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We are happy to publish I Used To Sing The International, an obscure and forgotten pamphlet originally released in 1983. This text chronicles the life of an insurrectionary Russian Jewish socialist from the 1880s to the 1910s. Written in the first person, this text is illuminating, honest, and often unflattering towards the socialist-communist underground of Czarist Russia. The author has no love for Lenin or the duplicitous tactics of his Bolsheviks. He is humble about his mistakes and motivations and doesn’t paint himself as a hero. Written in the simple style of a self-professed “uneducated worker,” this text provides a valuable snap-shot of the years leading up to the Great Russian Revolution of 1917. Contemporary socialists (or democratic socialists) who read this text will be unable to relate to the clandestine, gun-toting, and committed revolutionaries of the author’s time. For contemporary anarchists, this text provides more evidence of how the once-in-a-century chance to change the world in 1917-1919 was undermined by both the Bolsheviks and the Czarist forces. Beyond this, it offers a glimpse into a movement run by women.

Jack Kant (left), with friends, 1908

This text could only be found in Olympia, Washington for many years and is now being reproduced for wide circulation. There are many forgotten accounts like this scattered all over the world, hidden in the most unlikely places, and it’s up to us all to rescue them from oblivion. The lessons contained in this slim autobiographical work are more than valuable in our current moment of extreme political violence, and rather than repeat the mistakes described in this work, we should strive to redeem the failures of history. No effort is ever truly wasted, and these long-forgotten words are both a blessing and a warning delivered from the past. Take heart, take courage, and may this text illuminate the treacherous road ahead.

The Red International Is Dead!

Long Live the Black International!

Introduction

Jack Kant is my grandfather. He is a fascinating man who seems to be everything at once: a passionate revolutionary, a romantic believer in love, a painter, a writer, an actor, a folk dancer, and most of all, a talker. He remembers what he ate in Seattle thirty years ago and knows to the day how old he is. Although he was born in Russia in the 19th century, he is able to live in our modern world of computers and nuclear weapons without appearing to be any more confused than the rest of us.

This book is compiled from an autobiographical account written in 1979. It covers Jack Kant’s life up to the time that he left Russia. With the exception of some alterations in sentence structure and spelling, I have not rewritten or changed it.

In his account, Jack Kant presents a simple and clear description of his experiences in Russia. He explains what it was like to live under the oppressive conditions imposed by the Czar, and he gives a beautiful picture of how he personally became committed to fighting back. He tells us about a society that was changing rapidly from peasant villages into an urban and industrial country. He gives us the day-to-day story that is often missing from history books and political theories. We learn from him how he became a revolutionary not just because of his personal beliefs, but out of a necessity to survive.

In that spirit, this book is for those who are trying to understand the past in order to fight for changes in our own society today. For others like myself, who are involved in the labor movement or in other struggles for social change, this story is an inspiration and a challenge.

Steven Kant

Olympia, Washington