Charles Dirba (; 1887–1969) was a Latvian- American co-founder of the

Communist Party of America The Communist Party USA (CPUSA), officially the Communist Party of the United States of America, also referred to as the American Communist Party mainly during the 20th century, is a communist party in the United States. It was established ...

(CPA) and

Communist Party USA The Communist Party USA (CPUSA), officially the Communist Party of the United States of America, also referred to as the American Communist Party mainly during the 20th century, is a communist party in the United States. It was established ...

(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) () is the oldest Institute of technology, technical university in the Baltic states, Baltic countries established on October 14, 1862. It is located in Riga, Latvia and was previously known as Riga Polytechnical ...

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 America ...

. 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 leade ...

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 December 1921 until the middle of 1929. Background As a legal political party, the Workers Party accepted affiliation from indep ...

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 The Lovestoneites, led by former General Secretary of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) Jay Lovestone, were a small American oppositionist Communism, communist movement of the 1930s. The organization emerged from a factional fight in the CPUSA in 19 ...

, Dirba took part in the purge of suspected Lovestoneite

Whittaker Chambers Whittaker Chambers (born Jay Vivian Chambers; April 1, 1901 – July 9, 1961) was an American writer and intelligence agent. After early years as a Communist Party member (1925) and Soviet spy (1932–1938), he defected from the Soviet u ...

, then an editor at the ''

Daily Worker The ''Daily Worker'' was a newspaper published in Chicago founded by communists, socialists, union members, and other activists. Publication began in 1924. It generally reflected the prevailing views of members of the Communist Party USA (CPU ...

''. 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 The Scottsboro Boys were nine African Americans, African American male teenagers accused of rape, raping two White American, white women in 1931. The landmark set of legal cases from this incident dealt with Racism in the United States, racism ...

Case, Diba served as assistant secretary of the

International Labor Defense The International Labor Defense (ILD) (1925–1947) was a legal advocacy organization established in 1925 in the United States as the American section of the Comintern's International Red Aid network. The ILD defended Sacco and Vanzetti, was active ...

(ILD). In 1938, Dirba urged the CPUSA to purge its own members in a manner similar to the Moscow Trials of the

Great Purge The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the Assassination of Sergei Kirov, assassination of ...

. In 1946, Dirba became a member of the Los Angeles section of the CPUSA through 1950. In 1947, the

Lithuanian-American Lithuanian Americans refer to Americans, American citizens and residents of Lithuanians, Lithuanian descent or were born in Lithuania. New Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has the largest percentage of Lithuanian Americans (20.8%) in its population ...

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

Comintern The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internatio ...

in the western hemisphere, according to

Igor Gouzenko Igor Sergeyevich Gouzenko (; ; January 26, 1919 – June 25, 1982) was a cipher clerk for the Soviet embassy to Canada in Ottawa, Ontario, and a lieutenant of the Soviet Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU). He defected on September 5, 1945, th ...

, former cipher clerk in the Soviet embassy in Ottawa." In 1950, ex-communist Louis F. Budenz described Dirba during the 1940s:

The representative of the Control Commission–either the late
Jacob Golos Jacob Golos (born Yakov Naumovich Reizen, Russian: Яков Наумович Рейзен; April 24, 1889 - November 27, 1943) was a Ukrainian-born Bolshevik revolutionary who became an intelligence operative in the United States on behalf of the U ...
, 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, spy for the Soviet Union, communist activist and leader of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA). Browder was the General Secretary of the CP ...

) 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 and later absorbed by the National Security Agency (NSA), that ran from February 1, 1943, u ...

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