The failed Russian Revolution of 1905–1906 led to a wave of immigration from the Russian empire to North America, the first of three such waves in the 20th century. Entranced by the prospects of revolution in their homeland, many of these immigrants embraced the ideas of anarchism and formed anarchist groups wherever there was a sizeable community of Russian expatriates. Once revolution broke out in Russia in 1917, these groups grew by leaps and bounds, while many of their activists returned to Russia.
But in the so-called “Palmer reaction” of 1919–1920, most of these groups were destroyed by the U. S. and Canadian governments, with leading activists arrested, beaten, and deported. The surviving movement went underground and emerged only in the form of educational, cultural, and mutual aid societies.
Lazar Lipotkin, a long-time activist of the movement, describes its rise and fall, and long afterlife, in this comprehensive account, which situates Russian-American anarchism in its rightful place in the history of North American anarchist movements against capital and the state.