveiling marks the latest in a series of similar initiatives by the local politician. Last autumn, he oversaw the installation of another bust of Dzerzhinsky in a public square in Nizhny Tagil.

Among those attending the ceremony was Dzerzhinsky's great-nephew, Vladimir Dzerzhinsky. During the event, he also presented the first badge of the newly established "Dzerzhinets" youth movement to one of its young members.

Felix Dzerzhinsky was the founder and first head of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (Cheka), the Soviet secret police organisation that later evolved into the NKVD, the KGB and ultimately today's FSB. He played a central role in organising the Red Terror that followed the 1917 Revolution and was among the architects of the Soviet system of forced labour camps that later became known as the Gulag.

According to the independent outlet Govorit NeMoskva, more than 40 monuments and busts dedicated to Dzerzhinsky have been erected across Russia.

The rehabilitation of Dzerzhinsky's legacy has gathered pace in recent years. In April 2026, Vladimir Putin restored the name of Felix Dzerzhinsky to the FSB Academy. The following month, journalist Mikhail Zygar wrote in a column for Der Spiegel that authorities are planning to return Dzerzhinsky's monument to Moscow's Lubyanka Square, from where it was removed following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

According to Zygar's sources, the political decision to restore the monument has already been made.