Alexander Berkman (November 21, 1870 – June 28, 1936) was 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 into a wealthy Jewish family in Vilna in the Russian Empire (present-day Vilnius, Lithuania) and emigrated 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 his own journal, The Blast. In 1917, Berkman and Goldman were sentenced to two years in jail for conspiracy against the newly instated draft. After their release from prison, they were arrested—along with hundreds of others—and deported to Russia. Initially supportive of that country's Bolshevik revolution, Berkman and Goldman soon became disillusioned, voicing their opposition to the Soviets' use of terror after seizing power and their repression of fellow revolutionaries. They left the Soviet Union in late 1921, and in 1925 Berkman published a book about his experiences, The Bolshevik Myth.
While living in France, Berkman continued his work in support of the anarchist movement, producing the classic exposition of anarchist principles, Now and After: The ABC of Communist Anarchism. Suffering from ill health, Berkman took his own life in 1936.
AlexanderBerkman (November 21, 1870 – June 28, 1936) was a Russian-American anarchist and author. He was a leading member of the anarchist movement in...
issues, attracting crowds of thousands. She and anarchist writer AlexanderBerkman, her lover and lifelong friend, planned to assassinate industrialist...
individuals outside their group, namely autonomists or individualists. AlexanderBerkman suggests that "equality does not mean an equal amount but equal opportunity...
and Emma: The Anarchist Odyssey of AlexanderBerkman and Emma Goldman is a 2012 history book about AlexanderBerkman and Emma Goldman. The book was co-authored...
physician and activist AlexanderBerkman (1870–1936), Russian-American anarchist Bernece Berkman (1911–1988), American painter Brenda Berkman (born 1951), American...
and AlexanderBerkman. In February 1888 Berkman left for the United States from his native Russia. Soon after his arrival in New York City, Berkman became...
Volin, Errico Malatesta, Luigi Fabbri, Camillo Berneri, Max Nettlau, AlexanderBerkman,[better source needed] Emma Goldman, and Grigorii Maksimov.[better source needed]...
for six weeks and was used to charge its founders Emma Goldman and AlexanderBerkman with conspiracy to obstruct the draft. The No Conscription League...
The Bolshevik Myth (Diary 1920–1922) is a book by AlexanderBerkman describing his experiences in RSFSR from 1920 to 1922, when he saw the aftermath of...
of America candidate, Eugene V. Debs, anarchists Emma Goldman and AlexanderBerkman, former Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society president Joseph Franklin...
2019. Wenzer, Kenneth C. (1996). Anarchists Adrift: Emma Goldman and AlexanderBerkman. St. James, N.Y.: Brandywine Press. ISBN 1-881089-56-8. Avrich, Paul...
to the principles of anarchism and anarchist communism written by AlexanderBerkman. First published in 1929 by Vanguard Press, Now and After has been...
prominent anarchists throughout his life, including Emma Goldman, AlexanderBerkman, and Peter Kropotkin. When Kropotkin died, Schapiro was one of the...
Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-36973-8. Berkman, Alexander (2010). The Tragic Procession: AlexanderBerkman and Russian Prisoner Aid. London and Berkeley:...
Russian SFSR. Also swept up were the fiery anarchists Emma Goldman and AlexanderBerkman. This occurred between the first and second Palmer Raids of the first...
was an early influence on American anarchists Emma Goldman and AlexanderBerkman. Berkman attempted propaganda by the deed when he tried in 1892 to kill...
subsequent letter to AlexanderBerkman, she reported of her new-found "class consciousness" and belief in class conflict. Together with Berkman and Goldman, she...
incurred a great deal of negative publicity. Goldman also supported AlexanderBerkman in his failed assassination attempt of steel industrialist Henry Frick...
illustrator and close associate of the anarchists AlexanderBerkman and Emma Goldman. He was Berkman's cousin and intended replacement in the attempted...
language barrier, Makhno fell into a deep depression. According to AlexanderBerkman, Makhno particularly despised living in a big city and dreamed of...
2006 ISBN 978-1-58322-743-5. Life of an Anarchist: The AlexanderBerkman Reader by AlexanderBerkman Gene Fellner, editor (2004) ISBN 978-1-58322-662-9....
surmised all along: the Chicago men were innocent." Her associate, AlexanderBerkman also described the Haymarket anarchists as "a potent and vital inspiration"...
following year. After the death of Goldman's lifelong lover and friend AlexanderBerkman, Colton, who was sick himself, wrote Goldman a letter expressing his...
Pioneers of Liberty and introduced the anarchist duo Emma Goldman and AlexanderBerkman. Solotaroff continued writing through his life for various publications...
attracted denunciations from other critics of the Platform, including AlexanderBerkman, who denounced Makhno as a militarist and Arshinov as a Bolshevik...
anarchist AlexanderBerkman shot at Frick in an attempted assassination, wounding him. While not directly connected to the strike, Berkman was tied in...
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