Union of Russian Workers

The Union of Russian Workers in the United States and Canada, commonly known as the "Union of Russian Workers" (Союз Русских Рабочих, Soiuz Russkikh Rabochikh) was an anarchist political association of Russian emigrants in the United States. The group was established shortly after the failure of the Russian Revolution of 1905 and was essentially annihilated in America by the 1919 Red Scare in which it was targeted by the Bureau of Investigation of the U.S. Department of Justice. Thousands of the group's adherents were arrested and hundreds deported in 1919 and 1920; still more voluntarily returned to Soviet Russia. During its brief existence the organization, which was only loosely affiliated with the Industrial Workers of the World, published numerous books and pamphlets in the Russian language by anarchist writers, operated reading rooms and conducted courses to teach newly arrived Russians the English language, and fulfilled a social function for emigrants half a world from home.

The Union of Russian Workers (URW) was established in New York City in 1908 by refugees from the defeated Russian Revolution of 1905. While some have estimated that by the end of the 1910s the Union of Russian Workers achieved a membership of about 10,000, a more sanguine estimate is that the group's membership topped out at about half that number.

The URW's declaration of principles called for the unification of Russian workers in the United States and Canada so that they might do battle against capitalism and the forces of authority. The group further declared itself in favor of supporting the struggles of non-Russian workers in America and the struggle for liberation from Tsarism in Russia as well. Although in its initial phase the organization promoted the philosophy of communist anarchism, over time the ideology of the group evolved until in 1912 it declared itself for anarcho-syndicalism.

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