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Letwin, Bessie (audio interview #2 of 4)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This is the second of four interviews with Bessie Letwin conducted conducted in her home in Westwood for as part of a student project in a women's oral history class at CSULB. Although Letwin was frank and honest, her unprepossessing manner meant that she did not speak at length on any particular subject. Letwin and the interviewer had known eachother for several years and there references to close friends and relatives are not fully explained. Note: it is sometimes difficult to understand Letwin because of her thick accent. TOPICS - childbirth and midwifery in Russia; schooling and education; living arrangements in Odessa; social life; school in Odessa; Russian Revolution; White Guards; pogroms; revolutionary activities and literature; early work experiences; courtship; career expectations; gender roles; social life; and immigration to America; Note: it is sometimes difficult to understand Letwin because of her thick accent;emigration experience; boat passage to US; Ellis Island; living conditions in Milwaukee; garment work; wages and hours; neighborhood demographics; night school; courtship; marriage; pregnancy and childbirth; motherhood and domesticity; income generating activities; supporting emigration of mother and sister; opening a grocery store; and attending childcare classes at the Welfare House in Milwaukee; Note: it is sometimes difficult to understand Letwin because of her thick accent; 1975-10
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- 2020-04-23
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- *** File: refbletwin3.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-5:59)... Women in her community gave birth at home with the assistance of a midwife. Wealthy women, however, typically gave birth in the hospital. Midwives did not maintain sanitary standards delivery, however, which resulted in postpartum difficulties. Pregnant women were not expected to stay home during their pregnancy or conceal their stomachs. There was no limit placed on the number of children in a family and women continued to have children for long as it was possible. The size of her family was uncommon during that period. Had her father stayed alive, her parents would have had several more children. (5:59-8:45)... After Letwin graduated from the city school, she decided to move to Odessa. As she notes, the "revolution was coming closer and closer and the youth was running the big city...." She learned about the impending revolution from speakers who came to her city. Letwin's mother accompanied her to Odessa and took her to live with a friend. Letwin took examinations to enter the gymnasium in Odessa and then attended for two years. (8:45-14:11)... Letwin shared a one-bedroom apartment with a family of five while she was going to school in Odessa. She paid .50/week to live in these cramped quarters and usually slept on the floor or put several chairs together to serve as a bed. Letwin recalls a woman giving birth to an "illegitimate child" on the floor during the period she resided with this family. It's possible that the woman was a prostitute. Odessa was a port city and was known for prostitution. (14:11-14:59)... Letwin took a variety of lessons while attending school in Odessa, ranging from grammar to arithmetic. Compared to the city school she attended in her hometown, the school in Odessa and its student body was more advanced and sophisticated. (14:59-16:13)... Periodically, the school in Odessa organized balls for the students at which they listened to music and danced. (16:13-18:49)... Letwin was not a popular student. The most popular people in school were wealthy students. They set themselves apart by dressing better and maintaining a well-groomed appearance. Although the teachers and school administrators did not discriminate against the poor students, they treated the wealthy students with more respect. The rich students also had more educational resources available to them, such as tutors. Many of the wealthy kids also had French governesses, which did not go over well when the revolution broke out. Letwin and her fellow students continued to go to school during the revolution. (18:49-24:27)... Letwin did not understand the issues behind the revolution until the czar and his family were killed and V.I. Lenin assumed power. News about the revolution filtered in slowly and people waited for leaders to guide their efforts. It was often difficult to identify the leaders because people often dressed like Bolsheviks and marched alongside revolutionaries when they were really their enemies. The revolutionaries in Odessa organized people to support the revolution and oppose the war. The White Guard counterrevolutionary forces targeted revolutionaries and instituted pogroms in order to "save Russia." Letwin and her family once hid outside during a pogrom in order to avoid being killed or injured when their house was invaded. (24:27-26:14)... During the revolution, the people in her hometown broke into a small warehouse in search of food. They discovered bags of sugar in the warehouse and were disappointed that it was not salt. However, this did not stop them from taking home as many bags of sugar as they could carry. (26:14-27:34)... The revolutionaries in Odessa operated in a militant fashion. They printed their own newspaper, but distribution was not widespread. In fact, any revolutionary newspaper was "underground" and distributed and read in secret. Typically, a newspaper was passed on from one person to the next and "you were lucky if you got it." (27:34-30:29)... Letwin was not involved in any student clubs while attending school in Odessa. She did not have anything in common with the vast majority of students there because they were from wealthy families. She never saw any of her classmates participating in marches during the revolution because "their parents were in trouble so they thought they were in trouble too." Most of the youths involved in the revolution were workers and/or graduates. They marched with a sign bearing only one slogan and she recalls when a worker grabbed the sign away from someone else and exclaimed, "Its my revolution!" Workers in small cities were ignorant about the revolution and were not very organized whereas workers in large cities were backed by intellectuals who wrote about the revolution and understood its meaning. (30:29-31:46)... Letwin was extremely disappointed when she had to leave school at the age of twelve or thirteen and go to work to help support her family. She envied the children who passed her shop on the way to school. When she resumed her education, she never missed a day of school. She enjoyed school and found her studies to be relatively easy. (31:46-33:24)... During her summer vacation from school in Odessa, she worked on a beet farm owned by some Mensheviks. She was paid for her work with produce, receiving no monetary compensation. (33:24-37:47)... Letwin met her future husband during WWI. During their courtship, they went for long walks or to the movies. They once attended a Bolshevik trial in which a man was charged with committing a crime against the new regime. She was impressed by the way the trial was conducted, noting that the Bolsheviks infused "more life into the small towns than under the czar." Her husband was not working when they met; his family supported themselves by renting out rooms in their large home. (37:47-40:55)... The school in Odessa did not hold a graduation ceremony for graduates. After she received her diploma, she went back home to be with her family. She didn't have any plans for her future, commenting: "I learned for my own sake." It was not considered proper for a woman to get a job, and although manufacturing jobs were opening up in the larger cities, there was nothing like in the smaller cities. (40:55-42:03)... When Letwin returned home, she spent her time reading and socializing with friends. A typical activity involved meeting her friends in the evenings and reading and discussing their books. (42:03-42:22)... The interview ends just as Letwin is discussing the circumstances that influenced her decision to immigrate to the US. End of tape. *** File: refbletwin4.mp3 (0:00-1:50)... Letwin wanted to immigrate to the US because of the unstable social, economic, and political climate in the Ukraine. Her fiance's brother was already residing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and he arranged for his family's passage. When his sister decided to stay in the Ukraine, he asked Letwin to accompany him. (1:50-9:18)... Letwin and her fiance's family started the first leg of their trip to the US in the height of the winter. To reach the Romanian border, they crossed a frozen river on foot. When they reached the other side, they were shot at by "bandits" who planned to confiscate their belongings and possibly take their lives. Letwin dropped her suitcase and ran to escape, and became separated from her fiance and his family. She ran for several miles until she found refuge with a family. Terrified and unable to speak their language, she stayed with them until her fiance located her a short time later. They then rented a horse and buggy and traveled to the Romanian capital to begin the second leg of their trip. With nothing but the clothes on her back, Letwin was completely unprepared for the winter conditions. (9:18-14:58)... Once they arrived in Bucharest, Letwin and her fiance's family boarded a train to Germany, from where they were to depart for the US. Before boarding the ship, immigrants were deloused. Conditions on the ship were crowded and each cabin was occupied by four passengers. Their meals consisted of cooked rice with cinnamon and tea to drink. Passengers occupied their time by socializing and playing games on the top deck. Letwin did not participate in these activities because she was too seasick and chose to stay in her cabin. (14:58-17:40)... When Letwin arrived on Ellis Island, she was deloused again. They were delayed and had to stay there for a few nights. Fights broke out among the immigrants staying there because of the crowded conditions and the lack of food. She did not change her family name, but her fiance's brother changed theirs to Letwin because he thought their real name sounded "too Jewish." After they were released from Ellis Island, they took a train to Milwaukee. She could not recall very many details about her first impressions of the US; she was exhausted and the only thing on her mind was finding a place to rest. (17:40-18:44)... Letwin and her fiance were picked up by his brother on their arrival in Milwaukee. They stayed with him for a few days before moving into a basement apartment. She lived there with her fiance and his mother and brother until she married a couple of years later. (18:44-22:17)... After settling in Milwaukee, Letwin went to work at a garment shop owned by her husband's cousin, hemstitching decorative trimmings for $12/week. She worked forty hours, five days a week. Her in-laws were not particularly successful in Milwaukee. Her fiance learned how to repair umbrellas from his brother who was also doing that type of work to earn a living. His income was meager compared to Letwin's and she was the main breadwinner in the family at that time. (22:17-24:33)... Letwin resided on the east side of Milwaukee in a neighborhood that was primarily Blacks and Jewish. The Jews tried to improve their economic status so that they could move to the wealthier, west side of the city and "get away from the Black people." The only one among her in-laws who was financially stable was her cousin-in-law ; he owned the garment shop where she worked. She worked there during her entire first pregnancy because she had to make enough money to pay for her mother and sister's passage to the US. (24:33-28:07)... Letwin and her husband went to night school in Milwaukee to learn English. The school was free and filled with immigrants of various ethnicities. Because of her educational background, she learned how to speak English fairly quickly. The lessons did not focus on proper pronunciation and she never learned how to say certain consonants or how to get rid of her accent. (28:07-30:58)... While living with her fiance and his family, Letwin never shared a bed with him. Their sexual contact never went beyond kissing, which they did not do in public or in front of his family. Fearing that Letwin would get pregnant, her fiance's mother insisted that they marry. They were married in their basement apartment by a rabbi. (30:58-33:27)... Letwin got pregnant and had a child within her first year of marriage. Her pregnancy was planned and she and her husband looked forward to it. She continued to work during her pregnancy. Shortly after her son was born, they moved to a small apartment. She stopped working when she had her son and busied herself at home making bathrobes, which her husband sold on the street. Her husband continued to fix umbrellas and made just enough to cover their rent. (33:27-35:15)... In order to pay the fees for her mother and sister to immigrate to the US, Letwin and her husband borrowed money from a bank, and her husband's cousin co-signed the loan. Her family traveled to Latvia only to be told that their ship would not be leaving the port because of US immigration quotas. They were delayed in Latvia for three years, during which time Letwin and her husband supported them from abroad. (35:15-37:20)... Letwin was in labor for two days before giving birth to her son in a Milwaukee hospital. She and her husband were not worried about how they would support themselves with another mouth to feed. (37:20-38:50)... Letwin and her husband lived in impoverished conditions in Milwaukee. They moved into another basement apartment which was very damp. They had electricity and cold, running water, which they had to heat and carry to the bathroom if they wanted to take a warm bath. They did not have a telephone because "that was a luxury." (38:50-42:38)... After her son was born, Letwin went to childcare classes at the Welfare House, a settlement house that offered medical services and educational programs to immigrants. Rather than parenting advice, the lectures covered topics like cleanliness and nutrition. In addition to attending these classes, Letwin took walks with her son because she did not want him to be cooped up in their damp basement apartment. (42:38-43:50)... Letwin and her husband took out a loan to pay for the passage of her mother and sister to come to America. They also used the loan to open a grocery store to supplement her husband's income from fixing umbrellas. End of tape.
- SUBJECT BIO - Bessie Letwin's radicalism developed during her younger days in Russia before the revolution and continued even after she left the Communist party during the height of McCarthyism in the 1950s. Born in the Ukraine, Letwin had to leave school after two years to help support the family and went to work in a shop selling dress trims. She learned to read and write Yiddish from three students who roomed in her home, and later convinced a cousin to support her attending school in Odessa. While attending a gymnasium there, she was a witness to and participated in some of the activities leading up to the Russian revolution. She met her fiance during WWI and emigrated to the US with him and his family. In Milwaukee, where they joined other members of his family, she went to work in a garment shop, and after her son was born did home work. Some time during this period, she joined the Communist party. Letwin and her husband opened a grocery store and shared responsibility for running the store. Because of the long hours she kept there, she was not active in the CP, but did carry party literature in the store, which earned her the enmity and loss of some customers. In the 1950s, during the height of McCarthyism, Letwin left the CP and notes that she suddenly regained friends who had kept their distance from her. She moved to California in the 1960s after her husband's death, and although she is not very specific about her activities, did remain involved in radical politics. The interview with Bessie Letwin was conducted as a project in a women's oral history class by Susie Bright, who had been involved with one of Letwin's grandchildren in high school radical politics, publishing the University High School alternative paper, The Red Tide. INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This is the second of four interviews with Bessie Letwin conducted conducted in her home in Westwood for as part of a student project in a women's oral history class at CSULB. Although Letwin was frank and honest, her unprepossessing manner meant that she did not speak at length on any particular subject. Letwin and the interviewer had known eachother for several years and there references to close friends and relatives are not fully explained. Note: it is sometimes difficult to understand Letwin because of her thick accent. TOPICS - childbirth and midwifery in Russia; schooling and education; living arrangements in Odessa; social life; school in Odessa; Russian Revolution; White Guards; pogroms; revolutionary activities and literature; early work experiences; courtship; career expectations; gender roles; social life; and immigration to America; Note: it is sometimes difficult to understand Letwin because of her thick accent;emigration experience; boat passage to US; Ellis Island; living conditions in Milwaukee; garment work; wages and hours; neighborhood demographics; night school; courtship; marriage; pregnancy and childbirth; motherhood and domesticity; income generating activities; supporting emigration of mother and sister; opening a grocery store; and attending childcare classes at the Welfare House in Milwaukee; Note: it is sometimes difficult to understand Letwin because of her thick accent;
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5237789460096709-refbletwin4.mp3 | 2023-10-19 | Public | Download |