60 Facts About Alexander Schapiro

Alexander "Sanya" Moiseyevich Schapiro or Shapiro was a Russian anarcho-syndicalist activist.

Alexander Schapiro lived in exile for the remainder of his life.

When Kropotkin died, Alexander Schapiro was one of the organizers of his funeral.

Alexander Schapiro collaborated with Goldman and Berkman on anarchist pamphlets denouncing the Soviet state for its authoritarianism and suppression of anarchism.

Alexander Schapiro was born in 1882 or 1883 in Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia.

Alexander Schapiro grew up in Constantinople because his father Moses, a member of the secret revolutionary organization Narodnaya Volya, which assassinated Tsar Alexander II in 1881, was forced to flee the Russian Empire.

Alexander Schapiro grew up speaking Yiddish, Russian, French, and Turkish, and would later learn German and English.

Alexander Schapiro started studying either engineering or biology with the intention of embarking on a career in medicine, but was forced to drop out for financial reasons.

In 1900 or 1901, at Kropotkin's suggestion, Alexander Schapiro moved to London.

Alexander Schapiro is listed as an author on several publications from Waller's lab, but the job allowed him to devote a lot of his time to the anarchist movement.

Alexander Schapiro was opposed because he feared anarchist principles could be compromised by unionism.

Fermin Rocker, the son of Rudolf Rocker, another member of Arbeter Fraynd, liked Alexander Schapiro and considered him well-educated and intelligent, but dogmatic, intolerant, and self-important.

Alexander Schapiro was a member of the Jewish Anarchist Federation, a group of Eastern European anarchist immigrants.

Alexander Schapiro was in charge of the federation's Jubilee Street Club, which was established in 1906.

In 1906 and 1907, Alexander Schapiro helped publish Listki Chleb i Volja, a series of pamphlets written by Kropotkin.

Alexander Schapiro became the editor of the Bureau's journal, the Bulletin de l'Internationale Anarchiste, which he published in French from London until 1910.

Alexander Schapiro wrote that the lack of enthusiasm of the international anarchist movement for the Anarchist International and the Bulletin was due to "the fear that organisation might be the way whereby centralisation and authoritarianism could sneak into the anarchist movement".

Rocker praised the patience, intelligence, and talent Alexander Schapiro exhibited in his work for the Anarchist International.

Alexander Schapiro was heavily involved in the preparations and published a bulletin to facilitate communication in the run-up to the congress.

Anarchists from several countries pledged to attend and Alexander Schapiro was optimistic the congress would be a success.

Alexander Schapiro took part in the First International Syndicalist Congress in London in 1913.

Alexander Schapiro did not represent any organization, but was one of two translators, with Christiaan Cornelissen the other.

Alexander Schapiro argued that German militarism was to blame for the war, that Germany was the primary supporter of reaction in Europe, that France and Belgium had to be freed from German attack, and that the German working class was as bad as the German ruling class.

In March 1915, about 40 anarchists, including Schapiro, Malatesta, and the Americans Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman signed the International Anarchist Manifesto on the War.

Alexander Schapiro became the editor of the Arbeter Fraynd journal and worked with Rocker's partner Milly Witkop to keep it running.

In 1916, Witkop was interned, Alexander Schapiro was imprisoned for his opposition to the war, and the journal was shut down by the authorities.

Alexander Schapiro returned to Russia, arriving in Petrograd on May 31,1917.

Alexander Schapiro was one of several anarcho-syndicalists returning from exile including Vladimir Shatov, Maksim Raevskii, and Volin.

Alexander Schapiro was the driving force behind Golos Trudas's publishing house, which released Russian translations of works by Western syndicalist theorists like Fernand Pelloutier, Emile Pouget, or Cornelissen.

Details on Alexander Schapiro's activities are scarce, but he collaborated more openly with the Bolshevik government than most syndicalists.

Alexander Schapiro worked for the Commissariat of Jewish Affairs, part of the Commissariat of Foreign Affairs, which was headed by Chicherin whom Schapiro had come to know in London.

Alexander Schapiro turned his attention to pushing back against this repression and helping anarchist prisoners.

Alexander Schapiro relayed to them Russian syndicalists' critique of the regime and their fears of persecution.

Rosmer contacted Alexander Schapiro and met him at the Golos Truda printing house.

Rosmer and Alexander Schapiro discussed the issue and Rosmer was optimistic it could be resolved.

Goldman, Berkman, the anarchist-turned-Bolshevik Victor Serge, and above all Alexander Schapiro made sure that the visiting syndicalists were apprised of the imprisonment of anarchists and the hunger strike.

Alexander Schapiro demanded that a representative of the Russian syndicalist movement who was present, most likely Schapiro, be allowed to address the congress, but he was denied.

The meeting decided to create an international Syndicalist Bureau, to which Alexander Schapiro would be the Russian representative, and discussed the position the syndicalist movement should take on the RILU.

Alexander Schapiro contacted Chicherin and received assurances he could safely return to Russia.

Chicherin ignored a letter Alexander Schapiro sent him from prison and the RILU refused to notify the Syndicalist Bureau of his arrest.

Alexander Schapiro was released and, charged with anti-Soviet activities, expelled from Russia in October 1922, on the anniversary of the October Revolution.

Alexander Schapiro subsequently wrote about his imprisonment in several syndicalist journals in the West.

Alexander Schapiro became one of the most active Russian syndicalist exiles.

Rocker pointed to the Bolshevik government's treatment of Alexander Schapiro in making the case against participation in the RILU and for the formation of a syndicalist international.

Alexander Schapiro himself argued that participation in the RILU would be incompatible with syndicalist principles.

Alexander Schapiro considered the IWMA more important than did the other members of the secretariat who mainly thought of it as a response to both Bolshevism and reformism.

Alexander Schapiro viewed the IWMA as the continuation of the efforts to unite the international syndicalist movement that had begun before World War I and performed most of the secretariat's work during the organization's first year.

Alexander Schapiro hoped discussions within the IWMA would lead to unity among syndicalists on questions concerning revolutionary tactics and strategy.

Alexander Schapiro later found that the IWMA frequently had to mediate between contradictory understandings of anarcho-syndicalism.

From 1923, Alexander Schapiro served on the Joint Committee for the Defense of the Revolutionaries Imprisoned in Russia and then on the IWMA's Relief Fund for Anarchists and Anarcho-Syndicalists Imprisoned in Russia.

Alexander Schapiro used the journal to expound on the lessons he drew from the Russian Revolution.

Alexander Schapiro concluded that anarchism could only overcome such problematic reactions by giving more attention to a theory of the revolutionary process rather than the ideal of a post-revolutionary society.

Alexander Schapiro repeatedly criticized Makhno und his movement, the Makhnovshchyna, as "non-anarchist" or "war anarchism".

Alexander Schapiro met Makhno when the latter stayed in Berlin for a few weeks in 1925 and the dispute repeatedly escalated into shouting.

In December 1932, Alexander Schapiro went to Barcelona on behalf of the IWMA in order to set up its Iberian organization.

Alexander Schapiro was tasked with mediating the conflict between the FAI and treintistas.

Alexander Schapiro traveled on to France, where he continued to work with the IWMA and edited another anarcho-syndicalist paper, La Voix du Travail.

Thoroughly disillusioned, Alexander Schapiro left Europe for New York in June 1939.

Alexander Schapiro published articles on anarcho-syndicalism, the situations in Spain and Russia, as well as the killing of Carlo Tresca.

Alexander Schapiro died of heart failure in New York on December 5,1946.