Pravda Lauds 1st Security Chief, Cites Fairness

MOSCOW — The Communist Party newspaper Pravda, in an article with implicit contemporary relevance, said on Thursday that the chief of the Soviet Union’s first security police had opposed the arrests of innocent people.

Writing to commemorate the 110th anniversary of the birth of Felix Dzerzhinsky, who set up the forerunner of the modern KGB secret police after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, historian V. Andrianov said the police chief insisted that his agents always observe the law.

“He suppressed the slightest abuse of power,” the article said. “He did not forget to repeat: not a single person should be illegally arrested and brought to criminal account.”