Table Of ContentFrank Jacob
Emma Goldman and the Russian Revolution
Frank Jacob
Emma Goldman
and the Russian
Revolution
From Admiration to Frustration
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For Emma,
whose ideas will be important
as long as there is no equality and no freedom for all.
Contents
Introduction 1
Emma Goldman’s Identity: Anarchist, Anarcha-Feminist, Publicist, and
Revolutionary 17
The Anarchist 22
The Anarcha-Feminist 31
The Publicist 45
The Revolutionary 51
Early Perceptions of the Russian Revolution 57
Anarchism and the Russian Revolution 60
The International Anarchists and the Russian Revolution 66
Goldman and Early Perceptions of the Russian Revolution 74
Trial and Deportation 85
Arrival and Life in Russia 119
Against Bolshevism 143
No Support for Anti-Bolshevist Emma 177
Conclusion 211
Works Cited 217
Unpublished Sources 217
Newspapersand Other Periodicals 217
Published Primary and Secondary Works 218
Index of Persons 233
Index of Places 235
1 Introduction
Revolutionisthenegationoftheexisting,aviolentprotestagainstman’sinhumanityto
manwithallthethousandandoneslaveriesitinvolves.Itisthedestroyerofdominantval-
uesuponwhichacomplexsystemofinjustice,oppression,andwronghasbeenbuiltupby
ignoranceandbrutality.ItistheheraldofNEWVALUES,usheringinatransformationof
thebasicrelationsofmantoman,andofmantosociety.Itisnotamerereformer,patching
upsomesocialevils;notamerechangerofformsandinstitutions;notonlyare-distributor
ofsocialwell-being.Itisallthat,yetmore,muchmore.Itis,firstandforemost,theTRANS-
VALUATOR,thebearerofnewvalues.ItisthegreatTEACHERoftheNEWETHICS,inspiring
manwithanewconceptoflifeanditsmanifestationsinsocialrelationships.Itisthemen-
talandspiritualregenerator.¹
Emma Goldman(1869–1940) was atrue believer in the powerof revolutionsto
createanew worldaswellasanewsocietyandthereby,regardlessofbeingan
anarchist, in awayfollowedthe basicconsideration of Friedrich Engels (1820–
1895)that“therightfor revolutionis[…]the only true‘historical right’”² forev-
eryone. Although she might have disagreed that a revolution, according to En-
gels,was the base for this right and at the same time needed a modern state
forittobeexpressed.Formanyofherearlybiographers,Goldmanwasa“chal-
lengingrebel,”³evena“rebelinparadise,”⁴becauseshecontestedastate,name-
ly the United States, that for many resembled the values of liberty much more
than Goldman’s country of origin, i.e. Czarist Russia. However, the famous fe-
male anarchist’s life, to quote American Women’s Studies scholar Loretta Ken-
singer, “spanned many important moments of social upheaval in the United
States”andasan“anarchist,aradical,aJewishimmigrantescapingtheincreas-
ingrepressionofCzaristRussia,sherosetobeoneofthemostinfamousfigures
of her times.”⁵ Due toher steady political activism,orradicalism dependingon
EmmaGoldman,MyFurtherDisillusionmentinRussia(GardenCity,NY:Doubleday,Pageand
Co.,1924),https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/emma-goldman-my-further-disillusionment-in-
russia.
Friedrich Engels, “Einleitung zu Karl Marx, Klassenkämpfe in Frankreich 1848 bis 1850
(1895),” inMarx-Engels-Werke,vol.22(Berlin:Dietz,1956‐),524,citedinManfredKossok,“Im
GehäusederselbstverschuldetenUnmündigkeitoderUmgangmitderGeschichte,”inManfred
Kossok, Sozialismus an der Peripherie: Späte Schriften, ed. Jörn Schütrumpf (Berlin: Dietz,
2016),80.AlltranslationsfromGerman,ifnotstatedotherwise,aremyown.
JosephIshill,EmmaGoldman:AChallengingRebel(BerkeleyHeights,NJ:OriolePress,1957).
Richard Drinnon, Rebelin Paradise:ABiography ofEmmaGoldman(Chicago:Universityof
ChicagoPress,1982[1961]).
LorettaKensinger,“RadicalLessons:ThoughtsonEmmaGoldman,Chaos,Grief,andPolitical
ViolencePost-9/11/01,”FeministTeacher20,no.1(2009):52.
OpenAccess.©2020FrankJacob,publishedbyDeGruyter. Thisworkislicensedunderthe
CreativeCommonsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives4.0License.
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110679403-001
2 1 Introduction
one’sperspective,Goldman,almost60yearsafterAllenGuttmann’sevaluation,
still ranks among “the most famous of American radicals.”⁶ In contrast to the
radical image often attached to Goldman by her political enemies, British jour-
nalist Henry W. Nevinson (1856–1941) introduced her at “Foyle’s twenty-ninth
literary luncheon” in London on 1 March 1933 as a“real champion of freedom”
and“awomanwhohasdevotedallherlife,amidstterriblesuffering,indignities
andlosstothecauseoffreedomandfreedomalone.”⁷TheimageofEmmaGold-
man was ambivalent,to say the least, during her life, and it has remained am-
bivalent until today.
Veryoften,shewasreferredtoasa“QueenoftheAnarchists”⁸orthe“most
dangerous anarchist in America,”⁹ while some characterized her as a“cultural
radical”¹⁰ or simply “a born refusenik.”¹¹ Hailed by feminist historians like
Alice Wexler and Clare Hemmings as “one of the most respected members of
an international radical movement”¹² as well as “the larger-than-life anarchist
activistandpoliticalthinker”¹³withinthehistoryofAmericanradicalismingen-
eral,andAmericananarchisminparticular,hercontemporariesliketheGerman
anarchistRudolfRocker(1873–1958)¹⁴alsoclaimedhertobe“withoutanydoubt
oneofthemostoutstandingandcuriouspersonalities”¹⁵ofhertime.Eventually,
AllenGuttmann,“JewishRadicals,JewishWriters,”TheAmericanScholar32,no.4(1963):563.
EmmaGoldman,“AnAnarchistLooksatLife,”textofaspeechbyEmmaGoldman,heldat
Foyle’stwenty-ninthliteraryluncheon(London,UK),March1,1933,EmmaGoldmanPapers,In-
ternationalInstituteforSocialHistory,Amsterdam(henceforthEGP-IISH),No.191,3.
ShariRabin,“‘TheAdventofaWesternJewess’:RachelFrankandJewishFemaleCelebrityin
1890s America,” in“Gender and Jewish Identity,” special issue, Nashim: A Journal of Jewish
Women’sStudies&GenderIssues22(2011):121;AndreaRichandArthurL.Smith,RhetoricofRev-
olution(Durham,NC:Moore,1979),60.
KathyE.Ferguson,EmmaGoldman:PoliticalThinkingintheStreets(Lanham,MD:Rowman&
Littlefield,2011),21.
RobertWolfe,RemembertoDream:AHistoryofJewishRadicalism(NewYork:JewishRadical
EducationProject,1994),11.
VivianGornick,EmmaGoldman:RevolutionasaWayofLife(NewHaven,CT:YaleUniversity
Press,2011),3.
AliceWexler,EmmaGoldman:AnIntimateLife(NewYork:PantheonBooks,1984),xv.
ClareHemmings,ConsideringEmmaGoldman:FeministPoliticalAmbivaleceandtheImagi-
nativeArchive(Durham,NC/London:DukeUniversityPress,2018),1.
OnRocker’slifeandwork,seeWilliamJ.Fishman,EastEndJewishRadicals1875–1914(Lon-
don:FiveLeaves,2004[1975]),229–310;MinaGraur,AnAnarchist“Rabbi”:TheLifeandTeach-
ingsofRudolfRocker(NewYork:St.Martin’sPress,1997);PeterWienand,Der“geborene”Rebell:
RudolfRockerLebenundWerk(Berlin:KKV,1981).
RudolfRocker,“ZumGeleit,”inEmmaGoldman,DieUrsachendesNiedergangesderrussi-
schenRevolution(Berlin:DerSyndikalist,1922),3.
