Viktor Chaim Blerot

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Viktor Chaim Blerot (1898-1972) was a Swedish/French philosopher and Marxist, most notable for his publications on socialism, class and, later, capitalism.

Contents 1 Life 2 Works 3 Comments 4 Quotes 5 Relationship with Lee Harvey Oswald and Possible Involvement in JFK Assassination 6 References

[edit] Life

Blerot was born on March 16, 1898 in Les Pieux, France to a Swedish mother and French father. Although Blerot was a French citizen, he spent most of his adolescence in his mother’s home villiage in Grävlingsberg, Sweden. This changed after the outbreak of WWI, when travel to Sweden was difficult He attended Catholic grammar school in Les Pieux and, at 15, after exhibiting "unruly behaviour in the manner of drink", was sent to École Centrale de Lyon boarding school. After matriculation at 17, he enrolled at École normale supérieure in Paris, but before attending was conscripted into the French Army, where he served as an assistant machine gunner on the Western Front. He was injured in February 1916 in Souville during the Battle of Verdun.

Blerot spent five months in a French military hospital recuperating from shrapnel wounds to his leg and subsequent gangrene infection. In the autumn of 1916 enrolled in the École Supérieure de Commerce de Paris at the behest of his father, who hoped his son would become a successful businessman.

According to his friends and professors¹, Blerot was a mediocre student, spending too much time in the bars of Paris "drinking wine, frequenting brothels and trying to impress damsels by showing them the chunk of flesh missing from his leg." In 1917 he became interested in the revolutionary fervour the was sweeping Russia.

Blerot attempted to travel to St. Petersburg, but became stalled in Stockholm, where he met Åsa Sjöblom, the attractive daughter of a prominent Swedish businessman and member of the fledgling Swedish Communist Party (Vänsterpartiet Kommunisterna).

Blerot and two spent their time printing and distributing anti-capitalist literature and discussing the works of Marx and Engels and their mutual contempt for capitalism. In April 1917, Blerot met Vladimir Lenin as Lenin was passing through Stockholm on his return to Russia from exile in Switzerland. Then, on 6 May, 1917 Blerot attended a speech given by Zeth Höglund, who had just been released from prison in Sweden for "anti-Monarchical activities". These events helped Blerot to crystallize his philosophies¹.

During the subsequent years Blerot and Sjöblom continued their tempestuous relationship while attendeding courses in sociology, socialism and philosophy at Stockholms Universitet (then Stockholm Högskola). Blerot spent much of his free time in the bars of Kungsholmen and Gamla Stan, according to Sjöblom, "getting drunk on vodka, urinating in the gutter, womanizing and, if unsuccessful, passing out drunk on the steps of Sankt Nikolai Kyrkan."

However, during this time Blerot was highly successful in his writings on philosophy. He published three successful books: Gud, Man, Odjur och Tomheten (God, Man, Beast and Oblivion, 1924), Det Patetiska Borgerligt (The Pathetic Bourgeois, 1928) and Krig, Plåga och Leenden (War, Pain and Smiles, 1934).

Blerot was in Copenhagen researching Søren Kierkegaard’s works on Existential psychology when the Nazi’s invaded Denmark in April of 1940. Blerot, being half-Jewish, applied for immigration to England in August of 1940 but was rejected. In late 1941 he emigrated to the United States. Because of his disdain for capitalism, he called his emigration "a necessary evil for my survival." From 1941 to 1954 little is known about this time in his life. Piecemeal information indicates that Blerot spent his nights in the taverns of South-side Chicago, which had a large Swedish population, where his fondness for vodka and women got the better of him. In 1955 he was penniless and living in the Our Lady of Divinity Catholic shelter².

In 1956 Sjöblom visited him in Chicago and convinced him to sober up. He got work teaching courses in French and philosophy at Gage Park High School. With Sjöblom’s encouragement he began writing again. However, his years in America had influenced him, as his next two books were titled The Capitalist Metamorphosis (1958, in English) and Värför Jag Älskar Kapitalism (1960, Why I Love Capitalism). The former was Blerot’s first serious attempt to write in English, and showed his struggle with a language he hadn’t yet mastered in written form. In Värför Jag Älskar Kapitalism, Blerot went back to Swedish, and critics said it was simply a rewrite of The Capitalist Metamorphosis in more fluid language. The book was called a masterpiece and it evoked strong reviews. The Svenska Dagbladet³ called it "a vile, sinister, yet very readable, with strong, rational arguments." Dagens Nyheter⁴ called it "mature and thought-provoking". Sjöblom, however, felt betrayed, saying Blerot held "corrupted, perverse beliefs due to brainwashing". She left him, this time for good, returning to Sweden.

In 1960 Blerot was fired from his job as teacher at the high school under allegations of drunkenness on the job and an affair with one of his female philosophy students. He started drinking heavily again and little is known about his experiences from 1960 to 1968, although church records show that he may have fathered a child with a Dominican nun at the Catholic shelter in 1962². In 1969, he turned up in Uvalde, Texas, working as a machinist in a factory making cluster bombs and napalm canisters. His company took advantage of his literary skills, having him write two instructional brochures: “Detonating Cluster Bombs for Maximum Effectiveness” and “Using Napalm Safely”⁴. He also wrote several columns for the local newspaper, the Uvalde Leader News, about his support for President Richard Nixon⁵.

In 1970 Blerot was asked by Henry Kissinger, who was familiar with Blerot’s work from Kissinger’s time in Paris, to travel to France to give a series of lectures. He gave the first of his scheduled 18 lectures, in Paris, and then disappeared. He spent the next two years giving lectures to small audiences of French intellectuals during the day, charging admission. With the small income he earned, he spent his evenings in the bars and brothels of Paris. During this time he fathered a daughter, Sophie Busquet, with Genevieve Busquet, an employee of a bookstore he frequently spoke at. He died of liver failure in 1972. Newspaper records⁶ state that he was to be buried at the Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris. However, there is no tombstone there bearing his name⁷.

[edit] Works

• Gud, Man, Odjur och Tomheten

In Gud, Man, Odjur och Tomheten, Blerot delved into religion, essence and oblivion. He wrote:

I believe that Christianity, along with all religions, is fundamentally a human construct. Yet Atheism, in the act of not believing, is also a human construct. For the beast, who knows neither belief nor disbelief, is free from this burden, and experiences the true essence of being, unshackled by contrivations of religion and morality or the horror of the intellectualized scepticism of the absence of God, the realization of the existence of oblivion.

Blerot spent considerable time pondering the absence of the afterlife, saying:

Oblivion, by definition, cannot exist. For by acknowledging the existence of oblivion defies the true definition of oblivion – it creates oblivion out of oblivion. Oblivion, by definition, is inexistential.

• Det Patetiska Borgerligt

In Det Patetiska Borgerligt, Blerot, having seemingly made peace with the questions of God and the afterlife, turned his attention to sociological and class issues. Drawing heavily on the work of Marx, Engels and, in particular, Lukács, Blerot contemplated man’s role in society, stating:

...man’s motivation toward conformity is rooted in an imposed morality, and usually a flawed morality when dialectically examined, and that only through a sceptical, dialectic approach to viewing all morality as inherently partial and rooted in illusory superstition or class-imposed obedience that man truly gain a sense of individual liberty.

Blerot examined the motivations behind the class struggle in Europe:

In a capitalistic society, the labours of the masses, of the working class, benefit only a small minority. Only through rising up in revolt will those who produce the wealth be able to benefit from it.

Blerot also addressed the essence of humanness and virtue:

It is not man’s existence that begets his virtue, rather it is his virtue that begets his existence.

• Krig, Plåga och Leenden

In Krig, Plåga och Leenden, Blerot, drawing on his experiences in the trenches on the Western Front, broaches the subject of war for the first time, and in doing so possibly exorcises his demons. He states in the beginning of the book that:

...the only approach to understanding the war is a solipsistic one. For when one begins analyzing strategies or motivations does one plummet into abstract theories and political manifestations. The experiences of the children living like beasts in the mud and the death, for they are mere children, are the only tangible thing that one comes away with when studying war.

In a similar vein to Robert Graves, Blerot says that that evils of trench warfare were brought out by a narcissistic need for power in the ruling class and blind patriotism in the working class. It was through these experiences that Blerot gained his ironic, sardonic and often mordant view of human existence. Like Graves, his descriptions of trench warfare are graphic but never self-pitying, and he chronicles his experiences with an ironic eye for the absurd. He spoke about the monotony of trench warfare:

Life in the trenches consisted of week after week of unadulterated monotony, followed by 15 minutes of terror, followed by another 8 weeks of monotony. Chasle [ammunition carrier in his machine-gun crew] and I spent a substantial amount of time determining the best way to torture rats. Chasle enjoyed hanging them upside down with their tails tied to string for several days watching their convulsions until they died of causes known only to God… I preferred practices I’m ashamed to write about... Then our commandant told us we were being cruel to the rat and made us stop. Did he not know the things were doing to our fellow man 50 metres away?

• The Capitalist Metamorphosis and Värför Jag Älskar Kapitalism

In The Capitalist Metamorphosis and, to a greater extent, in Värför Jag Älskar Kapitalism, Blerot showed a maturing and practicality gained in his 14 years of life experiences. He transcends comfortable ideals and delves into painful self-contradictory realism while denouncing his previous naïve idealism for a more mature, worldly and utilitarian view. In stark contrast to Gud, Man, Odjur och Tomheten, Blerot accepts and embraces man’s egoism and argues the use of it to improve man’s condition. While bemoaning and even lamenting the human condition, he paradoxically embraces it, stating:

The hypothesis has been tested and has failed; the theory has shifted: to live richly in imperfect reality is prudent, liberating and noble, whereas to live sickly in a false, albeit ideal fantasy is tantamount to folly.

Although Blerot’s works were highly praised in intellectual circles, their production runs were small and did not reach a mass audience. Also, Blerot’s works were published in Sweden by the now-defunct publisher Svenska Kommunista Literaturen and in the U.S. by the now-defunct Eighth Street Village Press. Consequently, literature by Blerot is notoriously difficult to find.

[edit] Comments

Jean-Paul Sartre: Blerot’s work transcends conventional classification, particularly his work on dialectics, which form the core of his best arguments.⁸

Ingmar Bergman: Blerot had much influence on my views of religion in my early years. Much of the development of the character Jöns [[[Det Sjunde Inseglet, The Seventh Seal]]] was based on the writings of Blerot.⁹

Bertrand Russell: Blerot stands out as one of the greatest thinkers of this century. Serious scholars know his work well, even though it is not widely available. Second-rate scholars have never heard of him.¹⁰

[edit] Quotes

1. I am certain God does not exist, and man’s one burden is to live authentically. For between birth and death is an interruption from the nothingness. And there the joys of aesthetics of carnality must be realized. Gud, Man, Odjur och Tomheten.
2. Man’s inhumanity to man is a result of his innate need for importance and recognition and his bourgeois fear of embracing his transcendental nature to combat conformist tendencies. Speech to the Brooklyn Dockworkers Union, New York, September 1942¹.
3. När jag var ung tyckte jag att Kant, Heidegger and Simone var duktiga killar. Skitsnack! De var deprimerade, självupptagna jävlar. Att ha det bra och dricka sprit är viktigare än att tänka djupt. Göteborg, 1971¹.
4. I was asked to give a speech on the benefits of Socialism tonight. At the moment, none come to mind. Perhaps at Mulligan’s I’ll think of something. Dublin, Ireland, in a speech to the Trinity College Socialists Student Association, 1970¹.
5. When I was in my twenties I told women interested in Socialism that sex and Socialism are congruent, and I urged them to share¹. Interview with Jean-Emmanuel Andre, 1968.
6. The only thing good that’s ever come out of Russia is vodka, and robust Russian women.
7. Napalm is completely safe when used properly. Booklet “Using Napalm Safely”.

[edit] Relationship with Lee Harvey Oswald and Possible Involvement in JFK Assassination

In 1987 Åsa Sjöblom died in Malmö, Sweden, and articles from her estate were put up for auction. Among these was a trunk of objects related to Sjöblom’s relationship with Blerot. The majority of the contents were letters sent across the Atlantic to Sweden from 1960 to 1969¹¹.

This trunk was purchased by an unidentified buyer. In March 2006 the person who purchased the trunk contacted Stefan Petersson, a Swedish freelance journalist in Göteborg, under condition of anonymity¹¹.

According to Petersson, among Blerot’s possessions were¹¹:

1. Letters written from Blerot to Sjöblom with a return address in Dallas, Texas from early 1962 to November 1963. From October 1962 to November 1963 the return address listed was a house on North Patton Street, which is two blocks east of 1026 North Beckley, the home address given by Lee Harvey Oswald upon his arrest after the assassination. The house is a 14-minute walk from Dealey Plaza.
2. A letter to Sjöblom in which Blerot mentions tutoring a “Herr Osvaldsson”, a “pathetic, talentless socialist who needs help with his literary skills.” It was during this time that Oswald was working on his memoirs of his time in The Soviet Union, The Collective, and attempting to get them published.
3. A letter dated 28 October 1963 where Blerot mentions Kennedy’s upcoming trip to Dallas, but does not elaborate.
4. A letter dated November 1963 (day indecipherable) in which Blerot included a printed handbill with Kennedy’s picture stating "Wanted for TREASON". These anti-Communist pamphlets were distributed in Dallas on 21 November 1963, the day before Kennedy was assassinated. Scribbled in pen on the paper were the words "Åsa, Läs detta!" (Åsa, read this!)
5. A letter dated 1 December 1963, postmarked from San Antonio, Texas, in which Blerot wrote, "I’m sure you’ve read the news by now…and I’m sure you have realized…I was with Osvaldsson…and had to get the hell out of Dallas." This was the last letter written to Sjöblom until mid-1964.
6. In addition, before departing for France in 1970 Blerot rented a small storage facility in San Antonio, Texas. The account went delinquent in 1971 and the contents were put up for auction in 1972. A notification of the sale and a receipt of the contents were sent to Blerot’s address in Paris. It arrived after his death and, along with his few other belongings, was forwarded to his listed next-of-kin, which was as Åsa Sjöblom. This receipt was among the belongings purchased in the trunk. Among the contents listed on the receipt were two firearms: a Mauser pistol and an "old rifle, hunting, 6.5 mm caliber". This is the same calibre weapon allegedly used by Oswald.

Little more is known about Blerot’s possible involvement in JFK’s assassination. Petersson, while researching Blerot’s possible connection with the assassination and linking the documents in the trunk, died of a heart attack in August 2006 at the age of 74. Petersson’s family has refused any contact with the media¹².

[edit] References

1. Biographie de Viktor Blerot, Jean-Emmanuel André, 1975.
2. Church records, courtesy of Our Lady of Divinity, Chicago.
3. Svenska Dagbladet, 12 Jan, 1960. Dagens Nyheter, 13 Jan, 1960.
4. U.S. Army Archives.
5. Uvalde Leaders News, August to September, 1969.
6. Le Monde. 4 April, 1970.
7. Cemetery Archives.
8. From a 1960 interview by Le Monde’s Jean-François Fricoteaux, in conjunction with review of Sartre’s Critique de la raison dialectique (Critique of Dialectical Reason).
9. Interview with Håkan Lundström, Gefle Dagblad, 7 April, 1972.
10. Transcript from a lecture given at Cambridge University, approx April, 1964. Cambridge University Archives.
11. Sydsvenska Dagbladet Snällposten, press release, 19 July 2006 Interview with Stefan Petersson, released 24 Jul, 2006.
12. Sydsvenska Dagbladet Snällposten, press release, 31 August, 2006.