Editing My Disillusionment in Russia

{{Short description|1923 book by Emma Goldman}}
{{Infobox book
| name          = My Disillusionment in Russia
| title_orig    =
| translator    =
| image         = Dissillusioncover.jpg
| caption       =
| author        = Emma Goldman
| illustrator   =
| cover_artist  =
| country       = United States
| language      = English
| series        =
| subject       = [[Soviet Russia]]
| genre         =
| publisher     = [[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday, Page & Company]]
| pub_date      = 1923
| english_pub_date =
| media_type    =
| pages         =
| oclc          = 476073
| preceded_by   =
| followed_by   =
| wikisource = My Disillusionment in Russia
}}
'''''My Disillusionment in Russia''''' is a book by [[Emma Goldman]], published in 1923 by Doubleday, Page & Co. The book was based on a much longer manuscript entitled "My Two Years in Russia", which was an eyewitness account of events in Russia from 1920 to 1921 that ensued in the wake of the [[Russian Revolution of 1917]] and which culminated in the [[Kronstadt rebellion]]. Long concerned about developments with the [[Bolsheviks]], Goldman described the rebellion as the "final wrench. I saw before me the Bolshevik State, formidable, crushing every constructive revolutionary effort, suppressing, debasing, and disintegrating everything."<ref name=Preface1>[http://ditext.com/goldman/russia/preface.html PREFACE To First Volume of American Edition].</ref>

Much to Goldman's dismay, only upon receiving the first printed copies of the book she became aware that (1) the publisher had changed the title; and (2) the last twelve chapters were entirely missing, including an afterword,<ref name=Preface2>[http://ditext.com/goldman/russia/preface2.html PREFACE (Revised) To Second Volume of American Edition].</ref> which Goldman felt was "the most vital part" of the book.<ref name = Preface2/> Sympathetic to the [[February Revolution]], the complete book is an impassioned left critique of the subsequent [[Bolshevik Revolution]], as well as [[Vladimir Lenin]]'s [[New Economic Policy]]—an "all-powerful, centralized Government with [[State Capitalism]] as its economic expression".<ref name=Afterword>[http://ditext.com/goldman/russia/ch33.html Afterword (Chapter 33)] of the (complete text) of ''My Disillusionment in Russia'', section III.</ref> The complete book is also critical of Marxian theory, which Goldman describes as "a cold, mechanistic, enslaving formula".<ref name=Preface1/>

After much back and forth with the publishers, the missing portions of Goldman's original manuscript were published in a second American volume ''My Further Disillusionment in Russia'' (also titled by the publisher) in 1924. In the preface to the second volume of the American edition, Goldman wryly observes that only two of the reviewers sensed the incompleteness of the original American version, one of whom was not a regular critic but a librarian.<ref name=Preface2/> A complete version of the full manuscript was published in England with an introduction by [[Rebecca West]], also under the title ''My Disillusionment in Russia'' (London: C. W. Daniel Company, 1925).<ref>{{Cite web |title=My Disillusionment in Russia |url=https://ditext.com/goldman/russia/russia.html |access-date=2025-01-13 |website=ditext.com}}</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/emma-goldman/my-disillusionment-in-russia}}
* {{Gutenberg | no=60315 | name=My Disillusionment in Russia}} 
* ''[http://www.revoltlib.com/?id=539 My Disillusionment in Russia]'' - RevoltLib Source
* {{Gutenberg | no=74192 | name=My Further Disillusionment in Russia}}
{{Emma Goldman}}

[[Category:1923 non-fiction books]]
[[Category:Anarchism in Russia]]
[[Category:Anarchism in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Books by Emma Goldman]]
[[Category:Doubleday, Page & Company books]]
[[Category:Memoirs about Soviet repression]]

{{Russia-hist-book-stub}}