Biographies: X-Z

Boris Yelensky

(1889-1974) Grave 88, Sector G

Born in Russia, Boris Yelensky joined the revolutionary underground at age 12 and took part in the 1905 Revolution. Fleeing czarist repression, he emigrated in 1907 to the United States. Apart from a Russian sojourn at the time of the 1917 revolution,
he spent the rest of his life in the U.S. For over 50 years he was a key figure in Chicago's Free Society Group. He was active in the Anarchist Red Cross and its successor, the Alexander Berkman Aid Fund, which continued into the 1960's.

His history of the Anarchist Red Cross, In the Struggle for Equality, was published in 1958. Yelensky, whose friends included Peter Kropotkin and many other well known anarchists, also wrote an autobiography which remains unpublished. His ashes are interred close to the graves of Harry Kelly and Anna Winokour.