Emma Goldman (1869-1940) was a political activist and writer who played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the 20th century. Born in Kovno in the Russian Empire (now Kaunas, Lithuania) into a Jewish family, she emigrated to the US in 1885 where she became a writer and renowned lecturer on anarchist philosophy, women's rights and social issues, attracting crowds of thousands. Goldman was imprisoned several times for 'inciting to riot' and ...
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Emma Goldman (1869-1940) was a political activist and writer who played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the 20th century. Born in Kovno in the Russian Empire (now Kaunas, Lithuania) into a Jewish family, she emigrated to the US in 1885 where she became a writer and renowned lecturer on anarchist philosophy, women's rights and social issues, attracting crowds of thousands. Goldman was imprisoned several times for 'inciting to riot' and illegally distributing information about birth control, and in 1917 along with her lover Alexander Berkman, an anarchist journalist, she was sentenced to two years in jail for conspiring against the draft registration. On their release they were arrested with 248 others and deported to Russia. Initially supportive of the October Revolution that brought the Bolsheviks to power, she later denounced the Soviet Union for its violent repression of independent voices and left the country with Berkman at the end of 1921, initially for Riga, before settling in Berlin for several years. During this time she agreed to write a series of articles about her time in Russia for the New York World which were later published in book form as My Disillusionment in Russia (1923) and My Further Disillusionment in Russia (1924). These titles were added by the publishers to attract attention, despite Goldman's protestations against them.
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Emma Goldman's career as a labor organizer and Socialist advocate is a common theme in Socialist literature of the early 20th Century. These writers fail to provide their readers with the end of the story. When Ms. Goldman went to the Soviet Union, she found not a "worker's paradise," but rather a murdering dictatorship. The worker was being used as a pawn, and the rhetoric of labor was only a cover story for Lenin's personal ambition. This book is a must-read for anyone who is interested in the US labor movement, Socialism, or the early development of the Soviet Union. Perhaps Emma's best service as a "working-class hero" would have been to share her hard lesson, and to warn the American labor movement away from Socialist leanings -- but of course they didn't listen.
Thomas D
Nov 8, 2012
Russia Seen by Emma
What a remarkable portrait of the early days of the revolution in Russia! This is an intimate description of how the Russian Revolution was stolen by a small but determined group; how the Bolsheviks managed to subvert the ideals that inspired the people's revolt against a post-feudal capitalist order.