Yelinsky’s Shadows in the Struggle for Equality is a masterful exploration of his lifetime supporting political prisoners

~ SoraLX ~

During the current crescendo of authoritarianism, and daily reports of students and activists branded “political enemies” being hustled into unmarked vans, it seems especially pertinent to consider the history and trajectory of a movement created for the very purpose of aiding such victims of state repression. Boris Yelensky’s Shadows in the Struggle for Equality: A History of the Anarchist Red Cross is his consideration of Russian revolutionary history, the origins and evolution of the ARC (later to become the Anarchist Black Cross), and his lifelong work aiding anarchist political prisoners.

Boris Yelensky stands as one of the lesser-known figures in the history of anarchist struggle. Through the medium of his informal and immensely readable style, his retelling of his life and work encourages us to reconsider who is celebrated in revolutionary history. By his own account, Yelensky is not a theorist, but his story reveals a powerful and pragmatic organiser who devoted a lifetime’s worth of energy to the support of anarchist political prisoners. As Yelensky humbly asserts, “The work was not done for glory, but because we believed in mutual aid”.

The primary text is flanked by a foreword written by editor Matthew Hart, a long-standing member of the Los Angeles chapter of the Anarchist Black Cross and archivist of the organisation’s history, as well as a set of appendices which include related primary sources and Hart’s own writing on the 1914 Lexington Avenue explosion and its relationship to the ARC.

The 17 page-size black and white illustrations by artist N.O. Bonzo are a visual analogue to this reconsideration of canon. Each is portrait of an ARC/ABC member whose contributions may not be familiar to the reader, but are touched on as central to the movement’s history throughout the book. Bonzo’s graphic line drawings are a celebration and memorial of each comrade, their faces wreathed with floral Arts and Crafts-style garlands.

Hart’s text provides a rigorous contextualisation of Yelensky’s narrative and a full accounting of the organisation, while the appendices breathe life into ARC’s history via the voices of its past members. Aside from neatly outlining the roots, rise, and complications of the ARC as an organisation, the book delivers what is nearly a parable of life lived in service to the cause.

The complications of such work are well described throughout both Hart’s foreword and Yelensky’s own writing. The internal conflicts of the movement as it evolved from pre-1905 revolutionary Russia through and after the Second World War are on display. The narrative follows the course of the ARC throughout decades-long struggles to define itself, decisions about with whom to align, and how to best serve imprisoned comrades. The details and causes of the debate between those within the organisation who favoured aiding all self-described revolutionary political prisoners and those who felt that ARC relief should be directed singularly toward anarchists is well chronicled by both Yelensky and Hart.

This question is still not easily resolved, and is addressed again and again throughout ARC’s history. As Yelensky writes, “It is only for lack of space which prevents me from quoting many other sources which would help to show how the foundation of a separate anarchist relief organisation was rendered necessary primarily by the inhumanely sectarian attitude of those social democrats who at the same time claimed to have an intention of bringing to an end the unjust society in which we were living then and which we unfortunately still live”.

Yelensky’s text is scattered with primary sources, including letters from Alexander Berkman and Rudolph Rocker, which bring to life the particulars of the debate for modern readers. A letter from Berkman in response to his comrade Lillie Sarnoff is particularly charming and potentially relatable to the modern reader.  Berkman writes: “Concerning your remark that we cannot work with Left SR’s, I may tell you that we, at least I, could also not work together with many of the anarchists who are in the prisons of the Bolsheviki. Yet I am willing to help them, as prisoners”.

Matthew Hart’s prologue is knowledgeable and thorough and gives extra contextualization of Yelensky’s writing, including decisions the Yelensky made to omit pieces of ARC history in his narrative. Given that Shadows numbers only 96 pages, however, I couldn’t help but feel that a 78-pages of Foreword and Introduction gave an impression that Yelensky’s own words were somehow insufficient. This is hardly the case, and any reader willing to delve into the history he relates so lucidly will be rewarded by his engaging text and its modern relevance.

In all, Yelensky’s writing serves as masterful exploration of the labour of building and maintaining a revolutionary organisation; labour which has heretofore been underappreciated. The history provided makes clear the absolute necessity of the work of the Anarchist Red Cross—and the Anarchist Black Cross today—and delivers a template for readers seeking to understand how they might support anarchist prisoners.

Shadows in The Struggle For Equality: The History of The Anarchist Red Cross, Boris Yelensky, edited by Matthew Hart, illustrations by N. O. Bonzo, 145 pages, PM Press, 2025.