BR TO EMMA GOLDMAN, 14 FEB. 1925
BRACERS 76904. ALS. IISH, Amsterdam. SLBR 2: #364
Edited by N. Griffin

<letterhead>
31 Sydney Street
London. S.W.3.
14.2.25

Dear Miss Goldman

There are various points in your letter, which I will deal with one by one.

First: I never had a chance to read Don Levine’s document at the time you are thinking of, as it had to be sent on at once. I have read since a document he sent me, and written, as he wished, a prefatory note, for which he has written to thank me.

Second: I am entirely willing to sign the letter to the Soviet Government enclosed in Alsberg’s letter.1 I remember Alsberg well, and am sorry he has found me and others in England remiss. The fact is we all had such a strenuous time with our own politics, that we had hardly the leisure to think of anything else. Now that the Tories are safely established we are less pre-occupied. But what with pulling the electors and pushing the leaders we have had a most harrowing time.

Thirdly: I must try to explain why I have not definitely joined your movement. I am prepared to sign definite letters of protest to the Soviet Government, or documented statements as to the existing evils; in such cases, I know exactly what I am committing myself to. But I am not prepared to advocate any alternative government in Russia: I am persuaded that the cruelties would be at least as great under any other party. And I do not regard the abolition of all government as a thing which has any chance of being brought about in our lifetimes or during the twentieth century. I am therefore unwilling to be associated with any movement which might seem to imply that a change of government is desirable in Russia. I think ill of the Bolsheviks in many ways, but quite as ill of their opponents. I feel that your movement, even against your wishes, will appear as political opposition to the present Soviet Government; and that being so, I feel that my support must be limited to signing documents, such as Alsberg’s, which cannot be taken to have any such implication.

I am very sorry to have failed you, and I hesitated for a long time. But the above view is what, in the end, I felt to be the only possible one for me.

Yours sincerely
Bertrand Russell.

• 1

  Alsberg’s letter Henry G. Alsberg of the International Committee for Political Prisoners had written to Russell about a petition to the Soviet Government on behalf of political prisoners. Russell had replied enthusiastically on 29 August 1923 suggesting tactics and had subsequently drafted a letter to the Soviet authorities.