Braina Rudina-Foss

RUDINA-FOSS BRAINA LVOVNA, 24.06.1902, Riga. Univ. of Vienna, doctor; active in underground rev. movement, polit. prisoner in Belgrade; in the Civil War in Spain - from March 1938.

Captain of Medical Service, head of hospitals at several parts of the fronts.

During WWII -head of Evaco- Hospital in the USSR.

After the war - doctor in Riga, Latvia.

Died there 1973.

• Date and city of birth: 24th June, 1902. Riga.
• Profession: Doctor
• Residence places: Riga, Berlin, Moscow, Belgrade
• Spoken languages:  Latvian, Russian, Serbian, German, French and Spanish
• Political affiliation: KPD (German Communist Party)
• Profesional work: Doctor in Moscow- she was awarded a Stakhanovitemedal
• Police records: Arrested and imprisoned 8 months for have organized the                          recruitment and transportation of brigadistas in Yugoslavia, 1937.
• Arrival in Spain: February 10, 1938
• Military unit: XIIIth International Brigade– 51st Battalion
• Rank: Lieutenant promoted to Captain – Head doctor of S’Agaró IB Hospital
• Departure: Fled into Soviet Union (Moscow)
• WW2: Red Army – Sanitary Service. Head of the Evaco Hospital (Pryluky, Ukraine)
• Postwar: Moved back in Riga in 1945, where he worked as doctor
• Death: Died in Riga. November 9th, 1973. Buried in the New Jewish Cemetery of Riga

 

The case of Braina Rudina is one of the most illustrative examples among the Baltic women, both doctors and nurses. It is also one of the best documented ones. The picture depicted from the Comintern files is the profile of a very active militantwho illustrates very well the grade of importance that some Latvian women achieved within the frame of the International Brigades, in this case among the cadres of the International Sanitary Service (SSI) .

She used several ”nomes de guerre”, but was born as Braina Rudina Pedanova. She was born to a very poor Jewish family in Riga, on June, 11, 1902. According to the documents, in Spain she was also known as Braina Voss or Rodin-Voss. But she was also known as Marlena Nenadova: her agent name for the Comintern.

As her older sister Miriam (who also volunteered for Spain), she carried out her studies in Germany, at the medical faculties of Berlin and Freiburg between 1922 and 1927, when she became a doctor. During the next years she lived in Germany, where she joined the KPD (the German Communist Party) in 1931 and married Alfons Bergmann, a notorious former member of the RFB (The Roter Frontkämpferbund was the “Alliance of Red Front-Fighters”, much of a militia under the leadership of the KPD). Alfons also joined the International Brigades in 1936.

As soon as Hitler came to the power in 1933 and Anti-Semitism actions began in Germany, she moved to Yugoslavia. There she kept carrying out antifascist activities in accordance with different brunches of the CP.  By early 1935 she moved to Moscow, where she worked as doctor. Her effort in that hospital was considered and recognized as worthy be awarded a Stakhanovite medal, the highest prize to the labor valor in the former USSR.

Soviet Medal for Labour Valour / Public domain

But by summer 1936 she moved back to Belgrad, probably as a Comintern agent, in order to organize the recruitment and transportation of volunteers from Yugoslavia to Spain. But as result of these activities, she got arrested in 1937 and imprisoned for 8 months. Meanwhile her sister Miriam and her husband Alfons have already arrived in Spain and joined the IB.

In January 1938, Braina was released from prison and volunteered for Spain, arriving in Albacete on February 10, 1938, when the war began looking unfavorable for the cause of the Spanish Republic. Since she was able to speak fluently Russian, Latvian, German, Serbian, French and Spanish and she was considered as a very valued doctor and asset. She was quickly promoted to Lieutenant and became head of Villanueva de la Jara IB hospital, in the Catalonian front. Few months later, due to the Rebel advance in the Northern fronts she was appointed to head of S’Agaró IB hospital, being again promoted, this time to the rank of Captain.

Burial of a brigadista by the S’Agaro Hospital, 1938 / Arxiu Municipal de Sant Feliu de Guixols (Fondo Vicenç Gandol Jordá)

At the end of the war, in 1939, she fled to Moscow. Where she lived until the outbreak of World War II. During this conflict, she served for Soviet Union since the attack of Germany in 1941, joining the sanitary service of the Red Army. As in Spain, Braina was appointed to manage different hospitals, as the Evaco hospital, placed in Pryluky, an Ukrainian city.

As soon as the war ended in 1945, she moved to Riga, her hometown, where she reencountered her sister. She died in Riga on November, 9, 1973.

Braina Rudina was, very likely, the Latvian woman who achieved a highest rank within the Spanish Republican Army.

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