G.P. Maksimov Papers
Period
1917-1952
Total size
1.85
m.
Consultation
Not restricted
Biography
Full name: Grigorij Petrovič Maksimov (Maximoff); pseudonym: Gr. Lapot'; born in Mitušino, Smolensk province, Russia 1893, died in Chicago 1950; anarcho-syndicalist, writer; studied agronomy in St. Petersburg; anarchist propagandist from 1912; militant within the revolutionary trade unions in St. Petersburg and Moscow; editor of the anarchist periodical Golos Truda/Novyj Golos Truda 1917-1918; several times arrested; through intervention of anarcho-syndicalists from Western Europe who attended the PROFINTERN Congress in Moscow liberated and subsequently banned from Russia; in 1922 in Berlin; supporter of the International Working Men's Association (IWMA); contributed to the anarcho-syndicalist journal Rabočij Put'; emigrated to Chicago in 1925; edited Golos Truženika and Delo Truda/Probuždenie; contributed to Fraye Arbeter Shtime and other anarchist periodicals; published several books including `The Guillotine at Work' 1940.
Content
Some correspondence by Maksimov, mainly 1929-1940; correspondence and other documents of the Zagraničnoe bjuro po sozdaniju Rossijskoj konfederacii Anarcho-Sindikalistov 1922-1924; manuscripts of his books `The Political Philosophy of Bakunin: Scientific Anarchism', `Constructive Anarchism' and `The Guillotine at Work', in Russian and English; many articles, handwritten, typed and printed; articles by others, including one by Max Nettlau; notebooks and notes of Maksimov; handwritten accounts of speeches made in Russia against the Bolsheviks 1917; appeals and manifestos; leaflets, press clippings and other printed material.
INTRODUCTION
Grigorij Petrovič Maksimov (Maximoff) (ps. Gr. Lapot') was born in 1893 in the Russian village of Mitušino in the province of Smolensk. He studied in St. Petersburg, where he graduated as an agronomist in 1915. At a very early age he became acquainted with the revolutionary movement. He came across some writings of Kropotkin and Bakunin and was to remain under Bakunin 's spell for the rest of his life. Maksimov took part in the secret propaganda among the students in St. Petersburg and the peasants in the rural regions, and when the revolution broke out, he established contacts with the labor unions, speaking at their meetings. When the Bolsheviks seized control of the Russian government, Maksimov was arrested and was condemned to death. He owed it to the solidarity and dynamic protests of the steel workers' union that his life was spared. In 1921 he and a dozen comrades were arrested again. Thanks to French and Spanish comrades, then attending a PROFINTERN congress in Moscow, they were freed on condition that the prisoners be exiled from their home land.
Maksimov went first to Germany for about three years and then went to Paris for some time, whereupon he emigrated to the United States. Maksimov was an editor of and contributor to various libertarian newspapers and magazines. In Moscow he served as co-editor of Golos Truda , and its successor Novyj Golos truda . In Berlin he became the editor of the Anarcho-Syndical Rabočij Put' . Settling later in Chicago, he was appointed as editor of Golos Truženika , to which he had contributed from Europe. After that periodical ceased to exist he assumed the editorship of Delo Truda-Probuždenie , issued in New York City.
To his credit, too, is the writing of a book entitled 'The Guillotine at Work', a richly documented history of twenty years of terror in Soviet Russia, a book called 'The Political Philosophy of Bakunin : Scientific Anarchism', and a booklet 'Constructive Anarchism'. Maksimov died suddenly, from heart failure, in 1950.
The archive
The IISH received the papers together with Maksimov 's library from his wife Olga Maximoff-Urkevich in 1966. Most of the papers of Maksimov he used in preparation of the book 'The Guillotine at Work'. In addition to these materials there are the manuscript of ' Bakunin ' and other manuscripts, some correspondence, papers of the Relief Committee in Berlin, and leaflets in English and Russian.
The archive measures 1.85 metres.
LIST
- 4-6
- Correspondence and other documents of the Zagraničnoe bjuro po sozdaniju Rossijskoj konfedracii Anarcho-Sindikalistov. 1922-1924. 3 folders.
- 7
- Documents of the 'Delo Truda'-, and other anarchist groups. 1925, 1933-1935, 1937, 1940 and n.d. 1 folder.
- 8
- Documents relating to the Relief Fund of the IWMA for Anarchists and Anarcho-Syndicalists Imprisoned and Exiled in Russia . 1917, 1919, 1921, 1922, 1927, 1934, 1936, 1938 and n.d. 1 folder.
- 9-12
- Manuscript of 'Constructive Anarchism'. Handwritten and typed. In Russian and English. [1927], [1933], 1951 and n.d. 4 folders.
- 13-16
- Manuscript of 'The Political Philosophy of Bakunin : Scientific Anarchism'. Handwritten and typed. In Russian and English. 1923, 1952 and n.d. 4 boxes.
- 17-18
- Manuscript of 'The Guillotine at Work' and documents used for the book. Handwritten and typed. In Russian and English. ( 1919, 1920, 1921 ), 1923-1929, 1931-1936, 1939, 1940 and n.d. 2 boxes.
- 19-21
- Articles by Maksimov . Handwritten and typed. In Russian. 1921-1927, 1935, 1939, 1946 and n.d. 3 boxes.