Litvinoff Recalled As Young Draftsman in Czar-ruled Russia

Thirty-one years ago a young Russian draftsman, working for the second largest construction firm in Czarist Russia, together with other Jewish members of the concern, over the teacups discussed the air of mystery that hung around the Jewish confidential secretary to the head of the firm.

Today, the mystery nears its solution when A. B. Meshner, well-known contractor here, recognized Maxim Litvinoff, Soviet Commissar for Foreign Affairs, now in Washington conferring with President Roosevelt on Russian recognition, as the mysterious figure of those early days.

“When I read the story last week,” Mr. Mesher declared, “which related how Litvinoff had changed his name from that of Meyer Wallach, I had a hunch that this was the same Wallach I had worked with thirty-one years ago. I dug up an old picture, made in Kiev in 1902 which was taken of the office staff of the L. B. Ginsburg Construction Company for which we both worked.

“I easily recognized Wallach as the man who today as Litvinoff, is meeting with President Roosevelt and whose name will go down in history if he brings to an end the policy of aloofness which for sixteen years has prevailed between Soviet Russia and the United States.

“Litvinoff,” Mr. Mesher recalled, “was charming, genial and well-educated. He was secretive and never mixed socially however, nor did he take any part in any Jewish activities. He was suave and diplomatic even then.

“The mystery of his secretiveness deepened after he had been with the firm two years, when he suddenly disappeared. He had been arrested and taken to the penitentiary, without trial, for Socialistic activities. We heard that he had escaped later.”

Mr. Mesher sent a copy of the old group photograph of the Ginsburg staff to Litvinoff in Washington. “He will remember,” Mr. Mesher said.