Free soviets were the basic form of organization in the

Makhnovshchina The Makhnovshchina (, ) was a Political movement#Mass movements, mass movement to establish anarchist communism in southern Ukraine, southern and eastern Ukraine during the Ukrainian War of Independence of 1917–1921. Named after Nestor Makhno, ...

. These

soviets The Soviet people () were the citizens and nationals of the Soviet Union. This demonym was presented in the ideology of the country as the "new historical unity of peoples of different nationalities" (). Nationality policy in the Soviet Union ...

acted independently from any central authority, excluding all

political parties A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

from participation, and met to self-manage the activities of workers and peasants through

participatory democracy Participatory democracy, participant democracy, participative democracy, or semi-direct democracy is a form of government in which Citizenship, citizens participate individually and directly in political decisions and policies that affect their ...

. The soviets acted as the local organs of

self-governance Self-governance, self-government, self-sovereignty or self-rule is the ability of a person or group to exercise all necessary functions of regulation without intervention from an external authority (sociology), authority. It may refer to pers ...

and federated together up to the regional and national levels, resulting in the relatively horizontal organization of the soviets. However, the conditions of the war meant that the Soviet model could only be implemented at scale during "periods of relative peace and territorial stability", as the populace was largely concerned with securing food or staying safe from the advancing armies.

History

After the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

of 1917 brought the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

to power in the country, a national congress of Russian

anarcho-syndicalists Anarcho-syndicalism is an anarchism, anarchist organisational model that centres trade unions as a vehicle for class conflict. Drawing from the theory of libertarian socialism and the practice of syndicalism, anarcho-syndicalism sees trade uni ...

called for the replacement of the

Council of People's Commissars The Council of People's Commissars (CPC) (), commonly known as the ''Sovnarkom'' (), were the highest executive (government), executive authorities of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), the Soviet Union (USSR), and the Sovi ...

(CPC) with a

decentralised system A decentralised system in systems theory is a system in which lower level components operate on local information to accomplish global goals. The global pattern of behaviour is an emergent property of dynamical mechanisms that act upon local co ...

of "free soviets", which would be directly elected by

peasants A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising f ...

and industrial workers without the representation of any political parties. The anarcho-syndicalists believed these councils would serve as a transitionary period towards a

stateless society A stateless society is a society that is not governed by a state. In stateless societies, there is little concentration of authority. Most positions of authority that do exist are very limited in power, and they are generally not perman ...

. In October 1918, mutineers at

Kronstadt Kronstadt (, ) is a Russian administrative divisions of Saint Petersburg, port city in Kronshtadtsky District of the federal cities of Russia, federal city of Saint Petersburg, located on Kotlin Island, west of Saint Petersburg, near the head ...

issued a call for the replacement of the CPC with free soviets. When

Nestor Makhno Nestor Ivanovych Makhno (, ; 7 November 1888 – 25 July 1934), also known as Bat'ko Makhno ( , ), was a Ukrainians, Ukrainian anarchist revolutionary and the commander of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine during the Ukrainian War o ...

first returned to his village of

Huliaipole Huliaipole ( ; ) is a small city in Polohy Raion, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Ukraine. It is known as the birthplace of Ukrainian anarchist revolutionary Nestor Makhno. In January 2022, it had an estimated population of Huliaipole was attacked by ...

after the

February Revolution The February Revolution (), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and sometimes as the March Revolution or February Coup was the first of Russian Revolution, two revolutions which took place in Russia ...

, he immediately began agitating to establish a system of "free soviets". The Makhnovist capital of Huliaipole was soon at the center of the "free Soviet" experiment, as the town "lived without any political authorities" between November 1918 and June 1919. The idea of "free Soviets" became a point of lively debate during the Second Regional Congress, where one anarchist insurgent declared: "Whatever the cost, we must set up soviets which are beyond pressure from any and every party. Only non-party soviets of workers, freely elected are capable of affording us new liberties and rescuing the laboring people from enslavement and oppression. Long life to the freely elected, anti-authoritarian soviets!" The system drew support from a number of different factions, particularly from

Left Socialist-Revolutionaries The Party of Left Socialist-Revolutionaries-Internationalists () was a revolutionary socialist political party formed during the Russian Revolution. In 1917, the Socialist Revolutionary Party split between those who supported the Russian Pro ...

such as Dmitry Popov, as well as Maximalists, non-partisans and even some dissident

. But the system was opposed by a number of other factions, with delegates to the Fourth Regional Congress from the

Mensheviks The Mensheviks ('the Minority') were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903. Mensheviks held more moderate and reformist ...

and

Right Socialist-Revolutionaries The Socialist Revolutionary Party (SR; ,, ) was a major socialist political party in the late Russian Empire, during both phases of the Russian Revolution, and in early Soviet Russia. The party members were known as Esers (). The SRs were ag ...

(both supporters of the

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 ...

) speaking out against a resolution which had called for "the universal and speediest possible creation of free local social and economic organizations in coordination with one another." Following the

victory The term victory (from ) originally applied to warfare, and denotes success achieved in personal duel, combat, after military operations in general or, by extension, in any competition. Success in a military campaign constitutes a strategic vi ...

of the Insurgent Army over the

White movement The White movement,. The old spelling was retained by the Whites to differentiate from the Reds. also known as the Whites, was one of the main factions of the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922. It was led mainly by the Right-wing politics, right- ...

in Ukraine, on 7 January 1920, they issued a declaration to Ukrainian workers and peasants, which proposed that they restart the construction of "free soviets" outside of political party control. They repealed both the legislation passed by

Anton Denikin Anton Ivanovich Denikin (, ; – 7 August 1947) was a Russian military leader who served as the Supreme Ruler of Russia, acting supreme ruler of the Russian State and the commander-in-chief of the White movement–aligned armed forces of Sout ...

's Southern Russian government and by the

Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as the Ukrainian SSR, UkrSSR, and also known as Soviet Ukraine or just Ukraine, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991. ...

, transferred land to peasants and workplaces to their workers, and proclaimed the establishment of free soviets. They also proclaimed the establishment of

freedom of assembly Freedom of assembly, sometimes used interchangeably with the freedom of association, is the individual right or ability of individuals to peaceably assemble and collectively express, promote, pursue, and defend their ideas. The right to free ...

freedom of the press Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the fundamental principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic Media (communication), media, especially publication, published materials, shoul ...

and

speech Speech is the use of the human voice as a medium for language. Spoken language combines vowel and consonant sounds to form units of meaning like words, which belong to a language's lexicon. There are many different intentional speech acts, suc ...

, as well as free exchange for the working class, while also taking a stance against any "

counterrevolutionary A counter-revolutionary or an anti-revolutionary is anyone who opposes or resists a revolution, particularly one who acts after a revolution has occurred, in order to try to overturn it or reverse its course, in full or in part. The adjective "c ...

" activity and establishing the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

for

banditry Banditry is a type of organized crime committed by outlaws typically involving the threat or use of violence. A person who engages in banditry is known as a bandit and primarily commits crimes such as extortion, robbery, kidnapping, and murder, ...

. The Bolsheviks, who opposed any federation of "free soviets", responded the following day by launching an attack against the Makhnovshchina, liquidating insurgent positions around Huliaipole by the end of the month. In subsequent addresses, the Insurgents denounced the "communist hangmen" for breaking up the "free soviets", which had themselves been reconstituted after insurgent victories against the Whites, and called for Ukrainian workers and peasants to rise up against the Bolsheviks and reestablish a "regime of free soviets". The insurgents intensified their propaganda efforts in favor of "free soviets", even issuing a number of appeals to

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

soldiers, in which they declared that their immediate goal was "to install a free soviet regime without the power of the Bolsheviks, without the predominance of any party." The Makhnovists eventually called for a "Third Revolution" against the

one-party state A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system or single-party system is a governance structure in which only a single political party controls the ruling system. In a one-party state, all opposition parties are either outlawed or en ...

, in an attempt to rally all supporters of "free soviets" to their banner. In October 1920, a Military and Political Agreement between the Makhnovists and Bolsheviks was signed. However, the Fourth Clause of the Political Agreement was a point of contention, as it outlined that " e local worker and peasant population, shall be free, in the area of operations of the Makhnovist Army, to organise free institutions of economic and political self-administration, as also their autonomous and federative links - by agreement with the State organs of the Soviet Republic." In the wake of the agreement, the "free soviets" were briefly revived in areas controlled by the Makhnovists. Throughout November, seven popular assemblies were convened in Huliaipole to discuss the issue, eventually resulting in the re-establishment of the Huliaipole Soviet on 16 November and the publication of the ''Fundamental Theses of the Free Toilers' Soviet'', which laid out guidelines for establishing "free soviets". The Makhnovists did not renounce their territorial claims, with Makhno himself hoping they would establish an

autonomous republic An autonomous republic is a type of administrative division similar to a province or state. A significant number of autonomous republics can be found within the successor states of the Soviet Union, but the majority are located within Russia. Ma ...

of free soviets in southeastern Ukraine. However, to the Bolsheviks, this system of "free soviets" presented a direct challenge to the " dictatorship of the proletariat". By 26 November, the Bolsheviks had broken the agreement and attacked the Makhnovshchina, definitively liquidating the "free soviet" system. With the White movement having been decisively defeated and the Bolsheviks again attacking the Makhnovists, a string of anti-Bolshevik uprisings broke out, unanimously declaring themselves for the restoration of "free soviets". The Makhnovists also stepped up their propaganda efforts, circulating thousands of copies of their ''Draft Theoretical Declaration and the Statutes of the Free Soviets''. The idea of "free soviets" permeated into the

Kronstadt rebellion The Kronstadt rebellion () was a 1921 insurrection of Soviet sailors, Marines, naval infantry, and civilians against the Bolsheviks, Bolshevik government in the Russian port city of Kronstadt. Located on Kotlin Island in the Gulf of Finland, ...

, which included a call for non-party soviets in the first point of its '' Petropavlovsk Resolution''. However, these uprisings would all end in failure, with the Makhnovist insurgents themselves either being driven into exile, captured or killed.

Analysis

Later anarchist analysis of the "free soviets" followed in the wake of

Peter Arshinov Peter Andreyevich Arshinov (; 1887 – 1937), was a Russian anarchist revolutionary and intellectual who chronicled the history of the Makhnovshchina. Initially a Bolshevik, during the 1905 Revolution, he became active within the Ukrainian an ...

's publication of his ''History of the Makhnovist Movement''. Mark Mratchny regarded the role of "free soviets" in a " transitional period" as being closer to the ideology of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, who proposed a decentralized "informal State", than it was to anarchist theory. Anarchist critics of the "free soviets" considered them to resemble a form of

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

, which could have given way to

bureaucracy Bureaucracy ( ) is a system of organization where laws or regulatory authority are implemented by civil servants or non-elected officials (most of the time). Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments ...

authoritarianism Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political ''status quo'', and reductions in democracy, separation of powers, civil liberties, and ...

. These criticisms were rejected by Arshinov and Makhno, who claimed that the Makhnovshchina had "denied all

statism In political science, statism or etatism (from French, ''état'' 'state') is the doctrine that the political authority of the state is legitimate to some degree. This may include economic and social policy, especially in regard to taxation ...

" and ultimately "aspired to the building of a free society on the basis of the social independence, solidarity and self-direction of the toilers." Arshinov insisted that the "free soviets" were not "legislative institutions", but were rather "a sort of platform gathering together the toilers on the basis of their vital needs." He described their goal as being to resolve issues, reach agreements and carry out tasks given to them by the workers and peasants of a certain locality. These could include "provisions, self-defense, liaison between countryside and town, and many others." According to Ukrainian historian Vyacheslav Azarov, the struggle for the free soviets should be seen as the foreground of the Makhnovist movement, rather than the background to its guerrilla warfare operations.

References

Bibliography

* * * *{{cite book, author-link=Alexandre Skirda, last=Skirda, first=Alexandre, title=Nestor Makhno: Anarchy's Cossack, url=https://libcom.org/library/nestor-makhno-anarchys-cossack-alexandre-skirda, translator-first=Paul, translator-last=Sharkey, year=2004, location=

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, publisher=

AK Press AK Press is a workers' self-management, worker-managed, independent publisher and book distributor that specializes in publishing books about anarchism and the Far-left politics, radical left. Operated out of Chico, California, United States, ...

, isbn=1-902593-68-5, oclc=58872511, orig-year=1982 1918 establishments in Ukraine 1920 disestablishments in Ukraine Anarchism in Ukraine Anarcho-communism Communism in Ukraine Local government in Ukraine Makhnovshchina Organizations of the Russian Revolution Russian Revolution in Ukraine Soviets

History

Analysis

See also

References

Bibliography