Louise Bryant in 1914

Louise Bryant, the daughter of the journalist, Hugh Moran, was born in Reno, San Francisco in 1885. Later, after the death of her father, she adopted the name of her stepfather, Sheridan Bryant.

Bryant attended the University of Oregon where she became active in the struggle for women's suffrage. After graduation she briefly worked as a schoolteacher before establishing herself as a journalist in Portland.

In 1909 she married Paul Trullinger, a wealthy dentist. She continued to write and in 1912 began writing for the radical journal, The Masses and Blast, a San Francisco anarchist weekly edited by Alexander Berkman.

Bryant moved to New York where she joined a group of radicals associated with the journal, The Masses. This included Max Eastman, John Reed, Sherwood Anderson, Eugene O'Neill, and Boardman Robinson.

Louise Bryant

1. Was highly critical of Nicholas II and the autocracy.

2. Wanted Russia to have universal suffrage.

3. Wanted the Russian government to allow freedom of expression and an end to political censorship of newspapers and books.

4. Believed that democracy could only be achieved in Russia by the violent overthrow of Nicholas II and the autocracy.

5. Was strongly opposed to Russia going to war with Austria-Hungary and Germany.

6. Believed that if Russia did go to war with Austria-Hungary and Germany the Mensheviks, Bolsheviks and the Socialist Revolutionaries should try to persuade the Russian soldiers to use their weapons to overthrow Nicholas II.