I am an American not by birth but by choice.
Born in a tiny town near Kiev . . .
The oldest of a family of six children, four boys and two girls . . .
We had no high school in our little town . . .
. . . mother . . . enrolled me in a semiprivate dramatic school in the bustling city of Odessa on the Black Sea.
I founded the first Russian newspaper in Chicago, becoming its publisher and editor. Beginning as a weekly, it became so successful that I transformed it into a daily. By this time World War I was raging in Europe and earth-shattering events were taking place everywhere.
In 1917 the Czar was forcibly overthrown and Alexander Kerenski temporarily occupied a seat of power. Shocked by what was
transpiring in those hectic days, the Russians in this country scrutinized my publication carefully to learn my attitude towards the holocaust. Although I disagreed with Kerenski on many basic issues, particularly his philosophy of government, I felt, nevertheless, that there was no alternative to supporting him against the Bolsheviks, as the Communists were then called.
( pages 5 - 6 )
Before the Communist revolt actually erupted Kerenski came to the head of the new regime in 1917. A former Socialist, he lost no time in inviting the political exiles in America to come back to Russia and put their principles into practice; and, because the government had just received a huge loan from the United States, he made a generous offer to pay the expenses of any Russian nationals who were willing to return.
The New York �brain trust� decided just who were entitled to a
trip back to Russia, carefully selecting some 400 eligibles, mostly from New York�s East Side and Chicago�s West Side.
The home-coming army of four hundred boarded special Pullmans to Seattle, from which the pilgrims were transported by liners to Vladivostok, Siberia.
These men double-crossed Kerenski the moment they set foot on Russian soil. Not only did they force him to flee, but they also planned a separate peace treaty with Germany—a treaty harmful to the interests of the United States, with which Germany was then also at war.
Before leaving America, Trotsky and Bukharin, meeting in secret with Dubrowsky and two other confederates, Martens and Nuorteva, had blueprinted the intrigue that was to follow. It was understood that once Kerenski was out the trio would take over all operation in the United States.
Before Kerenski left Russia, Ludwig Martens became �Ambassador� in the United States. Nuorteva was named �Consul General� of New York, and Dubrowsky was made Secretary to the Soviet �Embassy.� The fact that America did not recognize the Soviet government did not deter this triumvirate from assuming their unofficial titles.
Martens, Nuorteva, and Dubrowsky soon began to pull the strings of the various foreign-language branches of the Socialist Party, so infuriating its Executive Committee that the radical groups were promptly expelled. The result of this bitter split was the birth of the American Communist Party.
( pages 169 - 170 )