I remember his name because the man was exceptionally infamous; he was the founder of the Cheka:
The Cheka soon became notorious for mass summary executions, performed especially during the Red Terror and the Russian Civil War.
The Cheka undertook drastic measures as thousands of political opponents and saboteurs were shot without trial in the basements of prisons and in public places.
Dzerzhinsky said: "We represent in ourselves organized terror—this must be said very clearly," and
"[The Red Terror involves] the terrorization, arrests and extermination of enemies of the revolution on the basis of their class affiliation or of their pre-revolutionary roles."
The Moscow Soviet (Mossovet) had the Dzerzhinsky statue removed to the Fallen Monument Park and laid on its side in August 1991,
after the failed coup d'état attempt by hard-line Communist members of the government.
I did not know the etymology of the term "Cheka", but what you explain is very plausible.
