My Disillusionment in Russia

A teenager when she left Russia and emigrated to the United States, Emma Goldman (1869-1940) was so emotionally affected by Chicago's Haymarket Square bombing in 1886 that she became a revolutionary and campaigned for such then-controversial changes in society as higher wages, the eight-hour work day, birth control, and abolition of the draft. Because of these activities, she was stripped of her citizenship and deported in 1919 with other undesirable "Reds" to Russia. J. Edgar Hoover, who directed her deportation hearing, called her "one of the most dangerous women in America." While in Russia, Goldman witnessed firsthand the aftermath of the tsarist government's downfall. Horrified by what she saw in major cities and revolted by the Bolshevik dictatorship, she left the country in 1921 and soon after, set down her thoughts in two books. This edition, combining the two original volumes, contains Goldman's account of her experiences in Soviet Russia from 1920 to 1921 and what she viewed as the Bolsheviks' betrayal of the revolution. In her writings, Goldman speaks passionately about political harassment and forced labor inflicted upon the masses, the rampant opportunism raging throughout the Soviet government, industrial militarization, persecution of anarchists, and the increased use of deportation as a political weapon. An important work by a major feminist and political activist, this volume will be of value to teachers, students, and anyone interested in Communist thought and the socio-economic problems of the early twentieth century. Book jacket.