Ayn Rand was born Alissa Rosenbaum in St. Petersburg, Russia on February 2, 1905. She was born three weeks prior to the uprising known as the 1905 Revolution. Thousands of Russian soldiers opened fire on protesters petitioning for better working conditions. The bloody uprising led to many other riots and helped to set the stage for the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. Growing up in a country constantly in turmoil would definitely influence Rand’s view of the world.
Rand was born into a Jewish family in a country that was very anti-Semitic. St. Petersburg was one of the better places to live as a Russian Jew, but it was still full of prejudice. Only two percent of the city’s population was allowed to be Jewish. Jewish homes could be searched by the police at any time. Rand’s father, Zinovy, was a pharmacist, one of the few professions that allowed some freedom to Jews.
Rand’s childhood was privileged since her father’s pharmacy did very well. In 1912 Zinovy became the co-owner of Klinge’s Pharmacy, and sole owner in 1914. With more money coming in, Rand’s mother, Anna, hired a cook, maid, nurse, and a Belgian governess to help with her daughters’ French. Before the governess arrived, Anna, who was well educated, taught her daughters to read and write in French.
When Rand was nine (it was common for children to start school later in Russia), she attended school at Stoiunin. The prestigious all-girls school was known for incredible teachers and quality curriculum. The tuition was high, but the Rosenbaums wanted the best education for their eldest daughter. Besides the expensive tuition, multiple entrance exams had to be taken before you were accepted. Being the highly intelligent young girl that Rand was, she passed. Rand spent four years at Stoiunin until the Bolshevik Revolution.
On February 23rd of 1917, during Rand’s third year at Stoiunin, a riot broke out in the streets of St. Petersburg. A hundred thousand of Russia’s poor and starving citizens marched down Nevsky Prospekt, shouting “Down with the Czar!” A week later the Czar stepped down and a Liberal Provisional government was implemented. Everyone rejoiced when the czar was taken out of power, but 8 months later things still were not getting better. Although the Provisional government was granting freedoms to the poor, they weren’t happy. They wanted food and well paying jobs. As the Provisional government struggled to keep the Russian citizens happy, the Bolsheviks gained popularity. On October 25th, 1917, the Bolsheviks took control of the capital and overthrew the Russian government. A bloody civil war ensued.
Almost a year after the Bolsheviks had taken control, and after Rand’s father’s pharmacy had been raided along with many other city’s businesses, the Rosenbaums left for Crimea. They had expected to stay there for only six months, but they were there for three years. They lived in a little house in Yevpatoria, a small town located in the southernmost part of Crimea. This was one of the few places still left that was not occupied by the Reds. While they lived in Crimea, they had little money and food to eat. Rand’s father, Zinovy, insisted things would turn around. However, in the summer of 1921, the Bolsheviks had taken control of all of Russia and the Rosenbaums had no reason to stay in Crimea. They boarded a crowded train back to St. Petersburg.
When they returned to St. Petersburg Zinovy had a hard time finding work. The only jobs available were government jobs which he wasn’t able to get because he used to own a business. In order to to keep the family afloat, Anna taught reading, writing and foreign language to poor workers and their children. After returning home, Rand attended college where she got her degree in history with a minor in philosophy. It wasn’t long after she graduated that she decided to move to America.
In February of 1926, Rand and her cousin, Vera Guzarchik, left to study in America. Rand was 21 years old. According to her papers, she was only supposed to live in the U.S. for six months until her temporary visa expired. However, she had no intention of leaving. She had grown to hate the communist Russia she was leaving behind. Rand spent her first few days in America in New York before she left by train for Chicago. It was here that she decided to change her name from Alissa (Alice) Rosenbaum to Ayn Rand. It is believed that she changed her name so she would not be judged for being Jewish (or being from Jewish heritage, seeing as she had converted to atheism many years before). As to why she picked this particular name, little is known, she has claimed many different things over the years.
From a very young age, Rand decided she wanted to be a writer. When she first arrived in America she got right to work on her screenplays. After living in Chicago with her mother's relatives for six months she moved to Los Angeles to further her career. With a bit of luck, she landed a terrific job working for Cecil B. Demille, an excellent director. Rand worked in the movie business for many years with a number of different people. She had made a bit of a name for herself by the early 1930s, when she wrote the screenplay for a movie entitled Red Pawn. She would gain a great deal of attention when she later published her novels.
Through her novels she explains her philosophy, Objectivism. The Fountainhead was published in 1943 and Atlas Shrugged in 1957. In these novels, Rand dramatized her ideal man. Objectivism begins with the basic fact that existence exists. Like Aristotle, she believed that facts are facts. They cannot be altered.
Ayn Rand was an atheist; she believed that because there was no evidence to support the existence of god that there was no god. Although she was born into a Jewish family, she came to the conclusion that god did not exist when she was 13. Despite the fact that she disapproved of religion, because it went against reason and facts, she would never deny a person’s right to practice their religion.
Rand thought that decisions had to be made based on well thought out ideas rather than anyone’s hopes or feelings. She hated authoritarianism in any form. She believed that the world’s problems originated from the rejection of reason. Rand described people who acted on their emotions and wishes as witch doctors, people who lived their life based on faith and blind belief.
Rand was a huge fan of true capitalism. Growing up in Socialist Russia only fueled her love of capitalism. She thought that government’s only purpose was to defend against foreign enemies, law enforcement, and law courts and legislation to make the laws. She didn’t think it was the government's place to make regulations. She thought that there should be a separation between state and economics. Rand did not believe in taxes; she thought that a man should never be forced to give up his money. She insisted that in a society with true capitalism, there could never become big monopolies.
In contrast to most other philosophies, Objectivism says you should not want others to be happy. Ayn Rand believed that human’s highest moral purpose is the achievement of his own happiness. She described happiness as the enjoyment of life, not temporary pleasures. She used the phrase “man is an end in himself” to describe her take on self-interest.
One of the problems with objectivism is that unlike most philosophies, Rand’s ideas are primarily explained through fictional stories rather than essays. In the world of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged economics plays out in a way that, despite Rand’s insistence that it would, might not. Rand believes in voluntary tax. “In a fully free society, taxation—or, to be exact, payment for governmental services—would be voluntary. Since the proper services of a government—the police, the armed forces, the law courts—are demonstrably needed by individual citizens and affect their interests directly, the citizens would (and should) be willing to pay for such services, as they pay for insurance.”
In order for this to work, people have to be willing to pay the government. However, it seems like most would chooses to have the same services for free and let others do the work. Even if you are willing to pay, there is no point in giving your money to something that won’t work because others aren’t paying. Maybe Rand is overestimating people, but she is the one who told us to be self-interested.
Regardless if people are willing to pay taxes or not, there are other services that people need other than the police, the military, and the law courts. Some things are not suited for the private sector such as roads and sanitation. In order to have private roads you would need to have tolls or some form of payment on every street which is ridiculously inefficient. It would take you much longer to get places and the companies would have to charge more because of the money they have to spend on the tolls. Objectivism’s idea of true capitalism leaves many issues overlooked.
Ayn Rand died on March 6th, 1982 at the age of 77. Decades later, Rand is still an icon for fans of capitalism and small government. Thousands of copies of her books are sold every year. Through the heroes in her novels, Rand explained her philosophy of how to live: “My Philosophy, in essence is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement his noblest activity, and reason as his absolute.”
Works Cited
Ayn Rand and the "New Intellectual" Perf. Ayn Rand. N.d. Online Video.
Ayn Rand - Faith vs Reason. Perf. Ayn Rand. Ayn Rand - Faith vs Reason. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2015.
Heller, Anne Conover. Ayn Rand and the World She Made. New York: Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 2009. Print.
"Introduction to Objectivism." Ayn Rand's Philosophy of Objectivism. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Mar. 2015.
The 1959 Mike Wallace Ayn Rand Interview. Perf. Mike Wallace and Ayn Rand. 1959. Online Video.
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