Mollie Steimer
Encyclopedia
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. She immigrated to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
with her family at the age of 15. She became an anarchist and activist who fought as a trade unionist, an anti-war activist and a free-speech campaigner.
Activism
Standing just 4'9" (1.42 m), Steimer went to work in the garment factories of New York's Lower East SideLower East Side
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
. She soon became involved in trade union activities, and became interested in anarchism
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
. She was influenced by works such as August Bebel
August Bebel
Ferdinand August Bebel was a German Marxist politician, writer, and orator. He is best remembered as one of the founders of the Social Democratic Party of Germany.-Early years:...
's Women and Socialism, Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin was a well-known Russian revolutionary and theorist of collectivist anarchism. He has also often been called the father of anarchist theory in general. Bakunin grew up near Moscow, where he moved to study philosophy and began to read the French Encyclopedists,...
's Statehood and Anarchy,
Peter Kropotkin
Peter Kropotkin
Prince Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin was a Russian zoologist, evolutionary theorist, philosopher, economist, geographer, author and one of the world's foremost anarcho-communists. Kropotkin advocated a communist society free from central government and based on voluntary associations between...
's Memoirs of a Revolutionist and Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman was an anarchist known for her political activism, writing and speeches. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the twentieth century....
's Anarchism and Other Essays. She later became a friend of Emma Goldman's
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman was an anarchist known for her political activism, writing and speeches. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the twentieth century....
. Goldman described Steimer as a hardened anarchist militant and fanatic, completely devoted to armed struggle, but with "an iron will" and a "tender heart".
In 1917, aged 19, Steimer helped form a clandestine collective called Der Shturm ("The Storm") with other Jewish anarchists. Several of the members, including Steimer, shared a six-room apartment at 5 East 104th Street in Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
where they held meetings. After reconciling their internal conflicts they renamed themselves Frayhayt ("Freedom"). With the aid of a hand-operated printing press, they published a journal of the same name out of the 104th St. apartment.
Frayhayt was distributed in secret, because it had been outlawed by the federal government for its opposition to the American war effort. The masthead read "The only just war is social revolution." The motto was a Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist...
quote: "That government is best which governs not at all" (in Yiddish: "Yene regirung iz di beste, velke regirt in gantsn nit"). Copies of the paper were tightly folded and stuffed into mailboxes around the city after dark. Between January 1918 and May 1918 the group published five issues with cartoons by Robert Minor
Robert Minor
Robert Berkeley "Bob" Minor was political cartoonist, a radical journalist, and a leading member of the American Communist Party.-Early life:...
and articles by Maria Goldsmith and Georg Brandes
Georg Brandes
Georg Morris Cohen Brandes was a Danish critic and scholar who had great influence on Scandinavian and European literature from the 1870s through the turn of the 20th century. He is seen as the theorist behind the "Modern Breakthrough" of Scandinavian culture...
among others.
Federal authorities were aware of the group and their publication but were unable to discover who the members were and track them down.
Arrest
By the spring of 1918 large numbers of American troops were arriving in France to fight with the AlliesTriple Entente
The Triple Entente was the name given to the alliance among Britain, France and Russia after the signing of the Anglo-Russian Entente in 1907....
against Germany
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
, Turkey
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Steimer and other members of Frayhayt saw the war as an imperialist and counter-revolutionary distraction from the worker's struggle, and resolved to stop it. They drafted two leaflets on the subject, one in English and one in Yiddish, calling on American workers to refuse the U.S. draft for military service and to take part in a general strike
General strike
A general strike is a strike action by a critical mass of the labour force in a city, region, or country. While a general strike can be for political goals, economic goals, or both, it tends to gain its momentum from the ideological or class sympathies of the participants...
.
On August 23, 1918, one day after throwing a bundle of flyers from the upper floor of a factory in lower Manhattan, Steimer was arrested. Police had previously picked up another Frayhayt member, Hyman Rosansky, who admitted his involvement in distributing the flyers and in his confession, implicated the others. Steimer was arrested for conspiracy to violate the Espionage Act of 1917
Espionage Act of 1917
The Espionage Act of 1917 is a United States federal law passed on June 15, 1917, shortly after the U.S. entry into World War I. It has been amended numerous times over the years. It was originally found in Title 50 of the U.S. Code but is now found under Title 18, Crime...
, which made it a criminal offense to disseminate information with intent to interfere with the operation of the U.S. armed forces, to promote the success of its enemies, to cause or attempt to cause insubordination, mutiny, or refusal of duty, or to willfully obstruct recruiting and enlistment in the armed forces of the United States. Angered by radical left opposition to his decision to enter the war, President Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
had strongly supported enaction of the Espionage Act.
Steimer had helped write and print the handbills which condemned the war and President Wilson. The group was especially angered by Wilson's recent decision to divert U.S. Army troops to Archangelsk, Russia to fight in support of anti-communist White Army forces and against the Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
. The leaflets read AWAKE! AWAKE, YOU WORKERS OF THE WORLD! REVOLUTIONISTS. One of her co-defendants, Jacob Schwartz, was brutally beaten by police and died of his injuries on October 14th, 1918. The remaining defendants were charged with conspiracy to violate the Espionage Act.
Trial
In October 1918, Steimer and three others, Jacob Abrams, Hyman Lachowsky, and Samuel Lipman, were convicted of violating the U.S. Espionage Act. In a passionate statement at her trial, Steimer stated she was willing to die for freedom and anarchism. At sentencing, the court gave the three men - Lipman, Lachowsky, and Abrams - the maximum penalty of twenty years in prison and a $1,000 fine; Steimer received fifteen years in the Federal Penitentiary in Jefferson City MissouriMissouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, and a $500 fine. Rosansky, in a separate proceeding, was given a three-year term.
Steimer was allowed out on bail while her appeal went to the U.S. Supreme Court in Abrams v. United States
Abrams v. United States
Abrams v. United States, 250 U.S. 616 , was a 7-2 decision of the United States Supreme Court involving the 1918 Amendment to the Espionage Act of 1917, which made it a criminal offense to urge curtailment of production of the materials necessary to the war against Germany with intent to hinder the...
. During this time she was re-arrested at least seven times, but was always released without charge.
On October 30, 1919, she was again arrested and taken to Blackwell Island. While there the Supreme Court upheld her conviction under the Espionage Act, and she was transferred to the Jefferson City Prison in Missouri
Jefferson City, Missouri
Jefferson City is the capital of the U.S. state of Missouri and the county seat of Cole County. Located in Callaway and Cole counties, it is the principal city of the Jefferson City metropolitan area, which encompasses the entirety of both counties. As of the 2010 census, the population was 43,079...
.
Deportation
After their unsuccessful appeals, in 1923 a U.S. immigration court ruled that Steimer and her co-defendants be deported. Initially she refused to leave her cell and said that she would not leave until all political prisoners were free. Eventually she relented, but again refused to be transported to Ellis IslandEllis Island
Ellis Island in New York Harbor was the gateway for millions of immigrants to the United States. It was the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 until 1954. The island was greatly expanded with landfill between 1892 and 1934. Before that, the much smaller original island was the...
until a railroad strike was resolved, since she would not use a train run by strike breakers. Ten days later the strike was called off and Steimer was transported to Ellis Island
Ellis Island
Ellis Island in New York Harbor was the gateway for millions of immigrants to the United States. It was the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 until 1954. The island was greatly expanded with landfill between 1892 and 1934. Before that, the much smaller original island was the...
. She was deported to her native Russia on November 1, 1922 on the S.S. Estonia, arriving in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
a month and a half later, on December 15.
Life in Soviet Russia
Upon arrival, Steimer soon saw the Bolshevik communist revolutionRussian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
as one that had taken a "wrong turn". Faced with obvious repression by Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
and the Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
government, which had already begun arresting, and in some cases executing members of anarchist organizations, Steimer sought to support her anarchist comrades. While in Russia she met fellow anarchist Senya Fleshin
Senya Fleshin
Senya Fleshin was an anarchist and photographer.-Early life:...
, who had recently been released from prison for criticizing the new Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
government. Fleshin and Steimer became lovers, and together formed the Society to Help Anarchist Prisoners to aid anarchist prisoners in Bolshevik jails. Both were soon re-arrested and charged with "aiding criminal elements" (i.e. supporting other imprisoned anarchists) in Soviet Russia. Both went on a hunger strike, and after pressure by Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman was an anarchist known for her political activism, writing and speeches. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the twentieth century....
and others, Soviet authorities ordered their deportation to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, where they joined Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman
Alexander Berkman
Alexander Berkman was an anarchist known for his political activism and writing. He was a leading member of the anarchist movement in the early 20th century....
in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. When Hitler came to power, Steimer and Fleshin were forced to flee to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France.
Exile in Germany and France
Disappointed by the revolution in Russia, the couple continued writing and agitating for anarchist causes, first in Germany, and later in France. From Berlin Steimer sent two articles to the London anarchist journal Freedom, On Leaving Russia (January 1924) and The Communists As Jailers (May 1924), in which she described her recent experiences. When deported from America two years before, her "heart was light," she said, but she was "deeply grieved" to be deported from Russia, even though the "hypocrisy, intolerance, and treachery" of the Bolsheviks "aroused in me a feeling of indignation and revolt." In her homeland, she declared, a great popular revolution had been usurped by a ruthless Communist government, using the secret police (ChekaCheka
Cheka was the first of a succession of Soviet state security organizations. It was created by a decree issued on December 20, 1917, by Vladimir Lenin and subsequently led by aristocrat-turned-communist Felix Dzerzhinsky...
) to wipe out political opposition. In a 1923 letter to a friend, she declared: "No, I am NOT happy to be out of Russia. I would rather be there helping the workers combat the tyrannical deeds of the hypocritical Communists."
After Germany came under the control of the National Socialist Party
National Socialist Party
Parties in various contexts have referred to themselves as National Socialist parties. Because there is no clear definition of national socialism, the term has been used to mean very different things...
led by Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
, Steimer and Fleshin fled to France, where they were placed under surveillance by the French police. On May 18, 1940, French officials arrested and imprisoned Steimer at a French internment camp, Camp Gurs
Camp Gurs
Camp Gurs was an internment and refugee camp constructed by the French government in 1939. The camp was originally set up in southwestern France after the fall of Catalonia at the end of the Spanish Civil War to control those who fled Spain out of fear of retaliation from Francisco Franco's regime...
. She remained there incommunicado for seven weeks, before escaping with the aid of May Picqueray and other friends during the chaotic transfer of power to the Vichy
Vichy
Vichy is a commune in the department of Allier in Auvergne in central France. It belongs to the historic province of Bourbonnais.It is known as a spa and resort town and was the de facto capital of Vichy France during the World War II Nazi German occupation from 1940 to 1944.The town's inhabitants...
government. She then traveled to German-occupied (non-Vichy) France, where she reunited with Fleshin. Picqueray and other friends helped smuggle the couple out of France; they eventually traveled to Cuernavaca, Mexico.
Steimer's old comrades from her 1917 espionage trial had various fates. Samuel Lipman stayed in Soviet Russia and was executed on the orders of Joseph Stalin, while Hyman Lachowsky died in a Nazi concentration camp. Jacob Abrams eventually left Europe altogether, settling in Mexico.
Later life
Steimer settled in CuernavacaCuernavaca
Cuernavaca is the capital and largest city of the state of Morelos in Mexico. It was established at the archeological site of Gualupita I by the Olmec, "the mother culture" of Mesoamerica, approximately 3200 years ago...
with Fleshin, her lifelong companion, where they ran a photographic studio. Together they retired in 1963. She continued to advocate anarchist ideals and correspond with various comrades around the world.
In 1976 she was filmed by a Dutch television crew working on a documentary about Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman was an anarchist known for her political activism, writing and speeches. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the twentieth century....
. She was also filmed and interviewed by Pacific Street Films
Pacific Street Films
Pacific Street Films is a documentary film production company founded in Brooklyn, New York in 1969 by anarchists Joel Sucher and Steven Fischler...
for their project about Goldman, Anarchism in America
Anarchism in America (film)
Anarchism in America is a 1983 documentary, directed by Steven Fischler and Joel Sucher, and produced by Pacific Street Films. It has been re-released by AK Press to DVD. The film begins by explaining the filmmakers' interest in anarchism based on their involvement in the group Transcendental...
. Steimer spoke briefly about Goldman, and at length about her own life and struggles.
Steimer died of heart failure in her Cuernavaca home on July 23, 1980, aged 82.
See also
- Anarchist Red Cross
- ChekaChekaCheka was the first of a succession of Soviet state security organizations. It was created by a decree issued on December 20, 1917, by Vladimir Lenin and subsequently led by aristocrat-turned-communist Felix Dzerzhinsky...
(Bolshevik Communist secret police) - OGPU Soviet state security police (successor to the Cheka)
- Polar Bear ExpeditionPolar Bear ExpeditionThe Polar Bear Expedition was a contingent of about 5,000 U.S...
- Senya FleshinSenya FleshinSenya Fleshin was an anarchist and photographer.-Early life:...