Petersburg in 1881, they arrived at a critical historical moment, which proved to be yet another point in her life that formed her radical personality.
Czar Alexander II, whose reign had promised improved living conditions for the peasents and the Jews, had been assassinated by terrorists that year. Although many Jews condemned the assassins who had been associated with the Russian socialist movement, Emma soon developed a strong sympathy for them. .
The harrassment of many innocent people, which followed the assassination was another reason for her to identify herself with these "Nihilists", as she labeld them.
The men that were persecuted and finally convicted after the death of Czar Alexander II became her "heroes and martyrs, henceforth my guiding stars" (2).
A significant aspect of her brief education in St.Petersburg, is the impact nihilism - most notably Cherenyshevsky's novel "What is to be done" - had on Emma Goldman.
His nihilism had an especial appeal to Emma because it promised, among other things, individual autonomy, sexual freedom and the possibility to lessen the gap between the existing corrupt society and total social justice for all people.
Especially the character of Vera Pavlovna, in her distrust of the state and ruling classes and her ideal of a free association of producers, inspired Emma profoundly and prepared her for the anarchist views. During this part of her life, she became aware of the role women could play in revolutionary activities for the first time.
Then in 1885, bored by the tedious work in a St.Petersburg factory and longing for the freedom and opportunity promised by the United States, Emma left with her stepsister Helena to join their sister Lena, who was already living in Rochester, N.Y.
Like most immigrants who left Europe, because of low wages and miserable living conditions in the eastern European working-class, Emma and her sister envisioned America as the land of economic opportunities.
