Chapter 3

Peter and Paul are both saints canonized by the Catholic Church, two of Jesus' twelve apostles, who should embody mercy and benevolence. However, in this fortress prison named after the two saints, there is not a trace of kindness. At least, Li Xiaofeng did not see anything that could comfort him along the way.

The prison within the Peter and Paul Fortress is roughly divided into three parts based on the order of construction—the Zayachy Bastion Prison, the "Secret Prison Building," and the Trubetskoy Bastion Prison. The Zayachy Bastion, located at the northwest corner of the fortress, was named by Peter the Great in honor of his teacher, the head of the Preparatory Chamber, and the secretary of the Boyar Duma, Nikita Moiseyevich Zotov. Ironically, shortly after the completion of the Zayachy Bastion, the first prison cells were built there.

The walls of the prison cells are part of the fortress walls adjacent to the Neva River. The flowing river not only makes escape impossible but also makes the cells as cold as ice. The ceilings of the cells are arched, and the small windows are covered with iron grilles and painted white. The only exit is a heavy wooden door reinforced with thick iron plates.

According to the memoirs of the famous Decembrist and Northern Society member Alexander Muravyov, who was imprisoned there, he described the conditions: "On the iron bed, there is a dirty, shiny rag mattress, and on the wall hangs a 23-pound (about 9.24 kg) chain used to punish prisoners... The bed is made of two narrow iron planks, which are of different thicknesses and have large gaps between them. The bedding and pillow are burlap sacks filled with straw. There are no chairs, and a small table is fixed to the wall. In the corner is a foul-smelling chamber pot. The room is extremely small, measuring six steps in length and four steps in width... The common features of these cells are their darkness, small size, dampness, and coldness. The damp, moldy walls emit a suffocating odor, and the small, dark space makes it impossible to move or discern the conditions inside."

Fortunately, Li Xiaofeng did not have to go to the Zayachy Bastion Prison. He was to be sent to the Trubetskoy Bastion Prison, located in the southwest direction of the fortress, which was newly built with the approval of Tsar Alexander II. It wasn't that he didn't qualify for the Zayachy Bastion Prison; it was simply full. The "Secret Prison Building" in the fortress, the Alexeyevsky Ravelin, was demolished in 1895, leaving the Trubetskoy Bastion Prison as the only place that could accommodate him.

This is a two-story pentagonal building. Although the entire structure is slightly taller than the fortress walls, it is 4.5 meters away from the walls, making it invisible from the outside of the bastion.

Li Xiaofeng was escorted by two gendarmes into this prison, which Vera Nikolayevna Figner, a member of the "People's Will," called a "coffin." To be honest, the moment he entered the prison, Li Xiaofeng involuntarily shivered. This was a dark, damp building, with the floor and walls looking as if they had just been doused with water. Large droplets of water reflected the dim light, resembling the eyes of evil spirits in the netherworld.

The entire prison was silent, a persistent quiet that seemed to exist only in graveyards. As they walked, the only sound Li Xiaofeng could hear was the faint metallic clinking of the gendarmes' spurs and keys as they patrolled the corridors. Even this slight noise was a great comfort to him.

Occasionally, the sound of a door being locked would be heard, but it was quickly swallowed by the surrounding silence. The gendarmes patrolling the corridors would often stop at the cell doors, press their ears to the door to listen, or peek through the "Judas hole" to observe the prisoners' movements. They would see a prisoner pacing back and forth in the cell, like a bird in a cage, anxious and restless.

"Cell 59!" After a long silence, the guard escorting Li Xiaofeng finally spoke.

His companion then took out a large, heavy keyring from his belt and, after carefully searching in the dim light, found the right key. He inserted it into the lock and gently turned it. With a creak, the heavy iron door was pulled open. Li Xiaofeng's hair stood on end; this feeling was reminiscent of playing "Resident Evil," but the fear was more intense and real this time.

Li Xiaofeng was still dazed, but the gendarme behind him was already impatient. He pushed him hard, and Li Xiaofeng stumbled into the small tomb-like cell. The heavy iron door slammed shut with a loud thud, and as the gendarmes' footsteps faded away, everything fell into a deathly silence.

After a long while, Li Xiaofeng slowly stood up and looked around the small room. The ceiling of the cell was arched, and the floor was made of cement. The window was near the ceiling, allowing only a weak ray of sunlight to enter. In the dim cell, there was a wooden table and a stool, an iron bed with two iron planks and bedding, and a washbasin and chamber pot on either side of the door. The walls, dripping with water, were illuminated by a small, almost invisible, dim light bulb.

"Kid!" Just as Li Xiaofeng was lost in thought, a hoarse voice, like sandpaper, startled him.

Li Xiaofeng squinted and, with the help of the dim light, saw a dark shadow lying on the double-layered iron bed. The person seemed to be completely swallowed by the darkness, and if not for the sudden sound, he would not have noticed that there was another living person in this tomb.

Although he was alive, his appearance was similar to that of a zombie—pale, sunken eyes, and dark, lifeless skin with blue-black spots. His face looked as if it had been chiseled with an ax, with sharp features and a stubble around his lips, giving off a cold and ruthless aura.

This face seemed familiar, Li Xiaofeng thought. Although he was sure that in his previous life, he had only interacted with a few foreign teachers who came to seek gold, and most of them were black, the person in front of him, despite his dark complexion, was clearly a white person.

He was certain he did not know this person, but the sense of familiarity was undeniable. Li Xiaofeng suspected that the owner of his current body might have known this person, but a sudden realization dispelled this thought. He recognized this cool man because he remembered a famous name—Jean Reno.

Yes, the actor who played in "Léon: The Professional"!

Of course, some might think Li Xiaofeng was crazy or delusional, as how could Jean Reno be in this prison? Even if he were to be imprisoned, the famous actor would be in a French prison, not in the dark prison of autocratic Russia.

Li Xiaofeng knew that the person in front of him could not be an actor, let alone Jean Reno. They looked very similar, and if the person's chin were a bit fuller, the resemblance would be even stronger. Of course, having a celebrity face might be useful in the future, at least for appearing on variety shows or fashion shows, and if things went well, he might have a more comfortable life. But for the owner of this celebrity face, it meant nothing.

Perhaps his fame in the future was not as great as Jean Reno's, but his impact on history was more significant. Of course, this was true only if Li Xiaofeng had not mistaken the person.

"Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky." The celebrity face extended his right hand.

Li Xiaofeng swallowed hard. He was now certain that he had not mistaken the person. The one in front of him was indeed the one he had heard of.

Yes, this was the founder of the Cheka, one of the three major intelligence agencies in the future, the Soviet proletarian revolutionary and master of the Red Terror, Felix Dzerzhinsky. At that time, there was no KGB or GPU; the organization he led, with the emblem of a sword and shield, was called the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission, or Cheka.

Of course, whether it was the Cheka, GPU, or KGB, the organization's reputation was bad, just like the Ming Dynasty's Jinyiwei and Dongchang. The reasons for this were likely due to the strict control over the domestic population, the exile of party members who lost in internal struggles to remote areas, the deportation of dissidents abroad or to special psychiatric hospitals, and the imprisonment and torture of ordinary people in prisons and labor camps.

More likely, it was the Great Purge during Stalin's era that caused significant damage to the Soviet Union, leading to major setbacks in the early stages of World War II and causing great suffering to countless families. In fact, it was because Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria was executed and labeled a traitor that the NKVD, to break with the past, was renamed the KGB.

However, in the early days of the Soviet Union, the Cheka played an indispensable role in consolidating the Soviet regime and building the state. The Cheka eliminated the social ills of the White Russian period, such as gangs, thugs, and prostitutes, and suppressed multiple urban armed rebellions. The actual subordinate organization, the State Political Directorate, protected the personal safety of Soviet leaders, including Lenin.

Even more, this pure intelligence and terror organization engaged in economic and charitable work, including repairing war-damaged railways, improving the lives of impoverished urban workers, and establishing orphanages to help children affected by war and famine.

These benevolent actions can be seen in the various positions Dzerzhinsky held or concurrently held: People's Commissar of Internal Affairs (a solid ministerial-level position, not a small shop), Chief of Logistics of the Southwestern Front, Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee's Committee for Improving the Lives of Children, Chairman of the Committee for Improving the Lives of Moscow Workers, People's Commissar of Transport, Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, Chairman of the State Political Directorate of the Soviet People's Commissariat, and Chairman of the Supreme Economic Council of the Soviet Union.

Of course, from the day the Cheka was born, its emblem was a sword and shield. Dzerzhinsky's internal forces naturally had blood on their hands. In fact, the establishment of the Cheka began with Dzerzhinsky's words: "Do not think I will seek a just path for the revolution. We do not need justice now; it is a face-to-face war, a life-and-death struggle. I suggest and request the establishment of an institution to carry out revolutionary justice against counter-revolutionaries." As Dzerzhinsky famously said, "We represent self-organized terrorism—this must be made clear."

This was a level of honesty and decisiveness that few of his successors or people in similar roles worldwide could match, even the devilish head of the Gestapo, Heinrich Luitpold Himmler, would not dare to say such things.

The Cheka, as Dzerzhinsky said, "implemented terror, arrested, and eliminated class enemies, destroyed their roles in the revolution, destroyed their class alliances, and eliminated their physical and spiritual existence."

However, Dzerzhinsky himself was not a dictator or a cruel killer. He was a man of firm faith, self-disciplined, kind, and benevolent. His nickname, "Iron Felix," best describes this. Many memoirs of the October Revolution describe Dzerzhinsky: "He needed only three things to live: work, bread, and water."

Dzerzhinsky never went to the theater or watched movies; he did not even have a home, only an office. The deepest impression Dzerzhinsky left on many people was: "His sunken eyes shone with the cold light of fanatical faith. He never blinked, as if his eyelids were paralyzed."

Moreover, Dzerzhinsky was different from his successors; he was never a lackey of the highest power. The Cheka he led was independent, not serving personal will, but fighting for the communist ideal.

For Dzerzhinsky, even his enemies could not deny that he was a true red sword of justice, loyal to the communist ideal, protecting the people, and striking against enemies. In fact, Lenin did not like him, and Stalin did not like him, but they could not help but respect him. His status was not lower than Lenin's. In the election of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party, the actual leader of the October Revolution and the founder of the Red Army, Leon Trotsky, came in third, the founder of the Soviet regime, Lenin, came in second, and the one who came in first was Dzerzhinsky. After these three died or were exiled, the Soviet leadership never again saw a person of such strong ability, tireless work, and unwavering loyalty to the revolutionary cause. Instead, there were more people like Stalin, schemers, and corrupt bureaucrats.

Of course, Dzerzhinsky was not a saint, although many KGB staff in the future revered him as one. He made mistakes and had problems. In the struggle between Stalin and Trotsky, he chose the former. However, this did not mean he fully agreed with Stalin's actions.

In fact, before Stalin promoted his cult of personality and implemented his terror rule, the person he feared most was Dzerzhinsky. Whether it was Stalin's luck or Dzerzhinsky's, Dzerzhinsky died of overwork in office at the age of 49. Three hours before his death, in a speech to the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission, he sharply criticized the problems in Stalin's governance: "When I see the party's institutions, the organizational system, the unbelievable bureaucracy, the slack work efficiency, and the extreme chaos, I feel fear."

As if sensing something, Dzerzhinsky also spoke about his beliefs and the source of his strength in the final moments of his life: "Do you know what my strength lies in? It lies in the fact that I never spare myself, I firmly believe that everything I do is right, and I am willing to dedicate my life to my cause. Because of this, everyone here trusts and loves me. I never oppose reason, but as long as there is disorder, I will fight it with all my might."

For such a person, it is difficult to describe him as a good or bad person in the usual sense. He came from a noble family but devoted himself to the proletarian revolution; he implemented terror policies and ruthlessly struck against the enemies of the revolution, but he never sought any privileges for himself. He was merciless and unrelenting towards his enemies, but his letters to family and friends were filled with passionate emotions. At first glance, he seemed cold and ruthless, but he was a true idealist... Well, Dzerzhinsky was a bundle of contradictions, but no matter what, he was a person worthy of respect.

At least, Li Xiaofeng greatly respected this cool man who looked like Jean Reno. He nervously and awkwardly shook the man's hand, stammering, "Li... no... Andrei Petrovich Sperovsky."

This name was not fabricated by Li Xiaofeng; it was a subconscious reaction. Indeed, the original owner of this body was named Andrei Petrovich Sperovsky.

"Hello, Comrade Andrei Petrovich. Although it's somewhat ironic, I'm glad to see you here," Dzerzhinsky said with a strange smile.

Li Xiaofeng's head was a bit dizzy, and he could only tightly hold Dzerzhinsky's right hand and stammered, "Thank you, I'm also glad to see you, Comrade Felix Edmundovich."

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