Nick Heath
British anarchist-communist and thorough documenter of the international anarchist movement.
Tom Barclay (1852 - 1933)
A short biography of Tom Barclay, a founder of the Socialist League in Leicester
Thomas Patrick Barclay was born to an impoverished Irish immigrant family in Leicester in 1852. Tom’s parents from Limerick and Mayo had been forced to quit Ireland because of the potato famine. They lived in a two-room hovel. He never went to school and was taught to read by his mother. His father scraped a living as a rag and bone man.
Marsh, Alfred 1858-1914
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A short biography of Alfred Marsh, English anarchist communist who doggedly kept the Freedom newspaper going for many years
Alfred Marsh was born in Clerkenwell ( like Guy Aldred, another anarchist communist) on 3rd November 1858. His mother died whilst he was young and his father, of Radical persuasions, was a close friend of the Freethought pioneer George Holyoake. His second marriage was to a daughter of Holyoake.
Cantwell, Thomas Edward, 1864-1906
A short biography of Tom Cantwell, anarchist active in the Socialist League and with Freedom
Tom Cantwell was born on the Pentonville Road in London on the 14th December 1864, the son of a map-mounter’s clerk. He worked first as a basket-maker and then as a compositor. It was while he was working as a basket-maker that he probably joined the Socialist League in 1886. It was there that he learned the basics of the compositor’s trade.
Barmash, Vladimir Vladimirovich aka Gorbonos aka Valya aka Lonya, 1879-1938+
A short biography of Vladimir Barmash, prominent anarchist communist in Russia who perished in the prison camps
Vladimir Barmash was born in a village near Ivanovo-Voznesensk (now Ivanovo). This village was very small and everyone who lived there had the family name Barmash. Despite the disadvantages of coming from a peasant background, he was successful at school and afterwards went to Moscow where he completed three courses in the people’s university of Alfons Shaniavsky.
Rybin, Piotr (Rivkin; Zonov; Rybin-Zonov) (? - 1920)
A short biography of Piotr Rybin (Zonov) anarchist worker murdered by the Bolsheviks
“ Rybin had enormous energy, and was very well organised and cultured in his work habits”. Piotr Arshinov, History of the Makhnovist Movement.
Veretelnik, Boris, ?-1919
A short biography of Boris Veretelnik , Left Socialist Revolutionary and then anarchist and Makhnovist
Boris Veretelnik was born into a peasant family in Gulyai-Polye. He worked as a foundry worker in the village and then in a foundry at the Putilov works in Petrograd. During the 1905-1907 Revolution he joined the Socialist Revolutionary Party and became an experienced organiser and agitator.
Popov, Dimitri Ivanovich, 1892-1921
A short biography of Dimitri Popov, sailor, Left Socialist Revolutionary and then anarchist and Makhnovist
Dimitri Popov was born in to a peasant family in the village of Kononova in the Klin district of Moscow province. After leaving school at fourteen he worked in the Moscow factories. In 1914 he was called up to active duty in the Baltic Fleet. He may have been in a group of anarchist sailors in spring 1917 but by summer of the same year he had joined the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries.
Staradolz, Alexander (?-1936)
A short account of Alexander Staradolz who fought with Makhno and Durruti.
A Makhnovist in Spain
Albin Köbis (1892-1917)
A short account of Albin Köbis and the first stirrings of revolt at the Kiel naval base.
“I perish a victim of military justice. It is, of course, not easy to die so young, but I die with a curse on the German-militarist state.” - Albin Köbis in a letter to his parents before his execution.
Leuenroth, Edgard, 1881-1968
A short biographer of Edgard Leuenroth German-Brazilian anarchist who was an indefatigable propagandist and activist for anarchism.
Edgard Leuenroth was born on October 31st 1881 in the city of Mogi Mirim, in the state of São Paulo, Brazil into a German immigrant family. His father died whilst he was young and he moved with his mother to city of São Paulo at the age of five.As a young man he worked in crafts, as a store clerk, typographer, journalist and an archivist.
