Charles Dirba ( lv, Kārlis Dirba; 1887–1969) was a Latvian-

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

co-founder of the Communist Party of America (CPA) and

Communist Party USA The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...

(CPUSA).

Background

Kārlis Dirba was born on January 14, 1887. He studied at Kalnciema Pagastskola and later at

Riga Polytechnic Institute Riga Technical University (RTU) ( lv, Rīgas Tehniskā universitāte) is the oldest technical university in the Baltic countries established on October 14, 1862. It is located in Riga, Latvia and was previously known as 'Riga Polytechnical Insti ...

Career

In 1903, Dirba joined the Social Democrats and by 1905 a revolutionary. In 1907, he emigrated to the United States and by 1908 had joined the

Socialist Party of America The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of Ameri ...

. In 1919, Dirba was a co-founder of the Communist Party of America (CPA), following negotiations with

Alfred Wagenknecht Alfred Wagenknecht (August 15, 1881 – August 26, 1956) was an American Marxist activist and political functionary. He is best remembered for having played a critical role in the establishment of the American Communist Party in 1919 as a leader ...

of the rival United Communist Party. He attended the 1922 Bridgman Convention. By the end of 1922, a single

Workers Party of America The Workers Party of America (WPA) was the name of the legal party organization used by the Communist Party USA from the last days of 1921 until the middle of 1929. Background As a legal political party, the Workers Party accepted affiliation fro ...

had emerged. In 1928, Dirba served as secretary of the Central Committee of the Party's Latvian Group (through 1939). In 1929, he was elected secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party USA (successor to the CPA). In the late 1920s as the

took form and was expelling Lovestoneites, Dirba took part in the purge of suspected Lovestoneite Whittaker Chambers, then an editor at the '' Daily Worker''. In his 1952 memoir ''Witness'', Chambers briefly recounted his own purge, delivered by Dirba:

Presently, the telephone rang . It was the call I had been expecting. "This is Charles A . Dirba," said a deliberately chilling voice. "Comrade, I would like to talk to you. Tonight." Dirba was the chairman of the Central Control Commission... There was no point in returning to the ''Daily Worker'' office. I never went back.

During the Scottsboro Boys Case, Diba served as assistant secretary of the International Labor Defense (ILD). In 1938, Dirba urged the CPUSA to purge its own members in a manner similar to the

Moscow Trials The Moscow trials were a series of show trials held by the Soviet Union between 1936 and 1938 at the instigation of Joseph Stalin. They were nominally directed against "Trotskyists" and members of "Right Opposition" of the Communist Party of th ...

of the Great Purge. In 1946, Dirba became a member of the Los Angeles section of the CPUSA through 1950. In 1947, the Lithuanian-American newspaper ''

Draugas ''Draugas'' (English: ''Friend'') is the only Lithuanian daily newspaper published abroad. Until 2011, the newspaper was published five days a week, except Sundays and Mondays. It is currently published three days a week, Tuesday, Thursday, and ...

'' called Dirba "an extremely shadowy figure who is the confidential agent of the all-powerful

Comintern The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...

in the western hemisphere, according to Igor Gouzenko, former cipher clerk in the Soviet embassy in Ottawa." In 1950, ex-communist

Louis F. Budenz Louis Francis Budenz (pronounced "byew-DENZ"; July 17, 1891 – April 27, 1972) was an American activist and writer, as well as a Soviet espionage agent and head of the ''Buben group'' of spies. He began as a labor activist and became a member ...

described Dirba during the 1940s:

The representative of the Control Commission–either the late Jacob Golos, who was then chairman, or the secretary Charles (also known as Clarence) Dirba–constantly visited me secretly to check on the comrades around me. I would take them to a locked room at the north end of the building, which was set aside for just such "confidential communications ." Little sandy-haired Golos and tall, lanky, bespectacled Dirba were quite unlike in general physical characteristics. But they were similar indeed in their tiptoe walk, their stealthy manner and their quiet speech.

In 1962, Dirba was a member of the American Latvian Workers' Union through 1969.

Espionage

Historians Harvey Klehr and John Earl Haynes Jr. have argued that CPUSA leaders (e.g.,

Earl Browder Earl Russell Browder (May 20, 1891 – June 27, 1973) was an American politician, communist activist and leader of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). Browder was the General Secretary of the CPUSA during the 1930s and first half of the 1940s. Duri ...

) doubled as either spies or spy recruiters, and they include Dirba among those. They state that Dirba used the codename "Lapin" and "K. Lapin" when sending messages to "Randolph" (which they deem a "generic pseudonym" for American representatives to the Comintern). Specifically, in

VENONA The Venona project was a United States counterintelligence program initiated during World War II by the United States Army's Signal Intelligence Service (later absorbed by the National Security Agency), which ran from February 1, 1943, until Octob ...

document # 39, Lapin tells Randolph that "a food worker here in New York reports that he has overheard Solomon Rechter's brother boasting to somebody else that Solomon Rechter, in Moscow, was carrying on underground work for Zionist 'black shirts'–the Zhabotinsky group." The sender signed off "Comradely yours, K.Lapin, Sec.CCC"

Death

Charles Dirba died age 82 on February 23, 1969.

Works

Dirba served as fourth and final editor of '' Amerikas Cīņa'' (''Struggle of America'') (1926–1934),Anderson, "Latvians," in Hoerder with Harzig (eds.), ''The Immigrant Labor Press in North America, 1840s-1970s,'' vol. 2, pp. 197-198. the official Latvian organ of the Workers Party of America and the American Latvian Workers' Union . * "Letter to the United Communist Party in New York" (1920) * "Letter to 'Comrade Stepan' in Moscow" (1921) * "Memories of C.E. Ruthenberg" (1940)

References