Leonards Crome

Len Crome / BJPsych Bulletin

• Aka names: Len Crome
• Roots: Jewish
• Birth: Daugavpils, April 14, 1909.
• Studies: Medicine in UK.
• Units: XIth and XVth IB (Medical Services)
• Ranks: 35th Division’s chief medical officer
• Political affiliation: Communist Party of Great Britain (joined in 1938)
• WW II: Colonel of the British Army
• Death: Staffordshire. May 6th, 2001

Mihails Švarcs

Mihails Švarcs wearing a captain peaked cap of the Spanish Republican Army / Latvijas Kara Muzejs (an identical copy can also be found in RGASPI)

• A.k.a. names: Miša / Egons Schmits
• Roots: Jewish
• Birth: Minsk. December 27, 1903.
• Profession: Electronic ingenier – Professor of maths and phisics
• Residence places: Daugavpils, Moscow, Prague
• Political affiliation: VKP(b) (Soviet Union), KSČ (Czechoslovakia) and LKP (Latvia)
• Military service: Latvian National Army 1931-1932
• Police records: Arrested several times. Imprisoned in Riga, 1934-1935
• Arrival in Spain: December 23, 1936
• Languages: Russian, German, Czech,
• Spoken languages: Latvian, Russian, Spanish, French, Hebrew.
• Rank: Captain head of a sappers company, Political Comissar at an officers academy
• Military unit: XV International Brigade – Engineers (Counterintelligence ops)
• Fronts: Jarama (wounded), Brunete, Quinto, Belchite and Fuente del Ebro.
• Death: Killed in action during the Battle of the Ebro on August 18, 1938

Braina Rudina

• Date and city of birth: 24th June, 1902. Riga.
• Profession: Doctor
• Residence places: Riga, Berlin, Moscow, Belgrade
• Spoken languages:  Latvian, Russian, Serbian, German, French and Spanish
• Political affiliation: KPD (German Communist Party)
• Profesional work: Doctor in Moscow- she was awarded a Stakhanovite medal
• Police records: Arrested and imprisoned 8 months for have organized the                          recruitment and transportation of brigadistas in Yugoslavia, 1937.
• Arrival in Spain: February 10, 1938
• Military unit: XIIIth International Brigade– 51st Battalion
• Rank: Lieutenant promoted to Captain – Head doctor of S’Agaró IB Hospital
• Departure: Fled into Soviet Union (Moscow)
• WW2: Red Army – Sanitary Service. Head of the Evaco Hospital (Pryluky, Ukraine)
• Postwar: Moved back in Riga in 1945, where he worked as doctor
• Death: Died in Riga. November 9th, 1973. Buried in the New Jewish Cemetery of Riga

Latvietes: Latvian women in the SCW (I)

The role of the Latvian women who participated in the Spanish Civil War is a very important topic for this blog. It provides us a more complete social picture of this phenomenon. Despite most of the Baltic volunteers were men, there were also some tens of women by their side. Nowadays it is possible to put faces to their names. Their stories deserve their own lines.