From Aspiration to Frustration: Emma Goldman's Perception of the Russian Revolution

Many anarchists had believed in the Russian Revolution, but the realities of Bolshevist rule would bitterly frustrate them. The German anarchist Augustin Souchy (1892– 1984), retrospectively evaluating the events of 1917, remarked that “the great passion ... electrified us all.” It was in Russia where Souchy and others believed to have witnessed the rise of the “sun of freedom.” Rudolf Rocker (1873–1958), another famous German anarchist, shared this opinion: “The Russian Revolution released Europe from the terrible spell of a gruesome hypnosis” by an autocratic rule that suppressed the masses. The anarchist reactions were predominantly euphoric in the beginning, but the struggle between Anarchism and Marxist Bolshevism would soon break out and destroy all hopes about the initial changes that were expected in 1917. One of those who witnessed the developments in Russia was Emma Goldman (1869–1940). Although the famous Russian-American anarchist—who, to quote historian Oz Frankel, “has assumed a unique position in American politics and culture”—had defended the Russian Revolution against all criticism in the United States, she found her own hopes and beliefs betrayed by the realities of Bolshevism after her deportation to Russia in the aftermath of the Palmer Raids. Her aspirations turned into frustration, and Goldman would become one of the fiercest enemies of Russian Bolshevism and the corruption of the ideas of the Russian Revolution. The present article will discuss this transformative process and demonstrate how and why Goldman’s perception of contemporary Russia changed. First, her defense of the revolution while she was still in the United States will be retraced. The second part will deal with her criticism of the Bolshevization of the revolutionary ideals in the years after “Red October.” The article will focus on Goldman’s writings and correspondence in the years after her Russian experience to show that “Red Emma” used every chance she could to criticize the new system established by Lenin and his companions, even if she often faced problems in finding an audience receptive to her criticism.