The voice of labor (anarchist newspaper)

After the suppression of the 1905 revolution and the subsequent expulsion of political dissidents from the Russian Empire in New York, Russian-language journalism is reviving. ^{[2] The} earliest editions of the Voice of Labor were published by the Union of Russian Workers in the USA and Canada, beginning monthly. ^{[2] [3] [4]} The newspaper adhered to the anarcho-syndicalist ideology (combining trade union movements and anarchist philosophy), which appeared in 1907 at the International Anarchist Congress in Amsterdam and reached America through representatives of the Industrial Workers of the world . ^[5] Anarcho-syndicalists rejected state-oriented political struggles and intellectualism, instead offering trade unions as revolutionary intermediaries that would lead to an anarchist society, characterized primarily by work collectives. ^[five]

With the beginning of the revolution in 1917, the Provisional Government declared a general amnesty and offered to finance the return of those Russians who were exiled as a political opponent of the empire; all personnel of the Voice of Labor decided to move from New York to Russia and publish a newspaper in Petrograd . ^[6] In Vancouver , May 26, 1917, editors, along with the Ferrer Center , artist Manuel Comroff and thirteen other participants, boarded a ship in Japan . ^[7] On board, anarchists performed music, lectured, staged performances, and even published the revolutionary newspaper The Float . ^[7] From Japan, the group moved to Siberia, and continued eastward towards the European part of Russia. ^[7]

Initially, the Bolsheviks were not very popular after the February Revolution , and Minister-Chairman Alexander Kerensky retained sufficient support to suppress the attempted coup in July. The Bolsheviks are playing into the hands of the unrest and economic collapse of Russian society, the mass strikes of workers and the Kornilov revolt - this increases their popularity among the people and ultimately leads to control of the Soviets . Wolin complained that the almost six-month gap between the February Revolution and the beginning of the publication of the Voice of Labor in Russia was a “long and irreparable delay” for the anarchists. They are now faced with a difficult task - most of the minds of the workers have been won by the powerful propaganda of the Bolshevik Party, in comparison with which the efforts of the anarchists are insignificant. ^[eight]

In Petrograd, work on the beginning of publication was helped by the nascent union of anarcho-syndicalist propaganda , ^[6] as well as a new newspaper supported by the local anarcho-syndicalist movement. ^[9] The editors of the Voice of Labor included Maxim Raevsky , Vladimir Shatov ( linotype operator), ^[7] Vsevolod Volin , ^[10] Grigory Maximov , Alexander Shapiro , ^[11] Yu. Liss and Vasya Svida . ^{[1] [12]}

The first (weekly) issue was published on August 11, 1917, in which the editorial office declared its resolute rejection of the tactics and programs of the Bolsheviks , Mensheviks , Left Social Revolutionaries , Right Social Revolutionaries and others, and that the concept of revolutionary action by the anarcho-syndicalists was not like those socialists. ^[8] The main goal of the revolution was to replace the state with free confederations of autonomous "peasant unions, industrial unions, factory committees that control commissions throughout the country." ^[13] This revolution was "anti-state in its methods of struggle, syndicalist in its economic content and federal in its political tasks." ^[13] Anarcho-syndicalists placed their greatest hopes on factory committees, which spontaneously emerged throughout the country after the February Revolution . ^[14]

Each of the early issues contained what Wolin later described as “clear and precise articles on how the anarcho-syndicalists planned to move from revolution to creative tasks”, citing as examples “a series of articles on the role of factory committees; articles on the tasks of meetings and councils; how to solve the agrarian question; about the new organization of production; and also about the exchange. " ^[8] He published articles on general strikes, as well as on French labor exchanges and syndicates. ^[15] In the same year, within three months after the October Revolution, the newspaper switched to a daily issue. ^{[6] [8]} In a series of articles, she proclaimed the need for an immediate rejection of the Bolshevik dictatorship of the proletariat, and the need for freedom of association and action for workers. ^[eight]

Although the Voice of Labor sharply criticized the anarcho-communists of Petrograd as romantics, unaware of the complex social forces of the revolution, among the Petrograd workers, the ideas of the union and the newspaper were considered strange and met with little initial success. ^[8] Despite this, the union of anarcho-syndicalists gradually gained influence, focusing its propaganda efforts in the Voice of Labor, intending to capture the attention of the public with their ideals, and to separate themselves from other radical groups. ^[8] The circulation of the newspaper continues to grow in the city and its environs, strong anarcho-syndicalist collectives and assemblies arise in Kronstadt , Obukhovo and Kolpino . ^[8] In March 1918, the residence of the Bolshevik government moved from Petrograd to Moscow, and the anarchists quickly followed them to spread the Voice of Labor in the new capital. ^{[1] [16] [17]}

On November 17, 1917, the Central Executive Committee of the USSR issued a decree granting the Bolsheviks control over all newspaper publications and the authority to close dissident newspapers. ^[18] After the repressions against the Voice of Labor by the Bolshevik government in August 1918, Grigory Maximov , Nikolai Dolenko and Yefim Yarchuk create the newspaper Free Voice of Labor. ^{[1] [19]} At the 10th Congress of the RCP (B.) In March 1921, the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin declared war on the petty bourgeoisie and, in particular, on the anarcho-syndicalists with immediate consequences; The Cheka closed the Voice of Labor publishing house in Petrograd, as well as a bookstore in Moscow, where all but six anarchists were arrested ^[20] .

Despite the ban of the newspaper, the Voice of Labor continued to exist and issued the final version in the form of a magazine in Petrograd and Moscow in December 1919. ^[21] During the new economic policy of the period (1921-1928), a number of works were published, including the publication of collected works by the outstanding theorist of anarchism Mikhail Bakunin in a bookstore and publishing house in Petrograd between 1919 and 1922. ^{[22] [23]} That small activity conducted by the anarchists ended in 1929, after Joseph Stalin came to power. Bookstores of Voice of Labor in Moscow and Petrograd were closed amid a sharp and violent wave of repression. ^[24] In the United States, the newspaper was banned by the US Postal Department, where it replaced the widespread book Bread and Will, first published on February 26, 1919, which, in turn, was banned in the United States and Canada for its anarchist position. ^[25]

Victor Serge, the Russian revolutionary anarchist (who later became a Bolshevik), described Voice of Labor as the most authoritative anarchist group active in 1917, "in the sense that they were the only ones who had any semblance of doctrine and had a valuable collective of activists," who foresaw that the October Revolution "can end only in the formation of a new government." ^[26]

• Volin, Vsevolod Mikhailovich
• Repression in the USSR

• Avrich, Paul. The Russian Anarchists. - Stirling: AK Press, 2006 .-- ISBN 1904859488 .
• Volin. The Unknown Revolution, 1917-1921. - New York: Free Life Editions, 1974. - ISBN 0914156071 .

• Maurice Brinton's The Bolsheviks and Workers Control , hosted at the Spunk Library
• Electronic copies of “Voices of Labor” in the guide of the National Library of Russia “Newspapers on and Off the Net”