The Russian Anarchists

333 Pages·2005·24.934 MB·English

by  Paul Avrich

THE RUSSIAN ANARCHISTS
STUDIES OF THE RUSSIAN INSTITUTE
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
THE RUSSIAN
ANARCHISTS
B Y P A U L A V R I C H
PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
Copyright © 1967 by Princeton University Press
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
L.C. Card: 66-25418
ISBN 0-691-00766-7 (paperback edn.)
ISBN 0-691-05151-8 (hardcover edn.)
The Russian Institute of Columbia University sponsors
the Studies of the Russian Institute in the belief that their
publication contributes to scholarly research and public
understanding. In this way the Institute, while not neces­
sarily endorsing their conclusions, is pleased to make
available the results of some of the research conducted
under its auspices. A list of the Studies of the Russian
Institute appears at the back of the book.
First Princeton Paperback Edition, 1971
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall
not, by way of trade, be lent, resold, hired out, or other­
wise disposed of without the publisher's consent, in any
form of binding or cover other than that in which it
is published.
Printed in the United States of America
by Princeton University Press
A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S
I wish to express my sincere gratitude to Geroid Tanquary
Robinson, Seth Low Professor Emeritus of History, Columbia
University, who guided and encouraged my study of modern
Russian history. I am also indebted to James Joll, Sub-Warden
of St. Anthony's College, Oxford, and Professor Alexander
Erlich of the Russian Institute, Columbia University, who read
this work in manuscript form and offered constructive criticisms
and suggestions. In addition, Max Nomad read most of the
manuscript and kindly allowed me to see documents and rare
publications in his possession. My thanks are due also to Princess
Alexandra Kropotkin, Boris Yelensky, and the editors of the
Freie Arbeiter Stimme in New York City, Isidore Wisotsky,
Morris Shutz, and the late Leibush Frumkin, who gave me the
benefit of their personal recollections of the men and events dis­
cussed herein; and to Judith Maltz, the late Rose Pesotta, Senya
Fleshin, John Cherney, and Irving Abrams, who were good
enough to answer my inquiries and to place at my disposal lit­
erature and photographs that could not be obtained elsewhere.
Needless to say, however, the sole responsibility for this volume
remains my own.
For their expert assistance in finding pertinent materials, I am
indebted to Lev Magerovsky of Columbia University's Archive
of Russian and East European History and Culture; Hillel Kem-
pinski and Lola Szafran of the Bund Archives of the Jewish
Labor Movement; Edward Weber and Marjorie Putnam of the
Labadie Collection; Rudolf de Jong and L. J. van Rossum of
the International Institute of Social History; and the staffs of the
Hoover, Columbia, and Harvard Libraries, the New York Pub­
lic Library, the Library of Congress, the Yivo Institute of Jewish
Research, the Tamiment Library, the British Museum, and the
Lenin and Saltykov-Shchedrin Libraries in the Soviet Union.
Finally, I am deeply grateful to the American Philosophical
Society, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Social
Science Research Council, the Ford Foundation, and the City
University of New York for making my visits to these archives
and libraries possible.
υ
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
NOTE: In the spelling of Russian names, I have adhered, by and
large, to the transliteration system of the Library of Congress,
without the soft sign and diacritical marks. Exceptions have
been made (a) when other spellings have become more or less
conventional (Peter Kropotkin, Leo Tolstoy, Alexander Herzen,
Angelica Balabanoff, Trotsky, and Gorky), (b) in two cases
where the persons involved spent most of their careers in the
West and themselves used a different spelling in the Latin script
(Alexander Schapiro and Boris Yelensky), and (c) in a few
diminutive names (Fanya, Senya, Sanya).
C O N T E N T S
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS V
INTRODUCTION 3
PART I: 1905
1. THE STORMY PETREL 9
2. THE TERRORISTS 35
3. THE SYNDICALISTS 72
4. ANARCHISM AND ANTI-
INTELLECTUALISM 91
PART II: 1917
5. THE SECOND STORM 123
6. THE OCTOBER INSURRECTION 152
7. THE ANARCHISTS AND
THE BOLSHEVIK REGIME 171
8. THE DOWNFALL OF
RUSSIAN ANARCHISM 204
EPILOGUE 234
CHRONOLOGY 255
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 259
INDEX 291

I L L U S T R A T I O N S
Following page 214
1. Mikhail Bakunin (International Institute of Social His­
tory)
2. Peter Kropotkin (Bund Archives)
3. "For Land and Liberty," St. Petersburg, 1905
(Columbia Special Collections)
4. "The Preparation of Bombs," 1905 (Columbia
Russian Archive)
5. A Chernoe Znamia Meeting, Minsk, 1906 (Bund
Archives)
6. Appeal for Imprisoned Anarchists, 1913 (New York
Public Library)
7. Bakunin Centenary, Paris, 1914 (Columbia Russian
Archive)
8. "The Bourgeois Order," Petrograd, 1917 (New York
Public Library)
9. Nestor Makhno in Guliai-Pole (New York Public
Library)
10. The Funeral of Kropotkin, February 1921 (New York
Public Library)
11. Nikolai Rogdaev (Alexander Berkman Aid Fund)
12. Lev Chernyi (Courtesy of Senya Fleshin)
13. AronBaroninSiberianExile, 1925 (LabadieCollection)
14. Volin in Paris (Courtesy of Senya Fleshin)
15. Alexander Schapiro (International Institute of Social
History)
16. Grigorii Maksimov in the United States (Courtesy of
John Cherney)