THE WASHINGTON
MERRY-GO-ROUND
By Drew Pearson
and Robert S. Allen
WASHINGTON — Six months
ago the National Conference of
the Soviet Communist Party
met in Moscow. For nearly a
year Russia had played Hitler's
game. Anti-Hitler Communists
wre in bad odor. In especially
bad odor was Maxim LitvinofT,
one-time foreign minister.
Of Jewish parentage, LitvinofT
was thoroughly out of sympathy
with the Nazi regime. Married
to a British wife, he also favored
cooperation with Great Britain,
not Germany. So his wife was in
exile in Sberia, and he himself
had been stripped of his duties,
in the foreign office and relegat- ■
ed to an obscure membership on
the Central Communist Commit
tee.
At this meeting of the Nation
al Party Conference, however.
LitvinofT was stripped even of
his committee membership. He
was ousted on the grounds of ‘"in
ability to discharge obligations.”
Probably it is typical of the
ups and downs of Russian pol
itics that six months after this
powet point in LitvinofT’ career,
he should become Ambassador to
the nation upon whose future pol
icy the fate of Russia largely de
pends.
TOUGH PARTY WORKER
Maxim Litvinoff was born 65
years ago in Bialystok, a town
in Russian Poland, now occupied
by Germany. His real name was
Meer Genokh Vallakh, but he
has adopted a long row of 'Party'
nicknames —Papasha, Luvinye,
Felike, and Nits —together with
an equal assortment of assumed
names —David Morecai Kinkle
stein, Litvinoff Harrison, M. G.
Harrison, Buckman and Gustav
Graf.
Each of those names represents
a chapter in a life which has
been as tough and colorful as
any man’s in Russia. Like every
one who has forged to the front
of the Soviet Govrenment, Lit
vinoff come up the hard way —
every inch of it. After a typical
Russian high school education,
he joined the army at the age of
17 and served for five years. It
was during his military service
that he became interested in so
cialism. And when he got out, he
immediately began to progaan
dize for the Russian Revolution
ary Democratic Party.
By the time he w'as 24 he had
become a member of the Bol
shevik central committe in Kiev,
and a year later, in 1901, he was
arrested and sentenced to exile
in Siberia. Before he could be
sent to Siberia, however, Litvin
off escaped and fled to Switzer
land.
The next fifteen years of Lit
vinoff's life were spent in very
dangerous visits to Russia or in
the company of Stalin, Lenin,
Trotsky and other exiles in
Switzerland, France and Eng
land.
Once, in 1906, Litvinoff turned
up in Paris with a huge batch of
Rusian ppaer money which the
Communist of the Caucasus, un
der the leadership of Stalin, had
seized in a raid on the Czar’s
treasury in Tiff is. It was Litvin
off’s job to change the money in
to smaller denominations and dis
tribute it to party members in
Paris. But he was caught with
some of the money on him and
expelled from France.
Twice during his years in ex
ile he sent ships loaded with
munitions to Russia to start revo
lution, but in both case the ships
were sunk.
MADAME LITVINOFF
Nine of his years in exile were
spent in London where he sold
corsets, served as a clerk in a
publishing company, and mar
ried Ivy Lowe, niece of Sir Sid
ney Lowe, and related to Sir
Maurice Lowe, well-known to
Americans as the Washington
correspondent of the London
Telegraph.
Ivy Loe Litvinoff has been one
of the most controversial char
acters in Russia. After her mar
riage she became an ardent Com
munist—though, because of her
bourgeois background, her loyal
ty always has been suspect in
Moscow. There she conducted a
salon frequented by the literari.
She translated Ru-sian novels in
to Eng ish and became Moscow’s
No. 1 hostess.
Frequently she accompanied
her husband to Geneva on his ap
pcarances before the League of
Nations, at which time she took
great delight in tripping up U. S.
Ambassador Hugh Gibson, and
other U. S. careers diplomats,
who soundly hated her.
Last year, however. Ivy Litvin
off was considered just a little
too pro-British and a little too
talkative for a diplomat’s wife.
So she very conveniently “took
up her abode” in Siberia, where
she devoted herself to her pet
hoppv. teaching Russians ’basic
English”—the essential words of
the English language.
JAILED IN LONDON
Because Litvinoff had lived in
England for five years, he was
made the first Ambassador after
the Soviet fina'ly established dip
lomatic relations with His Maj
esty’s Government. As such, he
spent a month in jail, held as a
hostage for the British agent
Bruce Lockhart, who was held
in Moscow. During his imprison
ment. the Ambassador’s sense of
humor prompted him to hang
this sign on the door of his cell:
“Military Guest of His Maj
esty.”
Afterwards, Litvinoff was de
ported. and returned to the Rus
sian Foreign Office here he serv
ed under the famous Tehitcherin.
Tlhe two were in constant con
flict, each with his own personal
fo’lowing which tried to domin
ate the Foreign Office.
Finally, Tchitchern became in
sane, retired from office and was
kept under guard for four years.
But just as Litvinoff achieved
his ambition of becoming For
eign Minister, he suffered the ter
rible experience of having most
of his staff purged from under
him. Twenty-five chiefs and as
sistant chiefs were shot, exiled or
committed uicide. Every emport
ant division except three was
cleaned out completely. Most, con
spicuous was First Assistant Com
misar Krestinsky who had been
Soviet Ambassador to Germany.
He was shot.
Many of Litvinoff’s friends con
sidered him lucky to have wea
thered this storm. His politic:!1
eclipse did not come until Stalin
got ready to make a marriage of
convenience with Germany. And
considering the fate of his asso
ciates. Litvinoff’s mere relegation
to a back seat, and his present
come-back as Ambassador to the
U. S. A. stamp him as something
of a phenomenon in Soviet Rus
sia.
The Nazis are trying to sink
our oil tankers, but it is doubt
ful if they can accomplish what
Secretary Ickes couldn’t.
SOURDOUGH STATIONERY
Write to your friends and rela
lives on the ‘Outside,’ using Sour
dough Stationery. They’ll get i
big kick out of it.
Lt. Gen. Douglas M;«c Arthur (left), commander of all United
States Army forces in the Far Fast, including the Philippine
Army, confers at Manila with Manuel L. Quezon, president of the
Philippine Commonwealth.
The United Slates destroyer Woodworth, named for Selim E.
W<? dworth, naval officer and California pioneer, goes down the
ways at the Bethlehem Shipbuilding company’s San Francisco
yards. The destroyer is a 1,630 ton vessel.
Six types of bombers manufactured on the west coast are concentrated at Long Beach, Calif., mun
icipal airport by the Air Corps ferrying command before being flown to the east to be turned over
to the RAF pilots who fly them to the fighting zones. Foreground, left to right, Lockheed Hudson,
Dougles DB-7, Vega Ventura. Rear, left to right, Consolidated Liberator, North American B-25,
Boeing B-17.
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