Interviews with former members of the Communist Party of Canada Collection

Interviews with former members of the Communist Party of Canada collection. 40 audio cassettes. – 1984-1987.

Index
 

Box 1

Item 01. Manya Lipschitz, second interview. 7 Jul. 1986. (11 min., 38 sec.; 29 min., 30 sec.)
Subjects: Trotskyism. | United Jewish People’s Order; Canadian Leftist politics; Current political views; Advice for young people; Memories of former Communist Party of Canada members.
Language note: Yiddish, English

Item 02. Morris Biderman, second interview. 11 Jul. 1985. (47 min., 13 sec.; 36 min., 10 sec.)
Subjects: Appeal of Communist movement; Trade Unionism; Current political views; Communist Party of Canada---break from; J.B. Salsberg; Visit to the Soviet Union; Soviet persecution of Jewish writers. | Current political views; German-Soviet Pact; Reflections on Communist movement.
           
Item 03. Al Hershkovitz, first interview. 3 June 1985. (47 min., 14 sec.; 35 min., 38 sec.)
Subjects: Appeal of Communist movement; Childhood memories; Communist Party of Canada---activities with; Communist Party of Canada---loyalty to; Early experience with Communism; Jewish identity; German-Soviet Pact; Trade Unionism. | Current political views; Khrushchev’s Secret Speech.

Item 04. Al Hershkovitz, second interview. 17 Aug. 1987. (47 min., 33 sec.; 12 min., 16 sec.)
Subjects: Trotskyism; Marshall Plan; Social Democracy; Trade Unionism; Canadian Jewish Congress conference [ca. 1954]; German invasion of Soviet Union; Khrushchev’s Secret Speech; Tito-Stalin Split. | Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Soviet invasion; Communist Party of Canada---contributions to Canadian society; Jewish identity; Trotskyism; Kronstadt Rebellion, 1917.
           
Item 05. Sam Lipshitz, second interview. 21 Nov. 1984. (19 min., 17 sec.)
Subjects: Soviet persecution of Jewish writers; Canadian Spy Trials; Social Democracy; Trotskyism; Disillusionment; Millenarianism; Appeal of Communist movement. 
Note: Side A [19:18 – 47:00] and Side B [0:00 – 8:35] of the original tapes include unrelated recordings which have been excised from the available digital copy due to confidentiality.

Item 06. Dave Kashtan, first interview, part 1. 1985. (47 min., 14 sec.; 47 min., 15 sec.)
Subjects: Arrest and imprisonment; Childhood memories; Trade Unionism; Young Pioneers. | Marxism philosophy; Unemployment demonstration (Montreal, ca. 1930); Visit to the Soviet Union; 1931 arrest for sedition; Young Communist League; Georgi Dimitrov; SMS Emden demonstration; French Canadian communists; Second World Youth Congress, 1938; Eleanor Roosevelt; Outbreak of WWII---Communism made illegal in Canada.

Item 07. Dave Kashtan, first interview, part 2. 1985. (15 min., 3 sec.; 31 min., 54 sec.)
Subjects: Communist Party of Canada, leadership crisis; German invasion of Soviet Union; Communist Party of Canada---contributions to Canadian society; Union activities; Khrushchev’s Secret Speech; Tim Buck; Communist Party of Canada---antisemitism in; 1953 Canadian Federal Election. | Communist Party of Canada---anti-Zionism in; Current political views; Surveillance; Labour Youth Federation; Jewish identity; Jews in Soviet Union; Execution of the Rosenbergs; League for Democratic Rights; Cultism.

Item 08. Dave Kashtan, second interview. Aug. 28, 1986. (27 min., 19 sec.; 31 min., 17 sec.)
Subjects: Communist Party of Great Britain; Munich Agreement; Canadian politics during World War II; Just War; Fascism in Canada; Antisemitism---experiences in Canada; Spy Trials; Trotskyism. | Current political views; Slánský trial; Doctor’s Plot; Visit to the Soviet Union; Khrushchev’s Secret Speech.
Note: Side B [19:40 – 31:17] is an unrelated recording. 

Item 09. J.B. Salsberg, first interview, part 1. [ca. 1985]. (47 min., 6 sec.; 47 min., 4 sec.)
Subject: Appeal of Communist movement; Childhood memories; Early political experiences; Visit to the Soviet Union; Antisemitism in the Soviet Union. | Georgi Dimitrov; Visit to the Soviet Union; Slánský trial, meeting Rudolf Slánský; Antisemitism in the Soviet Union; Soviet persecution of Jewish writers; Communist Party of Canada---party discipline; Communist Party of Canada---break from.

Item 10. J.B. Salsberg, first interview, part 2. [ca. 1985]. (20 min., 2 sec.)
Subjects: Antisemitism, in Soviet Union; Communist Party of Canada---break from; Current political views.

Item 11. J.B. Salsberg, second interview. 30 Aug. 1986. (18 min, 53 sec.; 46 min., 18 sec.)
Subjects: Communist Party of Canada---break from; Slánský trial, meeting Rudolf Slánský; Soviet foreign policy; Antisemitism---in the Soviet Union; Doctor’s Plot. | Jewish refugee crisis---M.S. St. Louis; Visit to the Soviet Union; Georgi Dimitrov; German-Soviet Pact; Outbreak of World War II; German invasion of Soviet Union; Closing of Jewish Press in Soviet Union; CCF---Communist Party of Canada’s conflict with; Conflict between Communists and Socialists; Tito-Stalin Split; Khrushchev’s Secret Speech; Reflections on the Communist movement; 1948 Czechoslovakia coup d’état.

Item 12. Joe Gershman. [1984]. (47 min., 2 sec.; 1 min., 6 sec.)
Subjects: Current health; Discussion of the research project; Communist Party of Canada---break from; Current political beliefs; Personal issues; Family history; Visit to the Soviet Union, 1962; Family history---Soviet Union; Ideology; Antisemitism---in Communist movement; UJPO.
Note: Gershman refused to be recorded. Tape consists of Borchiver’s recollection of her interview at Baycrest Geriatric Hospital.

Item 13. Sam Lipshitz, first interview, part 1. [ca. 1985]. (47 min., 18 sec.; 47 min., 15 sec.)
Subjects: Childhood memories; Family history; Early political experiences; Jewish identity; Immigration to Canada; Young Communist League; 1929 Hebron Massacre; Doctor’s Plot; Der Kamf (Der Vochenblatt); Visit to Poland; The Holocaust. | Disillusionment with; Visit to the Soviet Union; The Holocaust; Current political views.

Item 14. Sam Lipshitz, first interview, part 2. [ca. 1985]. (47 min., 27 sec.; 47 min., 27 sec.)
Subjects: Ideology; Advice for young people; Current political views.       
Note: Side A [14:25 – 47:27] and Side B [0:00 – 47:27] are unrelated recordings.

Item 15. Morris Biderman, first interview, part 1. [April 1984]. (46 min., 41 sec.; 46 min., 41 sec.)
Subjects: Jewish identity; Antisemitism; Current political views; Childhood memories; Der Kamf (Der Vochenblatt). | United Jewish People’s Order; Young Communist League; Appeal of Communist movement; Early political experiences; German-Soviet Pact; Antisemitism---n Soviet Union; Soviet persecution of Jewish writers; Birobidzhan; Khrushchev’s Secret Speech; Bus 300 Affair.
Note: Date determined by content; subjects referred to recent events.

Item 16. Morris Biderman, first interview, part 2. [April 1984]. (47 min., 4 sec.; 47 min., 5 sec.)
Subjects: Communist Party of Canada---schism; United Jewish People’s Order. | Reflections on Communist movement; Advice for young people; Current political views.

Item 17. Morris Biderman, first interview, part 3. [April 1984]. (47 min., 12 sec.; 14 min., 31 sec.)
Subjects: Jewish identity; Slánský trial; Doctor’s Plot; Soviet propaganda; Appeal of Communist movement; Childhood memories; Family history; Current political views. | Current political views.

Item 18. Morris Biderman, third interview. [ca. 1985]. (47 min., 11 sec.)
Subjects: CCF; Communist Party of Canada, relations with Moscow; Canadian Spy Trials; Canadian Leftist politics; Tito-Stalin Split; Antisemitism in Soviet Union; Soviet persecution of Jewish writers; Communist Party of Canada---break from; Doctors’ Plot; Slánský Trial; Communist Party of Canada---relations with Moscow; German-Soviet Pact.

Item 19. Manya Lipshitz, first interview. [ca. 1984]. (47 min., 21 sec.; 13 min, 6 sec.)
Subjects: Childhood memories; Family history; Young Communist League; Antisemitism in Soviet Union; Yiddishist movement. | Soviet persecution of Jewish writers; Stalinism---disillusionment with; Advice for young people; 1929 Hebron Massacre.
Language note: English, some Yiddish.

Item 20. Norman Penner, first interview, part 1. [August 1984]. (47 min., 14 sec.; 47 min., 17 sec.)
Subjects: Childhood memories; Family history; Sacco and Vanzetti executions; Young Pioneers; Young Communist League; Internment of Canadian Communists; Military experiences in World War II; Soviet repressions against former prisoners of war; Khrushchev’s Secret Speech. | Tim Buck; Communist Party of Canada---break from; Jacob Penner’s funeral; Young Communist League, National Party School; Stanley Ryerson; Second World Festival of Youth and Students; Nikolai Mikhailov, First Secretary of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League (Komsomol); Trade unionism; CCF; Louis St-Laurent; Mackenzie King; Legalization of the Communist Party of Canada; Soviet interests versus national party interests; Stalin’s persecution of political opponents; CCF---David Lewis---NDP; Franklin D. Roosevelt; Communist Party of Canada----finances; Reflections on Communist movement; Schooling---doctoral studies.

Item 21. Norman Penner, second interview. 26 Aug. 1986. (47 min., 45 sec.; 45 min., 7 sec.)
Subjects: Discussion of anonymity; Young Communist League; Young Communist League, National Party School; Schooling; Internment of Canadian Communists; Trotskyism; Moscow Trials; Khrushchev’s Secret Speech; German-Soviet Pact; Canadian politics during World War II; CCF---Communist Party of Canada’s conflict with; Soviet foreign policy; Canadian Spy Trials. | Canadian Spy Trials; Soviet foreign policy; Second World Festival of Youth and Students; Tito-Stalin Split; 1948 Czechoslovakia coup d’état; Slánský trial; Stewart Smith; A.E. Smith; Doctor’s Plot; Visit to Soviet Union; Dmitri Shostakovich; Religion, Millenarianism; Stalinism.

Item 22. Norman Penner, first interview, part 2. [August 1984]. (12 min., 2 sec.)
Subjects: Schooling---doctoral studies; Future of Canadian politics; Nuclear stand-off between USSR and US; Ronald Reagan. 

Item 23. Paul Kirzner, first interview, part 1. [ca. 1984]. (14 min., 38 sec.; 32 min., 32 sec.)
Subjects: Childhood memories; Early political experiences; Lovestonites; Relationship with parents; Young Communist League. | New Fraternal Jewish Organization; CCF/NDP; Israel; Khrushchev’s Secret Speech; German-Soviet Pact; German invasion of Soviet Union; Reflections on Communist movement; Marxism, philosophy; Henryk Ehrlich and Victor Alter; Antisemitism---Theory of Cosmopolitanism; Visit to the Soviet Union; 1948 Czechoslovakia coup d’état.

Item 24. Paul Kirzner, first interview, part 2. [ca. 1984]. (15 min., 26 sec.)
Subjects: Young Communist League; Jewish identity; Jewish life in Canada; Antisemitism---experiences in Canada; Childhood memories; Scopes Trial.  

Item 25. Paul Kirzner, second interview. 12 Sept. 1986. (47 min., 12 sec.; 45 min., 3 sec.)
Subjects: Early political experiences; Trotskyism; Trotsky trials; German-Soviet Pact; Just War; Personal attacks on his father; Theory of Social Fascism; CCF---David Lewis; Canadian Spy Trials; Fred Rose; Tito-Stalin Split; 1948 Czechoslovakia coup d’état; Slánský Trial; Labour League; Doctor’s Plot. | Antisemitism; Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Soviet invasion; Khrushchev’s Secret Speech; Death of Stalin; Reflections on the Communist movement.
Note: Side B: [10:08 to 45:03] is an unrelated recording.

Item 26. Rose Kashtan (née Eisenstraus), first interview. [ca. 1984]. (38 min., 1 sec.; 25 min., 1 sec.)
Subjects: Childhood memories; Family history; Immigration to Canada; Young Pioneers; Early political experiences; Labour League. | Reflections on Communist movement; Acting; Theatre.

Item 27. Rose Kashtan (née Eisenstraus), second interview. 28 August 1986. (32 min., 30 sec.)
Subjects: Trotskyism; German-Soviet Pact; CCF---Communist Party of Canada’s conflict with; Canadian Spy Trials; Sam Carr; 1948 Czechoslovakia coup d’état; Hungarian Revolution of 1956; Refuseniks; Chernobyl; Doctor’s Plot; United Jewish People’s Order; Khrushchev’s Secret Speech; Personal conversation about family and friends.
Note: [32:31 – 41:50] of the original tape includes an unrelated recording which has been excised from the available digital copy due to confidentiality.

Item 28. Sam Carr, first interview, part 1. 1984. (47 min., 13 sec.; 47 min., 16 sec.)
Subjects: Reflections of Communist movement in Canada; Trade Unionism; Childhood memories; Family history; Pogroms; Early political experiences---Romania---communist activities; Immigration to Canada, 1926; YCL; Schooling; Communist Party of Canada---joining; 1931 arrest for sedition; Arrest and imprisonment, 1949; Kingston Penitentiary riot, 1932; Communist Party of Canada---break from; Current political views. | Marxist theory; Current political views; Israel; Khrushchev’s Secret Speech; Russian history---identity; Life in Soviet Union; Lenin’s Mausoleum; Romania at the 1984 Summer Olympics; Romania---relations with the Soviet Union; Advice for young people; Ronald Reagan; Marxist theory---dictatorship of the proletariat---national differences; Zionism.

Item 29. Sam Carr, first interview, part 2. 1984. (6 min., 53 sec.)
Subjects: Israel; Soviet Union relations with Israel.

Item 30. Sam Carr, second interview, part 1. 12 September 1986. (47 min., 11 sec.; 47 min., 12 sec.)
Subjects: Marxist theory---the National Question---national differences; 1948 Czechoslovakia coup d’état; Tito-Stalin Split; Romania; Hungarian Revolution of 1956---Soviet invasion; Russian identity; Socialism in Canada; Marxist theory---dictatorship of the proletariat; Stalinism---cult of personality; Collectivization; Trotskyism; Reflections on the Soviet Union; Mikhail Gorbachev. | Rosa Luxemburg; German-Soviet Pact; CCF---Communist Party of Canada’s conflict with; Theory of Social Fascism; Stewart Smith; CCF/NDP; Stalinism---cult of personality; Slánský trial.

Item 31. Sam Carr, second interview, part 2. 12 September 1986. (23 min., 47 sec.)
Subjects: Current political views---Brian Mulroney---Ronald Reagan; Doctor’s Plot; Soviet persecution of Jewish writers; Current political views; Canadian Spy Trials.

Item 32. Sarah Kirzner, first interview. [ca. 1984]. (46 min., 59 sec.; 29 min., 13 sec.)
Subjects: Childhood memories; Family history; Early political experiences; Atheism; Racism in the United States, Scottsboro boys; Union activities; Young Communist League---Norman Bethune Branch; Soviet invasion of Finland, 1939; German-Soviet Pact; Zionism; Antisemitism---experiences in Canada; Khrushchev’s Secret Speech; Reflections on Communist movement. | Memories of her sister.
Note: On Side B, Ruth discusses her own experiences and her project.

Item 33. Sarah Kirzner, second interview. 12 Sept. 1986 (45 min., 15 sec.; 42 min., 59 sec.)
Subjects: Trotskyism; German-Soviet Pact; Soviet invasion of Finland, 1939; CCF---Communist Party of Canada’s conflict with; Canadian Spy Trials; Tito-Stalin Split; Soviet foreign policy; Doctor’s Plot; Khrushchev’s Secret Speech; Hungarian Revolution of 1956---Soviet invasion.
Note: Side A [27:04 – 45:15] and Side B are unrelated recordings.

Item 34. Sam Lipshitz, third interview. 7 Sept. 1987. (39 min., 55 sec.)
Subjects: Trotskyism; Ideology; Tito-Stalin Split; Stewart Smith; Communist Party of Canada---relations from Moscow; Appeal of Communist movement; Stalin’s cult of personality; Slánský trial; Hungarian Revolution of 1956; Canadian politics.

Item 35. Stewart Smith, first interview, part 1. 1985. (47 min., 8 sec.; 47 min., 7 sec.)
Subjects: Ideology; Childhood memories; Winnipeg General Strike of 1919; Family history; Early political experiences; H.M. Bartholomew; Marxist theory; Millenarianism; Russian Revolution; Otto Kuusinen; Marxist theory---Asiatic Modes of Production; Young Communist League. | Marxist theory---labour movement---education for working class children---dictatorship of the proletariat; The National Question---Canada; Nikolai Bukharin; Lovestone; Visit to the Soviet Union; Industrialization; Section 98 of the Criminal Code of Canada; Marxist theory---use of violence; R.B. Bennett; Family history---brother; Reflection on Communist movement; Korean War.

Item 36. Stewart Smith first interview, part 2. 1985. (47 min., 5 sec.; 46 min., 26 sec.)
Subjects: Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Soviet invasion; Korean War; Khrushchev’s Secret Speech; Communist Party of Canada---break from; Stalin’s final speech, 1952; Current political views---commodification---bureaucracy---mass media---religion---social movements---Brian Mulroney---Pierre Elliot Trudeau---Canadian nationalism; Idea of Progress. | Appeal of Communist movement; Marxist theory---bourgeoisie revolution---class ideology; Childhood memories, of mother; Disillusionment; Karl Marx; Marxist theory---Asiatic Modes of Production; Communist Party of Canada---politics in the 1930s; German-Soviet Pact.

Item 37. Stewart Smith, second interview part 1. 15 Sept. 1986. (48 min., 9 sec.; 48 min., 6 sec.)
Subjects: Visit to the Soviet Union; Trotskyism; Nikolai Bukharin; Collectivization; Stalin---rivalry with Trotsky; The National Question---Canada; Stalin’s personality; Stalin---rivalry with Nikolai Bukharin; German-Soviet Pact; World War II---Soviet mobilization; Communist Party of Canada---popularity before 1947; Gouzenko Affair; Canadian Spy Trials; Theory of Social Fascism; Social Democracy versus Toryism; CCF---Communist Party of Canada’s conflict with. | Tito-Stalin Split; Slánský Trial; 1948 Czechoslovakia coup d’état; Marxist theory---Asiatic Modes of Production; World revolutionary history; Marxist theory---dictatorship of the proletariat; Reflections on the Communist movement; Millenarianism; Nuclear arms race; Doctor’s Plot; Tim Buck.

Item 38. Stewart Smith, second interview, part 2. 15 Sept. 1986. (20 min., 37 sec.)
Subjects: Communist Party of Canada---current state of; Marxism---current state of; Marxist theory---private property---Asiatic Mode of Production.

Item 39. W., part 1. (47 min., 27 sec.; 47 min., 28 sec.)
Note: Unknown interview subject. Likely Sam Lipshitz. 
Language note: Yiddish.

Item 40. W., part 2. (5 min., 3 sec.)
Language note: Yiddish.