“

General Semyen Kremer, retired general of the Soviet army.

PHOTO

Soviet General Semyon Kremer

‘The very guts of this system
is to benefit the people’

By ALAIN PATRIE :
The sea port city of Odessa in

the Ukraine has some of the

loveliest buildings I have ever
seen. Hidden away in the Univer-

- sity quarter stands one of these

fine old structures. It houses the

Museum of Naval History of the

Soviet Union. Leading from the
rear of the museum across a patio
there is a walled garden.

It was in this setting where I
interviewed General Semyen
Kremer, Hero*of the Soviet
Union.

He was born in 1900 of Jewish
parents. His birthplace was in
White Russia, the town of Gomel.
It was a region with a dense
Jewish population. Anti Semitism

was used as an instrument of reac-

tion. The Jews were forced to live

Cuba 18 years after ‘The Triumph’

By WILLIAM REPKA

y are simple words in Spanish

a8 Well as in English, but in Cuba

It took Marlene, our petite and

Charming Black bus guide to
teach us their profound meaning.

_ Of sourse there is beautiful
Sunshine on the island. Miles of

white sand beaches, a 20 degree

C. ocean, blue waters, pirate:

Caves, sunken galleons, birds you
will see in no other land, oranges
and other citrus fruit, and of
Course miles of tobacco and sugar
cane.

Visiting other areas besides

Varadero Beach during two
weeks at Villa Cuba gave us a
fantastic holiday. Of course you
See relics of bygone days, beauti-
ful castles, buildings starting al-

most from 1492 when Christopher.

Columbus stumbled on to Cuba,
and planted the flag there there for
Isabella, Queen of Spain. There is
Morro Castle, reaching out from
the Bay in Havana. The Shore is
Studded with high-rise buildings.
ere is Hemingway’s summer
home. There are other normal
tourist attractions as on other,
Smaller Caribbean islands.
However, there is one major
€rence and Marlene showed
Us the spirit of that, difference.
We had been to the National
Office of the Writers’ Union of
Cuba, Union de Escritores y Ar-
Ustas de Cuba, and had met their
8enial vice-president Angel. Au-
8ier, and members of their na-
tional executive. Among other
books they gave us a poetry book
Y Nicolas Guillen, president of
Ir union.
_ At the sight of Guillen’s book,*
both Spanish and English, Mar-
lene brightened up. ‘‘Ah’’, she
Said, this I like.’’ And she

Showed us his poem ‘‘Tengo”’ (I.

have) and beamed. The poem
Starts:

When I look at and touch myself

Very many people had a -per-
sonal experience with the cor-
rupt, ruthless Batista regime.
They will tell you of his complete
abrogation of any democratic
rights on the island, of his attempt
at the physical extermination of
any opponents to his hated rule.
Men and women will tell you of
how their very lives were
threatened in the course of the
struggle.

Women will tell you what the
change meant for them. For some
it meant that for the first time they

. could get a divorce because they

could now work and support
themselves and their children and
thus escape from medieval bon-
dage. The poem also notes:

that being Black

I can be stopped by no one at
the door of a dancing hall or bar,
Or even at the desk of a hotel.

- Near Villa Cuba, on the for-
merly all-white Varadero Beach,
stands what used to be the
‘‘summer home’’ of the Dupont
billionaires. It is a huge building,
fitted out with marble, many din-
ing rooms, bedrooms, playrooms,
with an open-air dance hall on the
top floor, overlooking the ocean.
It is surrounded by 200 acres of
land, edged by some of the finest
beach in Cuba.

The* Dupont family hasn’t re-
turned and the Cuban people have
turned the building into a
museum.

All is bustle and change in Cu-
ba. We saw miles and miles of
citrus fruit trees newly planted.

» John — only — yesterday — Whe.

with — nothing and John — with
— Everything today,

They don’t refer to the fall of
the Batista regime in January,
1959 as the Revolution. It is ‘‘The

Tlumph’’. The revolution is
What has been going on ever
Since. Canadians may sometimes

forget that the changeover. in ,
ba is only 18 years old, and that

¢ numbers of the population
took part in the fight.

shore of the

The

The plan is that in five years Cuba
will be the largest exporter of cit-
rus fruits in the world. Rather
than concentrate on Havana, and
gambling joints, as .Batista did,
Fidel Castro and government are
planting gardens, plantations, or-
chards, across the land. They are
building schools, hospitals and
roads where there were none be-
fore. New cities of apartment
blocks are rising where there
were shacks before. They have

even a siiall oil industry, an up-

coming nickel industry; and a

huge dairy industry helped by im-

ported Canadian livestock.

Even the long toothed, heavy-
snouted crocdédile has been
socialized. Where 38,000 of them
used to roam the swamps and
threaten the unwary charcoal
burners getting wood, now they
are enclosed on a farm, to be used
for leather and other by-products.
Guillen’s poem “‘Tengo”’ (I have)
ends:

T have, lets see

. that I have learned to read,

to count,I have that I have
learned to write,

and to think

and to laugh.

I have that now I have

a place.to work

and earn

What I have to eat.

T have, let’s see:

I have what was coming to me.

*‘Patria o Muerte! The Great Zoo
and Other Poems by Nicolas Guil-
len, Havana, 1972. ;

‘Atlantic near. Varadero beach ‘resort In Cube.

beyond the.pale, in a ghetto.
Since no Tsarist school was open
to them, they organized their own
Yiddish schools..

‘When Semyen was 8 years old -

he was enrolled in a Yiddish
school. It was a fitful, theocratic
education. Two years later his
father died arid he was forced to
seek work.

The young lad was an illiterate.
He could not read or write Rus-

‘sian. His Yiddish was elementary

and useless. Fortunately at 10
years of age he was engaged as an
apprentice tailor in a small shop
near his home.

With the socialist revolution
Semyen was swept up in the
thrust of events. He observed th-
ose he knew. The poor attended
red meetings and rallies, the weal-
thy made caustic comments and
joined the Tsarist army. The gen-
eral sat close beside me as he re-
called the past. He had a soft
placid voice. He was earnest in
his efforts to achieve an objective
perspective.

“All those active years,”’ he
marvelled. ‘‘They were so hectic,
so thick with human passions and
energy, it seems impossible that
they are quiet now.

“T went to hear Lunacharsky,
later minister of education. I even
recall the topic; imagine what sort
of an orator he was for me to re-
member that he lectured on the
history of mankind.

‘‘He. mentioned... nations..and
how they were all equal under
Soviet Power... That Jews were
no more scapegoats. I think that
was what made me commit my-
self to the Red Army. I joined on
that premise — equality.” -

“‘T joined the Red Army an illit-
erate Jewish tailor of 18 years and
20 years later I was a colonel in
London attached to the Soviet
Embassy and Ambassador Mais-
ky.

“It seemed I had studied for
ages in army schools. I was pro-
ficient in English. In fact I was the
interpreter for visiting ‘Russian
generals and Winston Churchill in
1941 and 1942.

“Once Churchill berated me.
He told me after a meeting with
Russian generals that they spoke
for a long time and that my trans-
lations were far too short! He was
right, you know, but I knew what
was wanted and was simply pre-
cise.””

The General laughed and
touched my arm. The sun was
very hot and he moved into the
shade. ‘‘I could reminisce for
hours. You ask me what sort of
man Churchill was. A very eru-
dite man. He was a determined
man. But oh how he hated Rus-
sians and communists! I recall the
many meetings we had and how
our generals pleaded for a second
front. They told him that Stalin

-was asking for help now. Militar-

ily the time was propitious for a
European beach-head. Churchill
replied that there was a second
front in Africa. We told him there

were only 12 divisions in Africa,

we wanted 40 divisions -in

4 Europe.

“Interestingly I met the Cana-
dian General McNaughton in
London. He was in the midst of
organizing Canadian troops for
Dieppe. We were told that the

British officers were too ready to

“use Canadians in the worst situa-

_ tions. McNaughton hinted that
‘Churchill anticipated the Dieppe
disaster. | =

‘After the Dieppe horror,
Churchill sent us a memorandum
to forward to Stalin pointing out
how strong a position the nazis
maintained and that a second
front was inconceivable at that
time. He used Dieppe as his illust-

. Fation. :

‘‘T recall meeting DeGaulle and
sharing a plane ride with him. He
believed that President Roosevelt
and world public pressure would
combine to change Churchill’s gt-
titude. I agreed. The world wide
anti-fascist sentiment finally
forced a British leader to forgo his
anti-communist strategy.”

“‘When you inquire about Sta-
lin only one word comes to mind.
Hard. You cannot imagine what a
tough man he was. It is wrong for
historians to suggest that he was
militarily naive. He knew the
military. He had spent many
months on the front during the
Civil war and knew how to con-
duct battles. He could make ob-
jective estimations. But he made
some serious political mistakes.

“*The war was a juggernaut. It
swept everything away. Our
lives, our plans even our judg-
ment at times.

“I finally saw action on the
European front. I was in the battle
of Kursk and afterwards. was
made a general .... ‘

‘In my personal circuit I think I
knew about 20 Jewish generals.
But I cannot conceive of the situa-
tion as you put it. There was no
material basis. for anti-Semitism
and therefore I was never made
conscious of being a Jew. We
were consumed with tactics and
the certain knowledge that our
cause was the most democratic
thesis imaginable.

“*You must know this new born
society took a simple illiterate
Jewish tailor educated him ‘and
promoted him to general. Does
that speak volumes? My son is an
engineer in space rocketry and
my daughter is a civil engineer.
The very guts of this system is to
benefit all the people.’’

The general raised his fedora
and mopped his brow. This was
the most animation he revealed. If
one could ascribe vibrations to a
person his were sonorous and
monumental. 5

“I might say I knew all the great
generals. It was my good fortune.
I worked with Marshal Rokos-
sovsky and many others but of all
the military commanders during
the war I feel the genius was Gen-
eral Zukhov. .

“‘After the defeat of Hitler I
was sent to the eastern front
where we helped liberate China

“Forty years I spent in the
military. I chose to retire here in
Odessa with the sun and the sea

“Regrets? There are always
some. One that comes to mind is
strange. It was in 1921. In Mos-
cow. My friends were all going to
hear Lenin speak. I was on the
duty roster. I could have managed
to go but I thought there would be
so many other opportunities.
There never were.”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 6, 1977—Page 9

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