Anarchists Never Surrender: Essays, Polemics, and Correspondence on Anarchism, 1908–1938

by Victor Serge, Richard Greeman (Foreword), Mitchell Abidor (Editor)

Anarchists Never Surrender provides a complete picture of Victor Serge’s relationship to anarchism. The volume contains writings going back to his teenage years in Brussels, where he became influenced by the doctrine of individualist anarchism. At the heart of the anthology are key articles written soon after his arrival in Paris in 1909, when he became editor of the newspaper l’anarchie . In these articles Serge develops and debates his own radical thoughts, arguing the futility of mass action and embracing “illegalism.” Serge's involvement with the notorious French group of anarchist armed robbers, the Bonnot Gang, landed him in prison for the first time in 1912. Anarchists Never Surrender includes both his prison correspondence with his anarchist comrade Émile Armand and articles written immediately after his release. The book also includes several articles and letters written by Serge after he had left anarchism behind and joined the Russian Bolsheviks in 1919. Here Serge analyzed anarchism and the ways in which he hoped anarchism would leaven the harshness and dictatorial tendencies of Bolshevism. Included here are writings on anarchist theory and history, Bakunin, the Spanish revolution, and the Kronstadt uprising. Anarchists Never Surrender anthologizes Victor Serge’s previously unavailable texts on anarchism and fleshes out the portrait of this brilliant writer and thinker, a man I.F. Stone called one of the “moral figures of our time.”

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Ebooks, Russia, Essays

256 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2015

About the author

Victor Lvovich Kibalchich (В.Л. Кибальчич) was born in exile in 1890 and died in exile in 1947. He is better known as Victor Serge, a Russian revolutionary and Francophone writer. Originally an anarchist, he joined the Bolsheviks five months after arriving in Petrograd in January 1919, and later worked for the newly founded Comintern as a journalist, editor and translator. He was openly critical of the Soviet regime, but remained loyal to the ideals of socialism until his death.

After time spent in France, Belgium, Russia and Spain, Serge was forced to live out the rest of his life in Mexico, with no country he could call home. Serge's health had been badly damaged by his periods of imprisonment in France and Russia, but he continued to write until he died of heart attack, in Mexico city on 17 November 1947. Having no nationality, no Mexican cemetery could legally take his body, so he was buried as a 'Spanish Republican.'

Reviews

[Toby Newton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Serge identifies a crucial mystery. Why is it that, in the revolutionary imagination, the "working man" has been endowed with the magical property of, quite suddenly, on emancipation from his exploitative bonds, blossoming into a fully formed enlightened political consciousness? It doesn't seem very plausible. The early essays rail against the naivety and unlikeliness of such a spontaneous transformation. Then Serge experiences the Russian revolution and its aftermath and becomes, if not exactly a convert, then someone who (believes he) understands that individually, independently practised anarchy, without engaging the larger bulk of society, won't make a revolution either. The common thread throughout his journey is an insistence on the need for an education that prepares people to live and think differently. Amen to that.

[Rudy The Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buku ini menceritakan tentang Anarkisme yang ditulis oleh Victor Serge. Seperti pada buku-buku Anarkisme, mereka selalu menentang Kapitalisme dan Otoritarianism dan lebih melakukan pendekatan kepada Marxisme. Mungkin kaljan bisa mendapatkan sedikit cerita heroik dari buku ini mengenai Revolusi Rusia/ Uni Soviet dibawah Stalin. Buku ini merupakan buku yang dapat kamu pakai untuk menambah wawasan tentang Anarkisme

Apakah termasuk buku yang (MUST READ)?

Jawabannya tidak, karena seperti buku Marxisme yang lain yang merupakan anti tesis dari Kapitalisme. Anarkisme menurut saya pribadi merupakan turunan dari Marxisme jadi sebenarnya tidak ada hal baru yang bisa saya dapat dari buku ini. Buku ini cocok untuk mereka yang ingin mengetahui lebih banyak tentang pandangan Anarkisme dan Marxisme.

[Daniel T · Rating 2 out of 5]

Serge was a great story teller and a very important historian of the early yeara of the soviet union. However, this book of his essays, most of which read as the modern equivalent of blog post(one essay complains that sports are anti-revolutionary), shows his limitations. While likely always leaning anarchist, his ideology fluctuates and instead of offering any new ideas, spends all his time critiquing others.

[Fred Dameron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the first Serge I've read, but well done. Through his writings one can trace his journey of independence from the norm. Anarchists, as defined by Serge want all people to live in harmony with each other with no dominant individual running the show. It is this belief that led Stalin to jail, exile to Siberia, and eventually exile from Russia. His writings in this compilation show this journey. Great read for those looking at the history of left wing movements at the turn of the century.

[Anggie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nggak selesai, kayanya gak bakal nyelesain. Terlalu berat, banyak yang aku gak faham. Konteks nya udah dapet tapi banyak yang belum aku tau kisah nya juga terlalu asing.