The Bolshevik Myth

Berkman recorded his experiences in the years from 1920 to 1922 in a diary, which he reworked into The Bolshevik Myth. (While the book is presented as the original diary, archival research has shown that much of the original material from Berkman’s diary was rewritten.) Readers of The Bolshevik Myth may note considerable structural and topical similarities with Goldman’s more famous memoir on the Russian Revolution, My Disillusionment in Russia. Since Goldman and Berkman were deported from the U.S. together and traveled throughout Russia and Ukraine as part of the same committees and delegations, the two memoirs represent two different perspectives on effectively the same journey.

This Standard Ebooks edition includes the final chapter of Berkman’s original manuscript, which was rejected by the publisher Boni & Liveright as a literary “anti-climax.” Berkman later published the final chapter, which provides a theoretical analysis on the Bolshevik regime from an anarchist perspective, separately under the title of “The Anti-Climax.”

This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.