The Latvians of Boston played an enormous role, far above their numbers, in the Socialist Party’s Left Wing and early Communist movements. Here they pay respects to Lenin, whom they personally corresponded with before the Revolution, on the first anniversary of his death.

‘Boston Lettish Workers Honor Lenin’s Memory’ from Daily Worker. Vol. 2 No. 11. January 24, 1925.

BOSTON, Mass., Jan. 22. The undying memory of Nikolai Lenin was honored by more than 300 Lettish workers of Boston Sunday, Jan. 18, at the Lenin Memorial meeting.

The meeting was arranged by the Boston Lettish branch of the Workers (Communist) Party and was one of the best meetings ever arranged.

A splendid concert program was furnished by the branch singing chorus and by the Lettish young people’s orchestra conducted by Comrade E.J. Sugar.

Solemn, revolutionary spirit prevailed all thru the meeting and especially when the speakers outlined the role of Lenin in the world revolution and mentioned the bloody days of January, 1905, in Petrograd, Riga and other parts of the then czarist Russia. Many of the Lettish workers participated in the January struggles; they paid the price of blood and they remember well the beginning of the end of czarism.

Telegram to Ruthenberg.

The meeting pledged itself to follow the red star of Leninism under the dark clouds of reaction in this kingdom of Morgans and Rockefellers. The following telegram was unanimously adopted by the meeting and transmitted to Comrade Ruthenberg:

“Charles E. Ruthenberg,

“State Prison,

“Jackson, Michigan.

“We, three hundred Lettish workers of Boston, assembled at Lenin memorial mass meeting called by the Boston Lettish Branch, Workers Party, send you our sympathy and greetings. We are with you, Comrade Ruthenberg. We pledge to continue your work for the working class and will fight for your freedom.”

Collection for Defense.

Collection of the meeting amounted to $67.00, and the entire proceeds of the meeting.

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1925/1925-ny/v02b-n011-jan-24-1925-DW-LOC.pdf