NAWSA General Correspondence Breshkovsky - 1920 June 15, 1920 52 Eliot Street Jamaica Plain Massachusettes U.S.A Dear little Grandmother I recieved your pretty Russian Postcard and enjoyed it very much. Maybe I can send you some more money for your orphans. I am reading your book and I think it is very interesting. I graduated from school, the 10th and had my diploma. Last fall we moved to Jamaica Plain, and I think we are going to stay here another year. I am going to camp this summer where they teach you to swim, row, paddle and ride. Will you please give me your adress? Much love from, Elizabeth Blackwell Belden Extracts from Catherine Breshkovsky's Letters Written to Albert W. Robinson 3 Monadnock St., Boston 25, Mass. Czechoslovakia, Village Lukovo, Karpato, Russia, June 22d, 1920. Your amiable message found me in a remote village; forlorn, amidst Karpato mountains, inhabited by semi-wild peasants of Russian stock, now awaking for a better and civilized life; good of character; of strong constitution, and richly endowed from nature with a clear mind and good heart; they listen eagerly to every word of truth and love; their country is beautiful and rich with excellent vegetables of every kind. But to the last time it was dominated by the Magyars, who with the aid of worked out all the resources for themselves; nothing was left for the natives by starvation and ignorance. Only a year ago the exhausted Karpato Russians (half and million in this nook of Karp. mountains) were annexed to the Republic of Czechoslovakia, and as this State is not restored from the losses of war, our poor Russians remain in a very miserable state of life. Nevertheless, I feel well among these poor people and hope to be of some use to them; but I suffer much seeing what quantity of orphans left the war here too, how distressed are the children, quite deprived of any instruction. They become beggars, with all the bad results of that abominable profession. As you ask me, dear Mr. Robinson, what comfort would make me happier, I will say to you frankly: nothing so much as to be able to secure a better future even to some of these abandoned little beings, doomed to a life of misery and perhaps crime. So I assumed the task to organize an orphanage in Uzhorod (the central place of Karpatorukia) where boys on one side and girls on another will be maintained, boarded and taught for the purpose to become honest and working citizens, but as the means at my disposition are very restricted, and everything in this impoverished country is extremely dear, I am forced to address myself to good people and pray them to aid me in my undertaking. We shall be grateful for every donation for our naked and hungry children, ignorant, but very capable infants. It will be such a delight to see them reasonably occupied, working with their minds and hands, instead of wandering from village to village, from door to door, imploring for a bit of rough bread or a cold potato, and never learning any craft, any knowledge. Mr. A. A. Beskida, President of School Fund, Civil Administration, Uzhorod, Czechoslovakia, is my collaborator, and quite estimable person. I give you the second address, being aged and never sure how long will dure my existence. As a mother is never tired to beg for her children, so my heart is always apt to insist upon the welfare of the orphans, with respect and gratitude for your constant attention. (signed) Catherine Breshkovsky. Aug. 27, 1920 Towo Muskatcheno It is not my address, dearest Helena Now I am changing places very often, from village to village, from town to town, because of my work with the boarding schools. With the aid of my American friends, I hope to build six, scattered over this little country before I go back to Russia. It will be rather a good beginning, in a country where nobody had shown paid the last attention to the nerds of a people always pillaged, plun- dered + trodden down. Dr Egbert, who has come to see me, promises not to desert the good object of giving an education to the Russian children, so backward in their knowledge. I have been in good health all summer, the weather being excellent + the situations delicious. But these last days we have rain and cool air; my bones demand warm clothes, which have been left in Bilki. In Mukatcheno I have to do also with the American Red Cross, which is amiable, and will give me some little things that are indispensable for children. The peasants are aware of my efforts, and from every side I am asked to take Nov 30, 1920 Hotel Arlington, Boston, Dear little Daughter, I have come here to the suffer of the Intercollegiate Socialist Club, and am waiting for it to begin. I have been copying a letter from Babushka to Helena poor girls and boys to be taught. There are a quantity of widows with seven or eight kids, exhausted with the effort to keep them from starving. Mr Egbert is puzzled by such indigence. The work does not go as smoothly as it ought. People of the old regime are putting many obstacles in the way of our sincere efforts, for they do not want to have the peasants educated and clever enough to counteract the oppression they have had to endure till now. Everywhere is repeated the same struggle between the old prejudices and the new demands. It makes me suffer very much. The people who govern are always sure to have right and to know better. And they know better how to organize their forces + how to restrain the freedom of the people. You see how necessary it is to elevate the consciences of those, to be able to oppose the same shrewdness + knowledge of the reality to their adversaries. Yes, dearest, nothing is to be attained without a wide education. Morality is indispensable, knowledge too. And men and women will never be quite free, free minded, without a baggage of scholarship. and enlightenment. Our imagination must be able to reach the most distant situations of the present + the future. Short sighted men are ignorant men. Long sighted are those whose spirit is always in action + in search of new possibilities to aid mankind to approach the assigned end. To be brave, to be righteous, to be happy to see everyone happy. It is not a fancy above all reality. We are many people devoted unselfishly to some idea or some speciality. Why not profit by that talent to evoke a calling for that or some other object, and to turn our tastes + habits toward some useful + beautiful perceptions + work. Education is a mighty factor, + in a few generations we should see half of mankind occupied with much more interesting perspectives than those of moving pictures with commonplace dramas or dancing saloons with a with a vulgar demeanor. You can analyze this question by your own experience the habit of abiding in the sphere of pure + beautiful feelings has made you fear every disgusting + criminal The Woman's Journal and Suffrage News 585 Boylston Street, Boston, Massachusetts Telephone: Back Bay 4717 Contributing Editors Mary Johnston Stephen S. Wise Josephine Peabody Marks Zona Gale Florence Kelley Witter Bynner Contributing Editors Ben B. Lindsey Caroline Bartlett Crane Ellis Meredith Mabel Craft Deering Eliza Calvert Hall Reginald Wright Kauffman Assistant Editor Henry Bailey Stevens Editor-in-Chief Alice Stone Blackwell Managing Editor Agnes E. Ryan [*Union Label*]34 W T Collyer Dec 1, eve Fremont Temple Harry F Ward next Saturday eve Lorimer Hall Monday Eve Dec 6 same hall August Claessens Industrial Democracy very amusing Sunday 162 Boylston 8 Newbury St Sunday afternoon Harry Laidler & tea 35th 3 PM "It is impossible to imagine the suffrage movement without the Woman's Journal." —Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt. 4 society: made you strive to be better & better, to exact from yourself, & aid those who are around you. Every man can acquire good or bad tastes, which depend on the education he received from his tender age. God bless you, dear Helena, I prize much your friendship, for it is so pure & sincere. Be quiet; your conscience is an honest one. C.B. Nov 4, 1920. Mukatchevo Very dear & faithful friend Helena! Euphemia! Knowing your sincere interest in what concerns me, I am glad to begin this letter by telling you about my first realized success. - As I could not find room for an Internat in the villages, I settled in a town, Mukatchevo, and with the aid of good people began my work. To my great joy, Dr. Egbert came with a supply of necessary wares, and after two months of assiduous efforts I sit now among 24 girls of different ages, ranging from 8 to 20, who attend various schools & classes, corresponding to their degrees of knowledge. I have two women, a teacher from Russia & a cook, both excellent workers, & the grown-up pupils as aids everywhere when free from their school tasks. Our girls are mostly daughters of teachers in the elementary village schools. Very poor they are, but have done their utmost to promote the education of their children, while the peasants, forced to send their children to Magyar schools, and having no means of teaching them 2 at home, had few girls versed in knowledge. We hope to prepare some honest and well instructed teachers out of the girls and boys fostered and trained in our Internats. Yet the most capable girl comes from one very poor peasant family, very nice and well endowed by nature. Her parents are excellent people, but the war deprived them of both their sons and all their property. Julia is my loveliest grand-daughter. I don't show it, but will find an occasion to photograph her and send to you. What is well is the result that people, enchanted by the appearance of both Internats (in Mukatchevo, and in Uzhorod for boys), are trying to follow our example, and two more will be started within a few days. Teachers and professors are taking part in that matter, and are addressing requests on every side. The "School Relief" (an organization of Russian Carpathian patriots which works with me), the American Red Cross, the Czechoslovak Red Cross, private 3 individuals, etc. I am assailed from morning till night, but the poor people imagine that my resources are inexhaustible; + the fact that I have to refuse and refuse -- for we have a long, hard winter before us -- is the sole dark point on my horizon today. We have already had hard frosts lasting ten days. Today the weather is wet, our baths will be heated and the girls made clean and nice. This operation can be performed only twice a month. There are many [obs] obstacles in the way. You Americans, with your habit of having every sort of comfort, cannot imagine how low a culture we[d] have her in Carpathia (on both sides of the Carpathians), and how glad we are to have a bath even is some months. One must be a very rich man to have a bath in one's house, and it was a piece of special good [f] luck for me to secure a dwelling with a bath. The house is small the oven badly built, wood is dear, no coal to be had. Many, many things lacking yet we are happy to have a shelter, 4 food + clothes, + we wish anxiously to see more destitute orphans and indigent persons in such a state of comfort. We enjoy ourselves in the [Internat], Dr. Egbert supplied us so well. We got money from Alice Blackwell, too, and we are promised by Mr. A. W. Robinson to enjoy further aid from America. If so, I hope to be of more use during my sojourn here. I got your letter and was glad to know you too have realized your plan, living with Euphemia + doing everything yourselves. God bless you, dearest friends, don't forget me, and let me hear of you. I kiss you with all my heart and hope to see you once more. Mr. Herreshoff, + Julia our friend are so good as to remain always faithful to your friendship. Thank them very much. My health is not bad, but winter has some influence on it. Mr. Legareff writes to Miss Dudly [?] of Babushka: "She is working hard. Thanks to the support of her American friends her energy seems to be unlimited. She has not a minute for rest. The population of poor Russian 5 Carpathia consider her an old angel sent to them by the American & Russian God. Thanks to her work the names of the Russian & American peoples are tightened, & the stupid "Magyaron" functionaries cannot appreciate her efforts. She has to cope with so many difficulties in her way! She does not want to work under their control but to stay expressly independent, carrying out her work under the supervision of the American citizens. Last [month] month she came to us at Prague to attend the Congress of Free Thinkers. We spent once more a week to gether. Catherine Breshkovsky to Albert W. Robinson, Dec. 9, 1920. I understand well how much care & trouble the work for our "Internats" brings on your head, the more that there is no good & sure way to transport the [goods] wares that you have the talent and bounty to collect. Yet I know that Mr. Hoover's wares and those of the American Red Cross are transported happily; nothing is lost; only private goods are liable to be plundered and spoiled. Oh, if the Red Cross would consent to take our collections under its patronage, it would be a guarantee of their safety; but surely he will not have more trouble than he has. As to our dear Dr. Ergbert, I cannot explain to myself his 2 silence. I wrote him many times, I sent him photographs, but never got an answer. What does it mean? I hope that next time the question will be explained. I assure you, dear friend, that your endeavors multiply our hopes, and forces. It is such a comfort to know you are not alone in trying, in pushing the work, there are good people beyond the ocean that think and feel with you and put in their forces to move, to make progress the matter you cherish as the most precious. You see well that having masses of dark people, badly brought up and not instructed, the world swarms with false ideas and bad doings. And as long as that darkness continues, we shall never 3 see better days. On one side politicians, on the other Bolsheviki — two evils which will disappear only with the light of consciousness of those who till now are like tools in their hands of ambitious and greedy units. xx So do not lose patience with us, and continue to encourage us by your support. The "School Relief" feels quite happy to get such donations as 17000 [ko] kroner sent by Alice S. Blackwell & 32000 kroner now sent by you! Here in poor Russian Carpathia we shall never collect the half of such sums. I understand that people get tired of giving endlessly, but from time to time we must appeal, & let them remember that the more happy have to support those who, by the fate of history, by some decision unknown 4 to us, have suffered more & continue to suffer. Also I believe that you are so deeply accustomed to fulfill your duty as a true Christian, that even tired you will never desert the task your conscience indicates to you. Everyone is sometimes exhausted & feeling feeble. But after we consider how empty our life would be of serious interests if devoted only to personal needs, we are satisfied to confess that ours was not spent selfishly. I never forget the words of the Gospel: Don't want anything for yourself, except good doings. Some- times tired, but always happy. Dear friend, I want you to know my profound gratitude and admiration for the good sentiments 5 you fostered in your noble heart. God bless you for a long & fruitful life, you & all your family. The money & goods are to be sent to the address of Mr. A.A. Beskida, who is so very thankful to you as an honest patriot, desiring to see his people in a right way. Never change your excellent dollars for any other money, and send them as dollars. Here they are very much prized & profitably used. From Catherine Breshkovsky to Albert W. Robinson, Dec. 11, 1220. Written from Mukatchevo. Yesterday I saw A.A. Beskida. He was anxious to let you know how happy the School Relief feels, having such earnest and generous support as you bring to the Russian Carpathian "Internats." It is Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.