My Disillusionment in Russia

by Emma Goldman

Overview

A teenager when she left Russia and emigrated to the United States, Emma Goldman (1869-1940) was so emotionally affected by Chicago's Haymarket Square bombing in 1886 that she became a revolutionary and campaigned for such then-controversial changes in society as higher wages, the eight-hour work day, birth control, and abolition of the draft. Because of these activities, she was stripped of her citizenship and deported in 1919 with other undesirable "Reds" to Russia. J. Edgar Hoover, who directed her deportation hearing, called her "one of the most dangerous women in America." While in Russia, Goldman witnessed firsthand the aftermath of the tsarist government's downfall. Horrified by what she saw in major cities and revolted by the Bolshevik dictatorship, she left the country in 1921 and soon after, set down her thoughts in two books. This edition, combining the two original volumes, contains Goldman's account of her experiences in Soviet Russia from 1920 to 1921 and what she viewed as the Bolsheviks' betrayal of the revolution. In her writings, Goldman speaks passionately about political harassment and forced labor inflicted upon the masses, the rampant opportunism raging throughout the Soviet government, industrial militarization, persecution of anarchists, and the increased use of deportation as a political weapon. An important work by a major feminist and political activist, this volume will be of value to teachers, students, and anyone interested in Communist thought and the socio-economic problems of the early twentieth century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9788829573097
Publisher:	Blackmore Dennett
Publication date:	12/11/2018
Sold by:	StreetLib SRL
Format:	eBook
File size:	367 KB

About the Author

Emma Goldman (1869 - 1940) was an anarchist known for her political activism, writing and speeches. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the twentieth century. Born in Kovno in the Russian Empire (now Kaunas in Lithuania), Goldman emigrated to the US in 1885 and lived in New York City, where she joined the burgeoning anarchist movement. Attracted to anarchism after the Haymarket affair, Goldman became a writer and a renowned lecturer on anarchist philosophy, women's rights, and social issues, attracting crowds of thousands. She and anarchist writer Alexander Berkman, her lover and lifelong friend, planned to assassinate Henry Clay Frick as an act of propaganda of the deed. Though Frick survived the attempt on his life, Berkman was sentenced to twenty-two years in prison. Goldman was imprisoned several times in the years that followed, for "inciting to riot" and illegally distributing information about birth control. In 1906, Goldman founded the anarchist journal Mother Earth. In 1917, Goldman and Berkman were sentenced to two years in jail for conspiring to "induce persons not to register" for the newly instated draft. After their release from prison, they were arrested-along with hundreds of others-and deported to Russia. Initially supportive of that country's Bolshevik revolution, Goldman quickly voiced her opposition to the Soviet use of violence and the repression of independent voices. In 1923, she wrote a book about her experiences, My Disillusionment in Russia. While living in England, Canada, and France, she wrote an autobiography called Living My Life. After the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, she traveled to Spain to support the anarchist revolution there. She died in Toronto on May 14, 1940. During her life, Goldman was lionized as a free-thinking "rebel woman" by admirers, and derided by critics as an advocate of politically motivated murder and violent revolution. Her writing and lectures spanned a wide variety of issues, including prisons, atheism, freedom of speech, militarism, capitalism, marriage, free love, and homosexuality. Although she distanced herself from first-wave feminism and its efforts toward women's suffrage, she developed new ways of incorporating gender politics into anarchism. After decades of obscurity, Goldman's iconic status was revived in the 1970s, when feminist and anarchist scholars rekindled popular interest in her life.

Table of Contents

	Preface	vii
I.	Deportation to Russia	1
II.	Petrograd	8
III.	Disturbing Thoughts	15
IV.	Moscow: First Impressions	22
V.	Meeting People	31
VI.	Preparing for American Deportees	38
VII.	Rest Homes for Workers	44
VIII.	The First of May in Petrograd	48
IX.	Industrial Militarization	51
X.	The British Labour Mission	58
XI.	A Visit from the Ukraina	60
XII.	Beneath the Surface	68
XIII.	Joining the Museum of the Revolution	75
XIV.	Petropavlovsk and Schlusselburg	80
XV.	The Trade Unions	84
XVI.	Maria Spiridonova	90
XVII.	Another Visit to Peter Kropotkin	97
XVIII.	En Route	101
XIX.	In Kharkov	105
XX.	Poltava	122
XXI.	Kiev	133
XXII.	Odessa	153
XXIII.	Returning to Moscow	160
XXIV.	Back to Petrograd	169
XXV.	Archangel and Return	178
XXVI.	Death and Funeral of Peter Kropotkin	186
XXVII.	Kronstadt	193
XXVIII.	Persecution of Anarchists	201
XXIX.	Travelling Salesmen of the Revolution	212
XXX.	Education and Culture	221
XXXI.	Exploiting the Famine	233
XXXII.	The Socialist Republic Resorts to Deportation	237
XXXIII.	Afterword	242