By Gary White
In the heady days after the end of World War II we saw a new enemy on the horizon—communism. Those Russkies were vowing to eat us for breakfast and we were afraid of their invasion with nuclear weapons, but even more so, of a silent invasion of communist cells forming in our midst. Guardians of our freedom and way of life such as Senator Joseph McCarthy were looking under every bed in Washington, DC and Hollywood for communist cells.
Where were HUAC, the CIA, the FBI, and the whole alphabet soup in the 1870s, when Cedar Vale was home to not one, but three communist cells? Not the geeks who looked through the wastebaskets in Washington, or the debauched artists in Hollywood, but real, living, breathing Russians in cells just a few miles outside of Cedar Vale—our own home town.
Of course, they entered the U. S. under assumed names. Vladimir Konstantinovich Geins became William Frey and his wife, Maria Slavinskaya became Mary Frey. They entered the U. S. in 1868 and, in New York City, they met up with other future members of the Cedar Vale cell. A Russian couple named Ponofiloff, who had entered under the name of Brook, were to become other founders of the Cedar Vale cell. They travelled on very different paths to arrive in Chautauqua county without raising suspicion of the authorities. They formed the Progressive Community and started a newspaper. In a few years the Investigative Community had been formed, and a few years later another group from Russia had formed a third community. It looked like freedom and democracy and our way of life were soon going to be a thing of the past.
Are you wondering why we were able to grow up in CV without being ruled by communist dictators? Well, one thing these commies hadn’t figured on was Kansas weather! They nearly died of frostbite in the first winter before they could construct adequate housing. The land was very hard to break out and they were not well equipped for the task, since they were not Russian peasants, but members of the intelligencia who had absolutely no experience in farming or building houses. By 1880, the whole bubble was burst without military intervention or even a single hearing by the HUAC. What a relief!
Thought question for today: How many offices in the current Homeland Security Department are devoted to protecting us from the communist threat?
2 comments:
Gary White, not only are you the administrator and initiator of these memories of the vale of cedars but you are truly the resident historian and the provoker of thought! Thank you again and again.
"Homeland Security"? The last I heard of them they were still attempting to find New Orleans!
Or their a-- with both hands!
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