(Russian: Барон Пётр Петрович Врангель)
Aeronautics Engineer. Worked for NASA.
Son of a famous Russian Military Figure.
Social Security number 061-18-3552
article, 1990
COPIED - UNEDITED TEXT:
GENERAL from Page 1 al hia wife hia son Peter and hia two daughters Helen and Natasha fled to Turkey Today the son who was 9 when hia family left Russia lives in a home at the end of a private drive in Southampton Peter Wrangel is 79 tall and thin with piercing blue eyes and white hair that is brushed back and trailing over his collar He looks exactly like his father whose pictures Wrangel offers a guest — pictures of the general in uniform on horseback with his family and sitting on a cannon after a battle in Prussia in World War L "Some of these pictures" he explains "were just given to me at a family reunion in Stockholm" He shows his guest newspaper photographs of himself upon his arrival in Paris shortly after his family had fled the Soviet Union "I didn't even know these pictures existed It's extraordinary" Today at 5 pm Wrangel will address the World Af&drs Council at the Southampton Campus of Long Island University before which some of the most influential men and women in the region have spoken He will not talk about foreign policy or his life in the Foreign Service or the situation in Nicaragua Government policy is not on his mind Instead he has a personal message He will talk he Bays about his father Baron Wrangel a man of wealth and privilege who fought against the communists led the army of the White Russians during the civil war and who died brokenhearted in Brussels in 1928 He was only 48 the leader of an army of exiles living in the West And Wrangel will talk about what he describes as the most amazing event in his life — his return last month to the Soviet Union There he walked the streets in the city that in 1911 the year of his birth was called St Petersburg He was bom in an army barracks there He found dozens of places he remembered as a child although the landscape of Russia before the Bolshevik revolution has been all but oblit- Gen Wrangel sits on a German cannon he captured during World War I erated "He is a fascinating man with an interesting story to tell" said Robin Duke a friend of Wrangel's and the wife of Angier Biddle Duke the recently retired chancellor of the university "We have always had a keen interest in Russia Mr Wrangel is a very dedicated man with a background we feel people should hear about "He represents a life and culture that was muted after the revolution" she added "We feel he has a remarkable story to tell the council" Seated in a comfortable chair in the Bitting room of his house surrounded by artifacts from the country of his birth history books photographs and historical posters all of which give the house the feel of a museum of pre-revolutionary Russia Wrangel says he found his trip to the Soviet Union exhilarating "Everywhere we went" he says the 'we' referring to him and his German-bom wife Christina "there were people who said You are the son of General Wrangel' I mean just after we arrived in the airport this happened And this in a country where the communists have been in power three-quarters of a century and where my father's name has been officially Newadajr Osois Arsnofiioa Wrangel with dagger given to his father expunged from the history books He was supposed to be forgotten an enemy of the people 'Yet somehow and I simply cannot explain this they remembered him After all these years! And after all the horrible things said about him! How can this be? How did they remember my father?" On his trip the first since he left the country on a boat headed for Turkey in 1920 Wrangel was standing in a hotel lobby when to his shock the television set near him began showing a documentary about his father's life and military career The program even spoke about his father's reforms which were decreed after he became head of state of the part of southern Russia not held Iqr the Bolsheviks after the 1917 Revolution "They were telling his story and I was standing there watching it" he said "I just couldn't believe it I could not imagine how it got on the television And why now? Did they know I was coming? Was there a reason for this?" Eager to get a copy of the film Wrangel called several TV stations and when a producer heard that the son of Gen Wrangel was in the country talked him into giving an interview in Leningrad on the most-watched show in the country "600 Minutes" which airs at 9:30 pm after the news The first question posed to Wrangel was "What were the last words of your father before he died?" He didn't know He was asked about his father's years in exile And there was this question: "How did your father die?" "Go look in the files of the KGB" Wrangel responded coolly Because his father died in middle age and because two of his closest aides were kidnaped by the KGB in Paris and taken back to Moscow Wrangel has for years harbored suspicions his father's death was not natural But he does not know either Throughout his and his wife's trip in the Soviet Union they were astounded that so many people knew the Wrangel name It was as if his father had been a hero of the revolution instead of an enemy of it "We talked to people in provincial towns" he said "Everyone when they heard the name Wrangel or saw my passport they knew the name Many were emotional "In a club one night the singer who knew he was there said 'I'm dedicating my song to the memory of Peter Wrangel' I don't know how but they knew my father's name" This Wrangel said will be the heart of his message this afternoon at the World Affairs Council Also he will talk about the remarkable changes he witnessed taking place in the Soviet Union "So much is happening" he said "It is not to be believed Even the churches are being restored And they were packed" Wrangel also Bays that people he spoke with were less than enthusiastic about the changes wrought by the communists since 1917 Food lines abounded hot water and milk were scarce even in the tourist hotels and most times whatever a consumer might have been looking for didn't exist "One man told me 'I'm 31 years of age and I was dead all my life' " Wrangel said "That was his view of the communists Others said the same thing" But the most remarkable change and one he surely did not expect was the general feeling he encountered everywhere that his father was a good Russian not an enemy "You are one of us living abroad" one man told Wrangel On a wall behind Wrangel's chair in his sitting room is a framed poster that was tacked to walls all over southern Russia in 1920 It has been in the family for years and it portrays Gen Wrangel and over the portrait the words in Russian: WRANGEL STILL UVES KILL HIM WITHOUT MERCY Checking into a hotel one afternoon one man ey ing Wrangel's passport looked up paused and then 1 Wrangel ' look like him said "You are the son of General Wrangel You even T almost sat on the floor I was so flabbergasted" Wrangel said On his last day in Leningrad Wrangel spoke to a police officer who asked him if he were ever afraid of being "liquidated" "I said 'No at my age one is not afraid to die of -anything' "
Aeronautics Engineer. Worked for NASA.
Son of a famous Russian Military Figure.
Social Security number 061-18-3552
article, 1990
COPIED - UNEDITED TEXT:
GENERAL from Page 1 al hia wife hia son Peter and hia two daughters Helen and Natasha fled to Turkey Today the son who was 9 when hia family left Russia lives in a home at the end of a private drive in Southampton Peter Wrangel is 79 tall and thin with piercing blue eyes and white hair that is brushed back and trailing over his collar He looks exactly like his father whose pictures Wrangel offers a guest — pictures of the general in uniform on horseback with his family and sitting on a cannon after a battle in Prussia in World War L "Some of these pictures" he explains "were just given to me at a family reunion in Stockholm" He shows his guest newspaper photographs of himself upon his arrival in Paris shortly after his family had fled the Soviet Union "I didn't even know these pictures existed It's extraordinary" Today at 5 pm Wrangel will address the World Af&drs Council at the Southampton Campus of Long Island University before which some of the most influential men and women in the region have spoken He will not talk about foreign policy or his life in the Foreign Service or the situation in Nicaragua Government policy is not on his mind Instead he has a personal message He will talk he Bays about his father Baron Wrangel a man of wealth and privilege who fought against the communists led the army of the White Russians during the civil war and who died brokenhearted in Brussels in 1928 He was only 48 the leader of an army of exiles living in the West And Wrangel will talk about what he describes as the most amazing event in his life — his return last month to the Soviet Union There he walked the streets in the city that in 1911 the year of his birth was called St Petersburg He was bom in an army barracks there He found dozens of places he remembered as a child although the landscape of Russia before the Bolshevik revolution has been all but oblit- Gen Wrangel sits on a German cannon he captured during World War I erated "He is a fascinating man with an interesting story to tell" said Robin Duke a friend of Wrangel's and the wife of Angier Biddle Duke the recently retired chancellor of the university "We have always had a keen interest in Russia Mr Wrangel is a very dedicated man with a background we feel people should hear about "He represents a life and culture that was muted after the revolution" she added "We feel he has a remarkable story to tell the council" Seated in a comfortable chair in the Bitting room of his house surrounded by artifacts from the country of his birth history books photographs and historical posters all of which give the house the feel of a museum of pre-revolutionary Russia Wrangel says he found his trip to the Soviet Union exhilarating "Everywhere we went" he says the 'we' referring to him and his German-bom wife Christina "there were people who said You are the son of General Wrangel' I mean just after we arrived in the airport this happened And this in a country where the communists have been in power three-quarters of a century and where my father's name has been officially Newadajr Osois Arsnofiioa Wrangel with dagger given to his father expunged from the history books He was supposed to be forgotten an enemy of the people 'Yet somehow and I simply cannot explain this they remembered him After all these years! And after all the horrible things said about him! How can this be? How did they remember my father?" On his trip the first since he left the country on a boat headed for Turkey in 1920 Wrangel was standing in a hotel lobby when to his shock the television set near him began showing a documentary about his father's life and military career The program even spoke about his father's reforms which were decreed after he became head of state of the part of southern Russia not held Iqr the Bolsheviks after the 1917 Revolution "They were telling his story and I was standing there watching it" he said "I just couldn't believe it I could not imagine how it got on the television And why now? Did they know I was coming? Was there a reason for this?" Eager to get a copy of the film Wrangel called several TV stations and when a producer heard that the son of Gen Wrangel was in the country talked him into giving an interview in Leningrad on the most-watched show in the country "600 Minutes" which airs at 9:30 pm after the news The first question posed to Wrangel was "What were the last words of your father before he died?" He didn't know He was asked about his father's years in exile And there was this question: "How did your father die?" "Go look in the files of the KGB" Wrangel responded coolly Because his father died in middle age and because two of his closest aides were kidnaped by the KGB in Paris and taken back to Moscow Wrangel has for years harbored suspicions his father's death was not natural But he does not know either Throughout his and his wife's trip in the Soviet Union they were astounded that so many people knew the Wrangel name It was as if his father had been a hero of the revolution instead of an enemy of it "We talked to people in provincial towns" he said "Everyone when they heard the name Wrangel or saw my passport they knew the name Many were emotional "In a club one night the singer who knew he was there said 'I'm dedicating my song to the memory of Peter Wrangel' I don't know how but they knew my father's name" This Wrangel said will be the heart of his message this afternoon at the World Affairs Council Also he will talk about the remarkable changes he witnessed taking place in the Soviet Union "So much is happening" he said "It is not to be believed Even the churches are being restored And they were packed" Wrangel also Bays that people he spoke with were less than enthusiastic about the changes wrought by the communists since 1917 Food lines abounded hot water and milk were scarce even in the tourist hotels and most times whatever a consumer might have been looking for didn't exist "One man told me 'I'm 31 years of age and I was dead all my life' " Wrangel said "That was his view of the communists Others said the same thing" But the most remarkable change and one he surely did not expect was the general feeling he encountered everywhere that his father was a good Russian not an enemy "You are one of us living abroad" one man told Wrangel On a wall behind Wrangel's chair in his sitting room is a framed poster that was tacked to walls all over southern Russia in 1920 It has been in the family for years and it portrays Gen Wrangel and over the portrait the words in Russian: WRANGEL STILL UVES KILL HIM WITHOUT MERCY Checking into a hotel one afternoon one man ey ing Wrangel's passport looked up paused and then 1 Wrangel ' look like him said "You are the son of General Wrangel You even T almost sat on the floor I was so flabbergasted" Wrangel said On his last day in Leningrad Wrangel spoke to a police officer who asked him if he were ever afraid of being "liquidated" "I said 'No at my age one is not afraid to die of -anything' "
(Russian: Барон Пётр Петрович Врангель)
Aeronautics Engineer. Worked for NASA.
Son of a famous Russian Military Figure.
Social Security number 061-18-3552
article, 1990
COPIED - UNEDITED TEXT:
GENERAL from Page 1 al hia wife hia son Peter and hia two daughters Helen and Natasha fled to Turkey Today the son who was 9 when hia family left Russia lives in a home at the end of a private drive in Southampton Peter Wrangel is 79 tall and thin with piercing blue eyes and white hair that is brushed back and trailing over his collar He looks exactly like his father whose pictures Wrangel offers a guest — pictures of the general in uniform on horseback with his family and sitting on a cannon after a battle in Prussia in World War L "Some of these pictures" he explains "were just given to me at a family reunion in Stockholm" He shows his guest newspaper photographs of himself upon his arrival in Paris shortly after his family had fled the Soviet Union "I didn't even know these pictures existed It's extraordinary" Today at 5 pm Wrangel will address the World Af&drs Council at the Southampton Campus of Long Island University before which some of the most influential men and women in the region have spoken He will not talk about foreign policy or his life in the Foreign Service or the situation in Nicaragua Government policy is not on his mind Instead he has a personal message He will talk he Bays about his father Baron Wrangel a man of wealth and privilege who fought against the communists led the army of the White Russians during the civil war and who died brokenhearted in Brussels in 1928 He was only 48 the leader of an army of exiles living in the West And Wrangel will talk about what he describes as the most amazing event in his life — his return last month to the Soviet Union There he walked the streets in the city that in 1911 the year of his birth was called St Petersburg He was bom in an army barracks there He found dozens of places he remembered as a child although the landscape of Russia before the Bolshevik revolution has been all but oblit- Gen Wrangel sits on a German cannon he captured during World War I erated "He is a fascinating man with an interesting story to tell" said Robin Duke a friend of Wrangel's and the wife of Angier Biddle Duke the recently retired chancellor of the university "We have always had a keen interest in Russia Mr Wrangel is a very dedicated man with a background we feel people should hear about "He represents a life and culture that was muted after the revolution" she added "We feel he has a remarkable story to tell the council" Seated in a comfortable chair in the Bitting room of his house surrounded by artifacts from the country of his birth history books photographs and historical posters all of which give the house the feel of a museum of pre-revolutionary Russia Wrangel says he found his trip to the Soviet Union exhilarating "Everywhere we went" he says the 'we' referring to him and his German-bom wife Christina "there were people who said You are the son of General Wrangel' I mean just after we arrived in the airport this happened And this in a country where the communists have been in power three-quarters of a century and where my father's name has been officially Newadajr Osois Arsnofiioa Wrangel with dagger given to his father expunged from the history books He was supposed to be forgotten an enemy of the people 'Yet somehow and I simply cannot explain this they remembered him After all these years! And after all the horrible things said about him! How can this be? How did they remember my father?" On his trip the first since he left the country on a boat headed for Turkey in 1920 Wrangel was standing in a hotel lobby when to his shock the television set near him began showing a documentary about his father's life and military career The program even spoke about his father's reforms which were decreed after he became head of state of the part of southern Russia not held Iqr the Bolsheviks after the 1917 Revolution "They were telling his story and I was standing there watching it" he said "I just couldn't believe it I could not imagine how it got on the television And why now? Did they know I was coming? Was there a reason for this?" Eager to get a copy of the film Wrangel called several TV stations and when a producer heard that the son of Gen Wrangel was in the country talked him into giving an interview in Leningrad on the most-watched show in the country "600 Minutes" which airs at 9:30 pm after the news The first question posed to Wrangel was "What were the last words of your father before he died?" He didn't know He was asked about his father's years in exile And there was this question: "How did your father die?" "Go look in the files of the KGB" Wrangel responded coolly Because his father died in middle age and because two of his closest aides were kidnaped by the KGB in Paris and taken back to Moscow Wrangel has for years harbored suspicions his father's death was not natural But he does not know either Throughout his and his wife's trip in the Soviet Union they were astounded that so many people knew the Wrangel name It was as if his father had been a hero of the revolution instead of an enemy of it "We talked to people in provincial towns" he said "Everyone when they heard the name Wrangel or saw my passport they knew the name Many were emotional "In a club one night the singer who knew he was there said 'I'm dedicating my song to the memory of Peter Wrangel' I don't know how but they knew my father's name" This Wrangel said will be the heart of his message this afternoon at the World Affairs Council Also he will talk about the remarkable changes he witnessed taking place in the Soviet Union "So much is happening" he said "It is not to be believed Even the churches are being restored And they were packed" Wrangel also Bays that people he spoke with were less than enthusiastic about the changes wrought by the communists since 1917 Food lines abounded hot water and milk were scarce even in the tourist hotels and most times whatever a consumer might have been looking for didn't exist "One man told me 'I'm 31 years of age and I was dead all my life' " Wrangel said "That was his view of the communists Others said the same thing" But the most remarkable change and one he surely did not expect was the general feeling he encountered everywhere that his father was a good Russian not an enemy "You are one of us living abroad" one man told Wrangel On a wall behind Wrangel's chair in his sitting room is a framed poster that was tacked to walls all over southern Russia in 1920 It has been in the family for years and it portrays Gen Wrangel and over the portrait the words in Russian: WRANGEL STILL UVES KILL HIM WITHOUT MERCY Checking into a hotel one afternoon one man ey ing Wrangel's passport looked up paused and then 1 Wrangel ' look like him said "You are the son of General Wrangel You even T almost sat on the floor I was so flabbergasted" Wrangel said On his last day in Leningrad Wrangel spoke to a police officer who asked him if he were ever afraid of being "liquidated" "I said 'No at my age one is not afraid to die of -anything' "
Aeronautics Engineer. Worked for NASA.
Son of a famous Russian Military Figure.
Social Security number 061-18-3552
article, 1990
COPIED - UNEDITED TEXT:
GENERAL from Page 1 al hia wife hia son Peter and hia two daughters Helen and Natasha fled to Turkey Today the son who was 9 when hia family left Russia lives in a home at the end of a private drive in Southampton Peter Wrangel is 79 tall and thin with piercing blue eyes and white hair that is brushed back and trailing over his collar He looks exactly like his father whose pictures Wrangel offers a guest — pictures of the general in uniform on horseback with his family and sitting on a cannon after a battle in Prussia in World War L "Some of these pictures" he explains "were just given to me at a family reunion in Stockholm" He shows his guest newspaper photographs of himself upon his arrival in Paris shortly after his family had fled the Soviet Union "I didn't even know these pictures existed It's extraordinary" Today at 5 pm Wrangel will address the World Af&drs Council at the Southampton Campus of Long Island University before which some of the most influential men and women in the region have spoken He will not talk about foreign policy or his life in the Foreign Service or the situation in Nicaragua Government policy is not on his mind Instead he has a personal message He will talk he Bays about his father Baron Wrangel a man of wealth and privilege who fought against the communists led the army of the White Russians during the civil war and who died brokenhearted in Brussels in 1928 He was only 48 the leader of an army of exiles living in the West And Wrangel will talk about what he describes as the most amazing event in his life — his return last month to the Soviet Union There he walked the streets in the city that in 1911 the year of his birth was called St Petersburg He was bom in an army barracks there He found dozens of places he remembered as a child although the landscape of Russia before the Bolshevik revolution has been all but oblit- Gen Wrangel sits on a German cannon he captured during World War I erated "He is a fascinating man with an interesting story to tell" said Robin Duke a friend of Wrangel's and the wife of Angier Biddle Duke the recently retired chancellor of the university "We have always had a keen interest in Russia Mr Wrangel is a very dedicated man with a background we feel people should hear about "He represents a life and culture that was muted after the revolution" she added "We feel he has a remarkable story to tell the council" Seated in a comfortable chair in the Bitting room of his house surrounded by artifacts from the country of his birth history books photographs and historical posters all of which give the house the feel of a museum of pre-revolutionary Russia Wrangel says he found his trip to the Soviet Union exhilarating "Everywhere we went" he says the 'we' referring to him and his German-bom wife Christina "there were people who said You are the son of General Wrangel' I mean just after we arrived in the airport this happened And this in a country where the communists have been in power three-quarters of a century and where my father's name has been officially Newadajr Osois Arsnofiioa Wrangel with dagger given to his father expunged from the history books He was supposed to be forgotten an enemy of the people 'Yet somehow and I simply cannot explain this they remembered him After all these years! And after all the horrible things said about him! How can this be? How did they remember my father?" On his trip the first since he left the country on a boat headed for Turkey in 1920 Wrangel was standing in a hotel lobby when to his shock the television set near him began showing a documentary about his father's life and military career The program even spoke about his father's reforms which were decreed after he became head of state of the part of southern Russia not held Iqr the Bolsheviks after the 1917 Revolution "They were telling his story and I was standing there watching it" he said "I just couldn't believe it I could not imagine how it got on the television And why now? Did they know I was coming? Was there a reason for this?" Eager to get a copy of the film Wrangel called several TV stations and when a producer heard that the son of Gen Wrangel was in the country talked him into giving an interview in Leningrad on the most-watched show in the country "600 Minutes" which airs at 9:30 pm after the news The first question posed to Wrangel was "What were the last words of your father before he died?" He didn't know He was asked about his father's years in exile And there was this question: "How did your father die?" "Go look in the files of the KGB" Wrangel responded coolly Because his father died in middle age and because two of his closest aides were kidnaped by the KGB in Paris and taken back to Moscow Wrangel has for years harbored suspicions his father's death was not natural But he does not know either Throughout his and his wife's trip in the Soviet Union they were astounded that so many people knew the Wrangel name It was as if his father had been a hero of the revolution instead of an enemy of it "We talked to people in provincial towns" he said "Everyone when they heard the name Wrangel or saw my passport they knew the name Many were emotional "In a club one night the singer who knew he was there said 'I'm dedicating my song to the memory of Peter Wrangel' I don't know how but they knew my father's name" This Wrangel said will be the heart of his message this afternoon at the World Affairs Council Also he will talk about the remarkable changes he witnessed taking place in the Soviet Union "So much is happening" he said "It is not to be believed Even the churches are being restored And they were packed" Wrangel also Bays that people he spoke with were less than enthusiastic about the changes wrought by the communists since 1917 Food lines abounded hot water and milk were scarce even in the tourist hotels and most times whatever a consumer might have been looking for didn't exist "One man told me 'I'm 31 years of age and I was dead all my life' " Wrangel said "That was his view of the communists Others said the same thing" But the most remarkable change and one he surely did not expect was the general feeling he encountered everywhere that his father was a good Russian not an enemy "You are one of us living abroad" one man told Wrangel On a wall behind Wrangel's chair in his sitting room is a framed poster that was tacked to walls all over southern Russia in 1920 It has been in the family for years and it portrays Gen Wrangel and over the portrait the words in Russian: WRANGEL STILL UVES KILL HIM WITHOUT MERCY Checking into a hotel one afternoon one man ey ing Wrangel's passport looked up paused and then 1 Wrangel ' look like him said "You are the son of General Wrangel You even T almost sat on the floor I was so flabbergasted" Wrangel said On his last day in Leningrad Wrangel spoke to a police officer who asked him if he were ever afraid of being "liquidated" "I said 'No at my age one is not afraid to die of -anything' "
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