Emma Goldman

Author Code: REGX

Goldman's education was brief and she began work in a St. Petersburg Factory when she was thirteen. Her experiences there sowed the seed of anarchism that would form her future philosophy. In 1886, she emigrated to America with her half-sister and worked in the textile factories for a number of years. She became a US citizen in 1887 when she married fellow Russian immigrant Jacob Kershner. After the Haymarket Riots of 1886 and the ensuing trial of anarchists, Goldman went to New York City where she became involved with anarchist journals. She divorced Kershner and lived with fellow anarchist Alexander Berkman. Berkman was imprisoned for an assassination attempt and Goldman herself was imprisoned in 1893 for inciting to riot and served one year. In 1906, after Berkman's parole, they collaborated on the journal, Mother Earth, a vehicle for anarchist thought. In 1908, her US citizenship was revoked because of her radical anarchist sentiments. She was imprisoned again in 1916 for distributing birth control literature and on her release in 1917 began organising anti-war and anti-draft demonstrations. This again led to her imprisonment for two years and, on her release in 1919, she and Berkman were deported to Russia, ending up in the middle of the Russian civil war. She became disillusioned with the methods of the Bolsheviks and wrote a number of papers condemning their policies. She left Russia and went to England in 1921 and in 1925 remarried in order to avoid deportation. She traveled to France, Canada and the United States giving lectures throughout the 1930's. She went to Spain in 1936 to support the Spanish anarchist movement against Franco's fascists. In 1940, while touring Canada, she suffered a stroke and died at the age of 70. Her works include Anarchism and Other Essays (1910), The Social Significance of the Modern Drama (1914), My Disillusionment With Russia (1923), My Further Disillusionment With Russia (1924) and her autobiography, Living My Life (1931).