Lenin's archenemy, Krapnieks, resurrected??

Dear fellow Sov watchers everywhere ...

The ghost of Latvia's most notorious and unsung communist
revolutionary haunts his homeland still.

Take note of this recent spooky and savage comment (pasted below) to
an otherwise pedestrian wire item by the Baltic News Service reposted
on www.delfi.lv on October 23, 2003. delfi is a Latvian/Baltic news
portal. Oddly, part of the comment/reply was English dialogue.

Anyone interested in Soviet holdovers might be curious about this
recent
development.

I trust someone out there has heard of the savagely notorious Gray
Cardinal
of Latvia, from those tumultuous days of the mid- and late-Nineties.
For
those who don't know The Gray Cardinal - aka Peteris Krapnieks - was
leader
of a bizarre communist-sex cult called Red Nation. He was known for
his
claims to time travel and as the true author of Lenin's core ideas.
Krapnieks hated Lenin and maintained that Vladimir Ilyich stole and
implemented his homegrown concepts. One theory in part substantiated
by my oral historical research has it that in 1918 Krapnieks actually
paid one of his young henchman to pay off one Latvian Red Rifleman
"Berzin kungs" to assassinate Felix Dzerzhinsky so as to weaken the
defenses around Lenin.

After a short burst of minor public attention after the U.S.S.R.'s
breakup, Krapnieks disappeared in 1997. Many (including yours truly)
just assumed the old man died. His cult, Red Nation, vanished as if it
never existed.

Does anyone have any insight or theories?

In the excerpt below pertinent translations are bracketed.

As for the references to Guy Burgess (below), Krapnieks might well be
referring to the scumsuckingly late Cambridge spy. However I suspect
he is
referring to a contemporary Canadian journalist with the same name.
The
contemporary Guy Burgess, a North American, was briefly covering
politics in
Latvia in the mid- to late-Nineties and that Guy Burgess followed the
Krapnieks story (as did one other Canadian scribe in the region, but I
forget his name).

Anyway Guy Burgess the journalist also mysteriously disappeared around
the
same time as Krapnieks.

You might well appreciate why this item grabbed me by the throat.

Anyone with insight or information please fill me in. Please feel free
to
contact me on or off list with any questions about Krapnieks.

Cheers,

Avo Savikas
Independent Scholar-Activist
Riga, Latvia

------------------------------


http://www.delfi.lv/news/national/criminal/article.php?id=6606636&com=1

Zinas > Nacionalas zinas > Kriminalzinas [News > National News >
Criminal
News]

Daugavpili aiztur krapnieku [Fraud apprehended in Daugavpils]

BNS
23. oktobris 2003 05:01 Nosutit

Policija par vismaz desmit cilveku apkrapsanu, solot sagadat
lauksaimniecibas tehniku un panemot naudu, aizturejusi 47 gadus vecu
Daugavpils iedzivotaju.

[paraphrase: police are holding a 47-year-old man in connection to
fraud
involving agricultural equipment]

Par so rakstu sanemtas 6 atsauksmes

[There were 6 replies to this article]


sender:

PETERIS KRAPNIEKS! 23.10.2003 07:58

-> "... un tad Gaijs Burzes [Guy Burgess] sacija- Es patiesam saku
domat,
vai
vins ir tikai krapnieciski vai totali krapnieciski?"

[... and then Guy Burgess said, I started to wonder whether he's a
fraud or
a total fraud?]

"Laikam ka ne. Vins ir igaunis."

[Probably not. He's Estonian.]

"Iguana? You've gotta be kidding me, Krapnieks!"

"Estonian."

"No foolin'?"

"Madness in great ones must not unwatched go -- old boy."


-END-