11 July 2011

My Grandfather - Czech Legionnaire and Banker

What started a couple months ago with looking through my parents' photo albums and asking for their memories has now led to my suspicion of my grandfather's deep involvement in one of Europe's greatest stories.
1st Company Rifle Regiment in Irkutsk 1919
photo from http://www.pamatnik.valka.cz
This surely looks like grandpa.

Born in 1896 in Siberia, my paternal grandmother had been married at 18, had a baby who died and a husband who disappeared to some other part of Russia and was never seen again.  Born in Brno in 1895, my grandfather was part of the Czech Legion fighting in Russia after that country's Revolution in 1917.  Both single, (or in my grandmother's case, presumably so), they met in approximately 1919 when my Czech grandfather was stationed in my grandmother's hometown of Irkutsk, Russia.


Cutting a long and complicated story short (and the following details may be imprecise), the Czech Legion was a remarkably successful army. They pushed back and held against the Bolsheviks, they captured and controlled the Trans-Siberian Railway from Siberia to Vladivostok, whose port they also controlled, and they even captured and possessed eight train car loads of the Tsar's gold.  Their advances were so renown that diplomats in Versailles and President Woodrow Wilson in the USA endorsed creation of an independent Czechoslovakia that would be homeland for all the various Czechs and Slovaks, etc, as reward for their military successes against the Bolsheviks and for their assistance in holding ports open so that international troops could enter Russia to help in the fight..

Czech dignitaries in Irkutsk, 1919. Grandpa again? 2nd from left, standing. (Close-up below)
photo from http://www.pamatnik.valka.cz

Close-up from photo above.

By 1920, Trotsky had finally built up his Russian armies to over 3 million soldiers making them a threat to the Czechs.  This threat of defeat, Czech disillusionment with their leader Kolchak, and a desire now to get out and return to their newly created homeland, the Czech Legion decided to make a deal with the Bolsheviks.  They would hand over Kolchak and return seven train car loads of the Tsar's gold (but remember, there were eight) in return for a guarantee of safe passage out of Russia to their new country Czechoslovakia.  The deal was accepted.  Kolchak was soon executed, the gold handed over and, through the port at Vladivostok, the Czech soldiers returned home to a hero's welcome for having been instrumental in creation of a new independent homeland.

My grandparents' wedding day?
But my grandfather did not return to Czechoslovakia.  We have no marriage records, but based on a document (explained below) I'll assume that after meeting in Irkutsk my grandparents married in 1920, perhaps at the Czech Consulate in Vladivostok (where the Czechs had a strong presence).  We assume they remained in Russia, but where? Vladivostok?  Siberia (Irkutsk)?  And what job did my grandfather do?  I have a postcard addressed to my grandfather in Vladivostok, dated 23 August 1920, so I know he was there at least temporarily at that time.

Perhaps the reason he remained in Russia - Vladivostok, apparently - after 1920 is revealed by a business card of my grandfather's that identifies him as working with the "Czechoslovak Central Economic Commission in Vladivostok" [чехословацкая центральная экономическая комиссия Владивосток].  After a lot of Googling, I remain unclear what sort of economic affairs this commission attended to. I can only find a few websites, in Russian, which I Google-translated.  These poorly translated websites suggest that this Commission might have acted as import/export agents for goods between Czechoslovakia and Russia including return to Czechoslovakia of Czech Legion property.  But these poor translations also suggest that by September 1923 Soviet officials had become so suspicious of this Commission's activities that their trade was halted with charges of improper transfers.  The internet seems to have very little information on this Commission.


A Russian woman I know who translated some of Grandma's documents from Russian explained that a travel document issued in 1923 references my grandmother's Czech passport previously issued in 1920 in Vladivostok (thus, that she's Russian-born but was issued a Czech passport in 1920 is why I assume she married my Czech grandfather in 1920; and perhaps they married at the Czech consulate in Vladivostok).

Part of grandma's 1923 Soviet-issued travel permission
This travel document, issued by a Soviet official in July 1923, allowed my grandmother to remain in, and travel anywhere within, Russia an additional three months during which time she would need to obtain a Russian passport and papers.

Did my grandparents intend to remain in Russia and obtain more permanent Russian documents within three months, or did they obtain this travel document, allowing my grandmother free passage anywhere within Russia, for some other idea they were planning?  And by the way, why was my Czech grandfather allowed to remain in Russia after 1920 when many Czechs who did not return to the new Czechoslovakia were imprisoned in Russia for their prior activities against the Bolsheviks?  What business was he tending to at that Czech Economic Commission of such importance that he was allowed to stay (or perhaps that he felt was so important that he risked imprisonment)?

From within that complicated background emerges a curious potential political intrigue.

Grandma (L) w/friends in Shanghai,
Josef Park; Easter, 1924
Feeling that the unstable political situation was changing for the worse, and as my grandmother's three-month period of ability to travel freely allowed by that 1923 document from Soviet officials was coming to an end, they hatched a plan (or perhaps their plan prompted them to seek the document?). My grandparents apparently lied to Soviet officials about their travel plans, and they didn't even tell her family in Irkutsk what they would really do.  They fled to Shanghai. 

They must have arrived in Shanghai sometime between when that travel document was issued, in July 1923, and when it expired, in October of that year, and additional documents show they remained there until October 1924.  In Shanghai we know that my grandfather worked in banking; a bank manager, if I recall correctly (from a business card I had years ago but have since lost).  Before that he worked at the "Czech Central Economic Commission" in Vladivostok. Clearly, my grandfather was deeply experienced with banking before arriving in Shanghai.  Before going to Russia in 1919 (or earlier?), my grandfather attended University in Prague. If he studied banking and economics, I don't know.  But sometime before working at the "Czech Economic Commission" in Vladivostok from appx 1920 to 1923, he learned all about banking and international money transfers. 

Back to that eighth train car full of the Tsar's gold that the Czech Legion did not hand over to the Bolsheviks before returning to their new homeland of Czechoslovakia in 1920.  Those returning Czechs funded establishment of a new state bank, it has been proposed, with that train car of gold.  It has never been proven that this was true, but it has also never been proven not to be true. Books have been written on this subject (that I have yet to read). The Czechs claim that the funds to establish the bank came from soldiers' thriftiness in saving all their soldier pay and from the many side-businesses they made during their time in Russia. Were those side-businesses fronts for hiding and processing the Tsar's gold?  The Russians apparently always believed the Czechs funded their bank (and their new country) with the gold because, in 1945, Soviet soldiers stormed the state bank in Czechoslovakia and robbed it of millions. The Tsar's gold, they claimed.

My grandfather was a banker. The Tsar's gold from that eighth train car went somewhere. The idea to form the bank in Czechoslovakia was innovated in 1919 in Irkutsk when and where my grandfather was stationed.  Apparently (according to those books on the Tsar's gold and the Czech bank) there are records of the gold being processed  - "laundered" might be the correct word - through transactions at banks in Shanghai and San Francisco.  Apparently as soon as my grandfather arrived in Shanghai, he became a bank manager. After one year there - in October 1924 - he traveled to San Francisco and a letter I have shows that in 1931 he was head of the Czech section of the Slavic department of a bank in San Francisco that was experienced in transactions of all kinds including international money transfers:

1931 Letter from San Francisco bank to a "Mr Pane" at the Czech Consulate in San Francisco
introducing my grandfather, Raimund Formanek as head of the Czech section, and explanation of financial services to
Czech countrymen "through our bank" such as savings accounts, personal loans, money transfers - to anywhere - funding of businesses and insurance, etc.

Was my grandfather a, or THE, accountant for the Tsar's gold?  Was he part of the team that created the idea for the Czech bank and made it happen? Did he arrange or process transactions at banks in Shanghai and San Francisco (and were these banks where he later got jobs)?  Was he instrumental in hiding the gold in "side-businesses" of the soldiers of the Czech Legion?  Was the business he was tending to at the Czech Central Economic Commission in Vladivostok after 1920 the continuing management of the Czech Legionnaires' "side-businesses" in Russia? And were those businesses really fronts for laundering the Tsar's gold, perhaps in import-export transactions?  All of this arouses my belief that my grandfather was involved in economic transactions that channeled the Tsar's gold into the new Czechoslovakia (or some sort of economic business between Russia and the Czech homeland).  Perhaps by 1923 my grandparents feared growing Russian (Soviet) suspicion that the Czechs had, and continued to, channel the Tsar's gold out of Russia, and so my grandparents fled. (Remember, the Soviets had become suspicious of the Czech Economic Commission and in September 1923 shut it down. This was within the 3-month window of time that my grandmother's Soviet-issued document allowed her to travel anywhere within Russia unencumbered.)

My grandparents would refuse to talk about these matters in later years.  And my grandmother only ever wrote two letters to her family back in Russia because she feared the Soviets could intercept her letters and then punish her family back home for letting her escape. Punishment only for leaving?  But many people left Russia without retribution. Or did she fear punishment if the Soviets learned that her husband was involved in an ongoing scheme to funnel money out of Russia?  Regarding this, was her fear even more specific: punishment for having fled after the activities of the Czech Economic Commission were shut down and intended to have been investigated, with grandfather being wanted for questioning (where the full depth of his past involvement would be discovered)?

From my grandmother's 1924
passport, issued in Shanghai
We also possess my grandmother's passport issued at the Czech Consulate in Shanghai September 30th 1924 with an immigration visa stamped October 1st 1924 and signed by James P Davis, American Consul in Shanghai in 1924. My grandparents set sail aboard the ship Taiyo Maru from Shanghai on 5 October 1924 and arrived in San Francisco 27 October 1924.  About a year later, in 1925, they gave birth to their first son and their second (my father) in 1928.  And by 1931, as shown above, we know my grandfather worked as head of the Czech Department of a bank in San Francisco where he clearly was intimately familiar with Czech financial systems.

Even in his retirement years he continued to work in a bank.  As a security guard.  I would love to track down his university course of study in Prague, what he did in Russia during the Czech Legion years and beyond until 1923, and the nature of his work in Shanghai through 1924. (I used to have a business card showing the bank where he worked in Shanghai - a big help - but I lost track of it some 20 years ago.)

"Taiyo Maru" passenger list showing my grandparents aboard

Was my grandfather instrumental in laundering the Tsar's gold through various transactions?  That's a grand theory, but he certainly seemed to have been involved in some kind of financial affairs between Czechoslovakia and Russia. And unfortunately, in fact suspiciously, he never talked about it.

Please also visit the website for the Czechoslovak Legion Memorial for about 200 more photos, history and even a database of Legionnaires who lost their lives in the fighting.  (Is there a database of Legionnaires who did NOT lose their lives, like my grandfather?)

02 July 2011

On Clowning

As a very young boy, even by six years old, I idolized Charlie Chaplin. He used his body in charming ways to express joy, fear and love. Words were irrelevant, even superfluous to his eloquent expression. He rarely even tried to speak; as Roger Ebert wrote of Chaplin's "Little Tramp" character, "he exists somehow on a different plane than the other characters; he stands outside their lives and realities."  And yet WE were "in" with him. We were his friends who understood him.

Loaded with admiration for this talent from my earliest days, I always wanted to be a clown. Not particularly the white-face, big red nose type of clown; but a silent 'real person' clown from the Chaplin school who uses his body to communicate with outsiders as friends who will understand me; outsider friends whom I will understand.  As I grew up I continued to admire all the great comedians: Laurel & Hardy; Lucille Ball and even the old Warner Brothers cartoon characters (their comic timing and physical schtick were impeccable). In my 20s I seriously considered running off to the Ringling Brothers Clown College in Florida.

A side-story now, that will become relevant shortly.  In about 1995 a friend's son was two years old and needed surgery on a malformed lung (he couldn't breathe-in sufficient oxygen).  After the surgery, I went to the hospital to visit the parents as their boy recovered. In the pediatric ward I saw children with all kinds of illness: some bald from chemotherapy, another pushing his own IV bottle on a stand as he cried his way to receiving yet another procedure, a girl with a cast on her arm (from lord knows what injury), and so on.  I had two impulses:  to run out of there and never think of these unfortunate children again, or to approach each of them and do what I could to cheer them up.

When I moved to Boston in 1997 I heard about a local troupe of clowns that are trained specifically to entertain children in hospitals.  Perfect!  With this one group I could achieve two heartfelt goals:  to be a clown, and to help ease the pain of all those kids who are lonely, frightened and possibly depressed in hospitals.  I contacted the troupe founder and expressed my desire to join.

This group is now known as the Hearts and Noses Hospital Clown Troupe.

(another clown; not me)
The troupe was founded just the year before and I was in the second annual class, learning from their founder Jeannie Lindheim.  She was an acting teacher who had gone on a trip to hospitals in Russia with Dr Patch Adams, who later personally endorsed Jeannie's troupe.  Clowns in this troupe are not white-face circus clowns, they are more 'real life' clowns, like Chaplin, and simply wear bright colors and each has his own personality. Without going further into the unusual techniques of hospital clowning, let me share a few of my clowning experiences.

It was with the clown troupe that I fell in love with the Special Olympics.  At a competition held on the fields of MIT (yes, MIT has sporting fields!), as I clowned with the athletes in their world (and not paying much attention to adults), I could feel their mood of exultation and sense of value earned by participating in the games. Enjoying this empathetic feeling of their joy, I clowned all the happier and more energetically, and they joined in my play. I was now the Chaplin clown with outsider friends who mutually understood each other and made each other happy.

At a Catholic Charities event, one boy about 8 years old seemed so starved for love that he took to me, eventually hugging me and even telling me, "I love you." I gently redirected his focus back onto the people who know him. But what sticks with me to this day is that this boy must have been through so much pain, and given the circumstances of this charity, perhaps abandonment and so on, yet still had love to give if only someone would offer it back.  Lesson learned: wanting to love is stronger than never having received it.

At a hospital where the most injured children live, essentially year round, troupe founder Jeannie and I were on our way out of a room after having tangled ourselves up with jump ropes and whatnot.  As we exited, a boy of about 14 laying back in what looked like a dentist's chair on wheels put his arm out to stop us and said in a soft pleading voice, "talk to me."  Instantly, Jeannie and I stopped and glanced at each other, both of us clearly shaken and a bit emotional. This one was gonna be tough. While we never ask about a child's illness, we later learned that he apparently had been a strong and energetic boy who liked to play sports until a drunk driver hit a car he was in. The boy is now blind, brain damaged, partly paralyzed and talks with slurred speech. Jeannie handed him a rubber 'kush' ball. He asked, "what color is it?"  We told him, "blue," and then just sat with him for awhile, talking.  It was very difficult to finally leave him.  People who drink and drive: I hate hate hate you.

At the same hospital we went into another room where a very tiny-for-her-age girl lay in an open-top cage; a bed on wheels with caged sides. She had more IV tubes and monitor wires in her than I had ever seen in any human being.  After trying a number of false starts with this girl, I tried a technique with a nearby girl-clown. I laughed.  Per the technique, the girl-clown laughed back. I laughed again. Now the IV-tube girl began to chuckle. So I laughed more. And my girl-clown partner laughed back. The IV-girl laughed harder. Now I began to laugh genuinely, not falsely. The girl-clown still laughed back falsely. And now the IV-girl began to laugh hysterically. I am now genuinely laughing hard. And now I see my girl-clown partner's face has somehow changed; she is now laughing genuinely too. The IV-girl continues to laugh uncontrollably.  Soon, all three of us are in fits of genuine laughter that none of us can stop.  Even in your worst of times, you can have the best of times.  You just need to open yourself to it.

There is much value in being an outsider who exists on another plane. You will find your audience. I thank Jeannie Lindheim and my fellow clowns for enabling me to be that outsider who found some of my greatest friends in their time of need. And Charlie Chaplin who planted the seed.

A Fond Memory

Now that I've been alive more years than I like to admit, I've noticed that some memories stand out as charming, beloved or pivotal.  Certain moments or little 'things' shine thru the muck of all the years.  Feel free to post a comment with one or more of your beloved memories. It could be an event, a person, a smell, a walk, a compliment, an artwork. Anything.  What stands out in your memory?  Post short or lengthy comments!

I'll start:

Grandma.  My father's mother. She was from Russia, always cooked a bounty expected of a Russian grandma and had the greatest-smelling Christmas tree every year.

Grandpa and Grandma at their Easter table, 1957
Christmas and Easter (and "Russian Easter") were my favorite holidays to visit her, as she always had a dining room full of hearty food.  Piroshki, pelmeni, kasha, and a particular favorite of mine as a boy was her white rice with mushroom soup mixed in. And it seemed as though the savory aromas of all these delicious meals embedded themselves into the very walls and furniture of her old San Francisco house.  It was a musty and sweet smell that seemed to accentuate the taste of the sweet pickles she always had on a platter on her table (along with olives and slices of swiss cheese all for nibbling while everyone conversed for hours). And there were also bottles on the table for the adults including vodka and Creme de Cacao, the bottle cap of the latter I would rub my finger around the inside of and have a taste.

I don't know how she did it, but her Christmas tree every year had the most intense aroma.  No other could compare. Maybe the decades of savory food smells embedded into the walls and furniture accentuated the sweet aroma of pine.  I do recall that smells of pine and cooking buckwheat (kasha) and beef piroshki cooking in grease combined into a sense of comfort unmatched anyplace else.

Grandma was intensely opinionated, and called those she most despised "pygmies."  But she was also generous and always welcomed her lonely older Russian widow friends into her home on these holidays. And she always smelled nice, like the perfume counter at The Emporium (Stonestown Shopping Center, San Francisco, her favorite store it seemed), and was always nicely-dressed with a sparkly starburst brooch.

Her impression on me is so strong that myriad things evoke memories of her. For example, the 1950s jazz recording by flutist Herbie Mann of the song "Baubles, Bangles and Beads" reminds me of Grandma shopping in downtown San Francisco in the early 1960s; wearing a white sweater, large purse and the mild sun shining as she walked among the crowds.

Grandma.  Herself a sweet and savory gal. I remember her fondly.