Juda Grossman
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Juda Solomonovich Grossman (7 February 1883 – 6 June 1934) was a Ukrainian revolutionary anarchist, journalist and literary critic.


Biography

Juda Solomonovich Grossman was born into a
Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
merchant family in
Kherson Kherson (Ukrainian language, Ukrainian and , , ) is a port city in southern Ukraine that serves as the administrative centre of Kherson Oblast. Located by the Black Sea and on the Dnieper, Dnieper River, Kherson is the home to a major ship-bui ...
. At the age of 15 he became a
Social Democrat Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...
and was arrested several times. Juda was influenced by his older brother
Abram Grossman Abram Solomonovych Grossman (1879–1908) was a Ukrainian Jewish anarchist revolutionary. Initially a social democrat, he went into exile for his political activities and became radicalised towards revolutionary socialism. After a short stint i ...
, who in 1897 formed the Elisavetgrad circle of the South Russian Workers' Union, which included uda. Abram and Juda were arrested in 1898. From 1899, Juda lived in the town of Novoukrainka and was under police surveillance. In the summer of 1902, Juda Grossman emigrated to Europe, where he established contacts with Russian emigrants - the Social Democrats. In 1903, in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, he moved to an anarchist platform and joined an anarchist group led by
Peter Kropotkin Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (9 December 1842 – 8 February 1921) was a Russian anarchist and geographer known as a proponent of anarchist communism. Born into an aristocratic land-owning family, Kropotkin attended the Page Corps and later s ...
. In London, he contacted the Federation of Jewish Anarchists and published his articles in the newspaper of the Federation ''Freedom''. He then moved onto
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
and
Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
, where he collaborated with a group of
anarcho-communists Anarchist communism is a Far-left politics, far-left political ideology and Anarchist schools of thought, anarchist school of thought that advocates communism. It calls for the abolition of private property, private real property but retention ...
, was a member of the publishing group "Anarchy", defended the methods of terror and
expropriation Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization contrasts with p ...
. In 1903, Grossman visited
Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...
and joined the local group of anarcho-communist emigrants,
Bread and Freedom Bread and Freedom () was a group of communist anarchists that had a great influence on the revolutionary movement in Russia. History The forerunner of the "Bread and Freedom" group was the "Group of Russian Anarchists Abroad", founded in 190 ...
. Grossman gave lectures to revolutionaries and called for the beginning of
revolutionary terror Revolutionary terror, also referred to as revolutionary terrorism or reign of terror, refers to the institutionalized application of force to counter-revolutionaries, particularly during the French Revolution from the years 1793 to 1795 (see t ...
in
Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
, to raise money for the revolution through expropriation. In 1904, he broke with the Kropotkin circle "Bread and Freedom", trying to forge his own direction in anarchism. At the end of 1904, returning from emigration to the Russian Empire, Grossman settled in Bialystok, where at that time a group of anarchist-terrorists "Bread and Freedom" was formed. During the
1905 Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution of 1905, also known as the First Russian Revolution, was a revolution in the Russian Empire which began on 22 January 1905 and led to the establishment of a constitutional monarchy under the Russian Constitution of 1906, th ...
, Grossman organized groups of the Black Banner in
Odessa ODESSA is an American codename (from the German language, German: ''Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen'', meaning: Organization of Former SS Members) coined in 1946 to cover Ratlines (World War II aftermath), Nazi underground escape-pl ...
, Nikolaev,
Yelisavetgrad Kropyvnytskyi (, ) is a city in central Ukraine, situated on the Inhul, Inhul River. It serves as the administrative center of Kirovohrad Oblast. Population: Over its history, Kropyvnytskyi has changed its name several times. The settlement ...
,
Ekaterinoslav Dnipro is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper River, Dnipro River, from which it takes its name. Dnipro is t ...
and
Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...
. He published the illegal newspaper ''Black Flag'', in which he called on revolutionaries to terrorize and to organize bloody riots against the government. He acted as a supporter of the revolt, which could be caused by total terror, and was an opponent of anarcho-communism. In the spring of 1906, Grossman traveled through the cities of Russia, organizing terrorist acts against the
bourgeoisie The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and aristocracy. They are traditionally contrasted wi ...
. In early 1907, as the leader of the Black Banner group in Kyiv, he was elected a delegate to the
International Anarchist Congress of Amsterdam The International Anarchist Congress of Amsterdam took place from 24 August to 31 August 1907. It gathered delegates from 14 countries, among which important figures of the anarchist movement, including Errico Malatesta, Luigi Fabbri, Benoît ...
. On 14 June 1907 he was arrested, brought to an inquiry, and held in
Lukyanivska Prison Lukianivska Prison () is a famous historical prison in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, located in the central Lukianivka neighborhood of the city. It is officially known as SIZO#13 () which is a portmanteau for ''Slidchyi IZOliator'' (). Though the ...
. In 1908 he fled abroad again. From then on, he took the position of
anarcho-syndicalism Anarcho-syndicalism is an anarchism, anarchist organisational model that centres trade unions as a vehicle for class conflict. Drawing from the theory of libertarian socialism and the practice of syndicalism, anarcho-syndicalism sees trade uni ...
and advocated the unification of Russian anarchist groups into a single union. While exiled in Switzerland, he was the founder of the newspaper ''Rabochy Mir'' in 1914 and during 1915-1917 he edited the anarchist publication ''Rabochee Znamya''. Following the
February Revolution The February Revolution (), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and sometimes as the March Revolution or February Coup was the first of Russian Revolution, two revolutions which took place in Russia ...
, Grossman returned to Russia, where he became actively involved in anarchist agitation. He actively supported the
Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...
in the
October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...
, and in late 1917 - early 1918 organized the Bureau of Anarchists of the Donetsk Basin. In the summer of 1918 he took part in the Moscow Conference of Anarchists. In early 1919, Grossman was one of the organizers of a group of "Soviet anarchists" who recognized the
dictatorship A dictatorship is an autocratic form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, who hold governmental powers with few to no Limited government, limitations. Politics in a dictatorship are controlled by a dictator, ...
of the Bolsheviks as necessary for the " transition period" to anarchism. In May 1919 he visited
Huliaipole Huliaipole ( ; ) is a small city in Polohy Raion, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Ukraine. It is known as the birthplace of Ukrainian anarchist revolutionary Nestor Makhno. In January 2022, it had an estimated population of Huliaipole was attacked by ...
, where he tried to bring
Nestor Makhno Nestor Ivanovych Makhno (, ; 7 November 1888 – 25 July 1934), also known as Bat'ko Makhno ( , ), was a Ukrainians, Ukrainian anarchist revolutionary and the commander of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine during the Ukrainian War o ...
over to the platform of "Soviet anarchism." He then became a member of the headquarters of the
Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine The Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine (; RIAU), also known as ''Makhnovtsi'' (), named after their founder Nestor Makhno, was an Anarchism, anarchist army formed largely of Ukrainians, Ukrainian peasants and workers during the Russian C ...
, worked in legal organizations of anarchists and in the anarchist publishing house ''
Golos Truda ''Golos Truda'' () was a Russian-language anarchist newspaper. Founded by working-class Russian expatriates in New York City in 1911, ''Golos Truda'' shifted to Petrograd during the Russian Revolution in 1917, when its editors took advantage of ...
''. Grossman withdrew from anarchist activity following the suppression of the left-wing opposition to Bolshevik rule. After that, he worked at the
Russian Association of Proletarian Writers The Russian Association of Proletarian Writers, also known under its transliterated abbreviation RAPP () was an official creative union in the Soviet Union established in January 1925. and both pro and anti-Bolshevik writers were targeted, notab ...
, published a number of works on the creative method of proletarian literature, polemicized with the theoretical opponents of the RAPP - with the Lefovites,
Aleksandr Voronsky Aleksandr Konstantinovich Voronsky (; – 13 August 1937) was a prominent humanist Marxist literary critic, theorist and editor of the 1920s, disfavored and purged in 1937 for his work with the Left Opposition and Leon Trotsky during and af ...
's group and others. In works of art he was mainly interested in their ideological side. During this time, he published a book of memoirs ''Thoughts of the Past'' (1924), a collection of articles ''The Artist and the Epoch'' (Moscow, 1928) and the book ''The Art of Changing the World'' (1929). In 1931-1934 he worked in the Methodology Sector of the Scientific Research Cinema and Photo Institute (NIKFI), published in the journal "
Soviet Cinema The cinema of the Soviet Union includes films produced by the constituent republics of the Soviet Union reflecting elements of their pre-Soviet culture, language and history, albeit they were all regulated by the central government in Moscow. ...
".


Works

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References


Bibliography

* * И. Гроссман-Рощин
К критике основ учения П. А. Кропоткина
* И. Гроссман-Рощин

* И. Гроссман-Рощин

* И. Гроссман-Рощин

* ttp://socialist.memo.ru/lists/shtrihi/l125.htm Гроссман-Рощин Иуда Соломонович. Штрихи к портретуна сайте ''Российские социалисты и анархисты после Октября 1917 года'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Grossman, Juda 1883 births 1934 deaths 20th-century anarchists 20th-century Ukrainian Jews 20th-century Ukrainian journalists Anarcho-syndicalists Jewish anarchists Revolutionaries of the Russian Revolution Revolutionaries of the Russian Revolution of 1905 Soviet film critics Ukrainian anarchists Ukrainian Jews Ukrainian male journalists Ukrainian revolutionaries