A-Infos (en) France, Monde Libertaire - Ideas and Struggles: Daughter of the Revolution (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr) [machine translation]

REVOLUTION AND FREEDOM ---- This book, Daughter of the Revolution by 
Vera Broido, republished by Allia in 2025, is a precious testament. Vera 
Broido (September 7, 1907 - February 11, 2004) was a writer of Russian 
origin. Her parents were revolutionaries in Russia, repressed by the 
Tsarist regime and then persecuted by the Bolsheviks. In this book, she 
recounts her childhood and exile. We discover her parents' commitment 
from the very first pages. She presents them with a certain pride. "My 
parents, Marck and Eva Broido, were revolutionaries, and their freedom, 
even their very lives, were constantly threatened by the secret police. 
In Tsarist Russia, revolutionaries were always on the run, most of the 
time living in hiding. They were often captured, imprisoned, exiled to 
Siberia (with or without trial), sent to the katorga (penalty), or even 
hanged." This is a beautiful summary of the life she shares. She traces 
the story back to the Decembrists, but the secret police were 
formidable. It was difficult to mobilize urban workers. Vera Broido 
mentions the actions of Kropotkin, "future leader of the anarchists," 
who went to them, "dressed in worker's uniform, cap and bag of tools 
included. Kropotkin was also imprisoned."

It is always a pleasure to read the testimonies of those involved in the 
events; Vera Broido's adopts the tone and perspective of a child. These 
parents are not anarchists. Settled because they were Jews in the 
affected residential area, in Vilnius, they became Mensheviks, a 
dangerous choice, and Vera Broido's mother, who opposed the war, was 
arrested and sentenced to exile in Siberia. These pages devoted to life 
in the shtetl are very interesting, as is the departure with her mother. 
In Yakutsk, "in winter, no one could go out for more than a few minutes, 
because their breath froze in their mouths and nostrils." The city was 
overpopulated with political exiles, and more and more were arriving. 
Their parents fled. And we witness the great debates within the 
revolutionary movement between Martov and Lenin. Martov, along with the 
Mensheviks, had insisted on a democratic party structure since 1903. 
Lenin, along with the Bolsheviks, wanted an autocratic structure. Thus, 
those who claim that Stalin was the author of the dictatorial strategy, 
intentionally or not, forget these debates. Vera Broido's parents joined 
the Mensheviks and became involved in the militant activities of the 
social democratic movement. We relive the days of the revolution, the 
February days, the Petrograd Soviet where her father was elected. She is 
alone, her parents preoccupied with meetings. There is a general 
shortage. "The only thing to do was go to bed and find oblivion in a 
book. It was probably at that moment, half-frozen and starving, that I 
acquired a taste for reading. Since then, I have been able to forget the 
world around me in favor of the printed page."

Under the Bolshevik Dictatorship

Lenin returned in April 1917, and the Bolsheviks imposed themselves by 
force. "He claimed to take power in the name of the soviets; in reality, 
he took it in the name of the Bolshevik Party, which until then had 
played only a minor role in the ongoing revolution." Dzerzhinsky creates 
the Cheka. Old Russia disappears. The Socialist Revolutionaries and the 
Mensheviks are arrested. Unfortunately, we know the story. (Jacques 
Baynac, La Terreur sous Lénine, Ed. L'Echappée, 2024). Her mother, Eva, 
senses that the tide is turning. "She felt that the Revolution, this 
radiant future to which she had dedicated her life, was being 
destroyed." The civil war is fierce. They can pass through Poland and 
arrive in Berlin. The pages devoted to Martov are illuminating on the 
establishment of the Bolshevik dictatorship and the impossibility of 
enlightening the global socialist movement, which refused to see. We 
find this observation in the memoirs of Emma Goldman in particular. In 
Berlin, Paris, and elsewhere, Vera Broido continues her life and 
describes the life of this diaspora with the Jews, the so-called White 
Russians, and the Mensheviks. She entered the world of art, painting, 
photography, literature, and Dadaism. What became of her mother? She 
returned to Russia (now the USSR) on a mission to organize a Menshevik 
opposition. She disappeared, and years later, Vera Broido learned that 
she had been arrested, deported to Central Asia, and shot on September 
14, 1941. On Stalin's orders.

* Vera Broido
Daughter of the Revolution
Ed. Allia, 2025

https://monde-libertaire.fr/?articlen=8258
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Subscribe/Unsubscribe https://ainfos.ca/mailman/listinfo/a-infos-en
Archive: http://ainfos.ca/en