Onyx and black alligator skin: Posh ‘Iron Felix’ iPhone X released as FSB turns 100
Caviar has launched a new iPhone X to mark the 100th anniversary of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), which boasts a titanium and gold portrait of the Iron Felix, the first head of the infamous Bolshevik security service.
The new device is decorated with black-composite onyx and black alligator skin. The portrait of Felix Dzerzhinsky comes with an apt adage that says: “A cold head, a hot heart and clean hands,” a phrase believed to have been coined by Dzerzhinsky.
The design of the phone is “strict and solemn, just like the uniform of FSB servicemen” and the phone is permeated with a “sense of dignity, nobility and honor,” according to Caviar, which specializes in producing luxury phones made of precious metals. The 64GB model comes with a whopping price tag of at least $4,630.
In December 1917, a secret police service was created to shield the newly-formed Bolshevik government from political opponents in the wake of the October Revolution. It later became known by its Russian initials Cheka, the forerunner of the KGB, and then the FSB. Its agents were dubbed ‘the Chekists.’ Dzerzhinsky (who was brought up in a strict Catholic tradition and dreamt of becoming a priest) was appointed the Cheka’s head, unleashing a reign of terror on all those branded as enemies of the Revolution.
In 1918, the Cheka masterminded and orchestrated the campaign of mass arrests and executions that came to be known as Red Terror, under which anyone could come under police suspicion based on their religious beliefs or social standing.
Dzerzhinsky died of a heart attack in 1926 after a two-hour long speech to the Bolshevik Central Committee. In August 1991, a memorial to the Iron Felix near the KGB headquarters in Moscow’s Lubyanka was toppled, symbolizing the end of the Soviet rule.
