Sam Dolgoff (10 October 1902 – 15 October 1990) was an
anarchist
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessar ...
and
anarcho-syndicalist
Anarcho-syndicalism is a political philosophy and anarchist school of thought that views revolutionary industrial unionism or syndicalism as a method for workers in capitalist society to gain control of an economy and thus control influence i ...
from Russia who grew up and lived and was active in the United States.
Biography
Dolgoff was born in the
shtetl
A shtetl or shtetel (; yi, שטעטל, translit=shtetl (singular); שטעטלעך, romanized: ''shtetlekh'' (plural)) is a Yiddish term for the small towns with predominantly Ashkenazi Jewish populations which existed in Eastern Europe before ...
of
Ostrovno in
Mogilev Governorate
The Mogilev Governorate () or Government of Mogilev was a governorate () of the Russian Empire in the territory of the present day Belarus. Its capital was in Mogilev, referred to as Mogilev-on-the-Dnieper, or Mogilev Gubernskiy.
The area of t ...
,
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War ...
(in present-day
Beshankovichy Raion
Beshankovichy District or Biešankovičy District ( be, Бешанко́віцкі раён, Biešankovicki rajon; russian: Бешенковичский район) is a district (raion) of Vitebsk Region in Belarus. The Vula River flows through ...
,
Belarus
Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...
), moving as a child to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
in 1905 or 1906, where he lived in the
Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
and in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
's
Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets.
Traditionally an im ...
where he died. His father was a house painter, and Dolgoff began house painting at the age of 11, a profession he remained in his entire life.
After being expelled from the
Young People's Socialist League, Sam joined the
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies", is an international labor union that was founded in Chicago in 1905. The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain. IWW ideology combines general ...
in 1922 and remained an active member his entire life, playing an active role in the anarchist movement for much of the century. He was a co-founder of the ''Libertarian Labor Review'' magazine, which was later renamed ''
Anarcho-Syndicalist Review'' to avoid confusion with America's
Libertarian Party.
Dolgoff was a member of the
Chicago Free Society Group in the 1920s,
Vanguard Group
The Vanguard Group, Inc. is an American registered investment advisor based in Malvern, Pennsylvania, with about $7 trillion in global assets under management, as of January 13, 2021. It is the largest provider of mutual funds and the second-l ...
member and editor of its publication ''
Vanguard: A Journal of Libertarian Communism'' in the 1930s, and co-founded the
Libertarian League in New York in 1954. He wrote articles for anarchist magazines as well as books as the editor of anthologies, some of which are listed below. He was active in many causes, and attended groups like New York's
Libertarian Book Club regularly.
Dogloff died of congestive heart failure at the age of 88 in 1990.
Selected bibliography
* ''Ethics and American Unionism'' (1958)
* ''The Labor Party Illusion'' (1961)
* ''Bakunin on Anarchy'' (1971; revised 1980)
* ''
The Anarchist Collectives: Workers' Self-Management in the Spanish Revolution, 1936–1939'' (1974)
*
The Cuban Revolution: A Critical Perspective' (1974)
* "American Labor Movement: Rebellion in the Ranks" Interrogations No. 3, 1975.
*
The Relevance of Anarchism to Modern Society' (1977)
* ''A Critique of Marxism'' (1983)
*
Modern Technology and Anarchism (1986)
* ''Fragments: A Memoir'' (1986, ).
* ''Third World Nationalism and the State'' (Anarchist Communist Federation of North America) (1983)
See also
*
Anarchism in the United States
Anarchism in the United States began in the mid-19th century and started to grow in influence as it entered the American labor movements, growing an anarcho-communist current as well as gaining notoriety for violent propaganda of the deed and c ...
References
Sources
*
*
*
**
PDF
**
**
**
**
**
**
**
**
**
PDF
*
*
External links
Papers, 1874–1991 (bulk 1937–1977)at the
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, th ...
Wagner Archives
Sam Dolgoff, Collected Works and Infoon RevoltLib.com
An obituary and short biography of Sam Dolgoffon libcom.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dolgoff, Sam
1902 births
1990 deaths
20th-century American historians
American male non-fiction writers
20th-century Russian historians
American anarchists
American anti-capitalists
American people of Belarusian-Jewish descent
Anarcho-syndicalists
Belarusian Jews
Historians of anarchism
House painters
Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States
Jews from the Russian Empire
Industrial Workers of the World members
Jewish anarchists
People from Beshankovichy District
People from Sennensky Uyezd
Russian anti-capitalists
20th-century American male writers