Nestor Ivanovych Makhno,
The surname "Makhno" ( uk, Махно́) was itself a corruption of Nestor's father's surname "Mikhnenko" ( uk, Міхненко). ( 1888 – 25 July 1934), also known as Bat'ko Makhno ("Father Makhno"),;
According to
Alexandre Skirda, the term ''Bat'ko'' had been used by the
Zaporozhian Cossacks
The Zaporozhian Cossacks, Zaporozhian Cossack Army, Zaporozhian Host, (, or uk, Військо Запорізьке, translit=Viisko Zaporizke, translit-std=ungegn, label=none) or simply Zaporozhians ( uk, Запорожці, translit=Zaporoz ...
as an honorific for elected military leaders. As Makhno was still quite young when he was given the name ''Bat'ko'' by his detachment, the literal translation of "father" may not be entirely accurate, as the term is not exclusively used in a paternal sense. Makhno was also not the only person with the title of ''Bat'ko'' in Ukraine, there were even some other ''Bat'kos'' within the ranks of the Makhnovshchina. was a Ukrainian
anarchist revolutionary and the commander of the
Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine
The Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine ( uk, Революційна Повстанська Армія України), also known as the Black Army or as Makhnovtsi ( uk, Махновці), named after their leader Nestor Makhno, was a ...
during the
Ukrainian Civil War.
Makhno was the namesake of the
Makhnovshchina
The Makhnovshchina () was an attempt to form a stateless anarchist society in parts of Ukraine during the Russian Revolution of 1917–1923. It existed from 1918 to 1921, during which time free soviets and libertarian communes operated un ...
(loosely translated as "Makhno movement"), a predominantly peasant phenomenon that grew into a mass social movement. It was initially centered around Makhno's hometown
Huliaipole
Huliaipole ( uk, Гуляйполе ; ) is a city in Polohy Raion, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Ukraine. It is known as the birthplace of Ukrainian anarchist revolutionary Nestor Makhno. In 2021, it had a population of Huliaipole was attacked by Russian ...
but over the course of the Ukrainian Civil War came to exert a strong influence over large areas of southern Ukraine. Makhno and the majority of the movement's leadership were
anarcho-communists and attempted to guide the movement along these ideological lines. Makhno was aggressively opposed to all factions that sought to impose their authority over southern Ukraine, battling in succession the forces of the
Ukrainian People's Republic
The Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR), or Ukrainian National Republic (UNR), was a country in Eastern Europe that existed between 1917 and 1920. It was declared following the February Revolution in Russia by the First Universal. In March 1 ...
,
Central Powers
The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires,german: Mittelmächte; hu, Központi hatalmak; tr, İttifak Devletleri / ; bg, Централни сили, translit=Tsentralni sili was one of the two main coalitions that fought in ...
,
White Army
The White Army (russian: Белая армия, Belaya armiya) or White Guard (russian: Бѣлая гвардія/Белая гвардия, Belaya gvardiya, label=none), also referred to as the Whites or White Guardsmen (russian: Бѣлогв ...
,
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...
, and other smaller forces led by various Ukrainian
otaman
Ataman (variants: ''otaman'', ''wataman'', ''vataman''; Russian: атаман, uk, отаман) was a title of Cossack and haidamak leaders of various kinds. In the Russian Empire, the term was the official title of the supreme military command ...
s. Makhno and his supporters attempted to reorganize social and economic life along
anarchist lines, including the establishment of communes on former landed estates, the requisition and egalitarian redistribution of land to the peasants, and the organization of free elections to local
soviets
Soviet people ( rus, сове́тский наро́д, r=sovyétsky naród), or citizens of the USSR ( rus, гра́ждане СССР, grázhdanye SSSR), was an umbrella demonym for the population of the Soviet Union.
Nationality policy in ...
(councils) and regional congresses. However, the disruption of the civil war precluded a stable territorial base for any long-term social experiments.
Although Makhno considered the
Bolsheviks
The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
a threat to the development of
anarchism in Ukraine
Anarchism in Ukraine has its roots in the democratic and egalitarian organization of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, who inhabited the region up until the 18th century. Philosophical anarchism first emerged from the radical movement during the Ukrain ...
, he entered into formal military alliances twice with the Red Army to defeat the
White Army
The White Army (russian: Белая армия, Belaya armiya) or White Guard (russian: Бѣлая гвардія/Белая гвардия, Belaya gvardiya, label=none), also referred to as the Whites or White Guardsmen (russian: Бѣлогв ...
. In the aftermath of the
White Army
The White Army (russian: Белая армия, Belaya armiya) or White Guard (russian: Бѣлая гвардія/Белая гвардия, Belaya gvardiya, label=none), also referred to as the Whites or White Guardsmen (russian: Бѣлогв ...
's defeat in
Crimea
Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...
in November 1920, the
Bolsheviks
The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
initiated a military campaign against Makhno. After an extended period of open resistance against the Red Army, Makhno fled across the Romanian border in August 1921. In exile, Makhno settled in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
with his wife
Halyna and daughter
Elena
Elena may refer to:
People
* Elena (given name), including a list of people and characters with this name
* Joan Ignasi Elena (born 1968), Catalan politician
* Francine Elena (born 1986), British poet
Geography
* Elena (town), a town in Veliko ...
. During this period, Makhno wrote numerous memoirs and articles for radical newspapers. Makhno also played an important role in the development of
platformism
Platformism is a form of anarchist organization that seeks unity from its participants, having as a defining characteristic the idea that each platformist organization should include only people that are fully in agreement with core group ideas, r ...
and the debates around the 1926 ''Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists (Draft)''. Makhno died in 1934 in Paris at the age of 45 from tuberculosis-related causes.
Early life
On , Nestor Makhno was born into a poor peasant family in
Huliaipole
Huliaipole ( uk, Гуляйполе ; ) is a city in Polohy Raion, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Ukraine. It is known as the birthplace of Ukrainian anarchist revolutionary Nestor Makhno. In 2021, it had a population of Huliaipole was attacked by Russian ...
, a town in the
Katerynoslav Governorate of the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
(now
Zaporizhzhia Oblast
Zaporizhzhia Oblast ( uk, Запорі́зька о́бласть, translit=Zaporizka oblast), also referred to as Zaporizhzhia ( uk, Запорі́жжя, links=no), is an oblast (province) of southeast Ukraine. Its capital is Zaporizhzhia. The ...
,
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
). He was the youngest of five children born to Ivan and Evdokia Mikhnenko, former
serfs who had been
emancipated in 1861.
![1906](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/1906._%D0%9D%D0%B5%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80_%D0%9C%D0%B0%D1%85%D0%BD%D0%BE.jpg)
Unable to feed his family on their small plot of land, following Nestor's birth, Ivan Mikhnenko went to work as a
coachman
A coachman is an employee who drives a coach or carriage, a horse-drawn vehicle designed for the conveyance of passengers. A coachman has also been called a coachee, coachy, whip, or hackman.
The coachman's first concern is to remain in full c ...
for a wealthy industrialist. When Nestor was only ten months old, his father died, leaving behind an impoverished family. Nestor was briefly
fostered by a more well-off peasant couple, but he was unhappy with them and returned to his family of birth. At only seven years old, the young Nestor was put to work tending livestock. When he turned eight years old, he began his education in a local
secular school as a model student before becoming increasingly
truant
Truancy is any intentional, unjustified, unauthorised, or illegal absence from compulsory education. It is a deliberate absence by a student's own free will (though sometimes adults or parents will allow and/or ignore it) and usually does not ref ...
, often ditching school to play games and go
ice skating
Ice skating is the self-propulsion and gliding of a person across an ice surface, using metal-bladed ice skates. People skate for various reasons, including recreation (fun), exercise, competitive sports, and commuting. Ice skating may be per ...
. After the end of his first
school year
A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes compul ...
, he went to work on a Mennonite-owned estate near Huliaipole, bringing home 20
ruble
The ruble (American English) or rouble (Commonwealth English) (; rus, рубль, p=rublʲ) is the currency unit of Belarus and Russia. Historically, it was the currency of the Russian Empire and of the Soviet Union.
, currencies named ''rub ...
s over the course of the summer. His brothers also worked as farmhands to support the family.
After the summer, Nestor returned to school, but his second school year proved to be his last. His family's extreme poverty forced the ten-year-old Nestor to begin working in the fields full-time, which led him to develop a "sort of rage, resentment, even hatred for the wealthy property-owner". Nestor's aversion to the landlords only increased over time, nurtured by stories his mother told him of her time in serfdom. In the summer of 1902, when Nestor was twelve, he observed a farm manager and the landlord's sons physically beating a young farmhand. He quickly alerted an older
stable hand "Batko Ivan", who attacked the assailants and led a spontaneous workers' revolt against the landlord. After the affair was settled, Ivan told Nestor: "if one of your masters should ever strike you, pick up the first pitchfork you lay hands on and let him have it..." The following year, Nestor quit working in the fields and found a job in a
foundry
A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...
. At this time, his older brothers had left home and started their own families, leaving only the young Nestor and
Hryhorii with their mother. Nestor rapidly moved between jobs, focusing most of his work on his mother's land, while occasionally returning to employment to help provide for his brothers.
Revolutionary activity
When the
1905 revolution
The Russian Revolution of 1905,. also known as the First Russian Revolution,. occurred on 22 January 1905, and was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire. The mass unrest was directed again ...
broke out, the sixteen-year-old Makhno quickly joined the revolutionary fervor. He initially distributed propaganda for the
Social Democratic Labor Party, before affiliating with his home town's local anarcho-communist group: the
Union of Poor Peasants
The Union of Poor Peasants ( uk, Спілка бідних хліборобів), also known as the Peasant Group of Anarcho-Communists or the Huliaipole Anarchist Group, was an underground anarchist organization, operating in the years 1905–190 ...
. Despite the political climate of increased political repression against revolutionaries, the Union continued to meet weekly and inspired Makhno to devote himself to the revolution. Makhno was initially distrusted by other members of the group, due to his apparent penchant for drinking and getting into fights. But after six months in the Union of Poor Peasants, Makhno had thoroughly educated himself on the principles of
libertarian communism
Anarcho-communism, also known as anarchist communism, (or, colloquially, ''ancom'' or ''ancomm'') is a political philosophy and anarchist school of thought that advocates communism. It calls for the abolition of private property but retains r ...
and became a formal member.
Following a series of
agrarian reforms, which disempowered the traditional
peasant communes through the creation of a
wealthier land-owning class and resulted in the growth of
private estates, the Union of Poor Peasants initiated a campaign of "
Black Terror
The Black Terror is a fictional comic book superhero who originally appeared in ''Exciting Comics'' #9, published by Nedor Comics in January 1941. The character was popular, and on the strength of the Black Terror's sales, Nedor made ''Exciting C ...
" against the
large landowners and the local
Tsarist police. The group carried out a series of
expropriations
Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...
against local businessmen, using the money they stole to print propaganda that attacked the recent reforms. Suspected of being involved in these attacks, Makhno was arrested in September 1907 but was eventually released without charges due to a lack of evidence. As the rest of the group's members had been
outlawed, Makhno founded another anarchist study group in a neighboring village, where two dozen members gathered on a weekly basis to discuss anarchist theory. But after the assassination of a
police informant
An informant (also called an informer or, as a slang term, a “snitch”) is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law-enforcement world, where informant ...
by the Union of Poor Peasants, the police launched a crackdown against the anarchist group and arrested many of its members, including Makhno himself in August 1909.
Imprisonment
![NestorMakhno](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/NestorMakhno.jpeg)
On 26 March 1910, Makhno was sentenced to be hanged by a district court martial convened in
Katerynoslav
Dnipro, previously called Dnipropetrovsk from 1926 until May 2016, is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper Rive ...
. Although he had refused to seek appeal, Makhno's sentence was commuted to a
life sentence
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes fo ...
of
hard labor, due to his young age. While in prison, Makhno contracted a near-fatal bout of
typhoid fever
Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several ...
, but he eventually recovered and returned to work in chains. He was then moved to the prison in
Luhansk
Luhansk (, ; uk, Луганськ, ), also known as Lugansk (, ; russian: Луганск, ), is a city in what is internationally recognised as Ukraine, although it is administered by Russia as capital of the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR). A ...
, where family briefly visited him before being moved again to the prison in Katerynoslav. In August 1911, he was transferred one final time to
Butyrka prison
Butyrskaya prison ( rus, Бутырская тюрьма, r= Butýrskaya tyurmá), usually known simply as Butyrka ( rus, Бутырка, p=bʊˈtɨrkə), is a prison in the Tverskoy District of central Moscow, Russia. In Imperial Russia it ...
in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
, where over 3,000
political prisoner
A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention.
There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although n ...
s were being held. Through the other prisoners he learned Russian history and political theory, taking a particular interest in ''
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution'' by
Peter Kropotkin. Makhno's frequent boasting in prison earned him the nickname "Modest". He sometimes even antagonized the guards, which landed him in
solitary confinement. Due to punishment cell conditions, Makhno quickly fell sick again and was diagnosed with
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...
. The disease kept him returning to the prison hospital throughout his sentence.
In Butyrka prison, Makhno met the anarcho-communist politician
Peter Arshinov
Peter Andreyevich Arshinov (russian: Пётр Андре́евич Арши́нов; 1887–1937), was a Russian anarchist revolutionary and intellectual who chronicled the history of the Makhnovshchina.
Initially a Bolshevik, during the 190 ...
, who took the young anarchist under his wing as a student. But during this time, Makhno also became
disillusioned with intellectualism after seeing the differences between how the prison guards treated the intellectual prisoners and those inmates from the lower classes. As the years passed, Makhno began to write his own works and distributed them among his fellow prisoners, starting off with a poem titled ''Summons'' that called for a libertarian communist revolution. Prison did not break his revolutionary zeal, with Makhno vowing that he would "contribute to the free re-birth of his country". Although exposed to the ideas of
Ukrainian nationalism
Ukrainian nationalism refers to the promotion of the unity of Ukrainians as a people and it also refers to the promotion of the identity of Ukraine as a nation state. The nation building that arose as nationalism grew following the French Revol ...
in prison, Makhno nevertheless remained hostile to all forms of nationalism, adopting an
internationalist
Internationalist may refer to:
* Internationalism (politics), a movement to increase cooperation across national borders
* Liberal internationalism, a doctrine in international relations
* Internationalist/Defencist Schism, socialists opposed to ...
position during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
and even circulating an anti-war petition around the prison. When the prison doors were flung open during the
February Revolution of 1917, Makhno was released from bondage for the first time in eight years, even finding himself off-balance without the chains weighing him down and in need of
sunglasses after years in dark prison cells. He remained in Moscow for three weeks, briefly getting involved with an anarchist group in Moscow's
Lefortovo District
Lefortovo District ( rus, райо́н Лефо́ртово, a=Ru-Lefortovo.ogg, p=lʲɪˈfortəvə) is a district of South-Eastern Administrative Okrug of the federal city of Moscow, Russia. Its area is . Population:
History
The Lefortovo Dis ...
until 23 March, when he was finally convinced to return to Huliaipole by his mother and old comrades from the anarcho-communist group.
Agrarian activism
![Makhno en 1918](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/Makhno_en_1918.JPG)
Following years of imprisonment, in March 1917, the 27-year-old Makhno finally returned to
Huliaipole
Huliaipole ( uk, Гуляйполе ; ) is a city in Polohy Raion, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Ukraine. It is known as the birthplace of Ukrainian anarchist revolutionary Nestor Makhno. In 2021, it had a population of Huliaipole was attacked by Russian ...
, where he was reunited with his mother and elder brothers. At the station, he was greeted by many of the town's peasants, who were curious to see the return of the famous political exile, as well as surviving members from the now-defunct Union of Poor Peasants. Clashing with many of the group's former members, who wanted to focus on propaganda, Makhno proposed that libertarians take clear leadership of the masses in order to ignite
mass action among the peasantry, but found his position a minority among the anarchists of Huliaipole. He instead led the establishment of a local Peasants' Union on 29 March and was elected as its chairman. The union quickly came to represent the majority of Huliaipole's peasantry and even those from the surrounding region. Carpenters and metalworkers also formed their own industrial unions and elected Makhno as their chairman. By April, Huliaipole's Public Committee, the local organ of the
Provisional Government
A provisional government, also called an interim government, an emergency government, or a transitional government, is an emergency governmental authority set up to manage a political transition generally in the cases of a newly formed state or ...
, had been brought under the control of the town's peasantry and anarcho-communist activists. It was during this period of rising anarchist activity in Huliaipole that Makhno met Nastia Vasetskaia, who would become his first wife, but his activism kept him too busy to focus on his marriage.
Makhno quickly became a leading figure in Huliaipole's revolutionary movement, aiming to sideline any political parties that sought to seize control of the workers' organizations. He justified his leadership as only a temporary responsibility. As a union leader, Makhno led workers in
strike actions against their employers, demanding wages be doubled and vowing the continuation of work stoppages in case of their refusal, eventually resulting in the establishment of
workers' control
Workers' control is participation in the management of factories and other commercial enterprises by the people who work there. It has been variously advocated by anarchists, socialists, communists, social democrats, distributists and Christ ...
over all industry in Huliaipole. As Huliaipole's delegate to the regional peasant congress in
Oleksandrivsk
Oleksandrivsk ( uk, Олекса́ндрівськ ) or Aleksandrovsk (russian: Алекса́ндровск ) is a small city in Luhansk Municipality, Luhansk Oblast (region) of Ukraine. Population:
Demographics
Native language as of the Uk ...
, he called for the expropriation of large estates from landowners and their transfer to communal ownership by the peasants that worked them, becoming infamous throughout the region. However, he quickly became disillusioned with the long debates and party politics that dominated the congress, considering Huliaipole to have "advanced beyond what the congresses were merely talking about, without the constant wrangling and jockeying for position." Makhno subsequently disarmed and minimized the powers of local law enforcement prior to seizing property from local landlords and equally redistributing the lands to the peasantry, in open defiance of the Russian Provisional Government and its officials in Oleksandrivsk. All this gave him an image of
social banditry
Social banditry or social crime is a form of lower class social resistance involving behavior that by law is illegal but is supported by wider "oppressed" society as being moral and acceptable. The term ''social bandit'' was invented by the Mar ...
, as local peasants compared him to the Cossack rebel leaders
Stenka Razin and
Yemelyan Pugachev
Yemelyan Ivanovich Pugachev (russian: Емельян Иванович Пугачёв; c. 1742) was an ataman of the Yaik Cossacks who led a great popular insurrection during the reign of Catherine the Great. Pugachev claimed to be Catherine's ...
, and rallied around the slogan of "
Land and Liberty".
Although he had achieved success at home, Makhno was disappointed to discover general disorganization among the wider anarchist movement, which he criticized for largely dedicating itself to propaganda activities. Despite its growing size, the anarchist movement found itself unable to compete with the established political parties, as it had yet to establish a coordinated organization capable of playing a leading role in the revolutionary movement. Following news of
Lavr Kornilov's
attempted coup against the Provisional Government, Makhno led the establishment of a "Committee for the Defense of the Revolution" in Huliaipole, which organized armed peasant detachments against the local landlords, bourgeoisie, and kulaks. Makhno called for the local bourgeoisie to be disarmed and their property expropriated, with all private enterprise to be brought under workers' control. Peasants withheld rent and took control of the lands they worked. Large estates collectivized and transformed into agrarian communes. Makhno personally organized communes on former Mennonite estates. Makhno and Nastia lived together on a commune and Makhno himself worked two days per week, helping with the farming and occasionally fixing machines.
Following the 1917
October Revolution
The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key mome ...
, Makhno bore witness to the rising hostilities between the
Ukrainian nationalists
Ukrainian nationalism refers to the promotion of the unity of Ukrainians as a people and it also refers to the promotion of the identity of Ukraine as a nation state. The nation building that arose as nationalism grew following the French Revol ...
and the
Bolsheviks
The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
. With the outbreak of the
Soviet–Ukrainian War, Makhno advised anarchists to take up arms alongside the
Red Guards
Red Guards () were a mass student-led paramilitary social movement mobilized and guided by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 through 1967, during the first phase of the Cultural Revolution, which he had instituted.Teiwes According to a Red Guard lead ...
against the forces of the Ukrainian nationalists and the
White movement. Makhno dispatched his brother
Savelii to Oleksandrivsk at the head of an armed anarchist detachment to assist the Bolsheviks in retaking the city from the Nationalists. The city was taken and Makhno was chosen as the anarchists' representative to the Oleksandrivsk
Revolutionary Committee. He was also elected chairman of a commission, which reviewed the cases of accused
counter-revolutionary
A counter-revolutionary or an anti-revolutionary is anyone who opposes or resists a revolution, particularly one who acts after a revolution in order to try to overturn it or reverse its course, in full or in part. The adjective "counter-revolut ...
military prisoners, and oversaw the release of still imprisoned workers and peasants. During this period Makhno, participated in Oleksandrivsk's successful defence against an assault by
Don
Don, don or DON and variants may refer to:
Places
*County Donegal, Ireland, Chapman code DON
*Don (river), a river in European Russia
*Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name
*Don, Benin, a town in Benin
*Don, Dang, a vill ...
and
Kuban Cossacks
Kuban Cossacks (russian: кубанские казаки, ''kubanskiye kаzaki''; uk, кубанські козаки, ''kubanski kozaky''), or Kubanians (russian: кубанцы, ; uk, кубанці, ), are Cossacks who live in the Kuban ...
. Makhno thereafter returned to Huliaipole, where he organized the town bank's expropriation to fund their revolutionary activities.
Journey to Moscow
On 9 February 1918, representatives from the
Ukrainian People's Republic
The Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR), or Ukrainian National Republic (UNR), was a country in Eastern Europe that existed between 1917 and 1920. It was declared following the February Revolution in Russia by the First Universal. In March 1 ...
signed a
peace treaty
A peace treaty is an agreement between two or more hostile parties, usually countries or governments, which formally ends a state of war between the parties. It is different from an armistice
An armistice is a formal agreement of warring ...
with the
Central Powers
The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires,german: Mittelmächte; hu, Központi hatalmak; tr, İttifak Devletleri / ; bg, Централни сили, translit=Tsentralni sili was one of the two main coalitions that fought in ...
, inviting the forces of the
German Empire and
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
to
invade and occupy Ukraine. In response, Makhno formed a volunteer detachment to resist the occupation, which was dispatched to join the Red Guards in Oleksandrivsk. Makhno was personally summoned to the train of Bolshevik Commander
Alexander Yegorov, but failed to link up with Yegorov who was in fast retreat. In Makhno's absence, Ukrainian nationalists seized control of Huliaipole and invited forces from the
Austro-Hungarian Army
The Austro-Hungarian Army (, literally "Ground Forces of the Austro-Hungarians"; , literally "Imperial and Royal Army") was the ground force of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy from 1867 to 1918. It was composed of three parts: the joint arm ...
to occupy the town in April 1918. Unable to return home, Makhno retreated to
Taganrog
Taganrog ( rus, Таганрог, p=təɡɐnˈrok) is a port city in Rostov Oblast, Russia, on the north shore of the Taganrog Bay in the Sea of Azov, several kilometers west of the mouth of the Don River. Population:
History of Taganrog
Th ...
, where a conference of Huliaipole's exiled anarchists was held. Makhno left to rally Russian support for the Ukrainian anarchist cause with plans to retake Huliaipole in July 1918. In early May, Makhno visited
Rostov-on-Don,
Tikhoretsk
Tikhoretsk (russian: Тихоре́цк) is a town in Krasnodar Krai, Russia. It is the administrative center of the Tikhoretsky urban settlement and the Tikhoretsky District of the Krasnodar Territory. Population: 57,098 (2020),
Administrative ...
, and
Tsaritsyn
Volgograd ( rus, Волгогра́д, a=ru-Volgograd.ogg, p=vəɫɡɐˈɡrat), formerly Tsaritsyn (russian: Цари́цын, Tsarítsyn, label=none; ) (1589–1925), and Stalingrad (russian: Сталингра́д, Stalingrád, label=none; ) ...
, where he was briefly reunited with Nastia and a number of his Huliaipole comrades.
On his travels, Makhno witnessed the newly established
Cheka confront, disarm, and kill revolutionary partisans who disobeyed their
decrees
A decree is a legal proclamation, usually issued by a head of state (such as the president of a republic or a monarch), according to certain procedures (usually established in a constitution). It has the force of law. The particular term used for ...
, causing Makhno to question whether "institutional revolutionaries" would extinguish the revolution. In
Astrakhan
Astrakhan ( rus, Астрахань, p=ˈastrəxənʲ) is the largest city and administrative centre of Astrakhan Oblast in Southern Russia. The city lies on two banks of the Volga, in the upper part of the Volga Delta, on eleven islands of the ...
, Makhno found himself working for the local soviet's propaganda department and giving speeches to Red soldiers bound for the front. While travelling by rail to Moscow near the end of May, Makhno made use of the
armored train's artillery to disentangle it from the advance of the Don Cossacks, who had been pursuing Red Guards in Makhno's company.
After spending a few days in the
Volga region
The Volga Region (russian: Поволжье, ''Povolzhye'', literally: "along the Volga") is a historical region in Russia that encompasses the drainage basin of the Volga River, the longest river in Europe, in central and southern European Russ ...
, Makhno finally arrived in Moscow, which he pejoratively dubbed "the capital of the paper revolution", where he found local anarchist intellectuals more predisposed to slogans and manifestos than action. Here he again made contact with
Peter Arshinov
Peter Andreyevich Arshinov (russian: Пётр Андре́евич Арши́нов; 1887–1937), was a Russian anarchist revolutionary and intellectual who chronicled the history of the Makhnovshchina.
Initially a Bolshevik, during the 190 ...
and others in the Muscovite anarchist movement, many of whom were under surveillance by the Bolshevik authorities. He also met the
Left Socialist-Revolutionaries
The Party of Left Socialist-Revolutionaries (russian: Партия левых социалистов-революционеров-интернационалистов) was a revolutionary socialist political party formed during the Russian Rev ...
, who at this time were beginning to
turn against the Bolsheviks. Makhno discussed Ukraine with the anarcho-communist theorist
Peter Kropotkin, who wished Makhno well.
Satisfied with his time in Moscow and in need of forged identity papers to cross the
Ukrainian border, Makhno applied to the
Kremlin.
Yakov Sverdlov
Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov (russian: Яков Михайлович Свердлов; 3 June Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O._S._22_May.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O. S ...
immediately arranged for Makhno to meet
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...
. Lenin showered Makhno with questions about Ukraine, which Makhno answered, even as Lenin bemoaned that the country's peasantry had been "contaminated by anarchism". Makhno staunchly defended the Ukrainian anarchist movement from charges of "counter-revolution", criticizing the Red Guards for sticking to the railways while peasant partisans fought on the front lines. Lenin expressed his admiration for Makhno and admitted his mistakes regarding the revolutionary conditions in Ukraine, where anarchists had already become the predominant revolutionary force. After a long conversation, Lenin passed Makhno on to
Volodymyr Zatonsky
Volodymyr Petrovych Zatonsky ( uk, Володи́мир Зато́нський, russian: Влади́мир Петро́вич Зато́нский ''Vladimir Petrovich Zatonsky''; July 27, 1888 – July 29, 1938) was a Soviet politician, aca ...
, who fulfilled his request for a false passport. The young Ukrainian finally departed for the border in late June, content that he had "take
the temperature of the revolution".
Leader of the Makhnovist movement
During Makhno's absence from Ukraine, the Austro-German occupation forces orchestrated a coup in late April 1918 against their former allies within the
Ukrainian People's Republic
The Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR), or Ukrainian National Republic (UNR), was a country in Eastern Europe that existed between 1917 and 1920. It was declared following the February Revolution in Russia by the First Universal. In March 1 ...
, removing the UPR's
Central Council and installing
Pavlo Skoropadskyi
Pavlo Petrovych Skoropadskyi ( uk, Павло Петрович Скоропадський, Pavlo Petrovych Skoropadskyi; – 26 April 1945) was a Ukrainian aristocrat, military and state leader, decorated Imperial Russian Army and Ukrainian Army ...
as
Hetman
( uk, гетьман, translit=het'man) is a political title from Central and Eastern Europe, historically assigned to military commanders.
Used by the Czechs in Bohemia since the 15th century. It was the title of the second-highest military co ...
of a new conservative
client state
A client state, in international relations, is a state that is economically, politically, and/or militarily subordinate to another more powerful state (called the "controlling state"). A client state may variously be described as satellite state, ...
.
Armed with a fake passport and disguised as a Ukrainian officer, Makhno crossed the Ukrainian border in July 1918. He learned that the forces occupying Huliaipole had shot, tortured, and arrested many of the town's revolutionaries. His brother Savelii had been arrested, and his brother Omelian, a disabled war veteran, executed. Their mother's house was also destroyed by the occupation forces. Nestor himself was forced to take a number of precautions to evade capture. To avoid recognition while aboard the crowded train carriages, he changed at
Kharkiv
Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.[Synelnykove
Synelnykove (, ; , ) is a city and municipality in Synelnykove Raion, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast (province) of Ukraine, the largest city in the south-eastern part of the region. It serves as the administrative center of the raion. It is named after the ...]
, and ultimately decided to walk the final 27 kilometers to
Rozhdestvenskoye after his train was searched by police. Through correspondence, Makhno's comrades in Huliaipole discouraged him from returning, fearing he would be caught by the authorities.
After weeks in hiding, Makhno clandestinely returned to Huliaipole. In a number of secret meetings, he began to lay plans for an insurrection and started to organize peasant partisans. He advocated for coordinated attacks on the estates of large landowners, advised against individual acts of terrorism, and forbade anti-semitic
pogrom
A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russia ...
s. From the outset, Makhno emphasized tactical and theoretical unity, patiently awaiting favorable conditions for a general insurrection.
The authorities discovered Makhno's presence and placed a bounty on his head. Makhno retreated from Huliaipole, narrowly escaping capture. In
Ternivka, Makhno revealed himself to the local population and established a peasant detachment to lead attacks against the occupation and
Hetmanate government. In coordination with partisans in Rozhdestvenskoye Makhno resolved to reoccupy Huliaipole and establish it as a permanent headquarters for the insurgent movement. He raided multiple Austrian positions, seizing weapons and money, which led to the insurrection's intensification in the region. . While disguised as a woman, Makhno even briefly returned to Huliaipole, where he planned to blow up the local command center of the occupation forces. According to Makhno's account, he called off the attack due to the risks of killing innocent civilians.
In September 1918, Makhno briefly reoccupied Huliaipole. There he discovered that the
German occupation forces had been spreading misinformation about him, claiming he had robbed the local peasantry and ran away with the money to buy a ''
dacha
A dacha ( rus, дача, p=ˈdatɕə, a=ru-dacha.ogg) is a seasonal or year-round second home, often located in the exurbs of post-Soviet countries, including Russia. A cottage (, ') or shack serving as a family's main or only home, or an outbu ...
'' in Moscow. After defeating Austrian units in nearby Marfopil, Makhno produced a letter that was translated into the
German language
German ( ) is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol. It is als ...
, encouraging the conscripted occupation troops to
mutiny, return home and launch
revolutions of their own. While his comrades scattered themselves throughout the region to rouse the peasants to revolt, Makhno prepared proclamations to announce the region was under insurgent control. However, when the occupation forces counterattacked, Makhno was forced evacuate Huliaipole.
Makhno's detachment withdrew north, where it sought refuge in the Dibrivka forest, neighbouring the village of
Velykomykhailivka
Velykomykhailivka ( uk, Великомихайлівка) is a Ukrainian village in the Synelnykove Raion of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. It is located on the right bank of the Vovcha River.
It is the administrative center of the Velykomykhailivsky vi ...
. There they joined forces with another small insurgent detachment led by
Fedir Shchus
Fedir Shchus ( uk, Федір Щусь, 25 March 1893 – 30 June 1921), also Fyodor Shuss or Feodosiy Shchus, was a commander (ataman) in the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine of Nestor Makhno.
Biography
Fedir Shchus was born into a poo ...
. Austrian units encircled the insurgents in their forest encampment. To break the encirclement, Makhno launched a surprise counterattack against the troops in the village. Led by Makhno and Shchus, the insurgents' gamble succeeded in forcing the Austrians into retreat. For his role in their victory, the insurgents bestowed Makhno with the title ''Bat'ko'' ( en, Father), which remained his moniker throughout the remainder of the war.
Makhno's victory in the
battle of Dibrivka provoked a vicious retaliation from the occupation forces. Velykomykhailovka was subsequently attacked by Austrian troops reinforced by National Guard and German colonist units. The village was set on fire, killing many inhabitants and destroying some 600 houses. Makhno, in turn, led a campaign of retributive attacks against the occupation forces and their collaborators, including much of the region's
Mennonite population. Makhno also focused much of his energies on agitating amongst the peasantry, gathering much support in the region through impassioned improptu village speeches against his enemies.
By November 1918, the insurgents definitively recaptured Huliaipole. At a regional insurgent conference, Makhno proposed that they open up a war on four simultaneous fronts against the Hetmanate, Central Powers, Don Cossacks, and nascent
White movement. He argued that in order to prosecute such a conflict, it would be necessary to reorganize an insurgent army along a federal model, directly answerable to him as
commander-in-chief.
Commander in the Red Army
The Central Powers' defeat in
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
saw their withdrawal from Ukraine, resulting in the overthrow of the
Hetmanate government by the
Directorate, which established a new nationalist government in
Kyiv
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe.
Kyi ...
under the leadership of
Symon Petliura
Symon Vasylyovych Petliura ( uk, Си́мон Васи́льович Петлю́ра; – May 25, 1926) was a Ukrainian politician and journalist. He became the Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian Army and the President of the Ukrainian Peop ...
. At the same time, the
Bolsheviks invaded Ukraine from the north, while the
Makhnovshchina
The Makhnovshchina () was an attempt to form a stateless anarchist society in parts of Ukraine during the Russian Revolution of 1917–1923. It existed from 1918 to 1921, during which time free soviets and libertarian communes operated un ...
faced pressure from a growing
White Army
The White Army (russian: Белая армия, Belaya armiya) or White Guard (russian: Бѣлая гвардія/Белая гвардия, Belaya gvardiya, label=none), also referred to as the Whites or White Guardsmen (russian: Бѣлогв ...
in the south. Caught between these forces, Makhno proposed an alliance with the
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...
.
During a joint Insurgent-Bolshevik attack against the nationalist-held city of
Katerynoslav
Dnipro, previously called Dnipropetrovsk from 1926 until May 2016, is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper Rive ...
, Makhno was appointed as commander-in-chief of the combined Soviet forces in the
Katerynoslav province. After capturing the city, Makhno oversaw the establishment of a
revolutionary committee equally representing Bolsheviks,
SRs, and anarchists. When a nationalist counteroffensive forced Makhno to retreat to Huliaipole, he undertook a complete reorganization of insurgent forces on every front. On 26 January 1919, this process culminated in the integration of Makhnovist units into the
Ukrainian Soviet Army as the
3rd Trans-Dnieper Brigade, with Makhno subordinate himself to the command of
Pavel Dybenko
Pavel Efimovich Dybenko (russian: Павел Ефимович Дыбенко), (February 16, 1889 – July 29, 1938) was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a leading Soviet officer and military commander.
Prior to military service
Pavel Dybenko was b ...
. On 12 February 1919, Makhno extricated himself from the front to attend the movement's second regional congress in Huliaipole, where he was elected honorary chairman, having rejected official chairmanship due to the front requiring his attention. At the congress, he declared his support for "non-party soviets", in open defiance of his Bolshevik commanders.
Makhno justified the integration of the insurgent forces into the Red Army as a matter of placing the "revolution's interests above ideological differences." He was, nevertheless, open about his contempt for the new order of
political commissars. The Bolshevik interference in front-line operations even led to Makhno arresting a
Cheka detachment, which had directly obstructed his command. Despite his hostility towards the Bolsheviks, Makhno still respected
freedom of the press, authorizing Bolshevik newspapers to be distributed in Huliaipole,
Berdiansk
Berdiansk or Berdyansk ( uk, Бердя́нськ, translit=Berdiansk, ; russian: Бердя́нск, translit=Berdyansk ) is a port city in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast (province) in south-eastern Ukraine. It is on the northern coast of the Sea of ...
, and
Mariupol
Mariupol (, ; uk, Маріу́поль ; russian: Мариу́поль) is a city in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. It is situated on the northern coast ( Pryazovia) of the Sea of Azov, at the mouth of the Kalmius River. Prior to the 2022 Russia ...
, even as the papers published denunciations of the Makhnovists.
By April 1919, the newspaper ''
Pravda
''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, "Truth") is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most influential papers in the ...
'' was publishing glowing reports of Makhno's activities, praising him for his opposition to
Ukrainian nationalism
Ukrainian nationalism refers to the promotion of the unity of Ukrainians as a people and it also refers to the promotion of the identity of Ukraine as a nation state. The nation building that arose as nationalism grew following the French Revol ...
, his successful assault against Katerynoslav, and his continued successes against the
White movement. These reports also detailed Makhno's widespread support amongst the Ukrainian peasantry. However, this did not stop Pavel Dybenko from declaring the insurgents' subsequent regional congresses to be "counter-revolutionary." Its participants were
outlawed
An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so that anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill them ...
and Makhno was ordered to prevent future congresses from taking place. The Makhnovist
Military Revolutionary Council
The Military Revolutionary Council (russian: Военно-революционный Совет , VRS) was the ''de facto'' executive of the Makhnovshchina, empowered to act during the interim between sittings of the Regional Congresses.
Fu ...
issued an excoriating reply to Dybenko rejecting his demands out of hand.
![V_A_Antonov-Ovseenko](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/V_A_Antonov-Ovseenko.jpeg)
To resolve the dispute, Makhno invited
Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko
Vladimir Alexandrovich Antonov-Ovseenko (russian: Влади́мир Алекса́ндрович Анто́нов-Овсе́енко; ua, Володимир Антонов-Овсєєнко; 9 March 1883 – 10 February 1938), real surna ...
to visit Huliaipole, which impressed the Ukrainian commander-in-chief and allayed his concerns about Makhno's command. Upon his return, Antonov-Ovseenko openly praised Makhno and the insurgents, criticizing the Bolshevik press for publishing misinformation about Makhno and requesting the Makhnovists be supplied with the necessary equipment. His reports quickly attracted
Lev Kamenev to himself visit Huliaipole the very next week. Kamenev too was greeted by Makhno and his new wife
Halyna Kuzmenko
Agafya "Halyna" Andriivna Kuzmenko ( ukr, Галина Андріївна Кузьменко; 1897–1978) was a Ukrainian teacher and anarchist revolutionary. After moving to southern Ukraine, she became a prominent figure within the ranks of ...
, who gave the Bolshevik functionary a tour of the town, making sure to show off a tree where Makhno had personally
lynched
Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, punish a convicted transgressor, or intimidate people. It can also be an ex ...
a White army officer. Despite disagreements between the two over the autonomy of the insurgent movement, Kamenev bade farewell to Makhno with an embrace and warm words. Kamenev immediately published an open letter to Makhno, praising him as an "honest and courageous fighter" in the war against the White movement.
![Grigorev](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Grigorev.jpg)
In May 1919, the powerful otaman
Nykyfor Hryhoriv
Nykyfor Oleksandrovych Hryhoriv (né Nychypir Servetnyk, 1884 – 27 July 1919) was a Ukrainian paramilitary leader noted for repeatedly switching sides during the Ukrainian Civil War. He was commonly known as "Otaman Hryhoriv." In some historic ...
revolted
In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...
against the Bolsheviks, seizing part of
Kherson province. Kamenev sent a telegram to Makhno, asking him to condemn Hryhoriv or else face a declaration of war. Hryhoriv had previously attempted to form an alliance with Makhno against the Bolsheviks, but this proposal went unanswered. Makhno responded to Kamenev's request by reaffirming his commitment to the struggle against the White movement, which he worried would be endangered by opening conflict with Hryhoriv. In a direct telegram to Kamenev, Makhno declared his loyalty to the revolution, while also stating that he would continue to oppose the actions of the Cheka and any other "organs of oppression and violence". In an insurgent military congress on 12 May, Makhno expanded on this anti-authoritarian position with a denunciation of the Bolsheviks, their implementation of
bureaucratic collectivism
Bureaucratic collectivism is a theory of class society. It is used by some Trotskyists to describe the nature of the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin and other similar states in Central and Eastern Europe and elsewhere (such as North Korea).
Th ...
, and their
political repression, which he compared to the
Tsarist autocracy
Tsarist autocracy (russian: царское самодержавие, transcr. ''tsarskoye samoderzhaviye''), also called Tsarism, was a form of autocracy (later absolute monarchy) specific to the Grand Duchy of Moscow and its successor states th ...
. After Makhnovist emissaries uncovered evidence of Hryhoriv's participation in
pogrom
A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russia ...
s, Makhno openly denounced him for his displays of
antisemitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
and
Ukrainian nationalism
Ukrainian nationalism refers to the promotion of the unity of Ukrainians as a people and it also refers to the promotion of the identity of Ukraine as a nation state. The nation building that arose as nationalism grew following the French Revol ...
, going on to blame the Bolsheviks for the rise of Hryhoriv, claiming it was their political repression that had caused the uprising.
The Red Army high command responded by attempting to rein in Makhno's influence over his detachment. Makhno's Red Army superior Commander even declared that "he is to be liquidated". By the end of May 1919, the Bolshevik
Revolutionary Military Council pronounced Makhno to be an
outlaw, issuing a warrant for his arrest and for him to be tried before a
revolutionary tribunal
The Revolutionary Tribunal (french: Tribunal révolutionnaire; unofficially Popular Tribunal) was a court instituted by the National Convention during the French Revolution for the trial of political offenders. It eventually became one of the ...
. On 2 June,
Leon Trotsky
Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian ...
published a diatribe against Makhno, attacking him for his anarchist ideology and even labeling him a "''
kulak
Kulak (; russian: кула́к, r=kulák, p=kʊˈlak, a=Ru-кулак.ogg; plural: кулаки́, ''kulakí'', 'fist' or 'tight-fisted'), also kurkul () or golchomag (, plural: ), was the term which was used to describe peasants who owned ove ...
''".
A few days later, while preoccupied at the front, Makhno learned that the
Kuban Cossacks
Kuban Cossacks (russian: кубанские казаки, ''kubanskiye kаzaki''; uk, кубанські козаки, ''kubanski kozaky''), or Kubanians (russian: кубанцы, ; uk, кубанці, ), are Cossacks who live in the Kuban ...
had captured Huliaipole. This forced him to retreat from his positions. In an attempt to appease Trotsky, Makhno resigned his command of the insurgent army so that the insurgents would not be caught in a
pincer Pincer may refer to:
* Pincers (tool)
*Pincer (biology), part of an animal
*Pincer ligand
In chemistry, a transition metal pincer complex is a type of coordination complex with a pincer ligand. Pincer ligands are chelating agents that binds tig ...
between the Red and White armies. Despite a rebuff from Trotsky, he again attempted to offer the Bolsheviks his resignation on 9 June, reaffirming his commitment to the Revolution and his belief in the "inalienable right of workers and peasants". Makhno thus relinquished command of the
7th Ukrainian Soviet Division and declared his intention to wage a
guerrilla war
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tactics ...
against the Whites from the rear. Trotsky then ordered
Kliment Voroshilov
Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov (, uk, Климент Охрімович Ворошилов, ''Klyment Okhrimovyč Vorošylov''), popularly known as Klim Voroshilov (russian: link=no, Клим Вороши́лов, ''Klim Vorošilov''; 4 Februa ...
to arrest Makhno, but sympathetic officers reported the order to him, thus preventing his capture by the Cheka. Despite having broken with the Red Army, Makhno still considered the White movement to be the Makhnovists' "main enemy" and insisted that they could settle their scores with Bolsheviks after the Whites were defeated.
Makhno's small ''
sotnia
Sotnia ( Ukrainian and ) was a military unit and administrative division in many Slavic countries.
Sotnia, deriving back to 1948, has been used in a variety of contexts in both Ukraine and Russia to this day. It is a helpful word to create s ...
'' then linked up with other insurgent detachments that had mutinied against the Red Army. In early July 1919, Makhno fell back into
Kherson province, where he met with Hryhoriv's
green army. Initially Makhno sought to form a strategic alliance with the latter due to Hryhoriv's popularity among the local peasantry. However, revelations of Hryhoriv's antisemitism, extensive pogroms, and connections with the White movement led the Makhnovists to openly denounce the otaman at a public meeting. When Hryhoriv reached for his revolver, he was gunned down in his place by
Oleksiy Chubenko. In the assassination's aftermath, Makhno quickly rebuilt his army. A portion of Hryhoriv's army was integrated into the Makhnovist forces, which numbered as high as 20,000 insurgents at this time. By August, Makhno was also attracting a large number of Red Army deserters who joined him as the Bolsheviks once again retreated from Ukrainian territory in the face of
Anton Denikin
Anton Ivanovich Denikin (russian: Анто́н Ива́нович Дени́кин, link= ; 16 December Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O.S._4_December.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New St ...
's White Army. Red Army mutinies became so bad that the Ukrainian Bolshevik leader even telephoned Makhno, begging him to subordinate himself again to Bolshevik command, to which Makhno refused.
Against the White Army
![Yakov_Aleksandrovich_Slashchov](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Yakov_Aleksandrovich_Slashchov.jpg)
By September 1919 the Bolsheviks had largely retreated from Ukraine, leaving the Makhnovists to face the White Army alone. Reports by the White commander
Yakov Slashchov
Yakov Aleksandrovich Slashchov ( Russian: Яков Александрович Слащёв; 10 January 1886 – 11 January 1929) was a leading commander of Baron Wrangel's Crimean army who reconciled to the Soviets and returned from Constanti ...
depicted Makhno as a formidable adversary with tactical ability and disciplinary command over his troops. The insurgents launched a number of effective attacks behind White lines, with Makhno himself commanding a cavalry assault against that resulted in the capture of sorely needed munitions. Nestor's brother
Hryhorii died during one of these attacks.
![Denikin's_Moscow_Offensive](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Denikin%27s_Moscow_Offensive.svg)
The White offensive eventually pushed the insurgents back as far as
Uman
Uman ( uk, Умань, ; pl, Humań; yi, אומאַן) is a city located in Cherkasy Oblast in central Ukraine, to the east of Vinnytsia. Located in the historical region of the eastern Podolia, the city rests on the banks of the Umanka River ...
, the last stronghold of the
Ukrainian People's Republic
The Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR), or Ukrainian National Republic (UNR), was a country in Eastern Europe that existed between 1917 and 1920. It was declared following the February Revolution in Russia by the First Universal. In March 1 ...
, where Makhno negotiated a temporary truce with
Symon Petliura
Symon Vasylyovych Petliura ( uk, Си́мон Васи́льович Петлю́ра; – May 25, 1926) was a Ukrainian politician and journalist. He became the Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian Army and the President of the Ukrainian Peop ...
, in order for wounded insurgents to recuperate on neutral ground before launching a counteroffensive. During the
Battle of Perehonivka, the tide of the battle turned in the insurgents' favor when Makhno led his ''sotnia'' in a
flanking maneuver
In military tactics, a flanking maneuver is a movement of an armed force around an enemy force's side, or flank, to achieve an advantageous position over it. Flanking is useful because a force's fighting strength is typically concentrated i ...
against the White positions, charging the much larger enemy force with
sabre
A sabre ( French: sabʁ or saber in American English) is a type of backsword with a curved blade associated with the light cavalry of the early modern and Napoleonic periods. Originally associated with Central European cavalry such as th ...
s and fighting them in
close quarters combat
Close-quarters combat (CQC) or close-quarters battle (CQB) is a tactical situation that involves a physical fight with firearms involved between multiple combatants at short range. It can occur between military units, police/corrections officer ...
, which forced the Whites into a retreat. Makhno then led the pursuit of the retreating Whites, decisively routing the enemy forces, leaving only a few hundred survivors. The Makhnovists subsequently split up in order to capitalize on their victory and capture as much territory as possible, with Makhno himself leading his ''sotnia'' in the capture of
Katerynoslav
Dnipro, previously called Dnipropetrovsk from 1926 until May 2016, is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper Rive ...
from the Whites on 20 October. With
southern Ukraine being brought almost entirely under insurgent control, the White
supply lines were broken and the
advance on Moscow was halted. The insurgent advance also brought with it attacks against region's
Mennonites
Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the Radic ...
, notably including the
Eichenfeld massacre
The Eichenfeld massacre was a 1919 attack against the Mennonite colonists of Eichenfeld by the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine. Rising tensions between the native Ukrainian peasantry and Mennonite landowners had culminated with attacks ...
. While Mennonite historiography has held Makhno himself directly responsible for the massacres, as commander-in-chief of the perpetrating forces, and Makhnovist historiography has attributed the violence to
class conflict, research by Sean Patterson has indicated that the attacks were the result of deeply-held resentments between the native Ukrainians and Mennonite colonists.
Bolsheviks in Katerynoslav attempted to establish a
revolutionary committee to control the city, proposing to Makhno that he confine himself exclusively to military activity. But Makhno no longer held any sympathy for the Bolsheviks, who he described as "parasites upon the workers' lives". He quickly ordered the revolutionary committee be shut down and forbade their activities under penalty of death, telling the Bolshevik officials to "take up a more honest trade". At a regional congress in
Oleksandrivsk
Oleksandrivsk ( uk, Олекса́ндрівськ ) or Aleksandrovsk (russian: Алекса́ндровск ) is a small city in Luhansk Municipality, Luhansk Oblast (region) of Ukraine. Population:
Demographics
Native language as of the Uk ...
, Makhno presented the ''
Draft Declaration of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine'', which called for the establishment of "
free soviets
Free soviets were the basic form of organization in the Makhnovshchina. These soviets acted independently from any central authority, excluding all political parties from participation, and met to self-manage the activities of workers and peasa ...
" outside of political party control.
Mensheviks
The Mensheviks (russian: меньшевики́, from меньшинство 'minority') were one of the three dominant factions in the Russian socialist movement, the others being the Bolsheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries.
The factions em ...
and
Socialist Revolutionary Party delegates objected, believing instead in the legitimacy of the dissolved
Constituent Assembly
A constituent assembly (also known as a constitutional convention, constitutional congress, or constitutional assembly) is a body assembled for the purpose of drafting or revising a constitution. Members of a constituent assembly may be elected b ...
. Makhno denounced them as "counter-revolutionaries", causing them to walk out in protest. When he returned to Katerynoslav on 9 November, the local railway workers looked to Makhno to pay their wages, which they had gone without for two months. He responded by proposing the workers
self-manage the railways and levy payment for their services directly from the customers. By December 1919, Makhnovist control of Katerynoslav began to slip under increasing attacks from the White Cossacks. On 5 December, Makhno survived an
assassination attempt by the Bolsheviks, who had planned to poison him and seize control of the city. After the plot was uncovered, the conspirators were shot.
Renewed White attacks forced the Makhnovists to abandon Katerynoslav and retreat towards Oleksandrivsk and Nikopol. During this period, many of the insurgents were beset by
epidemic typhus, with even Makhno himself contracting the disease. In January 1920, the Red Army returned to Ukraine, filling a
power vacuum
In political science and political history, the term power vacuum, also known as a power void, is an analogy between a physical vacuum to the political condition "when someone in a place of power, has lost control of something and no one has repla ...
that had been left in the wake of the White retreat. Makhnovist and Red forces greeted each other in Oleksandrivsk. However, negotiations between the two sides collapsed when the Red command ordered Makhno to the Polish front. Makhno refused and the
All-Ukrainian Central Executive Committee
All-Ukrainian Central Executive Committee ( uk, italic=yes, Всеукраїнський центральний виконавчий комітет) was a representative body of the All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets. It was the supreme legislative ...
declared Makhno to be an
outlaw. In response the Makhnovists fled to Huliaipole, initiating a nine-month period of hostilities with the Bolshevik. At this time, Makhno's typhus worsened and he slipped into prolonged coma, during which local peasants provided him refuge and hid him from the Cheka. Once recovered, Makhno immediately began to lead a campaign of guerrilla warfare against the Cheka and
requisitioning units.
Makhno also implemented a discriminatory policy for dealing with captured Red Army units: commanding officers and political commissars would be immediately shot, while the rank-and-file soldiers would be given the choice to either join the insurgent army or be stripped of their uniforms and sent home. With the Makhnovists once again wreaking havoc on Bolshevik positions and with Red Army soldiers increasingly defecting to the insurgents, proposals for an alliance between the two factions began to be made.
While initially skeptical of a proposed Bolshevik alliance in June, Makhno grew amenable and left the decision to his army, which narrowly voted in favor in August. The political agreement extended a number of freedoms to Ukrainian anarchists, while the military agreement again integrated the insurgents into the Red Army command structure. Despite the outcome of the
Starobilsk agreement, Makhno reaffirmed his distrust for his "irreconcilable enemies" in the Bolshevik Party, stating that the necessity of a military alliance with them should not be confused with a recognition of their
political authority
In political philosophy and ethics, political authority describes any of the moral principles legitimizing differences between individuals' rights and duties by virtue of their relationship with the state. Political authority grants members of ...
. Nevertheless, Makhno hoped that victory over the Whites would oblige the Bolsheviks to honor his desire for
soviet democracy
Soviet democracy, or council democracy, is a political system in which the rule of the population is exercised by directly elected '' soviets'' (Russian for "council"). The councils are directly responsible to their electors and bound by thei ...
and
civil liberties in Ukraine. He would later consider this to be a "grave error" on his part.
Under the terms of the pact, Makhno was finally able to seek treatment from the medical corps of the Red Army, with physicians and surgeons seeing to a wound in his ankle, where he had been hit by an
expanding bullet
Expanding bullets, also known colloquially as dumdum bullets, are projectiles designed to expand on impact. This causes the bullet to increase in diameter, to combat over-penetration and produce a larger wound, thus dealing more damage to a liv ...
. He was also visited by the Hungarian communist leader
Béla Kun
Béla Kun (born Béla Kohn; 20 February 1886 – 29 August 1938) was a Hungarian communist revolutionary and politician who governed the Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919. After attending Franz Joseph University at Kolozsvár (today Cluj-Napo ...
, who greeted him as "fighter of the worker and peasant revolution, comrade Batko Makhno" and gave him gifts, including over 100 photographs and postcards depicting the
Executive Committee of the Communist International. On 22 October, the insurgents successfully reoccupied Huliaipole, driving the Whites out of the city for the final time. Back in his hometown, Makhno requested three days of
rest and recuperation but this was rejected by the Bolshevik command, which ordered the insurgents to continue their offensive, under penalty of their alliance being nullified. The still-wounded Makhno stayed behind in Huliaipole anyway, along with his black guard, while dispatching
Semen Karetnyk
Semen Mykytovych Karetnyk (; 1893 – 1920) was a Ukrainian anarchist and a commander of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine (RIAU). He often replaced Nestor Makhno as supreme commander of the Black Army in 1920. Karetnyk gained a repu ...
to lead the
Makhnovist offensive against the
Army of Wrangel
The Russian Army (russian: Русская армия, Russkaya armiya), commonly known as the Army of Wrangel (russian: Армия Врангеля, Armiya Vrangelya, label=none), was a White Army active in South Russia during the Russian Civil ...
. Makhno once again turned his attention towards reconstructing his vision of
anarcho-communism
Anarcho-communism, also known as anarchist communism, (or, colloquially, ''ancom'' or ''ancomm'') is a political philosophy and anarchist school of thought that advocates communism. It calls for the abolition of private property but retains res ...
, overseeing the reestablishment of the local
soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
and a number of other anarchist projects.
Anti-Bolshevik rebellion
Wrangel's defeat in Crimea by the combined Bolshevik-Makhnovist forces brought the
Southern Front of the war to an end, allowing the Bolsheviks to once again turn on their anarchist allies. In late November 1920, the Red Army launched a surprise attack against the insurgent forces, putting the Makhnovist capital of Huliaipole under siege. Caught unprepared, Makhno rallied together 150 Black Guards to defend the town. After spotting a gap in the Red lines, he escaped with his detachment and led a counterattack that pushed the Red forces back to . His own forces regrouped and gained some defecting Red soldiers before recapturing Huliaipole a week later. The Red Army command justified the attacks against the Makhnovists on grounds that Makhno had refused orders and intended to betray them, though the Red Army had planned to break the alliance with the Makhnovists even prior to the beginning of the offensive against Wrangel's White Army.
![Nestor_Makhno_and_his_Lieutenants,_Berdyansk,_1919](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/Nestor_Makhno_and_his_Lieutenants%2C_Berdyansk%2C_1919.jpg)
The following week in
Kermenchyk, Makhno was finally reunited with Karetnyk's detachment, which had been reduced to a fifth of its original size and absent its commander, who had been assassinated by the Bolsheviks in Crimea. Despite direct orders from
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...
for the Red Army to "liquidate Makhno", the insurgents led a guerrilla campaign in the face of their encirclement. On 3 December, Makhno led a detachment of 4,000 insurgents in an assault routing a
Red Kirghiz brigade at . In the following weeks, he recaptured
Berdiansk
Berdiansk or Berdyansk ( uk, Бердя́нськ, translit=Berdiansk, ; russian: Бердя́нск, translit=Berdyansk ) is a port city in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast (province) in south-eastern Ukraine. It is on the northern coast of the Sea of ...
and
Andriivka from the Bolsheviks, defeating a number of Red divisions before a stalemate with the remaining divisions at
Fedorivka
Fedorivka ( uk, Федорівка) may refer to several places in Ukraine:
* Fedorivka, Novoukrainka Raion, Kirovohrad Oblast
* Fedorivka, Luhansk Oblast
* Fedorivka, Vinnytsia Raion, Vinnytsia Oblast
* Fedorivka, Zhmerynka Raion, Vinnytsia Oblas ...
.
Makhno had hoped that simply defeating a few Red divisions would halt the offensive, but found himself having to change tactics in the face of his encirclement by overwhelming numbers, consequently splitting up his contingent into a number of smaller detachments and sending them in different directions. Taking his own 2,000-strong detachment north at a pace of 80 kilometers each day, he derailed a Bolshevik armored train at
Oleksandrivsk
Oleksandrivsk ( uk, Олекса́ндрівськ ) or Aleksandrovsk (russian: Алекса́ндровск ) is a small city in Luhansk Municipality, Luhansk Oblast (region) of Ukraine. Population:
Demographics
Native language as of the Uk ...
, before pushing deep into the provinces of
Kherson and
Kyiv
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe.
Kyi ...
, all the while pursued by Red divisions.
Surrounded and under constant pursuit by the
Red Cossacks, Makhno's detachment could only advance slowly under heavy machine gun fire and artillery bombardment. Makhno led his detachment to the
Galician border, before suddenly swinging around and heading back across the
Dnieper
}
The Dnieper () or Dnipro (); , ; . is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine and ...
. Heading north from
Poltava to
Belgorod
Belgorod ( rus, Белгород, p=ˈbʲeɫɡərət) is a city and the administrative center of Belgorod Oblast, Russia, located on the Seversky Donets River north of the border with Ukraine. Population: Demographics
The population of B ...
, they finally managed to shake off the pursuing Cossacks at the end of January 1921. By this point he had travelled more than 1,500 kilometers, lost most of his equipment and half of his detachment, but he also found himself in a position to once again lead an offensive against the Red Army. Following the outbreak of the
Kronstadt rebellion
The Kronstadt rebellion ( rus, Кронштадтское восстание, Kronshtadtskoye vosstaniye) was a 1921 insurrection of Soviet sailors and civilians against the Bolshevik government in the Russian SFSR port city of Kronstadt. Loc ...
, Makhno dispatched a number of his detachments to various regions of
Southern and
Central Russia
Central Russia is, broadly, the various areas in European Russia.
Historically, the area of Central Russia varied based on the purpose for which it is being used. It may, for example, refer to European Russia (except the North Caucasus and ...
to foment insurrection, while he himself stuck to the banks of the Dnieper River. At this time, Makhno was wounded in the foot and had to be carried by a ''
tachanka
A tachanka ( ukr, тачанка, rus, тача́нка, pl, taczanka) was a horse-drawn machine gun, usually a cart (such as charabanc) or an open wagon with a heavy machine gun installed in the back. A tachanka ...
'', but still managed to personally lead the detachment from the front. After crossing back over to
left-bank Ukraine
Left-bank Ukraine ( uk, Лівобережна Україна, translit=Livoberezhna Ukrayina; russian: Левобережная Украина, translit=Levoberezhnaya Ukraina; pl, Lewobrzeżna Ukraina) is a historic name of the part of Ukrain ...
, he split his detachment again, sending one to stir up revolt against the Cheka near the
Sea of Azov while Makhno's own contingent of 1,500 cavalry and two infantry regiments continued along its path, seizing the equipment of the Red units it routed. During one engagement, Makhno was wounded in the stomach and fell unconscious, having to be evacuated on a ''tachanka''. Upon his resuscitation, he again divided his forces and sent them out in all directions, leaving himself behind with only his black ''sotnia'' remaining.
Makhno was unable to withdraw from the front and tend to his injuries, as his ''sotnia'' repeatedly came under attack by the Red Army. During one engagement, a number of Makhnovists sacrificed themselves to ensure Makhno's escape. Towards the end of May, Makhno attempted to organize a large-scale offensive to take the Ukrainian Bolshevik capital of
Kharkiv
Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.[Mikhail Frunze
Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze (russian: Михаил Васильевич Фрунзе; ro, Mihail Frunză; 2 February 1885 – 31 October 1925) was a Bolshevik leader during and just prior to the Russian Revolution of 1917. Born in the modern-day ...]
demanded the "definitive liquidation" of the Makhnovist movement in July 1921. Makhno continued to execute raids in the
Don river basin despite having suffered several wounds. By August, those wounds convinced him to seek treatment abroad. Leaving
Viktor Bilash
Viktor Fedorovych Bilash ( uk, Віктор Федорович Білаш; 1893 – 24 January 1938) was the Chief of Staff of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine (RIAU) under Nestor Makhno. A gifted military commander, Bilash himself pl ...
in command of the Insurgent Army, Makhno, his wife
Halyna Kuzmenko
Agafya "Halyna" Andriivna Kuzmenko ( ukr, Галина Андріївна Кузьменко; 1897–1978) was a Ukrainian teacher and anarchist revolutionary. After moving to southern Ukraine, she became a prominent figure within the ranks of ...
, and around 100 loyalists set out for the
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
border. Red Army attacks followed them; Makhno took a bullet in the neck and a number of his old friends died in battle in late August. When a scout was captured by the Reds, Makhno diverted his forces south towards
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...
, however, after crossing the
Dniester
The Dniester, ; rus, Дне́стр, links=1, Dnéstr, ˈdⁿʲestr; ro, Nistru; grc, Τύρᾱς, Tyrās, ; la, Tyrās, la, Danaster, label=none, ) ( ,) is a transboundary river in Eastern Europe. It runs first through Ukraine and th ...
, Romanian border guards disarmed and interned Makhno's group. Makhno and his wife were eventually released from the
Brașov
Brașov (, , ; german: Kronstadt; hu, Brassó; la, Corona; Transylvanian Saxon: ''Kruhnen'') is a city in Transylvania, Romania and the administrative centre of Brașov County.
According to the latest Romanian census (2011), Brașov has a pop ...
internment camp
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...
and granted permission to stay in
Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...
under police surveillance while Makhno recovered from his wounds.
Eastern Europe
Bolshevik politicians
Georgy Chicherin
Georgy Vasilyevich Chicherin (24 November 1872 – 7 July 1936), also spelled Tchitcherin, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and a Soviet politician who served as the first People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs in the Soviet government from ...
and
Christian Rakovsky demanded Makhno's
extradition
Extradition is an action wherein one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, over to the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdi ...
, which the Romanian government of
Take Ionescu
Take or Tache Ionescu (; born Dumitru Ghiță Ioan and also known as Demetriu G. Ionnescu; – 21 June 1922) was a Romanian centrist politician, journalist, lawyer and diplomat, who also enjoyed reputation as a short story author. Starting his ...
refused. The two states had no extradition treaty and Romania had abolished
capital punishment
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
, so the Romanian government requested a formal assurance that the Ukrainian Soviet government would not sentence Makhno to death. Makhno came into contact with the exiled
Ukrainian nationalists
Ukrainian nationalism refers to the promotion of the unity of Ukrainians as a people and it also refers to the promotion of the identity of Ukraine as a nation state. The nation building that arose as nationalism grew following the French Revol ...
around
Symon Petliura
Symon Vasylyovych Petliura ( uk, Си́мон Васи́льович Петлю́ра; – May 25, 1926) was a Ukrainian politician and journalist. He became the Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian Army and the President of the Ukrainian Peop ...
, themselves allies of both Romania and Poland. Makhno called for an alliance between the Makhnovists and the Petliurists, which he believed could together reignite an insurgency in Ukraine, but nothing resulted from the talks between the two factions.
![Nestor_Makhno_1920](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Nestor_Makhno_1920.jpg)
With Romania still caught up in the extradition demands, Makhno decided to make a break for Poland. He was caught at the border and shipped to a Polish
Strzałkowo internment camp in April 1922. Makhno subsequently attempted to secure permission to move on to
Czechoslovakia
, rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי,
, common_name = Czechoslovakia
, life_span = 1918–19391945–1992
, p1 = Austria-Hungary
, image_p1 ...
or
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, but the Polish government refused. The Bolshevik government sent an
agent provocateur
An agent provocateur () is a person who commits, or who acts to entice another person to commit, an illegal or rash act or falsely implicate them in partaking in an illegal act, so as to ruin the reputation of, or entice legal action against, th ...
to entrap Makhno and force his extradition by embroiling him in a plan to launch an insurgency in
Galicia. Makhno and his wife were formally charged by the Polish authorities and for over a year held in
pre-trial detention
Remand, also known as pre-trial detention, preventive detention, or provisional detention, is the process of detaining a person until their trial after they have been arrested and charged with an offence. A person who is on remand is held i ...
, where Halyna gave birth to their daughter in October. In prison, Makhno drafted his first memoir, which
Peter Arshinov
Peter Andreyevich Arshinov (russian: Пётр Андре́евич Арши́нов; 1887–1937), was a Russian anarchist revolutionary and intellectual who chronicled the history of the Makhnovshchina.
Initially a Bolshevik, during the 190 ...
published in 1923 in his
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
-based newspaper ''Anarkhicheskii vestnik'' (Russian: Анархический вестник; English: ''Anarchist Messenger'') . Makhno also sent
open letter
An open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally.
Open letters usually take the form of a letter addressed to an indiv ...
s to exiled Don Cossacks and the
Ukrainian Communist Party
The Ukrainian Communist Party ( uk, Українська Комуністична Партія, ''Ukrayins’ka Komunistychna Partiya'') was an oppositional political party in Soviet Ukraine, from 1920 until 1925. Its followers were known as Ukap ...
, and began to learn
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
and
Esperanto. His
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...
relapsed under the prison's conditions.
Makhno received support from the European anarchist movement.
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
and
Bulgarian anarchists
Bulgarian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria
* Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group
* Bulgarian language, a Slavic language
* Bulgarian alphabet
* A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria
* Bul ...
even threatened violence in the event of Makhno's extradition. At their five-day trial in November 1923, Makhno and Halyna were acquitted on all charges and given residence permits for
Poznań
Poznań () is a city on the River Warta in west-central Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business centre, and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint Joh ...
. The following month he and his family moved to
Toruń
)''
, image_skyline =
, image_caption =
, image_flag = POL Toruń flag.svg
, image_shield = POL Toruń COA.svg
, nickname = City of Angels, Gingerbread city, Copernicus Town
, pushpin_map = Kuyavian-Pom ...
, where he was under close police surveillance and arrested and interrogated a number of times in the wake of
Vladimir Lenin's death. Unable to secure a visa to travel to Germany and facing a severe strain on his marriage with Halyna, Makhno attempted suicide in April 1924 and was hospitalized by his injuries.
In July 1924, Makhno and his family were allowed to move to the
Free City of Danzig. Here, Makhno was swiftly arrested by the Danzig authorities for visa violations. While interned he was struck again by tuberculosis and transferred to a prison hospital. Makhno's anarchist comrades helped him escape the hospital and, after a time in hiding, clandestinely leave for Berlin. With
Volin
Vsevolod Mikhailovich Eikhenbaum (russian: Все́волод Миха́йлович Эйхенба́ум; 11 August 188218 September 1945), commonly known by his psuedonym Volin (russian: Во́лин), was a Russian anarchist intellectual. H ...
acting as his interpreter, Makhno met with a number of prominent anarchists that were also living in the city such as
Rudolf Rocker
Johann Rudolf Rocker (March 25, 1873 – September 19, 1958) was a German anarchist writer and activist. He was born in Mainz to a Roman Catholic artisan family.
His father died when he was a child, and his mother when he was in his teens, so he ...
and . He finally moved to
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
in April 1925.
Paris
![Makhno 1925](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Makhno_1925.jpg)
Upon his arrival in Paris in April 1925, Makhno wrote that he had found himself "amongst a foreign people and political enemies whom I have so often declaimed against." He was reunited with his wife and daughter in the city, where
French anarchists
Anarchism in France can trace its roots to thinker Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, who grew up during the Bourbon Restoration in France, Restoration and was the first self-described anarchist. French anarchists fought in the Spanish Civil War as volunte ...
like
May Picqueray provided the family with lodging and healthcare. Makhno found work at a local foundry and a
Renault
Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English; legally Renault S.A.) is a French multinational automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company produces a range of cars and vans, and in the past has manufacture ...
factory, but was forced to leave both jobs due to his health problems. A bullet wound in his right ankle threatened amputation. His health care was overseen by the
anarcha-feminist
Anarcha-feminism, also referred to as anarchist feminism, is a system of analysis which combines the principles and power analysis of anarchist theory with feminism. Anarcha-feminism closely resembles intersectional feminism. Anarcha-feminism ...
Lucile Pelletier, who described his body as being "literally encased in scar tissue". She advised his family to move out to prevent them from contracting tuberculosis. Between his debilitating illness,
homesickness
Homesickness is the distress caused by being away from home.Kerns, Brumariu, Abraham. Kathryn A., Laura E., Michelle M.(2009/04/13). Homesickness at summer camp. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 54. Its cognitive hallmark is preoccupying thoughts of home ...
and a strong
language barrier
A language barrier is a figurative phrase used primarily to refer to linguistic barriers to communication, i.e. the difficulties in communication experienced by people or groups originally speaking different languages, or even dialects in some ...
, Makhno fell into a deep
depression. According to
Alexander Berkman
Alexander Berkman (November 21, 1870June 28, 1936) was a Russian-American anarchist and author. He was a leading member of the anarchist movement in the early 20th century, famous for both his political activism and his writing.
Be ...
, Makhno particularly despised living in a big city and dreamed of returning to the Ukrainian countryside, where he could "tak
up again the struggle for liberty and social justice."
Makhno undertook to write his ''Memoirs'', which sold poorly. He also collaborated with exiled Russian anarchists to establish the bimonthly libertarian communist journal ''
Delo Truda
''The Cause of Labor'' (russian: Дело Труда, trans-lit=Delo Truda) was a libertarian communist magazine published by exiled Russian and Ukrainian anarchists. Initially under the editorship of Peter Arshinov, after it published the '' ...
'' (russian: Дело Труда, en, The Cause of Labor), in which Makhno published an article in each issue over three years. Arshinov, the journal's editor, criticized Makhno's articles as poorly written, which upset Makhno greatly and exacerbated his
resentment
Resentment (also called ranklement or bitterness) is a complex, multilayered emotion that has been described as a mixture of disappointment, disgust and anger. Other psychologists consider it a mood or as a secondary emotion (including cognit ...
of those anarchists who he considered to be "
armchair theoreticians". The theoretical developments of the journal eventually culminated in the publication of the ''
Organizational Platform of the Libertarian Communists'', which called for the reorganization of the anarchist movement into a more cohesive structure, based on the experiences of revolutionary Ukraine and the defeat by the Bolsheviks. The ''Platform'' attracted criticism from the
synthesists, such as Volin, who regarded it as a
Bolshevization
Bolshevization was the process starting in the mid-1920s by which the pluralistic Communist International (Comintern) and its constituent Communist party, communist parties were increasingly subject to pressure by the Government of the Soviet Unio ...
of anarchism. A March 1927 meeting to discuss the ''Platform'' in
L'Haÿ-les-Roses
L'Haÿ-les-Roses () is a Communes of France, commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the Kilometre Zero, centre of Paris. L'Haÿ-les-Roses is a ''Subprefectures in France, sous-préfecture'' of the Val-de-Marne ''Dépa ...
attracted anarchists from
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
,
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
,
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...
,
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
, and
China. When the meeting was raided by police, Makhno was arrested and threatened with deportation, but he was defended by
Louis Lecoin and
Henri Sellier
Henri Charles Sellier (22 December 1883 – 24 November 1943) was a French administrator, urban planner and Socialist politician.
He did much to develop garden cities in the Paris region.
He was Minister of Health in 1936–37.
Life
Early years
...
, who secured his continued stay in France.
![Makhno Berkman](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Makhno_Berkman.jpg)
During this period, he often met with anarchist friends in cafes and restaurants, reminiscing over a bottle of wine about the "
good old days
Good old days is a cliché in popular culture used to reference a time considered by the speaker to be better than the current era. It is a form of nostalgia which can reflect homesickness or yearning for long-gone moments.
There is a predisposi ...
" in Ukraine, one time even celebrating the fall from power of his old rival
Leon Trotsky
Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian ...
and hoping that the fall of
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
would soon follow. In June 1926, during a meal with Alexander Berkman and May Picqueray in a Russian restaurant, Makhno met with the Ukrainian Jewish anarchist
Sholem Schwarzbard
Samuel "Sholem" Schwarzbard (russian: Самуил Исаакович Шварцбурд, ''Samuil Isaakovich Shvartsburd'', yi, שלום שװאַרצבאָרד, french: Samuel 'Sholem' Schwarzbard; 18 August 1886 – 3 March 1938) was a Jewis ...
, who went pale upon seeing the Ukrainian nationalist leader Symon Petliura walk into the room. Schwarzbard immediately informed the ''Batko'' of his intentions to assassinate Petliura, in revenge for the
pogroms carried out in the
Ukrainian People's Republic
The Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR), or Ukrainian National Republic (UNR), was a country in Eastern Europe that existed between 1917 and 1920. It was declared following the February Revolution in Russia by the First Universal. In March 1 ...
, during which some of his family members had been killed. Makhno attempted to dissuade him but the deed was carried out anyway, with Schwarzbard's subsequent
trial
In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribunal ...
bringing to light a trove of documentary evidence on the pogroms in Ukraine, exonerating the assassin.
Around this time, rumors began to circulate about Makhno's own relationship to antisemitism, resulting in public debates on the matter. Citing stories of Makhno told by
White émigré
White Russian émigrés were Russians who emigrated from the territory of the former Russian Empire in the wake of the Russian Revolution (1917) and Russian Civil War (1917–1923), and who were in opposition to the revolutionary Bolshevik commun ...
s,
Joseph Kessel
Joseph Kessel (10 February 1898 – 23 July 1979), also known as "Jef", was a French journalist and novelist. He was a member of the Académie française and Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour.
Biography
Kessel was born to a Jewish family in ...
published a novel that portrayed a fictionalized version of Makhno as an
Orthodox Christian
Orthodoxy (from Greek: ) is adherence to correct or accepted creeds, especially in religion.
Orthodoxy within Christianity refers to acceptance of the doctrines defined by various creeds and ecumenical councils in Antiquity, but different Churche ...
and antisemite, an accusation which Makhno categorically denied. Makhno defended himself by speaking up about the pogroms in Ukraine: in ''To the Jews of all Countries'', published in ''Delo Truda'', he asked for evidence of antisemitism in the Makhnovist ranks; at an open debate in June 1927, Makhno claimed that he had defended Ukrainian Jews from persecution, an assertion that was backed up by Russian and Ukrainian Jews in attendance. During his time in Ukraine, Makhno had condemned and severely punished cases of antisemitism within the Makhnovist ranks, even having ordered the execution of Makhnovists that had participated in a pogrom against the Jewish settlement at Gorkaya and redistributed weapons to the Jewish community for their own protection. According to Volin, investigations by the Jewish historian
Elias Tcherikower
Elias Tcherikower (Yiddish: אליהו טשעריקאָװער; July 31, 1881 – August 8, 1943), also known as Eliahu Tcherikover, Elye Tsherikover, Eliahu Tcherikower, Elias Tscherikower, and I. M. Cherikover, was a Russian-born Jewish historia ...
had found no evidence of Makhno himself having perpetrated antisemitic violence. Allegations of antisemitism were later also disputed by historians and some of Makhno's biographers, including
Paul Avrich
Paul Avrich (August 4, 1931 – February 16, 2006) was a historian of the 19th and early 20th century anarchist movement in Russia and the United States. He taught at Queens College, City University of New York, for his entire career, from 19 ...
,
Peter Kenez
Peter Kenez (born as Péter Kenéz in 1937) is a historian specializing in Russian and Eastern European history and politics.
Life
Peter Kenez was born and grew up in Pesterzsébet, Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary . His father was arrested in March ...
, Michael Malet and
Alexandre Skirda.
By this time, Makhno was succumbing to physical and mental illness. His relationships with fellow Ukrainian exiles deteriorated. His wife grew to resent him, causing the couple to separate on multiple occasions, with Halyna even unsuccessfully attempting to apply for permission to return to Soviet Ukraine. Over the editing of his memoirs, Makhno quarreled with
Ida Mett
Ida Mett (1901-1973) was a Belarusian Jewish anarcho-syndicalist, physician and writer. Following her experiences in the Russian Revolution, she fled into exile in France, where she collaborated with other exiled revolutionary anarchists on the ...
, who quit out of frustration with Makhno's "indecipherable and meandering manuscripts". He also came into a serious personal and political conflict with Volin, which would last until their deaths, resulting in the later volumes of Makhno's memoirs only being published posthumously. As gossip spread about Makhno, he became increasingly defensive against any criticisms of himself, no matter how minor. In the pages of ''Delo Truda'', he published categorical denials of anything from allegations of antisemitism to whether the Makhnovists had used a flag that carried a
skull and crossbones
A skull and crossbones is a symbol consisting of a human skull and two long bones crossed together under or behind the skull. The design originated in the Late Middle Ages as a symbol of death and especially as a ''memento mori'' on tombstones.
...
.
Alienated from many of the Russian and French anarchists in Paris, Makhno turned his attention towards
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
. Following the release of
Spanish anarchists
Anarchism in Spain has historically gained some support and influence, especially before Francisco Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939, when it played an active political role and is considered the end of the golden age of cl ...
from prison, Makhno met with
Francisco Ascaso
Francisco Ascaso Abadía (Almudévar April 1, 1901 – Barcelona July 20, 1936) was the cousin of Joaquín Ascaso, the President of the Regional Defence Council of Aragon,Jesús Mestre i Campi, ''Diccionari d'Història de Catalunya'', Edicions ...
and
Buenaventura Durruti
José Buenaventura Durruti Dumange (14 July 1896 – 20 November 1936) was a Spanish insurrectionary, anarcho-syndicalist militant involved with the CNT and FAI in the periods before and during the Spanish Civil War. Durruti played an in ...
in July 1927. The Spaniards expressed their admiration for Makhno, who himself displayed a sense of optimism about the Spanish anarchist movement and foretold of a coming
anarchist revolution in Spain. Makhno was particularly impressed by the revolutionary traditions of the Spanish working classes and the tight organization of the Spanish anarchists, declaring that if a revolution broke out in Spain before he died, then he would join the fight.
Due to the threats of deportation, he mostly kept to his writing, as he was no longer able to attend meetings or engage in active organizing. In great pain, increasingly isolated and financially precarious, Makhno got odd jobs as an
interior decorator
Interior design is the art and science of enhancing the interior of a building to achieve a healthier and more aesthetically pleasing environment for the people using the space. An interior designer is someone who plans, researches, coordin ...
and
shoemaker
Shoemaking is the process of making footwear.
Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand, often by groups of shoemakers, or cobblers (also known as '' cordwainers''). In the 18th century, dozens or even hundreds of masters, journeymen ...
. He was also supported by the income of his wife, who worked as a
cleaner
A cleaner or a cleaning operative is a type of industrial or domestic worker who cleans homes or commercial premises for payment. Cleaning operatives may specialise in cleaning particular things or places, such as window cleaners. Cleaning ope ...
, and in April 1929, May Picqueray and other French anarchists established a "Makhno Solidarity Committee" to raise funds. Much of the money was contributed by the Spanish anarchists of the
Confederación Nacional del Trabajo
The Confederación Nacional del Trabajo ( en, National Confederation of Labor; CNT) is a Spanish confederation of anarcho-syndicalist
Anarcho-syndicalism is a political philosophy and anarchist school of thought that views revolutionar ...
(CNT), which greatly admired Makhno, with the fundraiser in ''Le Libertaire'' eventually securing Makhno's family a weekly allowance of 250
francs
The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' (King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th centu ...
, barely one-third of the
living wage
A living wage is defined as the minimum income necessary for a worker to meet their basic needs. This is not the same as a subsistence wage, which refers to a biological minimum, or a solidarity wage, which refers to a minimum wage tracking lab ...
. Makhno spent most of this money on his daughter, neglecting his own self-care, which contributed further to his declining health. His ideological conflict with the synthesis anarchists escalated and, in July 1930, ''Le Libertaire'' suspended his allowance. Individual fundraising attempts ended up being unsuccessful.
Around this time, Makhno learned that
Peter Arshinov
Peter Andreyevich Arshinov (russian: Пётр Андре́евич Арши́нов; 1887–1937), was a Russian anarchist revolutionary and intellectual who chronicled the history of the Makhnovshchina.
Initially a Bolshevik, during the 190 ...
had defected to the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
, which left him even more isolated from the Ukrainian exiles. Makhno spent his last years writing criticisms of the Bolsheviks and encouraging other anarchists to learn from the mistakes of the Ukrainian experience. His final article, an obituary for his old friend
Nikolai Rogdaev, went unsent as Makhno could not afford the postage. As he suffered from malnutrition, Makhno's tuberculosis worsened to the point that he was hospitalized on 16 March 1934. Operations failed to help and Makhno finally died in the early hours of 25 July 1934. He was cremated three days after his death, with five hundred people attending his funeral at the
Père Lachaise Cemetery
Père Lachaise Cemetery (french: Cimetière du Père-Lachaise ; formerly , "East Cemetery") is the largest cemetery in Paris, France (). With more than 3.5 million visitors annually, it is the most visited necropolis in the world. Notable figure ...
in Paris.
Personal life
While imprisoned in the 1910s, Makhno received "warm letters" from one Nastia Vasetskaia, a young peasant woman from Huliaipole. After his return home in 1917, the two met and became a couple, living together on a
commune
A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to:
Administrative-territorial entities
* Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township
** Communes of ...
where Makhno contributed. His activism during this time, however, left him "little time for personal affairs". Vasetskaia was eventually forced to flee Huliaipole after being threatened by
Black Guards
Black Guards (russian: Чёрная гвардия, ) were armed groups of workers formed after the February Revolution and before the final Bolshevik suppression of other leftwing groups. They were the main strike force of the anarchists. They ...
, taking their child with her. After Makhno himself was forced into exile by the invasion of the Central Powers in early 1918, Makhno managed to reunite with Vasetskaia in
Tsaritsyn
Volgograd ( rus, Волгогра́д, a=ru-Volgograd.ogg, p=vəɫɡɐˈɡrat), formerly Tsaritsyn (russian: Цари́цын, Tsarítsyn, label=none; ) (1589–1925), and Stalingrad (russian: Сталингра́д, Stalingrád, label=none; ) ...
, finding her lodging at a nearby farm. Makhno soon left her to continue his travels. They never saw each other again. Their baby died young and, after hearing a rumor that Makhno had also died, Vasetskaia found another partner.
Following the Makhnovist capture of Huliaipole from the Central Powers in late 1918, Makhno met a local schoolteacher called
Halyna Kuzmenko
Agafya "Halyna" Andriivna Kuzmenko ( ukr, Галина Андріївна Кузьменко; 1897–1978) was a Ukrainian teacher and anarchist revolutionary. After moving to southern Ukraine, she became a prominent figure within the ranks of ...
, who became his wife and a leading figure in the
Makhnovshchina
The Makhnovshchina () was an attempt to form a stateless anarchist society in parts of Ukraine during the Russian Revolution of 1917–1923. It existed from 1918 to 1921, during which time free soviets and libertarian communes operated un ...
. With the defeat of the Makhnovshchina, the couple fled to Romania and then on to Poland, where Kuzmenko gave birth to their daughter
Elena
Elena may refer to:
People
* Elena (given name), including a list of people and characters with this name
* Joan Ignasi Elena (born 1968), Catalan politician
* Francine Elena (born 1986), British poet
Geography
* Elena (town), a town in Veliko ...
while she and Makhno were both in prison. The family finally settled in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
but were forced to live separately for some time due to Makhno's worsening tuberculosis.
Years after Makhno's death, Volin described Makhno's "greatest failing" as being
alcohol abuse, claiming that "under the influence of alcohol, he became perverse, over-excitable, unfair, intractable and violent." These claims of alcoholism were disputed by Ida Mett and Makhno's biographer
Alexandre Skirda, who respectively noted Makhno's low
alcohol tolerance
Alcohol tolerance refers to the bodily responses to the functional effects of ethanol in alcoholic beverages. This includes direct tolerance, speed of recovery from insobriety and resistance to the development of alcohol use disorder.
Consumption ...
and his enforcement of
prohibition
Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcohol ...
during the war. Although other biographers, such as Michael Malet and Victor Peters, wrote that Makhno began to drink heavily during the final years of his life, "when he knew that the tuberculosis was killing him anyway."
Makhno's widow and his daughter Elena were deported to
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
for forced labor during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. After the end of the war they were arrested by the Soviet
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union.
...
and taken to
Kiev for trial in 1946. For the crime of "
anti-Soviet agitation", Halyna was sentenced to eight years of hard labor in
Mordovia
The Republic of Mordovia (russian: Респу́блика Мордо́вия, r=Respublika Mordoviya, p=rʲɪsˈpublʲɪkə mɐrˈdovʲɪjə; mdf, Мордовия Республиксь, ''Mordovija Respublikś''; myv, Мордовия Рес ...
and Elena was sentenced to five years in
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
. Following the
death of Stalin, the two were reunited in
Taraz
Taraz ( kz, Тараз, تاراز, translit=Taraz ; known to Europeans as Talas) is a city and the administrative center of Jambyl Region in Kazakhstan, located on the Talas (Taraz) River in the south of the country near the border with Kyrgyzs ...
, where they spent the rest of their lives: Halyna would die in 1978, followed by Elena in 1993. Makhno's relatives in
Huliaipole
Huliaipole ( uk, Гуляйполе ; ) is a city in Polohy Raion, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Ukraine. It is known as the birthplace of Ukrainian anarchist revolutionary Nestor Makhno. In 2021, it had a population of Huliaipole was attacked by Russian ...
faced harassment by Ukrainian authorities up until the
dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Legacy
The Ukrainian anarchist insurgency continued after Makhno's 1921 flight to Romania. Makhnovist militant groups operated clandestinely throughout the 1920s. Some continued to fight as partisans during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. Although the Soviets eventually extinguished the Ukrainian anarchist movement, an anarchist underground continued during the 1970s and following the
Revolutions of 1989
The Revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, was a revolutionary wave that resulted in the end of most communist states in the world. Sometimes this revolutionary wave is also called the Fall of Nations or the Autumn of Nat ...
. Various anarchist groups draw on the name of Makhno for inspiration. For example, the was founded in 1994 and organized along the lines of
platformism
Platformism is a form of anarchist organization that seeks unity from its participants, having as a defining characteristic the idea that each platformist organization should include only people that are fully in agreement with core group ideas, r ...
.
The anti-fascist militants of
Revolutionary Action have also lain claim to Makhno's legacy and "neo-Makhnovist" sympathies emerged from the anarchists that participated in the
Revolution of Dignity
The Revolution of Dignity ( uk, Революція гідності, translit=Revoliutsiia hidnosti) also known as the Maidan Revolution or the Ukrainian Revolution, .
![Ot_Vinta!](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Ot_Vinta%21.JPG)
Makhno is a local hero in his hometown of
Huliaipole
Huliaipole ( uk, Гуляйполе ; ) is a city in Polohy Raion, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Ukraine. It is known as the birthplace of Ukrainian anarchist revolutionary Nestor Makhno. In 2021, it had a population of Huliaipole was attacked by Russian ...
, where a statue of the ''Bat'ko'' stands in its main town square. The Huliaipole Local History Museum hosts a permanent exhibition dedicated to Makhno. In the late 2010s, the Huliaipole City Council was preparing to request the return of Makhno's ashes from France, as part of a campaign to attract tourists to the city, declaring Makhno to be part of the city's
brand
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create ...
. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, sections of the
Ukrainian far right have also attempted to reclaim Makhno as a
Ukrainian nationalist
Ukrainian nationalism refers to the promotion of the unity of Ukrainians as a people and it also refers to the promotion of the identity of Ukraine as a nation state. The nation building that arose as nationalism grew following the French Revol ...
and to downplay his anarchist politics.
![Meeting_with_the_crew_of_the_film_«Salyut-7»_01_(cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Meeting_with_the_crew_of_the_film_%C2%ABSalyut-7%C2%BB_01_%28cropped%29.jpg)
Multiple Soviet and Russian films depicted Makhno, often in a negative light. Makno was the antagonist in the 1923 ''
Red Devils'', portrayed by the Odessa gangster and part-time actor Vladimir Kucherenko. He reprised his role in the 1926 sequel ''
Savur-Mohyla'' and returned to crime by using the name "Makhno" as a
pseudonym
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...
.
Boris Chirkov
Boris Petrovich Chirkov (russian: Борис Петрович Чирков; 13 August 1901, Brianka – 28 May 1982, Moscow) was a Soviet and Russian actor and Pedagogy, pedagogue. He appeared in 50 films between 1928 and 1975. He was awarde ...
portrayed Makhno in the 1942 epic film ''
Alexander Parkhomenko'' in which he famously sang the traditional Cossack song "
Lovely, brothers, lovely" while drinking vodka.
Valeri Zolotukhin
Valeri Sergeevich Zolotukhin (russian: link=no, Валерий Сергеевич Золотухин, 21 June 1941 – 30 March 2013) was a Soviet and Russian stage and cinema actor who performed at the Taganka Theatre which he also headed between ...
played Makhno in the 1970 drama ''
Hail, Mary!
''Hail, Mary!'' (russian: Салют, Мария!, Salyut, Maria!) is a 1970 Soviet drama film directed by Iosif Kheifits. It was entered into the 7th Moscow International Film Festival where Ada Rogovtseva won the award for Best Actress.
Plo ...
'',
about a Makhnovist who works as a Red Army informant.
Aleksey Tolstoy's novel trilogy ''
The Road to Calvary'' portrays Makhno as a dangerous deformation of the revolution with a corrupting influence on the morally unstable. Television miniseries adaptations of the novel in and
2017
File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...
similarly present Makhno in a negative light.
The 2005 ''
Nine Lives of Nestor Makhno'' was a Russian biographical miniseries about Nestor Makhno's life.
Pavel Derevyanko
Pavel Yurievich Derevyanko (russian: Па́вел Ю́рьевич Деревя́нко, born 2 July 1976) is a Russian theatre and film actor.
Biography
Pavel Derevyanko was born in the city of Taganrog, Rostov Oblast, Russian SFSR, Soviet Uni ...
portrayed Makhno, and Russian critics gave his performance high praise. The series was noted for its positive portrayal of Makhno, although some reviewers also criticised the series for lacking narrative coherence.
Hélène Châtelain directed a 1995 French documentary about Makhno.
Also, Makhno has been referenced in popular media as a cultural allusion, such as a supporting role in
Michael Moorcock
Michael John Moorcock (born 18 December 1939) is an English writer, best-known for science fiction and fantasy, who has published a number of well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic novels and non-fiction. He has worke ...
's 1981
alternative history
Alternate history (also alternative history, althist, AH) is a genre of speculative fiction of stories in which one or more historical events occur and are resolved differently than in real life. As conjecture based upon historical fact, alte ...
novel ''
The Steel Tsar'', the opening track in the Russian rock band
Lyube
Lyube ( rus, Любэ́, p=lʲʉˈbɛ) is a Russian rock band from Lyubertsy, a city in Moscow Oblast. Lyube's music is a mixture of several genres, with influences from both Russian folk music, rock, Russian chanson, and Soviet military songs ...
's 1989 album during the
fall of communism
The Revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, was a revolutionary wave that resulted in the end of most communist states in the world. Sometimes this revolutionary wave is also called the Fall of Nations or the Autumn of Nat ...
in the
Eastern Bloc, a song
U.S. representative
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...
Dana Rohrabacher
Dana Tyrone Rohrabacher (; born June 21, 1947) is a former American politician who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1989 to 2019. A Republican, he represented for the last three terms of his House tenure.
Rohrabacher ran for r ...
had written and played for the 1991 official visit of a
People's Deputy of Ukraine
People's, branded as ''People's Viennaline'' until May 2018, and legally ''Altenrhein Luftfahrt GmbH'', is an Austrian airline headquartered in Vienna. It operates scheduled and charter passenger flights mainly from its base at St. Gallen-Alten ...
, and the pseudonym used by the leader of an "anti-yuppie crusade" in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
against perceived
gentrification
Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and planning. Gentrification often increases the ec ...
by
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Coun ...
.
Following the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. ...
, the legacy of Nestor Makhno and the Makhnovshchina was again taken up by Ukrainian anti-authoritarians that joined the
Territorial Defense Forces (TDF). Symbols of the Makhnovshchina have appeared in the propaganda of the Resistance Committee, an anarchist detachment in the TDF, on the patches of a Ukrainian armed unit of
green anarchists
Green anarchism (or eco-anarchism"green anarchism (also called eco-anarchism)" in '' An Anarchist FAQ'' by various authors.) is an anarchist school of thought that puts a particular emphasis on ecology and environmental issues. A green anarchi ...
,
and on flags flown on the back of modern-day
tachanka
A tachanka ( ukr, тачанка, rus, тача́нка, pl, taczanka) was a horse-drawn machine gun, usually a cart (such as charabanc) or an open wagon with a heavy machine gun installed in the back. A tachanka ...
s. The
Ukrainian Armed Forces
, imports =
, exports =
, history =
, ranks = Military ranks of Ukraine
, country=Ukraine
The Armed Forces of Ukraine ( uk, Збро́йні си́ли Украї́ни), most commonly know ...
also adopted the name "Makhno's bow" ( uk, Махновська лук) for their defense forces engaged in the
battle of Huliaipole, which has occupied a key place in the
line of contact
The Line of Contact marked the farthest advance of American, British, French, and Soviet armies into German controlled territory at the end of World War II in Europe. In general a "line of contact" refers to the demarcation between two or m ...
between Ukrainian and
Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia.
See also
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Notes
References
Bibliography
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Further reading
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Letter Exchange on above article
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External links
The Nestor Makhno ArchiveWorks by andabout Nestor Makhno
at The Anarchist Library
Works by and about Nestor Makhno
at Libcom.org
libcom.org is an online platform featuring a variety of libertarian communist essays, blog posts, and archives, primarily in English. It was founded in 2005 by editors in the United States and the United Kingdom. Libcom.org also has a forum and ...
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Nestor Makhno's extended family tree
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Makhno, Nestor
1888 births
1934 deaths
19th-century atheists
19th-century Ukrainian people
20th-century atheists
20th-century Ukrainian people
20th-century deaths from tuberculosis
Anarchist partisans
Anarchist theorists
Anarcho-communists
Anti-imperialism
Anti-monarchists
Anti-Stalinist left
Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery
Carpenters
Community activists
Former Russian Orthodox Christians
Guerrilla warfare theorists
Insurrectionary anarchists
Makhnovshchina
People from Alexandrovsky Uyezd (Yekaterinoslav Governorate)
People from Huliaipole
People of Cossack descent
People of the Russian Civil War
People of the Russian Revolution
Prisoners and detainees of Poland
Prisoners and detainees of Russia
Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Russia
Social anarchists
Soviet anarchists
Soviet emigrants to France
Soviet emigrants to Romania
Soviet emigrants to Poland
Soviet military personnel of the Russian Civil War
Soviet people of the Ukrainian–Soviet War
Tuberculosis deaths in France
Ukrainian agrarianists
Ukrainian anarchists
Ukrainian atheists
Ukrainian anti-capitalists
Ukrainian communists
Ukrainian Cossacks
Ukrainian dissidents
Ukrainian emigrants to France
Ukrainian emigrants to Romania
Ukrainian guerrillas
Ukrainian male writers
Ukrainian military leaders
Ukrainian people imprisoned abroad
Ukrainian people of the Ukrainian–Soviet War
Ukrainian prisoners and detainees
Ukrainian rebels
Ukrainian refugees
Ukrainian revolutionaries
Ukrainian socialists
Ukrainian trade unionists
Ukrainian writers in Russian
Wartime cross-dressers