The Bolshevik Myth (Diary 1920-1922)
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text
- Extent:
- ~97,100 words · 461 passages
Cite this work
- APAAlexander Berkman. (n.d.). The Bolshevik Myth (Diary 1920-1922). SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/alexander-berkman/the-bolshevik-myth-diary-1920-1922
- MLAAlexander Berkman. "The Bolshevik Myth (Diary 1920-1922)." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/alexander-berkman/the-bolshevik-myth-diary-1920-1922.
- ChicagoAlexander Berkman. The Bolshevik Myth (Diary 1920-1922). SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/alexander-berkman/the-bolshevik-myth-diary-1920-1922.
What it is about
Berkman's diary in Russia between 1920 and 1922: he arrived believing in the revolution and came away not believing in it.
Context and history
Berkman was an American anarchist deported in 1919 along with Emma Goldman and two hundred others; he landed in Russia with the enthusiasm of a man coming home, and the book is the day-by-day record of how that came apart. There is no theory: there are conversations, journeys, prisons visited, queues, requisitions from peasants, acquaintances who disappear. The point where everything breaks is Kronstadt, in March 1921. The strength of the text lies precisely in its not arguing: Berkman does not want to be right, he wants to report what he saw, and he is slow to accept what he sees. Written from the left and against what the left wanted to hear, it was among the first testimonies of its kind, and it took decades before it could be read without abuse.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 UK: England & Wales (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) licence. (Diary IQ20-IQ22) BY . ALEXANDER BERKMAN HUTCHINSON and CO. [Publishers] Limited 33 to 36 Paternoster Row :: London Copyright, 1925, by BONI & LlVERIGHT, IKC. Printed in the United States of America CONTENTS CEAPTER L The Log of the Transport "Buford" PAGE vii II. On Soviet Soil ....... III. In Petrograd . . .... . . IV. V. The Guest House ..... .. ,. VI. TCHICHERIN AND KaRAKHAN . . . VII. The Market VIII. In the Moskkommune ,., . IX. The Club on the Tverskaya . . . X. A Visit to Peter Kropotkin . XI. XII. Sights and Views . . . . . . XIII. Lenin .......... XIV. On the Latvian Border . . ... • XV. XVI. Rest Homes for Workers . . ,. ; . XVII. The First of May . . . ,.. . XVIII. The British Labor Mission . .. ,., XIX. The Spirit of Fanaticism .... ■ VI CONTENTS CHAPTER XX. (■ * XXI. En Route to the Ukraina * • ■ XXII. First Days in Kharkov . 1 ■ • • .•1 XXIII. In Soviet Institutions . * m • XXIV. * * • • l82 XXV. Nestor Makhno . . . • • • XXVI. Prison and Concentration Camp . . XXVII. XXVIII. Fastov the Pogrom ed • • a XXIX. Kiev ...... • • . • . 2l8 XXX. In Various Walks ,. . * * 1*' XXXI. The Tcheka .... ■ • t» . XXXII. Odessa : Life and Vision .. 1*. « XXXIII. Dark People . ... • ' • ■ -* 26O XXXIV. A Bolshevik Trial . • XXXV. • • • . XXXVI. In the Far North . . ■ * • • 28l XXXVII. Early Days of 192 i . . i • • ■ XXXVIII. M XXXIX. • ft • • PREFACE Revolution breaks the social forms grown too narrow for man. It bursts the molds which constrict him the more solidified they become, and the more Life ever striving forward leaves them. In this dynamic process the Russian Revolution has gone further than any previous revolution.