Marie Goldsmith

Marie Goldsmith
Born	1862 Russia
Died	January 11, 1933 (aged 70–71) Paris
Nationality	Russian
Other names	Maria Korn, M. Corn, M. Isidine

Marie Isidorovna Goldsmith was a Russian Jewish anarchist and collaborator of Peter Kropotkin.

Early life and career

Marie Isidorovna Goldsmith was born to Jewish and Russian ancestry^[1] in 1862^[2] or 1863.^[3] Her father, Isidor, was a radical publisher in St. Petersburg and her mother, Sofia, was trained in medicine. The family belonged to forbidden organizations. They fled Russia for Paris in 1884, where her father died two years later.^[3] Goldsmith received a Ph.D. in biology from the Sorbonne in 1915 and published scientific papers.^[3] She served as secretary of L'Année Biologique from 1902 to 1919, and worked closely with its editor, Yves Delage, especially after he became nearly blind in 1904. Together they published Les Théories de l'évolution and La Parthénogénèse naturelle et expérimentale. After his death in 1920, Goldsmith struggled to find stable work.^[4]

During her student years in Paris, Goldsmith joined the Etudiants socialistes révolutionnaires internationalistes (ESRI) in June 1892, an anarchist organization founded the previous December, for which she wrote brochures and was active until 1898.^[4] She became a figure of stature among Russian anarchists and had strong relationships with other Russian revolutionaries. Likely first met Emma Goldman in the late 1890s on her visit to Europe.^[3] In the early 1900s, Goldsmith attended meetings where Peter Kropotkin discussed revolutionary tactics.^[1] She wrote for a number of anarchist publications in English, French, Italian, Russian, and Yiddish throughout the rest of her life. Goldsmith most often wrote under the nom de plume M. Korn,^[5] though she also used the names Maria Corn and Maria Isidine.^[4] Goldsmith wrote for the Yiddish Freie Arbeiter Stimme^[5] and the London-based Hleb i Volya.^[1] The latter emigré paper shut down after November 1905 when many of its editors returned to Russia upon news of the Revolution of 1905, but as need persisted, the Listki Hleb i Volya started in London a year later, following a conference in October 1906. Goldsmith assisted with editorial work and Kropotkin, who served on its editorial board, was dedicated to its cause.^[6] The paper was largely supported by Americans and most of its circulation of three to four thousand copies went there instead of to Russia.^[7] Following the 1917 October Revolution, Goldsmith assisted with Kropotkin's Memoirs of a Revolutionist and Kropotkin described her as a collaborator.^[8] She also translated Kropotkin's Ethics from Russian to French in 1927.^[9] Her correspondence with Kropotkin, over 400 letters, is housed in the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris, with copies at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.^[2] Goldsmith continued to write for other anarchist papers, including the Plus Loin in the 1920s,^[4] and her apartment, which she shared with her mother, served as a meeting place for Russian anarchists in Paris.^[5] Shortly after her mother died, Goldsmith killed herself on January 11, 1933.^[4][5] She never naturalized as French.^[4]

Notes

1. Woodcock & Avakumović 1950, p. 360.
2. Slatter 1994, p. 277.
3. Falk 2003, p. 531.
4. Maitron 1974.
5. Falk 2003, p. 532.
6. Woodcock & Avakumović 1950, p. 368.
7. Woodcock & Avakumović 1950, p. 369.
8. Woodcock & Avakumović 1950, p. 403.
9. Peng & Rabut 2014, p. 60.

References

• Falk, Candace, ed. (2003). Emma Goldman: A Documentary History of the American Years. Volume One: Made for America, 1890–1901. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-08670-8.
• Maitron, Jean, ed. (1974). GOLDSMITH Maria, Isidorovna, dite Corn Maria ou Isidine. Dictionnaire biographique du mouvement ouvrier français, Troisième partie: 1871–1914. 12. Paris: Les Éditions Ouvrières. p. 301. ISBN 9782708224247. OCLC 929517746.
• Peng, Hsiao-yen; Rabut, Isabelle, eds. (2014). Modern China and the West: Translation and Cultural Mediation. Leiden: Brill. p. 60. ISBN 978-90-04-27022-0.
• Slatter, John (1994). "The Correspondence of P. A. Kropotkin as Historical Source Material". The Slavonic and East European Review. 72 (2): 277–288. ISSN 0037-6795. JSTOR 4211477.
• Slatter, John (1997). "Review of Anarchistes en exil: Correspondance inedite de Pierre Kropotkine a Marie Goldsmith 1897-1917". The Russian Review. 56 (3): 472. doi:10.2307/131775. ISSN 0036-0341. JSTOR 131775.
• Woodcock, George; Avakumović, Ivan (1950). The Anarchist Prince. London: Boardman.

Further reading

• Ogilvie, Marilyn; Harvey, Joy, eds. (2000). "Goldsmith, Marie (1873–1933)". The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives from Ancient Times to the Mid-20th Century. 1. New York: Routledge. pp. 1046–7. ISBN 978-0-203-80145-1. OCLC 437084898.
• A history of the French anarchist movement, 1917-1945, 100, 292
• Avrich, Paul (2005). The Russian Anarchists. AK Press. pp. 39, 76, 81, 82, 108–10, 114, 115, 117, 136, 246, also see index.
• https://books.google.com/books?id=dh1NvIxiaIIC&pg=PA353
• ^[1]
• Maitron, J. (1964). "Le groupe des Etudiants Socialistes Révolutionnaires Internationalistes de Paris (1892-1902): Contribution à la connaissance des origines du syndicalisme révolutionnaire". Le Mouvement social (46): 3–26. doi:10.2307/3777262. ISSN 0027-2671. JSTOR 3777262.
• Slatter, John (1997). "Review of Anarchistes en exil: Correspondance inedite de Pierre Kropotkine a Marie Goldsmith 1897-1917". The Russian Review. 56 (3): 472. doi:10.2307/131775. ISSN 0036-0341. JSTOR 131775.
• Howell, Yvonne (1999). "Review of The Conquest of Bread and Other Writings; Anarchistes en exile Correspondance inedite de Pierre Kropotkine a Marie Goldsmith 1897-1917". The Slavic and East European Journal. 43 (2): 396–398. doi:10.2307/309569. ISSN 0037-6752. JSTOR 309569.
• Confino, Michael (1981). "Anarchisme et internationalisme. Autour du "Manifeste des Seize". Correspondance inédite de Pierre Kropotkine et de Marie Goldsmith, janvier-mars 1916". Cahiers du Monde russe et soviétique. 22 (2/3): 231–249. ISSN 0008-0160. JSTOR 20169922.
• Confino, Michael (1982). "Kropotkine en 1914: La guerre et les congrès manqués des anarchistes russes. Lettres inédites de Pierre Kropotkine à Marie Goldsmith. 11 janvier-31 décembre 1914". Cahiers du Monde russe et soviétique. 23 (1): 63–107. ISSN 0008-0160. JSTOR 20169945.
• Confino, Michael; Rubinstein, Daniel (1992). "Kropotkine savant. Vingt-cinq lettres inédites de Pierre Kropotkine à Marie Goldsmith. 27 juillet 1901-9 juillet 1915". Cahiers du Monde russe et soviétique. 33 (2/3): 243–301. ISSN 0008-0160. JSTOR 20170822.

External links

Media related to Marie Goldsmith at Wikimedia Commons

1. Slatter 1997.