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MY DISILLUSIONMENT IN RUSSIA
MY DISILLUSIONMENT
IN RUSSIA
BY
EMMA GOLDMAN
GARDEN CITY NEW YORK
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
1923
COPYRIGHT, 1923, BY
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION
INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES
AT
THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y.
First Edition
PREFACE
The decision to record my experiences, observations, and reactionsduring my stay in Russia I had made long before I thought of leavingthat country. In fact, that was my main reason for departing from thattragically heroic land.
The strongest of us are loath to give up a long-cherished dream. I hadcome to Russia possessed by the hope that I should find a new-borncountry, with its people wholly consecrated to the great, though verydifficult, task of revolutionary reconstruction. And I had ferventlyhoped that I might become an active part of the inspiring work.
I found reality in Russia grotesque, totally unlike the great idealthat had borne me upon the crest of high hope to the land of promise.It required fifteen long months before I could get my bearings. Eachday, each week, each month added new links to the fatal chain thatpulled down my cherished edifice. I fought desperately against thedisillusionment. For a long[Pg vi] time I strove against the still voicewithin me which urged me to face the overpowering facts. I would notand could not give up.
Then came Kronstadt. It was the final wrench. It completed the terriblerealization that the Russian Revolution was no more.
I saw before me the Bolshevik State, formidable, crushing everyconstructive revolutionary effort, suppressing, debasing, anddisintegrating everything. Unable and unwilling to become a cog inthat sinister machine, and aware that I could be of no practical useto Russia and her people, I decided to leave the country. Once out ofit, I would relate honestly, frankly, and as objectively as humanlypossible to me the story of my two years' stay in Russia.
I left in December, 1921. I could have written then, fresh under theinfluence of