Author: | Alexander Berkman, William G. Nowlin Jr. | ISBN: | 1230000272377 |
Publisher: | ChristieBooks | Publication: | October 5, 2014 |
Imprint: | ChristieBooks | Language: | English |
Author: | Alexander Berkman, William G. Nowlin Jr. |
ISBN: | 1230000272377 |
Publisher: | ChristieBooks |
Publication: | October 5, 2014 |
Imprint: | ChristieBooks |
Language: | English |
THE PAMPHLETS, ISSUED HERE in book form for the first time (The Russian Tragedy, The Russian Revolution and the Communist Party, The Kronstadt Rebellion), are Alexander Berkman’s first writings after leaving Russia in December of 1921. He had entered Russia just two years earlier, filled with devotion to the ideals of the Russian revolution and anxious to contribute his share to the revolutionary process. It was a return home for him, as he had lived his first 17 years in Russia and had grown up among the revolutionaries of that era. Now he was welcomed back as an important revolutionary exile from his adopted United States.
Alexander Berkman, Emma Goldman, and 247 other “politicals” had been deported from the United States on December 21, 1919. Berkman and Goldman, the two most active anarchists in America since the turn of the century, had only recently each completed two year prison sentences for active opposition to the World War I draft (as founders and organisers of the No-Conscription League) and, though resentful of being so abruptly forced to terminate their organising in America, looked forward to enthusiastic participation in the revolutionary experiment in their native land, Russia.
Two years in his native Russia, travelling widely for the Museum of the Revolution of which he was Chairman, provided both the background material for this analysis of the revolution and its betrayal by the Communists. Berkman left Russia, disappointed and angry, towards the end of 1921 and spent the remaining 14 years of his life in exile, welcome in no country, attempting to counter the myth of Bolshevism. He shot himself on June 28, 1936.
THE PAMPHLETS, ISSUED HERE in book form for the first time (The Russian Tragedy, The Russian Revolution and the Communist Party, The Kronstadt Rebellion), are Alexander Berkman’s first writings after leaving Russia in December of 1921. He had entered Russia just two years earlier, filled with devotion to the ideals of the Russian revolution and anxious to contribute his share to the revolutionary process. It was a return home for him, as he had lived his first 17 years in Russia and had grown up among the revolutionaries of that era. Now he was welcomed back as an important revolutionary exile from his adopted United States.
Alexander Berkman, Emma Goldman, and 247 other “politicals” had been deported from the United States on December 21, 1919. Berkman and Goldman, the two most active anarchists in America since the turn of the century, had only recently each completed two year prison sentences for active opposition to the World War I draft (as founders and organisers of the No-Conscription League) and, though resentful of being so abruptly forced to terminate their organising in America, looked forward to enthusiastic participation in the revolutionary experiment in their native land, Russia.
Two years in his native Russia, travelling widely for the Museum of the Revolution of which he was Chairman, provided both the background material for this analysis of the revolution and its betrayal by the Communists. Berkman left Russia, disappointed and angry, towards the end of 1921 and spent the remaining 14 years of his life in exile, welcome in no country, attempting to counter the myth of Bolshevism. He shot himself on June 28, 1936.