Boris Yelensky

Boris Yelensky (February 17, 1889 – June 18, 1974) was a Russian anarchist propagandist from the early 20th century. Born in Russia in 1889, he participated in the 1905 Revolution, later migrating to the US, returning to take part in the 1917 Revolution and migrating once more to the US. Once there, he became a prominent figure in the anarchism movement, particularly in the Anarchist Red Cross in Chicago.

Life

Early years Boris Yelensky was born in Krasnodar, Russia in 1889, near Novorosisk on the Black Sea in the Russian Empire. Born to a capmaker father, he attended a Russian primary school, and worked for his father as a young boy. His family was Jewish, but did not practice Judaism, and Boris did not learn to speak or write Yiddish as a child.

Activism He began reading socialist literature at the age of 12, joining the Union of Socialists-Revolutionaries Maximalists and participating in the 1905 botched revolution. He was present during the October Revolution, and active in the factory committee movement in Novorossijsk. During his stay in Russia, he was imprisoned twice. He left Russia with his family in 1922, being banned from the USSR in 1923, and deported as a US citizen; he remained secretary of the Russian Political Relief Committee in 1924–1925.

During the Second World War and immediately afterwards, he offered assistance to victims of the war through his European contacts, sending parcels through CARE.

Yelensky wrote proficiently, and the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam houses his complete archive, including articles he wrote under his pseudonym Berl Kavkazer.

Publications Boris Yalensky published a series of texts during his lifetime, including in publications Golos truzhenika (Chicago, 1918–1927), Delo truda probuzhdenie (New York, 1940–1963), Freie Arbeiter Stimme (New york, 1890–1977), Dos Fraye Vort, Industrial Worker, Freedom (New York, 1919) and The Match! (Tucson, 1969-). However, he is most notable for two works: his published letters, the Boris Yelensky papers, 1939-1975, which consists of a series of letters (including to Lucy Parsons), essays, novels, and memoirs, including photographs; and In the Struggle for Equality, a history of the Anarchist Red Cross.