I married a romantic, summary

Emma Bramnik-Vulfson
I MARRIED A ROMANTIC

Mavrik Vulfson — politician, diplomat, publicist and lyricist
Snapshots from the Memoirs of a Happy Woman

Summary
Mavrik Vulfson was and is an honorable Latvian, who with his own passion, bravery and deep conviction inscribed his name in the history of the restoration and development of our government”, said Vaira Vike-Freiberga, President of the Republic of Latvia (2005).

Mavrik Vulfson (1918—2004) was a prominent politician, public figu-re, publicist and professor of the Art Academy of Latvia. He was born in Moscow in a family of refugees from Latvia. In the wake of World War I and the Russian civil war, his family returned to Riga, where he began his studies at German and Latvian schools. A member of Latvia’s union of young social democrats during the early 1930s, he united with the coun-try’s young communist organization in 1934, in the face of a government coup d’etat. He studied at the University of Latvia from 1939 to 1940, served in the Latvian Army and after 1941 became a Red Army officer, finishing World War II with the rank of major.

Vulfson’s press career began in 1940. After the war he became a poli-tical analyst and head of the department for foreign press. For more than 40 years he hosted Globus, an analytical television news show. He also taught social sciences at the Art Academy of Latvia.

In 1988, Mavrik Vulfson became an active participant in the demo-cratic, political, and social movements that transformed the Soviet Union during perestroika. He helped spur the fight for Latvia’s independence as founder of the Latvian Popular Front. During this period he was elected as a deputy to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (1981—1991) and the Supreme Soviet of Latvia (1988—1992). Elected in the first multi-party elections in Soviet history, he participated in the congressional work of the Congress of People’s Deputies of the USSR (1989—1990) and, after inde-pendence was achieved, took a diplomatic post as a special envoy of the Latvian foreign ministry (1992—1993).
Mavrik Vulfson formed relationships with key politicians of the late 20th
century, among them Mikhail Gorbachev, Helmut Kohl, Hans-Dietrich
Genscher, Hans Modrow, James Baker, Strobe Talbott, Ezer Weizman,

SUMMARY
NATO secretaries general Joseph Luns and Manfred Woerner. He met leading publishers and journalists from Europe, America and Israel and received awards and honorary titles from governments worldwide.
Vulfson authored numerous books in Latvian, Russian, English and German: Pieci Stari (Riga, 1964); Nationality Latvian? No, Jewish: Cards on the table. Riga, 1998. 100 days that destroyed the peace: Baltic fates with a view on WW2. Riga, 2002. He also organized the student book project Es m;lu Latviju, I love Latvia (2000).
 
Loved by some, resented by others, Mavrik Vulfson commanded respect from all for his boldness, talent and wisdom. Over 40 years his work graced the pages of hundreds of journals, and his voice rang out through countless radio shows, lecture halls and debates at the Art Academy of Latvia. Every Friday, television sets sounded his courageous broadcasts. A keen breaker of taboos, he mastered symbolic forms of speech that allowed him openly to say things officially forbidden. For this, in the 1960s Arvids Pel;e, first secretary of the Central Committee of the Latvian Communist Party, called Vulfson “a hydra with nine heads — if you cut one of them off, three new ones grow in its place”.

On June 2, 1988, at a plenum of Latvian creative workers’ unions in Riga and on December 23, 1989, at the Congress of People’s Deputies of the USSR in the Kremlin, Mavrik Vulfson for the first time in Soviet his-tory popularly revealed the secret protocol of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact between Stalin’s Russia and Hitler’s Germany, the deal in advance of World War II that foresaw a Soviet takeover of the Baltic states. In the name of historic justice restored, Vulfson demanded recognition that the secret protocol had been void from the moment of signing. He also for the first time publicly declared the need for a monument in remembrance of Jewish victims of the Holocaust in Latvia and a society for Jewish culture in Latvia. Soon thereafter he co-founded the Latvian Jewish Cultural Society (LOEK) and initiated Latvian membership in 1992 of the world-wide Inter-Parliamentary Council against Anti-Semitism.

The words pronounced by Mavrik Vulfson at the plenum of creative workers’ unions caused something like an explosion, altering people’s con-sciousness, emboldening them. “Do you know what you have done? You have killed Soviet Latvia,” said Boris Pugo, first secretary of the Central Committee of the Latvian Communist Party.
Diena, the Latvian newspaper, in 2003 remembered Vulfson as “an active participant and initiator of dramatic changes in the history of Latvia, inspiring thousands of people towards changes in life, affecting his-tory, the fate of the people, and the process of moral purification of Latvian society.” The international press honors him, too. “It may be hard to imagine, that this elderly, gray haired man joined active political battle in his late 80’s and has left a visible mark in the wreck of Russian commu-nism,” one paper recalled, while another wrote of “Mavrik Vulfson and the collapse of communism — a history of the present.”

He became a symbol, a living legend – called “20th Century Man”, “one of 85 architects who have reconstructed modern Europe”, a “Latvian Kissinger”, the “ice breaker of thaw”, a “Latvian Robespierre” and much else — as observers sought to characterize Vulfson’s contribution. Twice his admirers carried him aloft – once at the Congress of People’s Deputies in Moscow in 1989, and a second time by the citizens of Riga in 1990 upon Latvia’s declaration of independence.
The flowers of Atmoda, the “awakening”, never faded. In January 2005, on the first day of his memory, the Latvian Union of Journalists established the annual Mavrik Vulfson Prize for outstanding journalistic achievement by writers, diplomats, political scientists and other public fig-ures. The prize was already awarded twice — in 2006 and in 2007.

“Please understand — it’s true! Latvians and Russians should live together. There is no other way. Trust me people!” This may be considered Mavrik Vulfson’s political legacy.

These memoirs are an attempt to tell about a unique and extraordinary person, whom the author was fortunate enough to meet at the last crossroads of her life. The summary below describes the parts and chapters of the book.
 
Part I — Trust Me, People! Mavrik Vulfson’s Diaries, Publications and Documents. Devoted to his political and public work. Chapters: Sudden Birth of a Legend; From Love to Hatred in One Step; National Diplomacy; The Third Death-Sentence.
 
Part II — I Married a Romantic: Conversations with Myself and a Diary Written on Scraps. Devoted to the private life of Mavrik Vulfson and his wife, the author’s own memoirs describing meetings with interesting peo-ple and her collaborative work with Vulfson on books. Chapters: It’s Not a Declaration of Love, but One of Destiny; Doctor, Stay Healthy, We Need You!; The Meeting.

Part III — Life after Death: Memories. Mavrik Vulfson’s farewell.
The memoirs conclude with sections not included in the main parts of the book: The Academy — My Fortress, regarding Vulfsons’ work at the Art Academy of Latvia; Publications. Speeches. Memoirs. Reflections; Memories of Mavrik Vulfson; Correspondence; Meetings, about interesting people Vulfson met at various stages in his life; Afterthoughts.

Translated by Alexander Bramnik-Voldman.



HOW to reed my book in internet
1.Google.com
2. Я вышла замуж за романтика / write In Russian/
3. When opened , take name with LULU
4. Preview
All the best
Emma