Jan Feliksovich Dzerzhinsky

[Balrog]

I'm trying to find information on Felix Dzerzhinsky's only child. His name was Jan Feliksovich Dzerzhinsky. All I can find on him is that he was born in 911 and died in 1960. Beyond that, nothing. Did he ever have children? Did he fight in WW2? Does anyone have any photos of him as an adult?

I assume there is more on him in Russian. I'd appreciate it if anyone could post it in English.

[valpatrak]

He was born in Serbia Prison, Warsaw ,where his mother was jailed,then he was in foster care in his uncle's family, After his mother's escape lived in Switzerland,1912-1919. Since 1919 lived with his parents in Moscow,in 1936 graduated from Kuybyshev Military academy,worked as an engineer in 1936-39,then in Comintern in 1939-1940, since 1943 in CPSU Central Committee staff. His wife Ljubov Fedorovna Likhova (1909—1984),architect.
Their son Felix Janovitch(1937—2015),zoologist,professor.
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%94%D0 ... 0%B8%D1%87
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%94%D0 ... 0%B8%D1%87

[wm]

He was a boring high ranking communist apparatchik (because of that he didn't have to fight) so not that much is known about him.
At the end of the war he worked for the Polish section of the CPSU, and directly reported to Stalin.
Probably there is more in the memoir written by his mother who outlived both Dzerzhinskys - a close associate and friend of Stalin, she was even able to criticize him with impunity.
As a kid, when his parents were in prison he was taken care of by Janusz Korczak the later hero of the Warsaw Ghetto - this shows how close was the relations between Polish socialists and nationalists, and the later communist leaders.

[Stephan]

Wait, was Janusz Korczak the uncle mentioned? Btw, was he in personal care of Korczak, in his family home, or was it in the orphanage Korczak was director and foundator of?

[valpatrak]

Russian wikipedia writes that he was in the family of his own uncle M.S.Mushkat,in Kletsk,former Polish town,now in Belorussia.

[wm]

I suppose Korczak didn't take care personally, he was a young man, it was beyond the area of his expertise one might say. In wealthy families (like the Korczaks and Dzerzhinskys) female servants took care of babies anyway.
Sylwia Frołow in her biography of Dzerzhinsky writes that Korczak helped to find a place for him in a private Infant Institute, and a few months later the uncle took care of him. Unfortunately I haven't read her book so I know nothing more.

[Stephan]

I suppose Korczak didn't take care personally, he was a young man, it was beyond the area of his expertise one might say. In wealthy families (like the Korczaks and Dzerzhinskys) female servants took care of babies anyway.
Sylwia Frołow in her biography of Dzerzhinsky writes that Korczak helped to find a place for him in a private Infant Institute, and a few months later the uncle took care of him. Unfortunately I haven't read her book so I know nothing more.

This sounds plausible, and covers nicely both versions.

In 1911 he hadnt as yet his renown orphanage, but he worked as doctor since several years - often as doctor for children and people in social difficulties. (and during wars as military doctor in military hospitals - he got the major title at the end of WWI). He was already deeply interested in help for orphans. So I can easily imagine he did help out a child in need.