Leibovich Riva Mendelevna (1909)

Leibovich (Leibowitsch) (née Volshonok) Riva (Riwa) Mendelevna (1909, Belarus – ?, Israel) — nurse, participant in the Spanish Civil War.

At the age of five, Riva Leibovich moved with her family to Dvinsk, where she completed school. In 1926, she became involved in the activities of clubs run by the Communist Party of Latvia (“Energia”, “Prosveshchenie”, “Reisen Club”). In 1927, she moved to Riga, where she gave private lessons. In 1928, she began working at Lapkin’s cardboard factory, from which she was dismissed for organising a demonstration of young workers in response to the closure of left-wing trade unions.

She later worked as an accountant at a mill, as a nanny, and then as a nurse at the Bikur Holim hospital. In 1929, she became a member of the illegal Communist Youth Union of Latvia, and later a member of the Communist Party of Latvia. She was arrested several times for her underground activities.

From April 1937 to November 1939, Riva Leibovich served on the fronts of the Spanish Civil War as a nurse in front-line and rear hospitals. After the war, she was held in internment camps for international brigadiers in France, and later returned to Latvia. After the establishment of Soviet power, she worked as an instructor of the Central District Party Committee, and from January 1941 — as Second Secretary of the Kirov District Party Committee in Riga.

During the Second World War, she was appointed political officer of the Workers’ Guard. When the Workers’ Guard retreated from Riga towards Estonia under fire, she became a nurse in an evacuation hospital. She was evacuated to Kirov, where she worked as a nurse and later as an instructor of the Stalin District Party Committee.

In 1945, Riva Leibovich returned to Riga, working first as an instructor in the political department of the Riga Naval Base, and later as deputy editor of the newspaper Railwayman of Soviet Latvia. After graduating from the Republican Party School, she worked as an instructor in the political sector of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Latvian SSR and later headed its office.

From 1954 to 1960, she was head of the Marxism–Leninism Office at the Riga Medical Institute, and from 1960 to 1964 — editor of scientific and political literature. After retiring, she emigrated to Israel, where she died.

Lit.: Fighters of Latvia in Spain. 1936–1939. Memoirs and Documents (Борцы Латвии в Испании. 1936―1939. Воспоминания и документы). Riga: “Liesma”, 1970.