Emma Goldman

Name: My Disillusionment in Russia — Preparing for American Deportees
Author: Emma Goldman

My Disillusionment in Russia — Preparing for American Deportees

Summary

“My Disillusionment in Russia — Preparing for American Deportees”, is a work by Emma Goldman. It explores elements such as deportees, kursanti and Petrograd.

Quotes from My Disillusionment in Russia — Preparing for American Deportees (Emma Goldman)

Emma Goldman, My Disillusionment in Russia — Preparing for American Deportees

“ I would talk to the employees in the departments about the vital interest the conscious American workers felt in the great Russian Revolution, and of their faith and hope in the Russian proletariat. The people would become interested immediately, but the questions they would ask were as strange as they were pitiful: "Have the people enough to eat in America? How soon will the Revolution be there? Why did you come to starving Russia?" ”

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Source: Wikisource

Emma Goldman, My Disillusionment in Russia — Preparing for American Deportees

“ I recalled what a young woman, a Communist, had told me in Moscow about these students. "They are the special caste now being reared in Russia," she had said. "Like the church which maintains and educates its religious priesthood, our Government trains a military and civic priesthood. They are a favoured lot." I had more than one occasion to convince myself of the truth of it. The kursanti were being given every advantage and many special privileges. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Emma Goldman, My Disillusionment in Russia — Preparing for American Deportees

“ It was evident that whatever else the kursanti might be taught, it was not to labour. But, then, few people in Russia know how to work. The situation looked hopeless. Only ten days remained till the arrival of the deportees, and the "hotels" assigned for their use were still in as uninhabitable a condition as before. It was no use to threaten with the Tcheka, as my co-workers did. I appealed to the boys and girls in the spirit of the American deportees who were about to arrive in Russia full of enthusiasm for the Revolution and eager to join in the great work of reconstruction. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Emma Goldman, My Disillusionment in Russia — Preparing for American Deportees

“ Some had tried independently to secure jobs, but they could accomplish very little. Moreover, those who found employment were soon made to feel that the Russian workers resented the eagerness and intensity of their brothers from America. "Wait till you have starved as long as we," they would say, "wait till you have tasted the blessings of Commissarship, and we will see if you are still so eager." In every way the deportees were discouraged and their enthusiasm dampened.
To avoid this unnecessary waste of energy and suffering the Commission was at last organized in Petrograd. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Emma Goldman, My Disillusionment in Russia — Preparing for American Deportees

“ Whenever any difficulty arose one immediately heard raztreliat—to be shot. But the expression, so terrible in its significance, was gradually losing its effect upon the people: man gets used to everything. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Emma Goldman, My Disillusionment in Russia — Preparing for American Deportees

“ The plan of such a commission for American deportees had been broached to Zorin soon after our arrival in Russia. At that time Zorin directed us to talk the matter over with Tchicherin, which we did. But three months passed without anything having been done about it. Meanwhile, our comrades of the Buford were still walking from department to department, trying to be placed where they might do some good. They were a sorry lot, those men who had come to Russia with such high hopes, eager to render service to the revolutionary people. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Emma Goldman, My Disillusionment in Russia — Preparing for American Deportees

“ Besides holding the post of Minister of the Interior she was Chief of the Petrograd Militia, and she also represented the Moscow Foreign Office in Petrograd. Her regular working hours were from 8 A. M. to 2 A. M.. Kaplun, a very able administrator, had charge of the entire internal work of the Department and could therefore give us very little of his time. There remained only four persons to accomplish within a short time the big task of preparing living quarters for a thousand deportees in starved and ruined Russia. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Emma Goldman, My Disillusionment in Russia — Preparing for American Deportees

“ On my first visit to the palace I had been shown the quarters of the kursanti, the students of the Bolshevik academy. They were mostly village boys and girls housed, fed, clothed, and educated by the Government, later to be placed in responsible positions in the Soviet régime. ”

Emma Goldman

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Quotes from My Disillusionment in Russia — Preparing for American Deportees (Emma Goldman)

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