Communism -- Soviet Union; Goldman, Emma, 1869-1940; Soviet Union -- History -- Revolution, 1917-1921 -- Personal narratives, American
The agreement also included the right of the Anarchists to call a
congress in Kharkov, and preparations were being made to hold it in the
month of October. Many Anarchists were getting ready to attend it and
were elated over the outlook. But my faith in the Bolsheviki had
received too many shocks. Not only did I believe that the Congress would
not take place, but I saw in it a Bolshevik ruse to gather all the
Anarchists in one place in order to destroy them. Yet the fact was that
several Anarchists, among them the well-known writer and lecturer Volin,
had already been released and were now free in Moscow.
* * * * *
We left for Petrograd to deliver to the Museum the carload of precious
material we had gathered in the South. More valuable still was the
experience the members of the Expedition had been enriched with through
personal contact with people of various shades of opinion, or of no
opinion, and the impressions of the social panorama as it was being
unrolled day by day. That was a treasure of far greater worth than any
paper documents. But better insight into the situation intensified my
inner struggle. I longed to close my eyes and ears--not to see the
accusing hand which pointed to the blind errors and conscious crimes
that were stifling the Revolution. I wanted not to hear the compelling
voice of facts, which no personal attachments could silence any longer.
I knew that the Revolution and the Bolsheviki, proclaimed as one and the
same, were opposites, antagonistic in aim and purpose. The Revolution
had its roots deep down in the life of the people. The Communist State
was based on a scheme forcibly applied by a political party. In the
contest the Revolution was being slain, but the slayer also was gasping
for breath. I had known in America that the Interventionists, the
blockade and the conspiracy of the Imperialists were wrecking the
Revolution. But what I had not known then was the part the Bolsheviki
were playing in the process. Now I realized that they were the
grave-diggers.
I was oppressively conscious of the great debt I owed to the workers of
Europe and America: I should tell them the truth about Russia. But how
could I speak out when the country was still besieged on several fronts?
It would mean working into the hands of Poland and Wrangel. For the
first time in my life I refrained from exposing grave social evils. I
felt as if I were betraying the trust of the masses, particularly of the
American workers, whose faith I dearly cherished.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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