The last battle of Felix Dzerzhinsky in “The last three speeches”

The Presidential Library presented on its website www.prlib.ru in open access a unique book of 1927 "F. Dzerzhinsky. The last three speeches." It contains transcripts of Dzerzhinsky’s speeches as chairman of the All-Russian Economic Council at a meeting held shortly before and on the day of his death, July 20, 1926.

The book contains the speeches showing that the "Iron Felix" who defeated juvenile delinquency and homelessness, brought order to the law enforcement bodies of the young Soviet republic, in 1924-1926 was studying agriculture, the economy of the USSR and tried to change the system of bureaucracy. He said: "We need to cut red tape, scribbling, the flow of documents in which we are drowning. It is necessary to restructure the work, to wipe useless bureaucratic units, assign more responsibility to those who is engaged in work. We need to avoid such a bureaucratic system when it is not us who know what we're doing, but pieces of paper in our portfolios. "

Dzerzhinsky, speaking in front of People's Commissars, stressed: "The work of the machinery of state should be brought to razor sharp, fast pace. We suffer organizational fetishism. It seems to us that to start working it is enough to take a paper, sit down in one’s office and write, "take energetic measures", "raise funds" and so on. It is not institutions that function, but people working in these institutions. It must be clear who is personally responsible for what, self-responsibility should grow. Infinite collegiality, commissions, meetings, etc. have become a hindrance. A lot of time is spent on meetings and commissions. Cutting them, we are expanding the system of personal responsibility. It is necessary that we are not pulled back and forth, and we, in our turn, should not pull the others."

The words that belong to Dzerzhinsky, were told shortly before July 20, 1926. On this day the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) took place, where the "Iron Felix" accumulated thoughts and position in regards of bureaucracy, lack of professionalism of the management. That very day, in the eveningm Dzerzhinsky died. Foreword to the edition was written by V. M. Molotov, who said that "Dzerzhinsky declared war (as he did before to homelessness) to the defects and vices of the management system, bureaucratic red tape ..."