Alexander Berkman

Alexander Berkman
Alexander Berkman (November 21, 1870 – June 28, 1936) was

Alexander Berkman
a Russian-American anarchist and author. He was a leading
member of the anarchist movement in the early 20th century,
famous for both his political activism and his writing.
Berkman was born to a Jewish family in Vilna in the Russian

Empire (present-day Vilnius, Lithuania) and immigrated to the
United States in 1888. He lived in New York City, where he
became involved in the anarchist movement. He was the one-time
lover and lifelong friend of anarchist Emma Goldman. In 1892,
undertaking an act of propaganda of the deed, Berkman made an
unsuccessful attempt to assassinate businessman Henry Clay Frick
during the Homestead strike, for which he served 14 years in
prison. His experience in prison was the basis of his first book,
Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist.
After his release from prison, Berkman served as editor of

Goldman's anarchist journal, Mother Earth, and later established Alexander Berkman, September
his own journal, The Blast. In 1917, Berkman and Goldman were 1912
sentenced to two years in jail for conspiracy against the newly Born Ovsei Osipovich
instated draft. After their release from prison, they were arrested— Berkman
along with hundreds of others—and deported to Russia. Initially November 21, 1870
supportive of that country's Bolshevik revolution, Berkman and
Vilnius, Vilna
Goldman soon became disillusioned, voicing their opposition to
Governorate,
the Soviets' use of terror after seizing power and their repression of
fellow revolutionaries. They left the Soviet Union in late 1921, and Russian Empire
in 1925 Berkman published a book about his experiences, The Died June 28, 1936
Bolshevik Myth. (aged 65)
Nice, France
While living in France, Berkman continued his work in support of
the anarchist movement, producing the classic exposition of Burial Cochez Cemetery,
anarchist principles, Now and After: The ABC of Communist place Nice, France
Anarchism. Suffering from ill health, Berkman committed suicide Occupation Writer · Anti-war and
in 1936. political activist
Signature
Contents
Life
Early years
New York City
Attentat: Frick assassination attempt
Trial
Prison
Release
Ferrer Center
The Ludlow massacre and the Lexington Avenue
explosion
The Blast and the Preparedness Day Bombing
World War I
Russia
Now and After
Final years and death
Bibliography
Books by Berkman
Edited collections
References
Footnotes
Works cited
Further reading
External links
Biographical articles
Online collections of works
Life
Early years
Berkman was born Ovsei Osipovich Berkman in the Lithuanian city of Vilnius (then called Vilna, and
part of the Vilna Governorate in the Russian Empire).[1][2] He was the youngest of four children born into a
well-off Lithuanian Jewish family. Berkman's father, Osip Berkman, was a successful leather merchant, and
his mother, Yetta Berkman (née Natanson), came from a prosperous family.[3]
In 1877, Osip Berkman was granted the right, as a successful businessman, to move from the Pale of
Settlement to which Jews were generally restricted in the Russian Empire. The family moved to Saint
Petersburg, a city previously off-limits to Jews.[4] There, Ovsei adopted the more Russian name Alexander;
he was known among family and friends as Sasha, a diminutive for Alexander.[2] The Berkmans lived
comfortably, with servants and a summer house. Berkman attended the gymnasium, where he received a
classical education with the youth of Saint Petersburg's elite.[4]
As a youth, Berkman was influenced by the growing radicalism that was spreading among workers in the
Russian capital. A wave of political assassinations culminated in a bomb blast that killed Tsar Alexander II
in 1881. While his parents worried—correctly, as it turned out—that the tsar's death might result in
repression of the Jews and other minorities, Berkman became intrigued by the radical ideas of the day,
including populism and nihilism. He became very upset when his favorite uncle, his mother's brother Mark
Natanson, was sentenced to death for revolutionary activities.[5]
Soon after Berkman turned 12, his father died. The business had to be sold, and the family lost the right to
live in Saint Petersburg. Yetta moved the family to Kovno, where her brother Nathan lived. Berkman had
shown great promise as a student at the gymnasium, but his studies began to falter as he spent his time
reading novels. One of the books that interested him was Ivan Turgenev's novel Fathers and Sons (1862),
with its discussion of nihilist philosophy. But what truly moved him was Nikolay Chernyshevsky's 1863
novel, What Is to Be Done?, and Berkman felt inspired by Rakhmetov, its puritanical protagonist who is
willing to sacrifice personal pleasure and family ties in single-minded pursuit of his revolutionary aims.[6]
Soon, Berkman joined a group at school that was reading and discussing revolutionary literature, which
was prohibited under the new tsar, Alexander III. He distributed banned material to other students and
wrote some radical tracts of his own, which he printed using supplies pilfered from the school. He turned in
a paper titled "There Is No God", which resulted in a one-year demotion as punishment on the basis of
"precocious godlessness, dangerous tendencies and subordination".[7]
Berkman's mother died in 1887, and his uncle Nathan Natanson became responsible for him. Berkman had
contempt for Natanson for his desire to maintain order and avoid conflict. Natanson could not understand
what Berkman found appealing in his radical ideas, and he worried that Berkman would bring shame to the
family. Late that year, Berkman was caught stealing copies of the school exams and bribing a handyman.
He was expelled and labelled a "nihilist conspirator".[8]
Berkman decided to emigrate to the United States. When his brother left for Germany in early 1888 to
study medicine, Berkman took the opportunity to accompany him and from there made his way to New
York City.[9]
New York City
Soon after his arrival in New York, where he knew no one and spoke no
English, Berkman became an anarchist through his involvement with
groups that had formed to campaign to free the men convicted of the 1886
Haymarket bombing. He joined the Pioneers of Liberty, the first Jewish
anarchist group in the U.S. The group was affiliated with the International
Working People's Association, the organization to which the Haymarket
defendants had belonged, and they regarded the Haymarket men as martyrs.
Since most of its members worked in the garment industry, the Pioneers of
Liberty took part in strikes against sweatshops and helped establish some of
the first Jewish labor unions in the city. Before long, Berkman was one of
the prominent members of the organization.[10]
Berkman soon came under the influence of Johann Most, the best known
anarchist in the United States and an advocate of propaganda of the deed—
attentat, or violence carried out to encourage the masses to revolt.[2][11] He
Berkman in 1892
became a typesetter for Most's newspaper Freiheit.[12]
In 1889, Berkman met and began a romance with Emma Goldman, another
Russian immigrant. He invited her to Most's lecture. Soon Berkman and Goldman fell in love and became
inseparable. Despite their disagreements and separations, Goldman and Berkman would share a mutual
devotion for decades, united by their anarchist principles and love for each other.[13]
By the end of the year, they moved into a communal apartment with Berkman's cousin, Modest Aronstam
(referred to as "Fedya" in both Berkman's Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist and Goldman's Living My Life),
and Goldman's friend, Helene Minkin, along principles inspired by What Is to Be Done? Living according
to the example of Rakhmetov, Berkman denied himself even the smallest pleasures—and he expected his
comrades to be the same. Aronstam, on the other hand, occasionally brought home flowers. Frictions
between the two grew: "Every penny spent for ourselves was so much taken from the Cause," Berkman
fumed. "Luxury is a crime, a weakness." With time, however, the two cousins reconciled.[14]
Berkman eventually broke with Most and aligned himself with the autonomists. The autonomists, an
anarchist group associated with Josef Peukert, emphasized individual freedom. They feared the domination
of the anarchist movement by a single individual and opposed the establishment of anarchist organizations.
Consequently, the autonomists were opposed to Most. Soon, Berkman was working for the autonomists'
publications, Der Anarchist and Die Autonomie, but he remained committed to the concept of violent action
as a tool for inspiring revolutionary change.[15][16]
At the end of 1891, Berkman learned that Russian anarchist Peter Kropotkin, whom he admired, had
canceled an American speaking tour on the basis that it was too expensive for the struggling anarchist
movement. While Berkman was disappointed, the frugality of the action further elevated Kropotkin's
stature in his eyes.[17]
Attentat: Frick assassination attempt
In 1892, Berkman, Goldman, and Aronstam relocated to Worcester,

Massachusetts, where they operated a successful luncheonette. At
the end of June, Goldman saw a newspaper headline that brought
to her attention the trio's first opportunity for political action: the
Homestead Strike.[18] In June 1892, workers at a steel plant in
Homestead, Pennsylvania were locked out when negotiations
between the Carnegie Steel Company and the Amalgamated
Association of Iron and Steel Workers failed. Henry Clay Frick, the
factory's notoriously anti-union manager, hired 300 armed guards
from the Pinkerton Detective Agency to break the union's picket Berkman's attempt to assassinate
lines. When the Pinkerton guards arrived at the factory on the Frick, as illustrated by W. P. Snyder
morning of July 6, a gunfight broke out. Nine union workers and for Harper's Weekly in 1892
seven guards were killed in the 12-hour fight.[19]
Newspapers across the country defended the union workers, and the trio decided to assassinate Frick. They
believed the assassination would arouse the working class to unite and revolt against the capitalist system.
Berkman's plan was to assassinate Frick and then kill himself; Goldman was to explain Berkman's motives
after his death; and Aronstam was to follow Berkman in the event that he failed in his mission. Emulating
his Russian idols, Berkman tried to make a bomb, but when that failed, he went to Pittsburgh with the plan
to use a handgun.[20][21][22]
Arriving in Pittsburgh on July 14, Berkman sought out anarchists Henry Bauer and Carl Nold. They were
followers of Most, but supported the Homestead strike. Berkman had never met either man but counted on
their support. Nold invited Berkman to stay with him, and he and Bauer introduced Berkman to several
local anarchists.[23]
Berkman was ready to carry out the assassination on July 21. He wore a new suit and a black derby hat,
and in his pockets he had a gun and a dagger fashioned from a steel file. He went to Frick's office and
asked to see him, saying he was the representative of a New York hiring agency, but he was told Frick was
too busy to meet him. The following night, Berkman checked into a hotel under the name Rakhmetov, his
role model from What Is to Be Done? On July 23, he returned to Frick's office. While the attendant told
Frick that the New York employment agent had returned to see him, Berkman burst into the office and took
aim at Frick's head. After two shots, Berkman was tackled to the ground. Still, he managed to pull out the
dagger and stab Frick three times.[24]
A carpenter who was working nearby heard the commotion and hit Berkman in the head with his hammer,
but the blow only stunned him. The gunshots and struggle could be heard and seen from the street, and
within minutes Frick's office had attracted all sorts of people, but Berkman continued to resist. A deputy
sheriff aimed his gun at Berkman, but Frick said, "Don't shoot. Leave him to the law." As the police led
Berkman to the jail, an angry crowd gathered and shouted at Berkman. When he was questioned by police,
Berkman said he had arrived in Pittsburgh on July 21 and that he had acted alone. A dynamite capsule was
discovered in his mouth after a policeman noticed that he was chewing on something.[25]
On July 24, a police officer took Berkman for a portrait. He lent Berkman
his own tie for the picture. The following day, Aronstam arrived in
Pittsburgh with pockets full of dynamite to finish Berkman's botched
assassination attempt. Somehow rumors of his arrival had preceded him,
and he saw a newspaper headline that read "Was Not Alone. Berkmann
[sic] Had Accomplices in His Mission of Murder. Is Aaron Stamm Here?"
Aronstam became frightened, hid the dynamite in an outhouse, and
returned to New York.[26]
Berkman stayed in jail for two months awaiting his trial. He had one hour
per day of exercise with other prisoners. They could not understand his
motive for the attack on Frick. Surely it must have been a personal dispute
or a business quarrel. His explanations were met with condescending Berkman's portrait, July 24,
smiles. One fellow prisoner, a Homestead worker who was about to stand 1892
trial for throwing dynamite at the Pinkertons, told him the workers did not
believe in violence. Berkman had no connection with Homestead, and the
strike was none of his business. He had only hurt the workers' cause with his action.[27]
Most of the anarchists in Pittsburgh were questioned by police. Bauer and Nold were arrested and charged
with complicity in Berkman's plot. Everywhere, anarchists took sides for or against Berkman and his
attentat. The autonomists supported him, as did many anarchists across the country. Peukert spoke out in
his defense. Also defending Berkman was Dyer Lum, an anarchist who had been a comrade of the
Haymarket defendants, and Lucy Parsons. Among those who criticized Berkman were Jo Labadie,
Benjamin Tucker, and many other anarchists who believed the anarchist struggle should be peaceful.
Berkman's most prominent critic was Most, who belittled Berkman as a nuisance or a flunky hired by Frick
himself to garner sympathy. Most published an article in his newspaper titled "Reflections on Attentats" in
which he wrote that propaganda of the deed was doomed to be misunderstood in the U.S. and that it could
only backfire. Most wrote that Berkman's action had proven this; while Berkman may have demonstrated a
certain heroism, in all other respects his attempt was a "total failure".[28]
Berkman was deeply interested in the debate concerning his action.[29] He was almost heartbroken by the
rebuke from Most, who had "preached propaganda by deed all his life—now he repudiates the first attentat
in this country".[30] He was encouraged by the words of Kropotkin, who wrote that "Berkman has done
more to spread the anarchist idea among the masses who do not read our papers than all the writings that
we may publish. He has shown that there are among the anarchists, men capable of being revolted by the
crimes of capitalism to the point of giving their life to put an end to these crimes, or at least to open a way to
such an end."[29]
Trial
Berkman declined the services of a lawyer for his trial. The warden cautioned him against this choice, but
Berkman replied "I don't believe in your laws. I don't acknowledge the authority of your courts. I am
innocent morally". Bauer and Nold visited him with their lawyers, who offered to represent him at no
charge, but Berkman politely refused. As the trial approached, Berkman drafted a speech that he would
read in court. Written in German because his English was still poor, it was 40 pages long and took two
hours to read. Berkman tried to learn the date of his trial, but it was kept secret by the district attorney out of
fear of an attack by Berkman's comrades. Berkman therefore was unaware of his trial until the morning it
began.[31]
When Berkman was brought to the courtroom on September 19, the jury had already been empaneled. The
district attorney had selected the jury without allowing Berkman to examine prospective jurors, and the
judge had no objection to the unusual procedure. Berkman was charged with six counts: felonious assault
with the intent to kill Frick; felonious assault with the intent to kill Lawrence Leishman, who had been in
Frick's office at the time of the attack; feloniously entering the offices of the Carnegie Steel Company on
three occasions; and unlawfully carrying concealed weapons. Berkman pleaded not guilty to all
charges.[32]
Frick told the jury about the attempt on his life. The clothes he wore that day, bloody and riddled with
holes, were shown to the jury. A physician testified that both of Berkman's weapons, the gun and the
dagger, could have caused death. Leishman testified that Berkman fired his pistol at him once and Berkman
asked, "Well, did I intend to kill you?" "I think so", Leishman replied, to which Berkman said, "Well that's
not true. I didn't intend to do it." Several witnesses told the jury that Berkman had visited the Carnegie
offices three times. Berkman's dagger and gun were placed into evidence, and the prosecution rested.[33]
Berkman was asked to call his witnesses, but he had none. Instead, he asked to read his statement to the
jury. A German translator was brought to the court. As an atheist, Berkman refused to be sworn in. He
began reading his prepared statement. When the translator began to speak on his behalf to the jury,
Berkman discovered the man was incompetent. He thought the man's voice was "cracked and shrill" as he
spoke to the jury in broken English. The effect of the statement, Berkman thought, was being lost. After
about an hour, the judge told Berkman it was time to finish his oration.[34]
Without leaving the jury box, the jurors found Berkman guilty on all charges. The judge gave Berkman the
maximum sentence for each count: a total of 21 years in prison and one year in the workhouse, to be served
consecutively. Berkman argued that he should only be sentenced for the attempt on Frick's life, that the
other charges were elements of the main crime of assault with the intent to kill, but the judge overruled his
objection. In four hours, Berkman had been tried, convicted, and sentenced. He was brought to serve his
sentence at Pennsylvania's Western Penitentiary.[35]
Prison
Within weeks of his arrival at prison, Berkman began planning his suicide. He tried to sharpen a spoon into
a blade, but his attempt was discovered by a guard and Berkman spent the night in the dungeon. He
thought about beating his head against the bars of his cell, but worried that his efforts might injure him but
leave him alive. Berkman wrote a letter to Goldman, asking her to secure a dynamite capsule for him. A
letter was smuggled out of the prison and arrangements were made for her to visit Berkman in November
1892, posing as his sister. Berkman knew as soon as he saw Goldman that she had not brought the
dynamite capsule.[36]
Between 1893 and 1897, the years when Bauer and Nold were also in the Western Penitentiary for their
part in the assassination attempt, the three men surreptitiously produced 60 issues of a hand-written
anarchist newsletter by transferring their work from cell to cell. They managed to send the completed
newsletters, which they called Prison Blossoms, to friends outside the prison.[37] Participating in Prison
Blossoms, initially written in German and later in English, helped Berkman improve his English. He
developed a friendship with the prison chaplain, John Lynn Milligan, who was a strong advocate on behalf
of the prison library. Milligan encouraged Berkman to read books from the library, a process that furthered
his knowledge of English.[38]
Berkman frequently clashed with the prison's management over the mistreatment of his fellow prisoners.
Sometimes he was put into solitary confinement, with one stay lasting 16 months. When Berkman
smuggled reports of corruption and brutality outside the prison, resulting in an investigation, he was taken
to the dungeon and put in a straitjacket.[39]
Letters from friends were like lifelines to Berkman. "The very arrival of a letter is momentous," he wrote.
"It brings a glow into the prisoner's heart to feel that he is remembered."[40] Goldman and anarchist
Voltairine de Cleyre were regular correspondents, and other friends wrote frequently.[41]
In 1897, as Berkman finished the fifth year of his sentence, he applied to the Pennsylvania Board of
Pardons. Having served as his own attorney, Berkman had failed to object to the trial judge's rulings and
thus had no legal basis for an appeal; a pardon was his only hope for early release. The Board of Pardons
denied his application in October 1897. A second application was rejected in early 1899.[42]
Now an escape seemed like Berkman's only option. The plan was to rent a house across the street from the
prison and dig a tunnel from the house to the prison. Berkman had been given access to a large portion of
the prison and had grown familiar with its layout. In April 1900, a house was leased. The tunnel would be
dug from the cellar of the house to the stable inside the prison yard. When the digging was complete,
Berkman would sneak into the stable, tear open the wooden flooring, and crawl through the tunnel to the
house.[43]
Digging the tunnel turned out to be more difficult than expected. The soil was rocky, which forced the men
to dig deeper than planned. There, they discovered a leaking gas main, which required the installation of
special pumps to bring fresh air to the men. To hide the noise from the digging, one of the crew played
piano and sang in the house while the others worked below. On July 5, Berkman visited the prison stable,
planning to make his escape. He was horrified to discover that the entrance was blocked by a large load of
stones and bricks recently dumped for a construction project.[44]
Three weeks later, some children playing in the street wandered into the yard of the now-vacant house. One
of them fell into the cellar and discovered the tunnel. While the prison's Board of Inspectors was unable to
identify the inmate involved in the escape attempt, the warden punished Berkman by sending him to
solitary confinement for nearly a year. Days after he was released from solitary, Berkman tried to hang
himself with a strip of his blanket.[45]
Soon things began looking up for Berkman. He received word that his sentence had been reduced by two-
and-a-half years, thanks to a new law. He also received his first visitor in nine years. A month later,
Goldman was able to visit under an assumed name. The warden retired and his successor improved the
prison for all prisoners.[46]
Early in his incarceration, Berkman questioned whether two men could love one another.[47] He was
aware, as he later wrote, that incidents of rape or attempted rape took place "almost every week, yet no one
has ever been taken to court ... on such charges".[48] Some of Berkman's own friendships within the prison
became physical. He became intimate with one prisoner, "Johnny", when the two were confined to the
dungeon. He discussed homosexuality with another prisoner, "George", a formerly married physician who
told Berkman about his own homosexual prison affair.[49]
In 1905, Berkman was transported from the Western Penitentiary to the Allegheny County Workhouse,
where he spent the final 10 months of his sentence.[50] He found conditions in the workhouse "a nightmare
of cruelty, infinitely worse than the most inhuman aspects of the penitentiary."[51] The guards beat inmates
at the slightest provocation, and one particularly sadistic guard shoved prisoners down the stairs. Berkman
felt mixed emotions; he was concerned about the friends he had made in the prison, he was excited about
the prospect of freedom, and he was worried about what life as a free man would be like.[52]
Release
Berkman was released from the workhouse on May 18, 1906, after serving 14 years of his sentence. He
was met at the workhouse gates by newspaper reporters and police, who recommended that he leave the
area. He took the train to Detroit, where Goldman met him.[53] She found herself "seized by terror and
pity" at his gaunt appearance.[54] Later, at a friend's house, Berkman felt overwhelmed by the presence of
well-wishers. He became claustrophobic and almost suicidal. Nevertheless, he agreed to a joint lecture tour
with Goldman.[55]
Back in New York after the tour, Berkman and Goldman tried to rekindle their romantic relationship, but
had lost passion for each other. Instead, Berkman was attracted to some of the younger women in the
movement, including a teenager named Becky Edelsohn.[56]
Berkman continued to suffer from depression and increasingly spoke about committing suicide. He began a
new lecture tour, but when he failed to appear in Cleveland, concerned friends sent a telegram to Goldman
in New York. She worried that he had killed himself. Anarchists across the country searched for Berkman
in police stations, hospitals, and morgues. Even newspapers wondered where he was, speculating that he
might have been kidnapped by Pittsburgh detectives, by Secret Service agents, or by "agents of
millionaires" who opposed his message. Three days later, Berkman appeared in New York and contacted
Goldman. He said the lecture tour had made him feel miserable. He had purchased a handgun in Cleveland
with the intention of killing himself in a city where nobody knew him, but he was unable to complete the
act.[57]
After resting for several months, Berkman began to recover. He remained

anxious about his lack of employment. He considered returning to his old
job as a printer, but his skills had become obsolete in light of innovations in
linotype machines. With Goldman's encouragement, Berkman began to
write an account of his prison years, Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist, and
she invited him to become the editor of her journal, Mother Earth.[58] He
served as editor from 1907 to 1915, and took the journal in a more
provocative and practical direction, in contrast to the more theoretical
approach which had been favored by the previous editor, Max
Baginski.[59] Under Berkman's stewardship, circulation of Mother Earth
rose as high as 10,000[59] and it became the leading anarchist publication in
the U.S.[60]
Ferrer Center
Berkman edited Mother
Berkman helped establish the Ferrer Center in New York during 1910 and Earth from 1907 to 1915.
1911, and served as one of its teachers. The Ferrer Center, named in honor
of Spanish anarchist Francisco Ferrer, included a free school that
encouraged independent thinking among its students.[60] The Ferrer Center also served as a community
center for adults.[61]
The Ludlow massacre and the Lexington Avenue explosion
In September 1913, the United Mine Workers called a strike against coal-mining companies in Ludlow,
Colorado. The largest mining company was the Rockefeller family-owned Colorado Fuel & Iron
Company. On April 20, 1914, the Colorado National Guard attacked a tent colony of striking miners and
their families and, during a day-long fight, 26 people were killed.[62]
During the strike, Berkman organized demonstrations in New York in support of the miners. In May and
June, he and other anarchists led several protests against John D. Rockefeller, Jr. The protests eventually
moved from New York City to Rockefeller's home in Tarrytown, New York, and resulted in the beatings,
arrests, and imprisonments of a number of anarchists. The strong police response to the Tarrytown protests
led to a bomb plot by several Ferrer Center anarchists.[63]
In July, three associates of Berkman—Charles Berg,

Arthur Caron, and Carl Hanson—began collecting
dynamite and storing it at the apartment of another
conspirator, Louise Berger. Some sources, including
Charles Plunkett, one of the surviving conspirators, say
that Berkman was the chief conspirator, the oldest and
most experienced member of the group.[64][65] Berkman
denied any involvement or knowledge of the plan.[66]
At 9 a.m. on July 4, Berger left her apartment for the

Mother Earth offices. Fifteen minutes later a deadly
Berkman addressing a May Day rally in New explosion took place. The bomb had exploded
York's Union Square, 1914 prematurely, shaking the sixth story of Berger's tenement
building, wrecking the three upper floors and killing
Berg, Caron, Hanson, and a woman, Marie Chavez, who
apparently was not involved in the conspiracy. Berkman arranged the dead men's funerals.[67]
The Blast and the Preparedness Day Bombing
In late 1915, Berkman left New York and went to California. In San
Francisco the following year, he started his own anarchist journal, The
Blast. Although it was published for just 18 months, The Blast was
considered second only to Mother Earth in its influence among U.S.
anarchists.[68]
On July 22, 1916, a bomb exploded during the San Francisco Preparedness
Day Parade, killing ten people and wounding 40. Police suspected
Berkman, although there was no evidence, and ultimately their
investigation focused on two local labor activists, Thomas Mooney and
Warren Billings. Although neither Mooney nor Billings were anarchists,
Berkman came to their aid: raising a defense fund, hiring lawyers, and
beginning a national campaign on their behalf. Mooney and Billings were Berkman's journal, The
convicted, with Mooney sentenced to death and Billings to life Blast, was influential among
imprisonment.[69] American anarchists.
Berkman arranged for Russian anarchists to protest outside the American

embassy in Petrograd during the Russian Revolution, which led U.S. President Woodrow Wilson to ask
California's governor to commute Mooney's death sentence. When the governor reluctantly did so, he said
that "the propaganda in [Mooney's] behalf following the plan outlined by Berkman has been so effective as
to become world-wide."[70] Billings and Mooney both were pardoned in 1939.
World War I
In 1917 the U.S. entered World War I and Congress enacted the Selective Service Act, which required all
men between the ages of 21 and 30 to register for military conscription. Berkman moved back to New
York, where he and Goldman organized the No Conscription League of New York, which proclaimed:
"We oppose conscription because we are internationalists, anti-militarists, and opposed to all wars waged
by capitalistic governments."[71] The organization was at the forefront of anti-draft activism, and chapters
were established in other cities. The No Conscription League changed its focus from public meetings to
disseminating pamphlets after police started disrupting the group's public events in search of young men
who had not registered for the draft.[72]
Berkman and Goldman were arrested during a raid of their offices on June 15, 1917, during which police
seized what The New York Times described as "a wagon load of anarchist records and propaganda
material".[73] The pair were charged under Espionage Act of 1917 with "conspiracy to induce persons not
to register", and were held on $25,000 bail each.[74][75]
Berkman and Goldman defended themselves during their trial.

Berkman invoked the First Amendment, asking how the
government could claim to fight for "liberty and democracy" in
Europe while suppressing free speech at home:
Will you proclaim to the world that you who carry

liberty and democracy to Europe have no liberty here,
that you who are fighting for democracy in Germany,
suppress democracy right here in New York, in the
United States? Are you going to suppress free speech Goldman and Berkman in 1917,
and liberty in this country, and still pretend that you following their trial
love liberty so much that you will fight for it five
thousand miles away?[76]
The jury found them guilty and Judge Julius M. Mayer imposed the maximum sentence: two years'
imprisonment, a $10,000 fine, and the possibility of deportation after their release from prison.[77] Berkman
served his sentence in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, seven months of which he spent in solitary
confinement for protesting the beating of other inmates.[69] When he was released on October 1, 1919,
Berkman looked "haggard and pale"; according to Goldman, the 21 months Berkman served in Atlanta
took a greater toll on him than his 14-year incarceration in Pennsylvania.[78]
Russia
Berkman and Goldman were released at the height of the first U.S. Red Scare; the Russian Revolutions of
1917, combined with anxiety about the war, produced a climate of anti-radical and anti-foreign sentiment.
The U.S. Justice Department's General Intelligence Division, headed by J. Edgar Hoover and under the
direction of Attorney General Alexander Mitchell Palmer, initiated a series of raids to arrest leftists.[79]
While they were in prison, Hoover wrote: "Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman are, beyond doubt,
two of the most dangerous anarchists in this country and if permitted to return to the community will result
in undue harm."[80] Under the 1918 Anarchist Exclusion Act, the government deported Berkman, who had
never applied for U.S. citizenship, along with Goldman and more than two hundred others, to Russia
aboard the Buford.[81]
At a farewell banquet in Chicago, Berkman and Goldman were

told the news of the death of Henry Clay Frick, whom Berkman
had tried to kill more than 25 years earlier. Asked for a comment by
a reporter, Berkman said Frick had been "deported by God".[82]
Berkman's initial reaction to the Bolshevik revolution was

enthusiastic. When he first heard of their coup, he exclaimed "this
is the happiest moment of my life", and he wrote that the
Bolsheviks were the "expression of the most fundamental longing
of the human soul".[83] Arrival in Russia stirred great emotions in
Berkman, and he described it as "the most sublime day in my life",
surpassing even his release after 14 years in prison.[84]
Berkman and Goldman spent much of 1920 traveling through

Russia collecting material for a proposed Museum of the
Revolution. As the pair traveled around the country, they found
Berkman in 1919, on the eve of his repression, mismanagement, and corruption instead of the equality
deportation and worker empowerment they had dreamed of. Those who
questioned the government were demonized as counter-
revolutionaries, and workers labored under severe conditions.[85]
They met with Lenin, who assured them that government suppression of press liberties was justified.
"When the Revolution is out of danger," he told them, "then free speech might be indulged in".[86]
Strikes broke out in Petrograd in March 1921 when workers demonstrated for better food rations and more
autonomy for their unions. Berkman and Goldman supported the strikers, writing: "To remain silent now is
impossible, even criminal."[87] The unrest spread to the port of Kronstadt, where Trotsky ordered a military
response. In the battle that ensued, 600 sailors were killed; 2,000 more were arrested; and 500 to 1,500
Soviet troops died. In the wake of these events, Berkman and Goldman decided there was no future in the
country for them. Berkman wrote in his diary:
Gray are the passing days. One by one the embers of hope have died out. Terror and
despotism have crushed the life born in October. ... Dictatorship is trampling the masses under
foot. The Revolution is dead; its spirit cries in the wilderness. ... I have decided to leave
Russia.[88]
Berkman and Goldman left the country in December 1921. Berkman moved to Berlin and almost
immediately began to write a series of pamphlets about the Russian Revolution. "The Russian Tragedy",
"The Russian Revolution and the Communist Party", and "The Kronstadt Rebellion" were published
during the summer of 1922.[89]
Berkman planned to write a book about his experience in Russia, but he postponed it while he assisted
Goldman as she wrote a similar book, using as sources material he had collected. Work on Goldman's
book, My Two Years in Russia, was completed in December 1922, and the book was published in two parts
with titles not of her choosing: My Disillusionment in Russia (1923) and My Further Disillusionment in
Russia (1924). Berkman worked on his book, The Bolshevik Myth, throughout 1923 and it was published
in January 1925.[90]
Now and After
Berkman moved to Saint-Cloud, France, in 1925. He organized a fund for

aging anarchists including Sébastien Faure, Errico Malatesta, and Max
Nettlau. He continued to fight on behalf of anarchist prisoners in the Soviet
Union, and arranged the publication of Letters from Russian Prisons,
which detailed their persecution.[91]
In 1926, the Jewish Anarchist Federation of New York asked Berkman to

write an introduction to anarchism intended for the general public. By
presenting the principles of anarchism in plain language, the New York
anarchists hoped that readers might be swayed to support the movement or,
at a minimum, that the book might improve the image of anarchism and
anarchists in the public's eyes. Berkman produced Now and After: The
ABC of Communist Anarchism, first published in 1929 and reprinted many Berkman's experiences in
times since (often under the title What Is Communist Anarchism? or What Bolshevist Russia were the
Is Anarchism?).[92][93] Anarchist Stuart Christie wrote that Now and After basis of The Bolshevik
is "among the best introductions to the ideas of anarchism in the English Myth.
language"[94] and historian Paul Avrich described it as "the clearest
exposition of communist anarchism in English or any other language".[92]
Final years and death
Berkman spent his last years eking out a precarious living as an

editor and translator. He and his companion, Emmy Eckstein,
relocated frequently within Nice in search of smaller and less
expensive quarters. Aronstam, who had changed his name to
Modest Stein and attained success as an artist, became a benefactor,
sending Berkman a monthly sum to help with expenses.[95] In the
1930s his health began to deteriorate, and he underwent two
unsuccessful operations for a prostate condition in early 1936. After
the second surgery, he was bed-ridden for months. In constant pain,
forced to rely on the financial help of friends and dependent on Berkman (right) and Nestor Makhno
in Paris, 1927
Eckstein's care, Berkman decided to commit suicide. In the early
hours of June 28, 1936, unable to endure the physical pain of his
ailment, Berkman tried to shoot himself in the heart with a
handgun, but he failed to make a clean job of it. The bullet punctured a lung and his stomach and lodged in
his spinal column, paralyzing him. Goldman rushed to Nice to be at his side. Berkman recognized her but
was unable to speak. He sank into a coma in the afternoon, and died at 10 o'clock that night.[96][97][98]
Goldman made funeral arrangements for Berkman. It had been his desire to be cremated and have his ashes
buried in Waldheim Cemetery in Chicago, near the graves of the Haymarket defendants who had inspired
him, but she could not afford the expense.[99] Instead, Berkman was buried in a common grave in Cochez
Cemetery in Nice.[99][100]
Berkman died weeks before the start of the Spanish Revolution, modern history's clearest example of an
anarcho-syndicalist revolution.[101] In July 1937, Goldman wrote that seeing his principles in practice in
Spain "would have rejuvenated [Berkman] and given him new strength, new hope. If only he had lived a
little longer!"[102]
Bibliography
Books by Berkman
Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist. New York: Mother Earth Publishing Association. 1912.
OCLC 228677284 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/228677284).
Deportation: Its Meaning and Menace; Last Message to the People of America, with Emma
Goldman. New York: M.E. Fitzgerald. 1919. OCLC 4359165 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/4
359165).
The Bolshevik Myth (Diary 1920–1922). New York: Boni and Liveright. 1925.
Now and After: The ABC of Communist Anarchism. New York: Vanguard Press. 1929.
Edited collections
Berkman, Alexander, ed. (2005). The Blast: Complete Collection of the Incendiary San
Francisco Bi-Monthly Anarchist Newspaper. Introduction by Barry Pateman. Oakland, Calif.:
AK Press. ISBN 978-1-904859-08-6.
Berkman, Alexander; et al., eds. (2010). The Tragic Procession: Alexander Berkman and
Russian Prisoner Aid. Kate Sharpley Library and Alexander Berkman Social Club.
ISBN 978-1-873605-90-5.
Berkman, Alexander; Bauer, Henry; Nold, Carl (2011). Brody, Miriam; Buettner, Bonnie
(eds.). Prison Blossoms: Anarchist Voices from the American Past. Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-05056-3.
Fellner, Gene, ed. (1992). Life of an Anarchist: The Alexander Berkman Reader. New York:
Four Walls Eight Windows. ISBN 978-0-941423-78-6.
References
Footnotes
1. Newell, p. v.
2. Walter, p. vii.
3. Avrich and Avrich, Sasha and Emma, p. 7.
5. Avrich and Avrich, Sasha and Emma, pp. 9–11.
10. Avrich and Avrich, Sasha and Emma, pp. 19–20, 23–25.
11. Newell, p. vi.
12. Pateman, p. iii.
16. Wenzer, p. 35.
18. Avrich and Avrich, Sasha and Emma, pp. 48–50, 57.
19. Wexler, Emma Goldman in America, pp. 61–62.
21. Falk, pp. 24–25.
22. Wexler, Emma Goldman in America, pp. 63–65.
30. Berkman, Prison Memoirs, pp. 107–108.
37. Brody, p. xvi.
40. Berkman, Prison Memoirs, p. 310.
54. Goldman, Living My Life, pp. 383–384.
59. Glassgold, p. xxii.
60. Avrich, Anarchist Portraits, p. 203.
61. Avrich, Modern School Movement, p. 76.
62. Zinn, pp. 354–355.
63. Avrich, Modern School Movement, pp. 213–215.
65. Avrich, Anarchist Voices, pp. 216–218.
66. Brody, "Introduction", p. lvi.
68. Avrich, Anarchist Portraits, pp. 203–204.
70. Wenzer, pp. 59–60.
71. Berkman, Life of an Anarchist, p. 155.
72. Drinnon, Rebel in Paradise, pp. 186–187.
73. "Emma Goldman and A. Berkman Behind the Bars" (https://www.nytimes.com/1917/06/16/ar
chives/emma-goldman-and-a-berkman-behind-the-bars-anarchist-headquarters.html). The
New York Times. June 16, 1917. Retrieved January 31, 2013. (subscription required)
74. Weinberger, pp. 105–106.
75. Wenzer, p. 61.
76. Trial and Speeches, p. 55.
77. Wexler, Emma Goldman in America, p. 235.
78. Goldman, Living My Life, p. 698.
79. Falk, pp. 176–177.
80. Falk, pp. 177–178.
81. Wexler, Emma Goldman in America, pp. 266, 274.
82. Goldman, Living My Life, p. 709.
83. Wenzer, p. 72.
84. Berkman, Bolshevik Myth, p. 28.
85. Wenzer, pp. 92–93.
87. Wenzer, p. 99.
89. Walter, p. xii.
90. Walter, pp. xiii–xiv.
93. Pateman, p. viii.
94. Christie, Stuart (July 24, 2005). "Building a Library: Anarchy" (https://web.archive.org/web/20
130607040639/http://www.questia.com/read/1P2-1952734/books-building-a-library-
anarchy). The Independent. Archived from the original (https://www.questia.com/read/1P2-1
952734/books-building-a-library-anarchy) on June 7, 2013. Retrieved January 31, 2013.
(subscription required)
95. Avrich and Avrich, Sasha and Emma, pp. 362–364, 373.
97. Avrich and Avrich, Sasha and Emma, pp. ??.
98. Wexler, Emma Goldman in Exile, pp. 193–194.
100. "Exiled Berkman Commits Suicide" (https://www.nytimes.com/1936/07/02/archives/exiled-be
rkman-commits-suicide-anarchist-agitator-who-shot-frick-in.html). The New York Times. July
2, 1936. Retrieved January 4, 2013. (subscription required)
101. Newell, p. xiii.
102. Goldman, "Preface", p. xi.
Works cited
Avrich, Paul (1988). Anarchist Portraits (https://archive.org/details/anarchistportrai00avri).
Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-00609-3.
Avrich, Paul (1996). Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America. Princeton:
Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-04494-1.
Avrich, Paul (2006) [1980]. The Modern School Movement: Anarchism and Education in the
United States. Oakland, Calif.: AK Press. ISBN 978-1-904859-09-3.
Avrich, Paul; Avrich, Karen (2012). Sasha and Emma: The Anarchist Odyssey of Alexander
Berkman and Emma Goldman. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-
674-06598-7.
Berkman, Alexander (1989) [1925]. The Bolshevik Myth (Diary 1920-1922). London: Pluto
Press. ISBN 978-1-85305-032-9.
Berkman, Alexander (1992). Fellner, Gene (ed.). Life of an Anarchist: The Alexander
Berkman Reader. New York: Four Walls Eight Windows. ISBN 978-0-941423-78-6.
Berkman, Alexander (1970) [1912]. Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist. Pittsburgh: Frontier
Press. OCLC 174929 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/174929).
Brody, Miriam (2011). "Introduction". In Berkman, Alexander; Bauer, Henry; Nold, Carl (eds.).
Prison Blossoms: Anarchist Voices from the American Past. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-05056-3.
Falk, Candace (1990). Love, Anarchy, and Emma Goldman (2nd ed.). New Brunswick, N.J.:
Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-1513-7.
Glassgold, Peter (2001). "Introduction: The Life and Death of Mother Earth". In Glassgold,
Peter (ed.). Anarchy! An Anthology of Emma Goldman's Mother Earth. Washington, D.C.:
Counterpoint. ISBN 978-1-58243-040-9.
Goldman, Emma (1970) [1931]. Living My Life. New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 978-0-
486-22543-2.
Goldman, Emma (2003) [1937]. "Preface". In Berkman, Alexander (ed.). What Is
Anarchism?. Oakland, Calif.: AK Press. ISBN 978-1-902593-70-8.
Newell, Peter E. (1977). "Alexander Berkman: An Introduction". In Berkman, Alexander (ed.).
ABC of Anarchism. London: Freedom Press. OCLC 234101587 (https://www.worldcat.org/oc
lc/234101587).
Pateman, Barry (2003). "Introduction". In Berkman, Alexander (ed.). What Is Anarchism?.
Oakland, Calif.: AK Press. ISBN 978-1-902593-70-8.
Trial and Speeches of Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman in the United States District
Court, in the City of New York, July, 1917 (https://books.google.com/books?id=f65YAAAAMA
AJ). New York: Mother Earth Publishing Association. 1917. OCLC 808946 (https://www.worl
dcat.org/oclc/808946).
Walter, Nicolas (1989). "Introduction". In Berkman, Alexander (ed.). The Bolshevik Myth
(Diary 1920–1922). London: Pluto Press. ISBN 978-1-85305-032-9.
Weinberger, Harry (1920). "The Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman Case" (https://boo
ks.google.com/books?id=Ypo7AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA105). The American Labor Year Book.
New York: Rand School of Social Science. III: 105–107. OCLC 149637799 (https://www.worl
dcat.org/oclc/149637799).
Wenzer, Kenneth C. (1996). Anarchists Adrift: Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. St.
James, N.Y.: Brandywine Press. ISBN 978-1-881089-56-8.
Wexler, Alice (1984). Emma Goldman in America. Boston: Beacon Press. ISBN 978-0-8070-
7003-1.
Wexler, Alice (1989). Emma Goldman in Exile. Boston: Beacon Press. ISBN 978-0-8070-
7004-8.
Zinn, Howard (2003) [1980]. A People's History of the United States: 1492–Present (https://a
rchive.org/details/peopleshistoryof00zinn_2). New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-
052842-3.
Further reading
Drinnon, Richard; Drinnon, Anna Maria, eds. (1975). Nowhere at Home: Letters from Exile of
Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. New York: Schocken Books. ISBN 978-0-8052-
3537-1.
A Fragment of the Prison Experiences of Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman (https://ar
chive.org/details/fragmentofprison00gold). New York: Stella Comyn. 1919. OCLC 26957788
(https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/26957788).
Glassgold, Peter, ed. (2001). Anarchy! An Anthology of Emma Goldman's Mother Earth.
Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint. ISBN 978-1-58243-040-9.
Goldman, Emma (1970) [1931]. Living My Life. New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 978-0-
486-22543-2.
Nowlin, Bill (2014). Alexander Berkman, Anarchist: Life, Work, Ideas. Hastings:
ChristieBooks. ISBN 978-1-501041-69-3.
Schmidt, Birgit (2018). Das Ende: Emmy Eckstein und Alexander Berkman in Südfrankreich
[The End: Emmy Eckstein and Alexander Berkman in the South of France] (in German).
Münster: Edition Assemblage. OCLC 1091896395 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/10918963
95).
External links
Alexander Berkman (https://curlie.org/Society/History/By_Region/North_America/United_St
ates/People/Berkman%2C_Alexander/) at Curlie
Alexander Berkman Papers (http://hdl.handle.net/10622/ARCH00040) at the International
Institute of Social History
Alexander Berkman letters in the Emma Goldman Papers (https://repository.duke.edu/dc/gol
dmanemma) at Rubenstein Library, Duke University
Biographical articles
Berkman, Alexander (1932). "An Enemy of Society." (http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/anarchist_a
rchives/bright/berkman/autobiooutline/outline.html) An autobiographical outline.
Goldman Emma (1922). "A Sketch of Alexander Berkman." (http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anar
chist_Archives/goldman/berkman.html)
Goldman Emma (July 12, 1936). "Alexander Berkman's Last Days." (http://www.lib.berkeley.
edu/goldman/pdfs/PublishedEssaysandPamphlets_AlexanderBerkmansLastDays.pdf)
Staff writer (December 22, 1919). "Pioneer Anarchists Leave Crop of 60,000 Reds in U.S."
(http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1919-12-22/ed-1/seq-3/) New-York
Tribune.
Online collections of works

Alexander Berkman (http://pzacad.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives////////bright/berkman/berkma
n.html) at Anarchy Archive
Alexander Berkman (http://libcom.org/tags/alexander-berkman) at Libcom
Alexander Berkman (https://www.revoltlib.com/people/alexander-berkman/view.php) at
RevoltLib
Works by Alexander Berkman (https://www.gutenberg.org/author/Berkman,+Alexander) at
Project Gutenberg
Works by Alexander Berkman (https://librivox.org/author/10212) at LibriVox (public domain
audiobooks)
Works by or about Alexander Berkman (https://archive.org/search.php?query=%28%28subje
ct%3A%22Berkman%2C%20Alexander%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Alexander%20Ber
kman%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Berkman%2C%20Alexander%22%20OR%20creato
r%3A%22Alexander%20Berkman%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Berkman%2C%20A%2
E%22%20OR%20title%3A%22Alexander%20Berkman%22%20OR%20description%3A%2
2Berkman%2C%20Alexander%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Alexander%20Berkma
n%22%29%20OR%20%28%221870-1936%22%20AND%20Berkman%29%29%20AND%2
0%28-mediatype:software%29) at Internet Archive
Alexander Berkman Archive (http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/x0k796) at the Kate
Sharpley Library
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Alexander Berkman

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Alexander Berkman

Alexander Berkman (November 21, 1870 – June 28, 1936) was

Berkman was born to a Jewish family in Vilna in the Russian

After his release from prison, Berkman served as editor of

New York City

Attentat: Frick assassination attempt

In 1892, Berkman, Goldman, and Aronstam relocated to Worcester,

After resting for several months, Berkman began to recover. He remained

In July, three associates of Berkman—Charles Berg,

At 9 a.m. on July 4, Berger left her apartment for the

The Blast and the Preparedness Day Bombing

Berkman arranged for Russian anarchists to protest outside the American

Berkman and Goldman defended themselves during their trial.

Will you proclaim to the world that you who carry

At a farewell banquet in Chicago, Berkman and Goldman were

Berkman's initial reaction to the Bolshevik revolution was

Berkman and Goldman spent much of 1920 traveling through

Berkman moved to Saint-Cloud, France, in 1925. He organized a fund for

In 1926, the Jewish Anarchist Federation of New York asked Berkman to

Final years and death

Berkman spent his last years eking out a precarious living as an

Online collections of works

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alexander_Berkman&oldid=1073541121"

This page was last edited on 23 February 2022, at 07:14 (UTC).

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