Anarchists in the Gulag (and prison and exile)

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[Some information on Russian anarchists whose letters are preserved in the Senya Fleshin (Fléchine) archive at the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam.]

Introduction

If you want to know more about Bolshevik persecution of the Russian anarchist movement or anarchist solidarity with it, you should read the Bulletin of the Joint Committee for the defense of revolutionists imprisoned in Russia (1923-26) and the Bulletin of the relief fund of the International Working Men’s Association for anarchists and anarcho-syndicalists imprisoned or exiled in Russia (1926-31). They published contemporary eyewitness accounts of the repression, which makes them a vital source of information. Inevitably they’re a partial source: they couldn’t publish everything. Also, they chose to protect the identities of their comrades inside Russia. Correspondents and other prisoners and exiles are often just referred to by a single initial, which makes identifying them a challenge.

The International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam hold the Fléchine (Fleshin), Yelensky and Maksimov (Maximoff) archives. These archives are full of documents which would help reconstruct both the Bolshevik crushing of the anarchist movement, and the anarchist response. Many of these files are given a quick and basic listing: “Illegal letters from Russia. 1922-1925″ (Fléchine papers, folder 80); “file of letters from Russian exiles 1923-1927″ (Boris Yelensky papers). But in the Fléchine papers the letters dated 1926-32 written to Senya Fléchine and Jacques Doubinsky in connection with the Relief Fund of the International Working Men’s Association have been listed by name and date. They fill 31 folders. Presumably the bulk of these letters are in Russian, but some might be in Yiddish or even English. What follows is a listing of who these people are, a cross section of the Russian anarchist movement [nb, of course, it's possible that some of the unidentified people are 'non=party', SRs, etc.]. That’s one reason to produce this list. But it’s also a signpost to further research. Translating these letters would fill some of the gaps in what we know from the Bulletins of the Joint Committee and IWMA Relief Fund. Beyond that, what else might we learn? What will we hear from anarchist voices that have been silenced for seventy years?

The International Institute of Social History website is at: http://www.iisg.nl/

Memorial website (in Russian) is at: http://socialist.memo.ru/

NB names are transliterated from Russian twice: ISO (which the IISG/IISH use) and Library of Congress-style.

See the list of names at http://katesharpleylibrary.pbwiki.com/Russian+Anarchist+letters+in+Amsterdam

The Struggle for Equality:
The History of the Anarchist Red Cross
By Boris Yelensky
Edited with Introduction by Matthew Hart

http://www.abcf.net/la/pdfs/layelensky.pdf

An important resource.

Just had a message from the people at Memorial (K. Morozov to be precise). The good news is they are producing ‘an encyclopaedic dictionary “Opposition and resistance of Russia’s socialists and anarchists to the Bolshevik regime (October 1917 – mid-20th century)’.

Also he mentions ‘Anarchists in the GULAG’ is not strictly accurate… His message follows:

As a group of authors (including A. Dubovik who is the curator of anarchist section) we are working on
compiling an encyclopaedic dictionary “Opposition and resistance of Russia’s socialists and anarchists to the Bolshevik regime (October 1917 – mid-20th century)” (supervised by K. N. Morozov, Doctor of History) -
http://socialist.memo.ru/forum/index.php?showtopic=901
The project will extensively cover the problems of prison resistance and generally fates of anarchists and socialists in political isolators and concentration camps. I have to mention that we try not to refer to this as “Anarchists in the GULAG” or “Socialists in the GULAG” because their prison epic has started in 1918, long before the very GULAG system was created. And the majority of them, paradoxically enough, didn’t spend any time in the GULAG camps, moving from concentration camps to political isolators and exile. In early to mid-thirties they got into political isolators from exile, and then were sentenced to death. At least such a picture is visible as regards the socialist-revolutionaries. We are interested in co-operation with everyone who has professional interest in these problems, and are open to co-operation.

(Thanks to Szarapow for translation.)

The memorial website is at http://socialist.memo.ru/

Abstract [from libcom]: In March 1939, Republican soldiers who had been training as aviation pilots were stranded in the USSR along with the sailors of several vessels from the Spanish merchant navy. They were prevented from leaving and in 1941 were arrested and sent to Novosibirsk Transit Prison. Also detained were several civilians who had been working with children evacuated from the Civil War. In 1942 the three groups were brought together in an agricultural labour camp in Kazakhstan, where eight Spaniards fathered children with Austrian prisoners. They remained there until 1948 when, partly due to a vigorous solidarity campaign fought by exiled Spanish anarchists on their behalf, they were transferred to a camp near Odessa. 18 prisoners signed documents accepting Soviet citizenship and were released to work in the region around the Black Sea. The rest remained in the Gulag system until 1954 or 1956. Towards the end of their imprisonment they were held with Spanish fascists who had been captured during WWII while fighting in the Blue Division. In addition to those Spanish anti-fascists who went missing or died in the first years of detention, out of 66 anti-fascists known to have been in Kazakhstan on the 1st January 1943, 11 died in Soviet camps. That the majority survived can be attributed in part to the togetherness and solidarity they maintained in captivity, evident in their work stoppages and hunger strikes.

Full article at http://www.libcom.org/library/the-tragedy-karaganda