D O C . 2 P R E F A C E T O R U S S E L L 5 3 Published in Russell 1922, p. [5]. A draft with minor differences is preserved (GyHeiU, Emil Julius Gumbel Papers). [79 927]. [1]Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) was a British philosopher, mathematician, socialist, pacifist, and freelance writer and lecturer. [2]On 5 June 1916, Russell had been tried and found guilty of writing a leaflet in which he criti- cized the harsh treatment of conscientious objectors by the government. As a result, he was not only denied a passport to travel to the United States to lecture at Harvard, but also dismissed from his posi- tion at Trinity College, where he had been lecturing since 1899. On 9 February 1918, Russell was put on trial a second time for writing an editorial for the pacifist weekly newspaper The Tribunal. He was accused of making statements “likely to prejudice His Maj- esty’s relations with the United States of America” and was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment in Brixton Prison (see Russell 1988, pp. xli, lx–lxi, 349–352 and Russell 1995, pp. 390, 398–399). [3]A failed right-wing putsch against the German government on 13 March 1920, led by Wolfgang Kapp (1858–1922). [4]In May 1920, Russell joined a British Labor delegation for a visit to Soviet Russia. Viewing him- self as a “social investigator,” he set out to “study [the] economic and political facts” of the Bolshevik system (Russell 1968, pp. 140–153). He then published his impressions in July 1920 in four consec- utive articles for The Nation.
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