Anarchist and writer, born in Vilnius, E Lithuania. After being influenced by Russian nihilists, he emigrated to the USA. He became involved with radical Jewish labour groups in New York City and in 1879 began his personal and professional liaison with Emma Goldman that would last all his life. He gained international attention with his attempted assassination of Henry C Frick (1892), for which he served 14 years in prison (18921906). He founded and edited Mother Earth with Goldman after his release. The two were arrested and found guilty of opposing conscription during World War 1, and he went to prison again (191719), 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.
Alexander Berkman (21 November 1870 - 28 June 1936) was a Russian emigrant who became an American writer, radical anarchist, and would-be assassin. Berkman was a leading member of the anarchist movement.
Early years
Berkman was born Ovsei Osipovich Berkkan in Vilnius, Lithuania, the son of a wealthy Jewish businessman.
Soon after arriving in the US, Berkman became involved with political activism and became interested in anarchism through his involvement in the campaign to free the men convicted in the 1886 Haymarket bombing. Berkman was a typesetter for Johann Most's radical newspaper Freheit, and was inspired by Most's fiery political agitation for revolutionary action, and the concept of propaganda by deed. In New York City, Berkman met and had a romance with Emma Goldman, another Russian immigrant who was working in a clothing factory. Goldman had been pursued romantically by Johann Most, but she soon left him for Berkman. Berkman and Goldman soon became intricately involved in the anarchist movement.
The Attentat
Although Berkman gradually began to distance himself from Johann Most, he remained fixated on the concept of violent action as a tool for inspiring revolutionary change. In 1892, at age 22, Berkman — convinced that a violent act was needed to electrify the anarchist movement, attempted to assassinate Henry Clay Frick, a wealthy industrialist involved in a bitter dispute with steelworkers in Homestead, Pennsylvania.
Berkman, with the knowledge of his lover Emma Goldman and the assistance of other conspirators, plotted to murder Frick in an Attentat, or assassination, in retaliation for his role in attempting to break the strike. After gaining entrance to Frick's office, Berkman shot Frick twice in the neck, missing the third shot only after his arm was grabbed by Frick's assistant. Frick and Berkman then grappled on the floor, and Berkman drew a sharpened steel file, stabbing Frick four times in the leg. Berkman was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to twenty-two years' imprisonment, of which he served fourteen years, many of them in solitary confinement. Berkman's decision to assassinate Frick was criticized by none other than his old mentor Johann Most, who implied that Berkman's act was not only counterproductive but even designed to elicit sympathy for Frick himself. Berkman was released from prison in May 1906.
Upon regaining his freedom, Berkman — shattered and physically broken — joined Goldman as one of the leading figures of the anarchist movement in the US. Berkman later wrote an account of his prison years in his book Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist, which he claimed helped him recover from the experience of being a prisoner.
From 1908 to 1915, Berkman contributed to her paper Mother Earth, and founded the Ferrer Center, named for a Spanish anarchist and widely known as a meeting place for radical anarchists. Berkman was infuriated by John D. Berkman and other anarchists led several protests throughout May and June against John D.
Rockefeller Bombing
In July 1914, three associates of Berkman - Charles Berg, Carl Hanson, and I.W.W. According to later accounts, the three men, along with Alexander Berkman met at the Ferrer Center at least twice to discuss the plot. According to some sources, Berkman was the chief conspirator and the only one of the five who had experience in such an act. Because of his probation for the Homestead assassination attempt, Berkman chose to remain behind the scenes rather than take an active role in the bombing (Berkman later denied any involvement or knowledge of the plan).
At 9 a.m. on July 4th, Berger left her apartment and headed over to the Mother Earth offices on 119th Street, most probably to inform Berkman that the bomb had been constructed and was ready for delivery. Berkman attended the mens' funerals, then dropped out of public view, though he continued his work at Mother Earth.
From 1916 to 1917, Berkman briefly published his own anarchist journal in San Francisco, The Blast, and then joined forces with Goldman again with Mother Earth Bulletin. During this time, Berkman also lectured and taught, helped organize labor movements, agitated against the ruling class, campaigned for civil rights, and continued to meet with other radical anarchists.
War Opposition
From 1914, Berkman and Goldman opposed the First World War, and from 1917, when the US entered, they campaigned against conscription, for which they were repeatedly imprisoned between 1917 and 1919.
Berkman and Goldman were later targeted for their extensive association with radical anarchists, and antiwar statements during the Palmer Raids of 1919.
Henry Clay Frick died on December 2, 1919 in Pittsburgh, at the age of seventy. That evening, Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman were attending a farewell banquet in Chicago, their last whirlwind tour before being expelled from the country by federal authorities. At a dinner given in honor of the anarchist movement, a reporter approached Alexander Berkman with news of Frick's death and asked him what he had to say about the man. Referring to his own impending deportation from the U.S., Berkman casually replied that Frick had been "deported by God.
Both Goldman and Berkman supported the Bolsheviks when they came to power in Russia after the October Revolution of 1917, but during the two years they spent in the USSR, they gradually became disillusioned as the communist regime became increasingly repressive. The brutal suppression of the Kronstadt rebellion in March 1921 was the final straw, and Berkman and Goldman moved to Germany.
Final years
In subsequent years, Goldman and Berkman led the libertarian critique of the Soviet Communist Party, denouncing what they saw as the betrayal of the revolution. As part of this campaign, Berkman published The Bolshevik Myth in 1925, an account of his time in post-revolutionary Russia and his gradual disillusionment with the Bolsheviks.
Berkman spent his last years in France, eking out a precarious living as an editor and translator. has become one of the best-known introductions to anarchism in print and arguably Berkman's best work.
Suffering from poor health, Berkman underwent two unsuccessful operations for a prostate condition. In constant pain, and forced to rely on the financial help of friends, Berkman decided to end it all. In the early hours of 28 June, unable to endure the physical pain of his ailment, Alexander Berkman shot himself with a handgun, but he failed to make a clean job of it. Berkman had committed suicide just weeks before the outbreak of the Spanish Revolution.
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