In the 1930s, two men from the Ukraine brush against each other in the streets of Montreal. One is a staunch anti-Communist, the other is a spy in the pay of Moscow. This three-part investigation explores the little-known lives of these two fascinating characters. It allows you to witness the shadow theater played out between rival factions in Eastern Europe. The key, the potential resolution of a crime not elucidated to date… Episode 1.
On the night of January 18, 1931, two silhouettes make their way through the snowy streets of Montreal. Alexandre Soulgikoff and Mademoiselle Nina, his secretary, must go to her apartment without delay to call a detective from the Sûreté Provinciale du Québec. The policeman does not take long to pick up. The man on the other end of the line wants to know everything about the communist meeting they have just infiltrated at the Monument-National, a theater in the city. The collection of information was successful and the detective wants a written report that he will send to his superiors.
Soulgikoff, a middle-aged man with a beard trimmed to the imperial, adjusts his small round glasses and settles down in front of his typewriter to capture the story of his evening at the theater. Officially, the room offered a musical event. Soulgikoff reveals the deception: “In reality, it was not a concert, but a very animated and frankly communist assembly, barely covered by a little music. The man then dwells on the description of the decorations to the glory of Moscow, before summarizing the speeches calling for the overthrow of the “capitalist” leaders of Canada. Soulgikoff then abandons his factual tone and reveals his rage: “All this beauty was crowned with a portrait of the famous destroyer Lenin, idol of the Bolsheviks. »
“Reds” to watch
This report is not the first that the informant writes for the Provincial Police. The police service, now eager for information on communist activities, sends its detectives and informants to political meetings to listen to speeches and collect propaganda documents. It must be said that the crisis of the 1930s changed the situation in repression. Until then, surveillance of the “Rouges” had been the responsibility of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Montreal police.
Spurred on by the Church and employers, the government of Louis-Alexandre Taschereau took up the issue by mobilizing its men on the ground. To interpret everything, the police need polyglots like Soulgikoff: the communists, mostly from Eastern Europe, use a cocktail of languages to exchange. Russian, Ukrainian, German or Yiddish resound in the assemblies. It is now the turn of Miss Nina, her assistant, to type the transcription of a speech heard the same evening from the mouth of an anonymous leader: “The Jews must show solidarity with each other and with Russia. Thus, one day, the Revolution will triumph all over the world. »
Soulgikoff’s past
For the two indicators, the situation is very clear: these calls to sedition are the work of the same religious community. This will be the conclusion of Soulgikoff’s report: “The Jews show themselves enthusiastic about Bolshevism, one can moreover suppose that it is they who direct the actions of the Communists here… as everywhere else. »
This hatred of Alexandre Soulgikoff towards Jews and Communists goes back to his youth in Eastern Europe. In Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire of the last Tsar, Nicholas II, he took part in persecutions against the Jewish community in his district and was closely associated with the newspaper Novoye Vremya, an anti-Semitic publication. A coherent journey for this man who claims to be from the Russian nobility. In the streets of Montreal, he sports a cross of Saint Vladimir, Prince of Russia, just as he often wears the traditional Cossack hat Papakha.
Born around 1879 in Ukraine, this jack-of-all-trades with a nebulous biography studied medicine and law at the University of kyiv before turning to literature. He then became a journalist and in 1917 began writing a play titled The one who leads, propaganda show against the revolution. According to him, his commitment would have led him to the post of deputy state prosecutor in Ukraine. Subsequently, he would have been parachuted in as governor of the Odessa district, and finally general prosecutor before the communist shift.
After the Bolshevik coup in October 1917, he enlisted as an officer in the White Army to lead the counter-revolution. He fought alongside Baron Piotr Nikolayevich Wrangel, a general and commander-in-chief of the southern armies. In 1918, he was imprisoned and escaped to Istanbul, Turkey, where he met his wife. Little is known about this episode, but the couple ended up in Quebec in 1922. Three years after their arrival, the Quebec government began to worry about the emergence of a revolutionary current in the pay of Moscow. At the turn of the years 1932-1933, well before the Duplessis era, Taschereau delivered a fundamental speech in which he “declared war on communism”. Then follows a resurgence of police operations leading to searches, fines, trials and expulsions of activists.
A man with ideal skills
In this context, Soulgikoff’s skills and determination were quickly spotted by the authorities. His meeting with the prosecutor Ernest Bertrand, future deputy, federal minister then judge, propels him into the judicial system. He thus practiced in Montreal as an interpreter at the Court of Sessions of the Peace, then was appointed justice of the peace in 1932. The trials related to the Russian and Ukrainian communities were an ideal scene for the now sworn activist. Ernest Bertrand promotes Alexandre Soulgikoff to Louis-Alexandre Taschereau, praising the quality of the “many reports from the informant who constantly updated us on their actions and gestures”.
With this support, Soulgikoff also acted outside Montreal: the newspapers mention his presence in Thetford Mines, but also in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, where social conflicts related to forestry and mining work have been numerous since the beginning of the 1930s. confidence, the character brags in public about his professional success and heroic deeds. He does not hesitate, for example, to give an interview to the daily newspaper of Quebec The sun in December 1932. This communication is not very compatible with his activity of infiltrating assemblies and social movements incognito. The Attorney General’s office may remind the police of the need for a certain discretion for informers, Soulgikoff continues to parade in society. Extravagance which earned him a growing number of enemies and increasingly precise threats.
To protect him, the authorities granted him the right to bear arms. He is thus equipped with a gun when he crosses Montreal to translate a document written in Russian, on the evening of August 13, 1934. A mysterious interlocutor gave him an address by telephone. Soulgikoff was at the corner of Everett and de Lanaudière streets when a car stopped within reach, letting three men get off. According to witnesses present at the scene, he was beaten, then coldly executed with several bullets on the sidewalk. The upward trajectory of the informant who has become a justice of the peace is stopped dead by a surge of violence that will upset public opinion. The investigation will mobilize many police officers but will never be able to elucidate the case, because the enigmatic Soulgikoff has only hinted at part of his game…
The second episode of the series will be released next Saturday.