My Disillusionment in Russia

📕 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.