The current “anarkismo.net” has an extensive review of a new biography of Ray Simons (nee Rachel Alexandrowitch), a daughter of Latvia who was a “wrong answer” in one of Roberts’ recent kvizes. 

An alternative view of the political and social scene in Ulmanis’ Latvia:

http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=6050

ak

Good find AK. What’s your interest in Ray Alexander? Right off the bat the book reviewer introduces the spoiler and that does not leave much excitement in handling the rest of the book.

Would you use this guy, Lucien van der Walt, as a reference, a source of historical accuracy? Did he do his homework or did rely 100% on the autobiography without doing any authentication of his own or as historian Andrievs Ezergailis refers to as “Folklore versus History”?

As Lucien writes the review he is not self assured: “…the exact reasons for the family’s decision to begin emigrating from 1927 onwards are not very clear,” but he digs this without doubt or question: “… but the oppressive atmosphere of anti-Semitism and political repression played a role (Alexander, 2004: 28-31, 38-44).”

Regrettably what could have been a great book as been tainted by self-serving folklore:

“Born in Latvia in 1914, as Rachel Esther Alexandrowitch, Ray Alexander was active in Latvia’s underground Communist movement in her teens. She left for South Africa in 1929 at the age of 15: the exact reasons for the family’s decision to begin emigrating from 1927 onwards are not very clear, but the oppressive atmosphere of anti-Semitism and political repression played a role (Alexander, 2004: 28-31, 38-44). Her decision was a fortunate one, for Latvia became a fascist state in 1934, while the Nazi occupation of 1941-1944 led to large-scale massacres of Jews, including the murder of Alexander’s two half-sisters and their families (Alexander 2004: 306-8).”

“Whether in Latvia or in South Africa, Alexander was, first and foremost, powerfully and emotionally attached to the official Communist cause: soon after her arrival in Cape Town, she “cried the whole night” after hearing (mistakenly, it turned out) that there would be no local commemoration of the Russian Revolution (Alexander 2004: 50). Active in the SACP, and its predecessor, the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), formed in 1921, Alexander left South Africa for exile in the 1960s, returning in 1990 when the apartheid struggle was coming to a negotiated end.”

“Ray Alexander’s contribution was enormous, and she has been almost canonised since her death. However, this was a contribution shaped by an unswerving loyalty to the Soviet Union and official Communism. It is too easy to say, as Iris Berger does in the introduction, that Alexander’s Communism was “intrinsically tied to her East European Jewish heritage” (Alexander 2004: 7). Few local Jewish immigrants joined the SACP, and even fewer showed the same lifelong loyalty as she did - a loyalty unbroken by the SACP crises and purges in the 1920s and 1930s, Stalin’s purges in the Soviet Union, the Soviet invasion of her homeland, Latvia, in 1939, the dissolution of the Comintern in 1943, the subsequent Soviet colonisation of East Europe, and the collapse of the Soviet bloc from 1989 onwards.”

”There is no doubt that the experience of anti-Semitism in Latvia played a key role in Alexander’s powerful commitment to non-racialism in South Africa. One of a small group of radical Whites who rejected apartheid, she would come up against the pervasive racial prejudices of Whites and Africans alike throughout her life (Alexander 2004: 54, 62, 77, 80, 146, 158, 177-8, 310, 317, 328). Having decided to get involved in trade union work within two days of her arrival, she joined the local Communist Party the very same week (Alexander 2004: 50-52).”

“The late 1920s also saw the CPSA enter its worst crisis, a “very painful period” (Alexander 2004: 73). Lazar Bach (another Latvian émigré) led(?) a series of purges inspired by the New Line stress on “Bolshevising” the Party: many key members were expelled (some later reinstated), including founders like Bill Andrews, trade unionists like Solly Sachs, and African leaders like Gana Makabeni.”

”Ray Alexander casts some new light on this period, having previously known (and disliked) Bach in the Latvia underground, a dislike reinforced by his supposed sexual harassment (Alexander 2004: 43-4, 59, 63-4). However, in Ray Alexander’s account, the devastating Party purges of the early 1930s are presented largely as the outcome of Bach’s personal flaws, rather than Comintern policy and the growing use of Parties for Soviet foreign policy.”

“Such apologias for the Comintern are consistent with Ray Alexander’s blind spot for the Soviet bloc, as well as the self-described “progressive” and “anti-imperialist” regimes linked to that bloc. In 1929, for instance, she called for the “right of all women to vote, as in Russia” (Alexander 2004: 59), although the basic civil liberties had been suppressed by Bolshevik crackdowns since 1918. The 1939 Soviet conquest of Latvia was euphemised as its “attachment” (Alexander 2004: 306), rather than recognised as an example of imperial conquest similar to that which created “South Africa.”

She must have been some kind of a Joan of Arc at the age of 15 in Latvia, if one can believe her folklore.

Cheers, Ivars

“Good find AK. What’s your interest in Ray Alexander?”

The item popped up in my news server this morning.  I might not have bothered to read it had the subject not come up recently in Roberts’ kviz. 

“Would you use this guy, Lucien van der Walt, as a reference, a source of historical accuracy?”

He is a “serious” researcher, albeit seeing everything from the viewpoint of an anarchist (he doesn’t just write about anarchists, he is one!).  Give him some credit for calling the the events of 1939 the “soviet invasion” of Latvia.  Of course, that is consistent with his anti-nationalist, anti-imperialist bias.

ak

Sveiks Andrej,

Great find on Ray Simons!  Very interesting reading.

Thanks for the shout-out to the Kvizs.  I’m hoping to post another one for August but soon. 

As long as we are taking a trip down memory lane, I recently came across some undersea pictures of the Ciltvaira.  As I recall you started a fascinating thread about her some time ago.  If memory serves correctly, you got some ribbing about the source material back then too.  No worries, your contributions are always fascinating and appreciated.

Here is the ill-fated Ciltvaira, as she appears in this day and age:

http://www.obxdive.com/ciltvaira.htm

/Roberts

Sveiks Robert!

Yes, the Ciltvaira project was one of the more interesting (if totally unrewarding financially) projects I’ve ever worked on.  Seems only the Russian-language “Chas” was interested in doing any legwork on uncovering the details of this little-known story of Latvian sailors in WWII.  I did the archival research from the NY Times and other papers for Alex Krasnitski, who was the lead reporter on this, as well as some calls to captain’s widows in the US.

The highlight for me when this was all over was a spur-of-the-moment road trip with my son Voldis from NYC to Nags Head, North Carolina on May 8, 2003 for the joint overseas ceremony with the Latvian counterpart happening in Riga.  That morning, we stood on a stretch of beach near E. Ciltvaira Street in Nags Head with Yonkers Mac. Juris Saivars and local dignitaries for a prayer in Latvian and some speeches, followed by a 21-gun salute by the Coast Guard and a Sea Rescue diver who took a Latvian flag-colored wreath and swam out toward the wreck pictured in the link you sent.

This past May I met with Alex in Riga and he took me to see the memorial plaque for the sailors of the Ciltvaira and its sister ships.  You need a guide to find it unfortunately.  It’s on the side of a crumbling building that once housed the Latvian Naval Collega on the outskirts of Vecriga on the krastmala.  But I guess it’s better than nothing....

Back in 2003, the Latvian press eventually picked up the story.  For those new to this list who may not know what this is all about, here is a nice summary article of that day:

http://www.balticsworldwide.com/Ciltvaira _ Latvian Sailors.htm

ak

The news of the Latvians serving the Allies story originally was in the 1954 New York Church news. I looked up my copy and put it on the web
http://www.lacplesis.com/Musu_Jurnieki.htm