My Family Were White Russians

[jookyle]

I found this out a couple weeks back but didn't think it was worth posting but, oh well.

A couple weeks there was a bit of a family reunion on my mothers fathers side of the family. The family historian was there who has done extensive research on the family. Turns out my family, before they came to America, were white Russians with several members fighting against the Bolsheviks, one of whom, died doing so. Apparently, no one else found the irony of my being a communist, let alone having a Bolshevik flag in my room, amusing.

[PC LOAD LETTER]

Well, at least they invented a great cocktail

[ВАЛТЕР]

This means that you're a bad person and you should feel bad.

[Robespierres Neck]

They should have stayed as milk, Kahlúa, and vodka.

[Igor]

My family were Reds in the Finnish civil war so all was good until this one guy went and joined SS. I almost had a good track record with my family here, dude

[Regicollis]

My great grandfather emigrated to Russia, became wealthy trading with grain and married a Russian woman - my great grandmother - who divorced her cossack captain husband at the front in WWI to marry my great grandfather.

I guess that makes my great grandmother somewhat 'white'.

At least they were too 'white' for the bolcheviks to allow them to buy medicine for their baby daughter who died just because my great grandparents were not party members. So in 1920 they fled Russia and went back to Denmark.

[Karabin]

My grandfather on my fathers side hid, fed and took care of loyalist Chetnik forces during WWII in Yugoslavia, whereas my grandfather on my mothers side was a Chetnik sympathizer. My uncle hates Communists with a strong passion.

It's really awkward when my uncle says something strong anti-communist to me, because he doesn't know that I am one :lol:

[Ostrinski]

I have Basque terrorist ancestry. Not much else interesting, though.

[X5N]

I have ancestors who may have been in Poland at the time (I'm not sure when they left, and I honestly don't care enough to bother finding out). I probably have some rather distant relatives who were involved in the Russian Civil War, but I have no idea which side most of them might have been on.

Did Poles tend to be more White or Red?

[Positivist]

On my dads side I have an American civil war general somewhere, and then my grandpa on the same side was pretty big in real estate, mortgage broking, and commerical development in New Jersey but was never very successful. Unsuccessful enough that by the time my dad entered the workforce he headed in as a truck driver and furniture mover, and didn't complete his community college education until about two years after I was born. So I'm kinda of petite-bourgiose descent, but with my dad not actually inheriting anything (literally nothing) and my moms family being polish and Irish immigrants so I've been proletarian my whole life.

[ed miliband]

my great-grandfather on my father's side was part of the ira. i have nothing like that on my mother's side but they were all solid proles which is probably better tbh.

[Ravachol]

Nothing political here, my family descends from a line of 'Bokkenrijders' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckriders) though which was an 18th century criminal gang of lumpens and deserters from the war of the Spanish succession who, according to folk legend, had made a pact with the devil and rode the sky on the back of goats. They mainly plundered and torched the estates of noblemen and churches for decades.

[ed miliband]

my dad says his father would go poaching and literally flood the kitchen floor with stolen salmon every morning, which kinda makes me proud.

[Comrade Samuel]

According to my grandfather on my dad's side many generations ago during the American revolution we had hessian who had his face severely disfigured by a musket ball and he decided to desert and stay here thus my family has been in America ever since. However on my Mother's side I had a great-grandfather who came here as a child from Yugoslavia (I believe he was Serbian but nobody has really done their homework for my mother's family, I'm considering doing it myself).

[Robespierres Neck]

My grandma was part of the French resistance against the Nazis. Her husband, my grandfather, had to flee from South Africa for supporting Nelson Mandela. I've always honored their participation in progressive history.

[Red Commissar]

I found this out a couple weeks back but didn't think it was worth posting but, oh well.

A couple weeks there was a bit of a family reunion on my mothers fathers side of the family. The family historian was there who has done extensive research on the family. Turns out my family, before they came to America, were white Russians with several members fighting against the Bolsheviks, one of whom, died doing so. Apparently, no one else found the irony of my being a communist, let alone having a Bolshevik flag in my room, amusing.

I know a fellow communist who lives in Russia currently, who has told me that like you, his ancestors were White Russians. So you at least got one kindred spirit somewhere :p

It is amusing I think when you have this generational divide when it comes to politics, lifestyle, etc.- if anything though this really says that we aren't really as beholden to the past, for better or worse. We've seen cases of the opposite unfortunately, with people who grew up in left-wing areas if not "red diaper babies", but end up as right-wing shits or fascists as they mature.

I don't really know the politics of my father or mother. They don't talk about it much and I don't press them. All I know is that they aren't loud on right-wing fixations like homosexuality, trickle-down, minorities, taxes, etc. so that's a plus for me, but I'm definitely by leaps and bounds more left-wing than them. Historically, at least on my father's side, they've been farmers or herding sheep, but fighters too (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peshmerga). Politically those guys were all over the place but nationalists, so there's that.

[Prometeo liberado]

My Great-Grandpa invented electricity, but someone claimed it first. So next he invented the electricity bill. Kind of a mixed bag here as well.:confused:

[Igor]

Did Poles tend to be more White or Red?

You know that kind of stuff has a bit more to do with class background than ethnicity, right? Just them being Polish doesn't tell shit. There were plenty of prominent Poles on both sides.

[Positivist]

My Great-Grandpa invented electricity, but someone claimed it first. So next he invented the electricity bill. Kind of a mixed bag here as well.:confused:

Really?

[Raúl Duke]

I think on my German side some were probably Nazis...

[Prometeo liberado]

Really?


Yes. He invented electricity, the electrical bill and international finance. Really.

[The Cheshire Cat]

One of my ancestors on mothers side joined Napoleon in his Russian campaign... and made it back, while having a bullet in his leg! I have no idea how he managed to walk all the way back as crippled as he was. Maybe he was part of the cavalry, I do not know. He was a noble, and I think they mostly joined the cavalry.

My great-grandfather on mothers side and his 2 brothers were part of the Dutch armed resistance during WW2.

[X5N]

You know that kind of stuff has a bit more to do with class background than ethnicity, right? Just them being Polish doesn't tell shit. There were plenty of prominent Poles on both sides.

Allow me to rephrase:

I'm pretty sure that my Polish ancestors were proletarians or petit-bourgeoisie (it's just a hunch). Which side in the Russian Civil War did Polish proletarians/petit-bourgeoisie tend to support?

I did not mean to imply that Poles supported one side or another simply as a consequence of being Polish.

[Stand Your Ground]

I think on my German side some were probably Nazis...
That sucks. That's kinda why I'm afraid to look up my ancestors.

[cantwealljustgetalong]

my maternal side of the family is white (ethnicity, not army) Russian. they left to escape the conditions before the Bolshevik revolution and found a relative amount of success in the US.
my paternal side is 'black' Russian (Roma, North African, German/Russian mix). not sure when they emigrated but it seems like way before Stalin.
mother Russia indeed

[Susurrus]

My Russian grandmother grew up during Stalin, and worked with the Nazis to get out of the USSR. My grandfather was from a family of Southern aristocrats, and cursed out the TV whenever a black person was shown on it. Your family is not so bad.

[Igor]

My Russian grandmother grew up during Stalin, and worked with the Nazis to get out of the USSR. My grandfather was from a family of Southern aristocrats, and cursed out the TV whenever a black person was shown on it. Your family is not so bad.

i'm sure he was just very upset about minority stereotypes in the media

[Susurrus]

i'm sure he was just very upset about minority stereotypes in the media

Considering one of the phrases he used was "letting those damn n****rs on the television", I find that somewhat doubtful lol.

[Le Socialiste]

I'm apparently related to two U.S. presidents (from way back), but aside from that my family's been everywhere around Northern/Western Europe. I do have a relative on my mom's side who deserted during the Civil War, too...

[GiantMonkeyMan]

My grandparents on my dad's side were Irish loyalists who tried to bring me up to hate catholics. My grandparents on my mum's side were proles. My great-grandad on my mum's side was given a courier job during world war 2 and during an air raid he buried his assigned motorbike in his back garden in order to dig it up again after the war then forgot about it for ten years until he was doing some gardening and dug up a huge rusted pile of scrap.

[Sir Comradical]

There there, reactionary beliefs are not hereditary.

[L.A.P.]

Mom's dad's side comes from a family of wealthy Indian wheat refiners. I went to the village they still live in a couple years ago, they pretty much own the whole village.

[Jesus Saves Gretzky Scores]

My moms side is republicans from Texas, and my dads side is a 2 liberals and some fat alcoholics.

I love them of course, but I don't get the most interesting background.

[Sir Comradical]

Mom's dad's side comes from a family of wealthy Indian wheat refiners. I went to the village they still live in a couple years ago, they pretty much own the whole village.

Where from? Punjab?

My dad's side of the family are land owners too. They used to grow crops but now it's all rubber trees. Mum's side of the family are all teachers and much more progressive and cultured with their politics.


My moms side is republicans from Texas, and my dads side is a 2 liberals and some fat alcoholics.

I love them of course, but I don't get the most interesting background.

Any interesting convos?

[Rafiq]

I've got quite a few communist relatives who identified with the LCP during the civil war, but they're all annoying bastards, anyway. It doesn't mean shit, what you're parents or theirs did. The parents of the founders of the RAF were all nazis, Felix D.'s family came from polish nobility, etc.

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[Sir Comradical]

I've got quite a few communist relatives who identified with the LCP during the civil war, but they're all annoying bastards, anyway. It doesn't mean shit, what you're parents or theirs did. The parents of the founders of the RAF were all nazis, Felix D.'s family came from polish nobility, etc.

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Lebanese Communist Party?

[Rafiq]

yup

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[Yuppie Grinder]

My family on my dad's side participated in the American Revolution, supposedly.

[citizen of industry]

On my Dad's side, apparently the family was loyalist during the American revolution, but there was a family member who fought in the war of 1812. On my Mom's side, there is a direct great,great, great grandfather from the north who died in the Civil War. I've got his photo. He was a horse farmer, the government came and took all his horses. Then they drafted him into the cavalry towards the end of the war, and he was shot in the chest in a skirmish while crossing a creek in the final days of the war and died in a barn the next day. Unlucky guy.

[NoOneIsIllegal]

Not sure about father's side (adopted), but my mom's side fled Germany because of anti-Socialist laws and persecution, or so I assume... they fled Germany in the late 19th century due to political conflicts.*


* I was told this stuff nearly a decade ago when I was young and had no interest in politics. My family is very scattered so next time there is a reunion (or such), I'll have to ask around.

[Regicollis]

Another of my great grandfathers were a cop in Denmark during WWII. He played a minor part in the resistance movement by taking part in weapon drops and hiding weapons in his garden shed. In 1943 the Germans arrested the Danish police force but my great grandfather managed to avoid being captured and went into hiding with some relatives in the countryside.

There is a family myth about him demanding - and getting - a receipt from the German commander when he was ordered to hand over his gun but I don't know how much of it is true.

After the war he was somehow involved with the executions of some of the worst Nazi collaborators although not as part of the firing squad.

My grandmother had a brother whom the family never talks about. Apparently he was involved with the Germans during WWII and somehow managed to get himself blown up in a gravel pit.

[L.A.P.]

Where from? Punjab?

Bihar

[ed miliband]

my great uncle was in the gang this fella led:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-19662771

dark part of the family history. after he fell out with the guy they sent spies around to every house/flat/place associated with my family, inc. my great-grandmother's in ireland, who obv. didn't even know the man who married her daughter was a gangster.

[Manic Impressive]

my great uncle was in the gang this fella led:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-19662771

dark part of the family history. after he fell out with the guy they sent spies around to every house/flat/place associated with my family, inc. my great-grandmother's in ireland, who obv. didn't even know the man who married her daughter was a gangster.
haha no way my family were involved with the Richardsons. I grew up with loads of old stories about what really happened with their various crimes and the Krays and stuff. Small world

When I was little I called this guy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arifs_%28gang%29) Uncle Bek

[ed miliband]

bone's posted about it:

http://ianbone.wordpress.com/2012/09/20/charlie-richardson-has-died/

really know very no little about that side of the family. i know the guy was called con (cornelius) lynch and my dad says he remembers being fascinated by him as a kid when he'd go over to ireland to visit them. would love to know more about what he got up to.

[Manic Impressive]

The guy in my family who was involved with them died some time ago he was senile for a couple years before that. It's mainly the generation who were kids at the time who are the only ones left and of them I can only think of one who might know. I can send her an e-mail and ask if she knows the name but I wouldn't hold out much hope.

You ever tried any of those genealogy sites? If you know roughly his year of birth even within 10 years you might be able to find him. Especially through criminal records or court appearances. He's bound to have been nicked once or twice.

[ed miliband]

The guy in my family who was involved with them died some time ago he was senile for a couple years before that. It's mainly the generation who were kids at the time who are the only ones left and of them I can only think of one who might know. I can send her an e-mail and ask if she knows the name but I wouldn't hold out much hope.

You ever tried any of those genealogy sites? If you know roughly his year of birth even within 10 years you might be able to find him. Especially through criminal records or court appearances. He's bound to have been nicked once or twice.

ah no worries, i was just thinking aloud tbh. i mean, i know he ended up hiding out in coventry of all places, and i met some of his kids as a youngster, but my dad decided to distance himself from that side of the family after he found out some pretty dodgy shit was still going on. though he's never said anything explicitly, i know they definitely kept contacts in south london and during the 80s/90s his kids "started up" again. nowt i wanna post on a public forum, mind.

still, small world. i remember on another forum a poster's wife, who sadly died last week, grew up amongst members of the richardsons et al cos her dad owned a porn shop in soho. she wrote a number of published books about her experiences.

[Peoples' War]

I have a great great grand mother who was a big Makhno supporter in Ukraine...then she supported the Bolsheviks, then really lost any revolutionary identity after Stalin.