Notes on Vilhjalmur Stefansson


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Stefansson, Vilhjalmur.

Arctic explorer and communist. Vilhjalmur Stefansson worked to pit the United States and the Soviet Union against each other in the Arctic. The obvious quesation is why would a self avowed Communist work against the interests of the Socviet Union. The only answer that occures to me is that he was supporting the Red Chinese against the Russians.
FLETCHER2_21
Vilhjalmur Stefansson and Prof. Moses Chaim "M.C." Shelesnyak, were friends.
Stefansson was a prominient member of the Communist Party.
Known associate of
Srebrnik, Henry"An Idiosyncratic Fellow-Traveler: Vilhjalmur Stefansson and the American Committee for the Settlement of Jews in Birobidzhan," East European Jewish Affairs 28, 1, 1998: 37-53.
The radical "second life" of Vilhjalmur Stefansson / Srebrnik, H.F.
(Arctic, v. 51, no. 1, Mar. 1998, p. 58-60, ill., map)
References. ASTIS record 42389. Languages: English Libraries: ACU
... The American Communist movement included numerous "front" organizations which championed the political views and advanced the goals of the Soviet Union. Among them were movements whose main aim was to provide support for the Soviet project to establish a Jewish socialist republic in the Birobidzhan region in the far east of the USSR. One of the organizations prominent in this campaign was the American Committee for the Settlement of Jews in Birobidjan. The Committee, also called Ambijan, was formed in 1934. It sought to attract to its ranks philanthropists and men of financial prominence or wealth. As well, it captured public attention through the recruitment of celebrities and fairly eminent public figures who, while not known Communists, were sympathetic to the politics of the USSR. Though their detractors called them "fellow-travelers," these people often proved to be valuable assets to the cause. One champion of the Birobidzhan scheme, and a vice president of Ambijan after 1936, was the prominent Arctic explorer, scientist, and author Vilhjalmur Stefansson. A tireless proponent of settlement in Birobidzhan, he appeared at countless meetings, dinners, and rallies, recounting the exploits, real and imagined, of Jewish settlers trying to build a socialist republic in the tundra of the Soviet Far East. Given his fame and stature, he proved an invaluable resource for the leadership of Ambijan. ... (Au)

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Notes on Vilhjalmur Stefansson

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