Felix Dzerzhinsky
A Terrifying Success
From the essay
The article carried me back to the early 1980s, soon after my brother and I came to the United States from the Soviet Union. Almost casually, my brother noted that he could see Felix Dzerzhinsky’s hand in what America was already living through. The strength of the Soviet operation was not only secrecy, financing or professional discipline. It was the ability to join a powerful organization to genuine belief. It is easy to recognize propaganda when it comes from people we dislike. The test is whether we can recognize it when it flatters us, confirms us and promises victory to our side.