Nick Cherniavsky Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Nick Chemiavsky 96
group. And eventually he ws lured to Russia by the Reds by an impster
undercover agent that cam frm Red Russia and he was bm@t to Russia
supposedly on a mission. He ws captured by the Red govenmmt and
disappeared. The general asamption was that he ~~rrs tried and executed.
In any case, this group ms pzblishing a =letter in Russian kite
ccsmuniths throughout the mrld and soliciting funds to carry on its
anti-cammist activities. As I recall my dad regularly cmtriluted and
d d regularly mail in firm his very meager earnings in those days a few
dollars at a time to help with these efforts. So hre were a number of
activities of this nature go* on and it really d d
be entirely inproper
for m to speculate &ether this general ms involved in samething of this
nature. The only thhg that I can report m with any degree of accuracy
muld be the fact that this did take place. This young person did leave
under these peculiar circumtances and he did leave this note which I did
not mad ht to the dstence of vhich I can speak quite knowledgeably.
Because I h aw that it ms quoted by my parents and by all the grown-ups
of the carrmnity and of caurse the children ere discussing it too. It
ms an mt of mjor magnitude in the camamity and people ere shocked
and bedldered and they discussed it fox a long tlme follawing that.
Q: Did you think at that th that there might be others, Russian agents,
Red agents living among you?
A: ks, I mentioned that it d d be mst natural to assume that that ukls
the case.
Q: At any t h did they try to enlist you or your father or anyone you
knew?
A: No, I can't say that. k, I'm not fdllar with anything of that
nature.
END OF TAPE
A: As I started ta say, the only true cantacts that I have rnade with
people Erm Russia--Red Russia of case--were, the very first me--and
not in any sense nmnhgful in this respect--was my uncle.
that he cam to W, to Shanghai from Vladivostock and stayed I y or a few
weks ow a mnth or smrething like that and ent back to Russia following
that. Wlt the tm contacts that I had wit31 people who came from Russia
tJhen I as a teenager, the first one, and then &en I actually had left
Qlina ard WM in the Philippines prior to my caning to this country, =re
the mly cantacts that I had with people £ran there.
The first me happened s w t k in the mid or late 1930s--actually mid-1930s
I muld think, yes--and it was a captain of a Wet Rwsk freight ship
that made a stop in Shanghai and this captain ms asked by sane people in
Rush to see my mother's godfather's mother. She ms an old, old lady
and they ere extremely walthy Ln Wsia prim to the Russian revolution.
They had a huge estate in the Wtka Peninsula wit31 all sources of
natural ~alth, gold and millions of acres of timber stands and hunting
grounds and it ws just mblievable. They were m y times millionaires
Nick Cherniavsky Memoir, vol. 2 - Archives/Special Collections - Norris L Brookens Library - University of Illinois at Springfield - UIS
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