The rehabilitation of Iron Felix: Russia to vote on restoring statue of once-dreaded KGB founder

Toppled by protestors after the 1991 attempted coup, the statue of the man who founded the Soviet secret police could soon be restored, reports Oliver Carroll in Moscow

The statue of Dzerzhinsky being removed in 1991 (Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP)

In August 1991, with a failed hardline coup in fading memory, thousands of Muscovites ended a pro-democracy march at Lubyanka Square with a gesture that would come to frame the moment of history.

The toppling of the 11-ton statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky, uncompromising father of the feared Soviet secret police, in full view of his progeny in the KGB’s headquarters opposite, was as complete a victory symbol as they came.

Or so the people thought.