Berkman, Alexander

Berkman, Alexander

(bĕrk`män, bûrk`mən), 1870–1936, anarchist, b. Vilna (then in Russian Lithuania). He immigrated to the United States c.1887. Angered by the violent suppression of the Homestead, Pa. strike (1892), Berkman attempted to kill Henry Clay FrickFrick, Henry Clay,
1849–1919, American industrialist, b. Westmoreland co., Pa. He worked on his father's farm, was a store clerk, and did bookkeeping before he and several associates organized (1871) Frick & Company to operate coke ovens in the Connellsville coal
..... Click the link for more information. , but succeeded only in wounding him. He served 14 years of a 22-year sentence imposed for this attack. His long association with Emma GoldmanGoldman, Emma,
1869–1940, American anarchist, b. Lithuania. She emigrated to Rochester, N.Y., in 1886 and worked there in clothing factories. After 1889 she was active in the anarchist movement, and her speeches attracted attention throughout the United States.
..... Click the link for more information.  (they were briefly lovers), begun before his imprisonment, was resumed after his release. In 1917 they were arrested for obstructing the draft and in 1919 were deported to Russia. Disappointed in his hope of finding the freedom that he sought under the Bolshevik government, Berkman left Russia in 1921 and in various European cities supported himself by translation. He committed suicide in Nice. His writings include Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist (1912, repr. 1970), The Bolshevik Myth (1925), The Anti-Climax (1925), and Now and After: The A.B.C. of Communist Anarchism (1929).

Bibliography

See P. and K. Avrich, Sasha and Emma (2012).

Berkman, Alexander

(1870–1936) anarchist, author; born in Vilna, Russia. After being influenced by Russian nihilists, he emigrated to America (1887). He became involved with radical Jewish labor groups in New York City and in 1879 began his personal and professional liaison with Emma Goldman that would last to the end of his life. He gained international attention with his attempted assassination of Henry C. Frick (1892); for this he served 14 years in prison (1892–1906). He founded and edited Mother Earth with Goldman after his release. The two were arrested and found guilty of opposing conscription during World War I. He went to prison again (1917–19) and then, along with Goldman, was deported to Russia (1919) as a political undesirable. Originally he supported the Communist Revolution in Russia but he changed his views and wrote The Bolshevik Myth (1925). He spent his final years in Sweden, Germany, and France before committing suicide in Nice, France.