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==Palmer raids==

==Palmer raids==

Palmer, the “Fighting Quaker,” responded with major cross-country raids—the Palmer Raids—on radical organizations, including the New York-based Union of Russian Workers, on November 7-8, 1919, the second anniversary of the [[Bolshevik Revolution]]. On January 2, 1920, Federal agents arrested more than 4,000 [[Communist]]s in 33 different cities. The ''[[Washington Post]]'' warned “[t]here is not time to waste on hair-splitting over infringement of liberty.” [[J. Edgar Hoover]], a 24-year old [[Justice Department]] official, located a U.S. Army trans-port, termed the “Soviet Ark,” to take a shipload of radicals home, and invited Members of Congress to see them off at Ellis Island. He now emerged as a national figure, whilst his superior, the Attorney General, began making plans to run for President.

Palmer, the “Fighting Quaker,” responded with major cross-country raids—the Palmer Raids—on radical organizations, including the New York-based Union of Russian Workers, on November 7–8, 1919, the second anniversary of the [[Bolshevik Revolution]]. On January 2, 1920, Federal agents arrested more than 4,000 [[Communist]]s in 33 different cities. The ''[[Washington Post]]'' warned “[t]here is not time to waste on hair-splitting over infringement of liberty.” [[J. Edgar Hoover]], a 24-year old [[Justice Department]] official, located a U.S. Army trans-port, termed the “Soviet Ark,” to take a shipload of radicals home, and invited Members of Congress to see them off at Ellis Island. He now emerged as a national figure, whilst his superior, the Attorney General, began making plans to run for President.

The unrest did not last. May Day 1920 passed without incident. With his credibility damaged, Palmer saw his presidential aspirations erode. [[Warren G. Harding]], running for President against Democrat James Cox, said that “too much has been said about Bolshevism in America.” <ref> Roberta Strauss Feuerlicht, ''America’s Reign of Terror: World War I, the Red Scare, and the Palmer Raids'' (New York: Random House, 1971), 108.</ref> The [[Wilson administration]], leaderless following Wilson’s stroke on October 2, 1919, had become undisciplined and erratic. Such intervals would recur, with both parties involved, but now a sense of civic order returned. Theodore Draper observed,

The unrest did not last. May Day 1920 passed without incident. With his credibility damaged, Palmer saw his presidential aspirations erode. [[Warren G. Harding]], running for President against Democrat James Cox, said that “too much has been said about Bolshevism in America.” <ref>Roberta Strauss Feuerlicht, ''America’s Reign of Terror: World War I, the Red Scare, and the Palmer Raids'' (New York: Random House, 1971), 108.</ref> The [[Wilson administration]], leaderless following Wilson’s stroke on October 2, 1919, had become undisciplined and erratic. Such intervals would recur, with both parties involved, but now a sense of civic order returned. Theodore Draper observed,

{{Cquote|Ironically, the Palmer raids came as a blessing in disguise to the foreign-language federations. More than ever they were able to imagine themselves Russian Bolsheviks in America. Had not the Russian Revolution been forced to work illegally almost to the very eve of the seizure of power? Was there any fundamental difference between Palmer’s prisons and the Czar’s dungeons, the Bureau of Immigration’s deportations and the [[Ochrana]]’s exiledom in Siberia? If the Russian road to the revolution was right, then the postwar repression in the United States merely offered additional proof that the American revolution was really approaching. The underground character of the movement became the supreme test of its revolutionary integrity. A truly revolutionary organization by definition had to suffer repression, as in Czarist Russia. The Russia hypnosis made a necessity into a virtue.<ref>Theodore Draper, The Roots of American Communism (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, Inc. 1957), 67.</ref>}}

{{Cquote|Ironically, the Palmer raids came as a blessing in disguise to the foreign-language federations. More than ever they were able to imagine themselves Russian Bolsheviks in America. Had not the Russian Revolution been forced to work illegally almost to the very eve of the seizure of power? Was there any fundamental difference between Palmer’s prisons and the Czar’s dungeons, the Bureau of Immigration’s deportations and the [[Ochrana]]’s exiledom in Siberia? If the Russian road to the revolution was right, then the postwar repression in the United States merely offered additional proof that the American revolution was really approaching. The underground character of the movement became the supreme test of its revolutionary integrity. A truly revolutionary organization by definition had to suffer repression, as in Czarist Russia. The Russia hypnosis made a necessity into a virtue.<ref>Theodore Draper, The Roots of American Communism (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, Inc. 1957), 67.</ref>}}

* Four payments [are recorded as sent to] America; 209,000 rubles to Kotliarov on 16 July 1919, 500,000 rubles to Khavkin on 30 September 1919, [as noted] 1,008,000 rubles to John Reed on 22 January 1920, and 1,011,000 rubles to Anderson on 31 January 1920.  

* Four payments [are recorded as sent to] America; 209,000 rubles to Kotliarov on 16 July 1919, 500,000 rubles to Khavkin on 30 September 1919, [as noted] 1,008,000 rubles to John Reed on 22 January 1920, and 1,011,000 rubles to Anderson on 31 January 1920.  

* These four subsidies alone add up to 2,728,000 rubles. The value of the ruble on foreign exchange markets fluctuated wildly from 1919 to 1922 before the Soviets stabilized the “hard” ruble used for international trade at between $1 and $2. The Comintern document records that the subvention for American operations was in “value,” a term in Comintern bookkeeping meaning that the sums were transmitted in the form of gold, silver, or jewels rather than currency. Thus, this account reveals that in this period the Comintern supplied the tiny American Communist movement with the equivalent of several million dollars in valuables, an enormous sum in the 1920s. <ref>Harvey Klehr, John E. Haynes, and Fridrikh I. Firsov, eds. The Secret World of American Communism. Annals of Communism. New Haven, Conn. and London: Yale University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-300-06183-8. </ref>}}

* These four subsidies alone add up to 2,728,000 rubles. The value of the ruble on foreign exchange markets fluctuated wildly from 1919 to 1922 before the Soviets stabilized the “hard” ruble used for international trade at between $1 and $2. The Comintern document records that the subvention for American operations was in “value,” a term in Comintern bookkeeping meaning that the sums were transmitted in the form of gold, silver, or jewels rather than currency. Thus, this account reveals that in this period the Comintern supplied the tiny American Communist movement with the equivalent of several million dollars in valuables, an enormous sum in the 1920s.<ref>Harvey Klehr, John E. Haynes, and Fridrikh I. Firsov, eds. The Secret World of American Communism. Annals of Communism. New Haven, Conn. and London: Yale University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-300-06183-8.</ref>}}

==References==

==References==

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[[category:terrorism]]

[[Category:Terrorism]]

[[category:history]]

[[Category:History]]