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[[File:800px-Makhnowia.png|thumbnail|Approximate anarchist territory in Ukraine. Transferred from en.wikipedia; transfer was stated to be made by User:P.o.l.o..]]
[[File:800px-Makhnowia.png|thumbnail|Approximate anarchist territory in Ukraine. Transferred from en.wikipedia; transfer was stated to be made by User:P.o.l.o..]]


[[File:Makhno group.jpg|thumbnail| More details Nestor Makhno with members of the anarchist [[Revolutionary Ukraine|Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine]]]]
[[File:Makhno group.jpg|thumbnail| Nestor Makhno with members of the anarchist [[Revolutionary Ukraine|Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine]]]]


From 1918 to 1921, Ukranians established an autonomous region with seven million residents. Surrounding the city of Gulai-Polya, residents ran several anarcho-communist communes and held regional Congresses. The Insurrectionary Army, with democratic rule-making procedures and elected officers, defended the region against Austrian and German invaders, the right-wing White Army and ultimately against the Bolsheviks' Red Army.  The movement's participants are often called “Makhnovists,” after the region's prominent organizer and military commander Nestor Makhno. By the end of 1921, the Red Army had wiped out the Makhnovist movement.
''For a broader article, see [[Russian Revolution and Anarchy]].''
 
From 1918 to 1921, Ukrainians established an autonomous region with seven million residents. Surrounding the city of Gulai-Polya, residents ran several anarcho-communist communes and held regional Congresses. The Insurrectionary Army, with grassroots rule-making procedures and elected officers, defended the region against Austrian and German invaders, the right-wing White Army and against the Bolsheviks' Red Army.  The movement's participants are often called “Makhnovists,” after the region's prominent organizer and military commander Nestor Makhno. By the end of 1921, the Red Army had wiped out the Makhnovist movement.


=Culture=
=Culture=
While opposing nationalism, the Makhnovists sought to “to encourage local culture and language.” In October of 1919, the  Insurrectionary Army encouraged school teachers to teach their classes in whatever language the local population preferred.<ref>''An Anarchist FAQ,'' “Why does the Makhnovist movement show there is an alternative to Bolshevism: Were the Makhnovists nationalists” in Appendix—The Russian Revolution. http://anarchism.pageabode.com/afaq/append4.html.</ref>
 
While opposing nationalism, the Makhnovists sought “to encourage local culture and language.” In October of 1919, the  Insurrectionary Army encouraged school teachers to teach their classes in whatever language the local population preferred.<ref>''An Anarchist FAQ,'' “Why does the Makhnovist movement show there is an alternative to Bolshevism: Were the Makhnovists nationalists” in Appendix—The Russian Revolution. http://anarchism.pageabode.com/afaq/append4.html.</ref>


Voline, an anarchist supporter of Makhno and author of ''The Unknown Revolution'', observed widespread sexism in the movement: “The second fault of Makhno and of many of his intimates — both commanders and others — was their behaviour towards women. Especially when drunk, these men let themselves indulge in shameful and even odious activities, going as far as orgies in which certain women were forced to participate.”<ref>Voline, ''The Unknown Revolution'' Book 3, http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/voline-the-unknown-revolution-1917-1921-book-three-struggle-for-the-real-social-revolution.</ref>
Voline, an anarchist supporter of Makhno and author of ''The Unknown Revolution'', observed widespread sexism in the movement: “The second fault of Makhno and of many of his intimates — both commanders and others — was their behaviour towards women. Especially when drunk, these men let themselves indulge in shameful and even odious activities, going as far as orgies in which certain women were forced to participate.”<ref>Voline, ''The Unknown Revolution'' Book 3, http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/voline-the-unknown-revolution-1917-1921-book-three-struggle-for-the-real-social-revolution.</ref>


=Decisions=
=Decisions=
When the Insurrectionary Army liberated a town from state control, it would post a notice clarifying they would not impose any authority on the town:
When the Insurrectionary Army liberated a town from state control, it would post a notice clarifying they would not impose any authority on the town:
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
Line 24: Line 28:
=Economy=
=Economy=


Voline writes that the communes near Gulai-Polya were “experiments in free communism.”<ref>Voline, ibid.</ref> Workplaces confederated into districts, and districts confederated into regions.<ref>Daniel Guérin, ''Anarchism: From Theory to Practice'' (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1970). 99</ref> The Makhnovists established a Commission of Initiative, made of delegates from labor unions.  The Commission advised workers, helping them restart factories and railroads. The Makhnovists continued using paper currency but planned “more fundamental reforms” toward anarcho-communism. In Gulai-Polya, people organized classes and schools based on the anti-authoritarian pedagogy of the Spanish educator Fransisco Ferrer.<ref>Voline, ibid.</ref> In Gulya-Polya, anarchists set up three secondary schools, and literacy increased throughout the area.<ref>Peter Gelderloos, [[Anarchy Works]].</ref>
Voline writes that the communes near Gulai-Polya were “experiments in free communism.”<ref>Voline, ibid.</ref> Workplaces federated into districts, and districts federated into regions.<ref>Daniel Guérin, ''Anarchism: From Theory to Practice'' (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1970). 99</ref> The Makhnovists established a Commission of Initiative, made of delegates from labor unions.  The Commission advised workers, helping them restart factories and railroads. The Makhnovists continued using paper currency but planned “more fundamental reforms” toward anarcho-communism. In Gulai-Polya, people organized classes and schools based on the anti-authoritarian pedagogy of the Spanish educator Fransisco Ferrer.<ref>Voline, ibid.</ref> In Gulya-Polya, anarchists set up three secondary schools, and literacy increased throughout the area.<ref>Peter Gelderloos, [[Anarchy Works]].</ref>
 
=Environment=


=Crime=
=Crime=
The Makhnovists “demolished prisons wherever they went. In Berdyansk the prison was dynamited in the presence of an enormous crowd, which took an active part in its destruction. At Aleksandrovsk, Krivoi-Rog, Ekaterinoslav and elsewhere, prisons were demolished or burned by the Makhnovists. Everywhere the workers cheered this act.” In a 1920 declaration, the Makhnovists called for prisons to be replaced by  grassroots self-defense groups.
On 12 May 1919, a pogrom killed 20 Jews near Aleksandrovsk. The Makhnovist army established a commission to investigate the incident and then shot the perpetrators.<ref>Peter Arshinov, ''History of the Makhnovist Movement'' (Detroit and Chicago: Black and Red, 1974). http://libcom.org/history/history-makhnovist-movement-1918-1921-peter-arshinov.</ref>


At the 12 October 1919 regional congress, delegates called Commander Klein to explain why he had gotten very drunk at a party after he himself had posted notices against excessive public drinking. A delegate asked him, “Tell me, Commander Klein, as a citizen of our city, and its military commander, do you consider yourself morally obliged to obey your own recommendations or do you believe yourself outside or above this notice?” Klein apologized, complained of boredom at a civilian post, and asked to be sent back to the battlefront.<ref>Voline, ibid.</ref>
The Makhnovists “demolished prisons wherever they went. In Berdyansk the prison was dynamited in the presence of an enormous crowd, which took an active part in its destruction. At Aleksandrovsk, Krivoi-Rog, Ekaterinoslav and elsewhere, prisons were demolished or burned by the Makhnovists. Everywhere the workers cheered this act.”<ref>Peter Arshinov, ''History of the Makhnovist Movement'', 1923, translated by Lorraine and Fredy Perlman,  https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/peter-arshinov-history-of-the-makhnovist-movement-1918-1921.html.</ref> In a 7 Jaunary 1920 declaration, the Makhnovists called for police to be replaced by grassroots self-defense groups.<ref>Arshinov, ''History of the Makhnovist Movement''.</ref>


An episode at a regional congress on 12 October 1919 shows how militants held their own Commanders accountable to rules they had set. Delegates called Commander Klein to explain why he had gotten very drunk at a party after Klein had himself posted notices against excessive public drinking. A delegate asked him, “Tell me, Commander Klein, as a citizen of our city, and its military commander, do you consider yourself morally obliged to obey your own recommendations or do you believe yourself outside or above this notice?” Having been publicly called out for his hypocrisy, Klein apologized, complained of boredom at a civilian post, and asked to be sent back to the battlefront.<ref>Voline, The Unknown Revolution, Volume Three.</ref>


=Revolution=
=Revolution=
Peter Gelderloos summarizes in [[Anarchy Works]]:
<blockquote>
The Soviet revolution of 1917 did not begin as the authoritarian terror it became after Lenin and Trotsky hijacked it. It was a multiform rebellion against the Tsar and against capitalism. It included such diverse actors as Socialist Revolutionaries, republicans, syndicalists, anarchists, and Bolsheviks. The soviets themselves were spontaneous non-party worker councils that organized along anti-authoritarian lines. The Bolsheviks gained control and ultimately suppressed the revolution by playing an effective political game that included co-opting or sabotaging the soviets, taking over the military, manipulating and betraying allies, and negotiating with imperialist powers. The Bolsheviks adeptly established themselves as the new government, and their allies made the mistake of believing their revolutionary rhetoric.


One of the first actions of the Bolshevik government was to sign a backstabbing peace treaty with the German and Austrian Empires. To pull out of World War I and free up the army for domestic action, the Leninists ceded the imperialists a treasure trove of money and strategic resources, and bequeathed them the country of Ukraine — without consulting the Ukrainians. Peasants in southern Ukraine rose up in revolt, and it was there that anarchism was strongest during the Soviet revolution. The rebels called themselves the Revolutionary Insurgent Army. They were commonly described as Makhnovists, after Nestor Makhno, their most influential military strategist and a skilled anarchist organizer. Makhno had been released from prison after the revolution in February 1917, and he returned to his hometown to organize an anarchist militia to fight the occupying German and Austrian forces.
In 1918, the Communist government signed the 1918 Brest-Litovsk Treaty, which without the consent of the Ukranians, ceded the Ukraine to the control of the German and Austrian empires.<ref>Peter Gelderloos, [[Anarchy Works]].</ref> As these empires prepared to return expropriated land to Ukranian landlords, peasants organized under the auspices of the all-volunteer Revolutionary Insurgent Army of the Ukraine (RIAU), guided by Anarchist organizer and ex-prisoner Nestor Makhno. This army elected officers and decided on all its rules at general assemblies. "The army was organized on a specifically libertarian, voluntary basis," writes Daniel Guerin.<ref>Daniel Guerin, ''Anarchism: From Theory to Practice'' (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1970), 100, translated by Mary Klopper.</ref>


As the insurrectionary anarchist army grew, it developed a more formal structure to allow for strategic coordination along several fronts, but it remained a volunteer militia, based on peasant support. Guiding questions of policy and strategy were decided in general meetings of peasants and workers. Aided rather than hindered by their flexible, participatory structure and strong support from the peasants, they liberated an area roughly 300 by 500 miles across, containing 7 million inhabitants, centered around the town of Gulyai-Polye. At times, the cities surrounding this anarchist zone — Alexandrovsk and Ekaterinoslav (now named Zaporizhye and Dnipropetrovsk, respectively) as well as Melitopol, Mariupol and Berdyansk, were freed from the control of the state, though they changed hands several times throughout the war. Self-organization along anarchist lines was deployed more consistently in the rural areas in these tumultuous years. In Gulyai-Polye, the anarchists set up three secondary schools and gave money expropriated from banks to orphanages. Throughout the area, literacy increased among the peasants.
By December of 1918, the Revolutionary Insurgent Army "was just over 110,000 strong, divided into four Corps, consisting of 83,000 infantry, 20,000 cavalry, assault groups, artillery, reconnaissance, medical, and other detachments, including armoured cars and seven armoured trains."<ref>Michael Schmidt, [[Cartography of Revolutionary Anarchism]].</ref>


In addition to taking on the Germans and Austrians, the anarchists also fought off the forces of nationalists who tried to subjugate the newly independent country under a homegrown Ukrainian government. They went on to hold the southern front against the armies of the White Russians — the aristocratic, pro-capitalist army funded and armed largely by the French and Americans — while their supposed allies, the Bolsheviks, withheld guns and ammunition and began purging anarchists to stop the spread of anarchism emanating from the Makhnovist territory. The White Russians eventually broke through the starved southern front, and reconquered Gulyai-Polye. Makhno retreated to the West, drawing off a large portion of the White armies, the remainder of which beat back the Red Army and advanced steadily towards Moscow. At the battle of Peregenovka, in western Ukraine, the anarchists obliterated the White army pursuing them. Although they were outnumbered and outgunned, they carried the day by effectively executing a series of brilliant maneuvers developed by Makhno, who had no military education or expertise. The volunteer anarchist army raced back to Gulyai-Polye, liberating the countryside and several major cities from the Whites. This sudden reversal cut off the supply lines of the armies that had almost reached Moscow, forcing them to retreat and saving the Russian Revolution.
The Makhnovists had to fight not only against the German and Austrian invaders, but also against Ukranian nationalists, White Army counter-revolutionaries, and ultimately against Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky's Red Army. In 1919, Trotsky declared his preference for a White Army victory against the Makhnovists: "It would be better to yield the whole Ukraine to Denikin, a frank counter-revolutionary, who could be easily compromised later by means of class propaganda, while the Makhnovichina developed in the depths of the masses and aroused the masses against themselves.”<ref>Voline, ''The Unknown Revolution, Book 3''</ref> The Communists stopped supplying the Insurgent Army and even tried to assassinate Makhno in May 1919 according to Voline. After a pro-Makhnovist council in Gulai-Polya called for a Fourth Regional Congress to take place that June, the Red Army, following Trotsky's orders, attacked the village, destroying the communes and seizing and executing Insurgent Army militants. On 4 June, Trotsky issued Order No. 1824, which declared the Fourth Congress “forbidden," with all its promoters and delegates subject to be “arrested immediately.”<ref>Voline, ''The Uknown Revolution, Book 3''.</ref> In response, the Congress was cancelled. Makhno temporarily fled in order to avoid being arrested by the Red Army.


For another year, an anarchist society again flourished in and around Gulyai-Polye, despite the efforts of Lenin and Trotsky to repress the anarchists there the way they had repressed them throughout Russia and the rest of Ukraine. When another White incursion under General Wrangel threatened the revolution, the Makhnovists again agreed to join the Communists against the imperialists, despite the earlier betrayal. The anarchist contingent accepted a suicide mission to take out enemy gun positions on the Perekop isthmus of Crimea; they succeeded in this and went on to capture the strategic city of Simferopol, again playing a crucial role in defeating the Whites. After the victory, the Bolsheviks surrounded and massacred most of the anarchist contingent, and occupied Gulyai-Polye and executed many influential anarchist organizers and fighters. Makhno and a few others escaped and confounded the massive Red Army with an effective campaign of guerrilla warfare for many months, even causing several major defections; in the end, however, the survivors decided to escape to the West. Some peasants in Ukraine retained their anarchist values, and raised the anarchist banner as part of the partisan resistance against Nazis and Stalinists during the Second World War. Even today, the red and black flag is a symbol of Ukrainian independence, though few people know its origins.
The Makhnovists' impressive  military accomplishments included a victory against Denikin's White Army in the fall of 1919 and a joint victory with the Bolsheviks against Wrangel's reconstituted White Army in 1921. Peter Gelderloos summarizes some of these battles:


The Makhnovists of southern Ukraine maintained their anarchist character under extremely difficult conditions: constant warfare, betrayal and repression by supposed allies, lethal pressures that required them to defend themselves with organized violence. In these circumstances they continued to fight for liberty, even when it was not in their military interests. They repeatedly interceded to prevent pogroms against Jewish communities while the Ukrainian nationalists and Bolsheviks fanned the flames of anti-Semitism to provide a scapegoat for the problems they themselves were exacerbating. Makhno personally killed a neighboring warlord and potential ally upon learning he had ordered pogroms, even at a time when he desperately needed allies.<ref> Some mainstream sources still contest that the Makhnovists were behind anti-Semitic pogroms in Ukraine. In <em>Nestor Makhno, Anarchy’s Cossack</em>, Alexandre Skirda traces this claim to its roots in anti-Makhno propaganda, while citing unfriendly contemporary sources who acknowledged that the Makhnovists were the only military units not carrying out pogroms. He also references propaganda put out by the Makhnovists attacking anti-Semitism as a tool of the aristocracy, Jewish militias that fought among the Makhnovists, and actions against pogromists personally carried out by Makhno.</ref>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
They went on to hold the southern front against the armies of the White Russians — the aristocratic, pro-capitalist army funded and armed largely by the French and Americans — while their supposed allies, the Bolsheviks, withheld guns and ammunition and began purging anarchists to stop the spread of anarchism emanating from the Makhnovist territory. The White Russians eventually broke through the starved southern front, and reconquered Gulyai-Polye. Makhno retreated to the West, drawing off a large portion of the White armies, the remainder of which beat back the Red Army and advanced steadily towards Moscow. At the battle of Peregenovka, in western Ukraine, the anarchists obliterated the White army pursuing them. Although they were outnumbered and outgunned, they carried the day by effectively executing a series of brilliant maneuvers developed by Makhno, who had no military education or expertise. The volunteer anarchist army raced back to Gulyai-Polye, liberating the countryside and several major cities from the Whites. This sudden reversal cut off the supply lines of the armies that had almost reached Moscow, forcing them to retreat and saving the Russian Revolution.


During October and November [1919], Makhno occupied Ekaterinoslav and Aleksandrovsk for several weeks, and thus obtained his first chance to apply the concepts of anarchism to city life. Makhno’s first act on entering a large town (after throwing open the prisons) was to dispel any impression that he had come to introduce a new form of political rule. Announcements were posted informing the townspeople that henceforth they were free to organize their lives as they saw fit, that the Insurgent Army would not “dictate to them or order them to do anything.” Free speech, press, and assembly were proclaimed, and in Ekaterinoslav half a dozen newspapers, representing a wide range of political opinion, sprang up overnight. While encouraging freedom of expression, however, Makhno would not countenance any political organization which sought to impose their authority on the people. He therefore dissolved the Bolshevik “revolutionary committees” (<em>revkomy</em>) in Ekaterinoslav and Aleksandrovsk, instructing their members to “take up some honest trade.”<ref>Paul Avrich, <em>The Russian Anarchists</em>, Oakland: AK Press, 2005, p. 218.</ref>
For another year, an anarchist society again flourished in and around Gulyai-Polye, despite the efforts of Lenin and Trotsky to repress the anarchists there the way they had repressed them throughout Russia and the rest of Ukraine. When another White incursion under General Wrangel threatened the revolution, the Makhnovists again agreed to join the Communists against the imperialists, despite the earlier betrayal. The anarchist contingent accepted a suicide mission to take out enemy gun positions on the Perekop isthmus of Crimea; they succeeded in this and went on to capture the strategic city of Simferopol, again playing a crucial role in defeating the Whites. After the victory, the Bolsheviks surrounded and massacred most of the anarchist contingent, and occupied Gulyai-Polye and executed many influential anarchist organizers and fighters. Makhno and a few others escaped and confounded the massive Red Army with an effective campaign of guerrilla warfare for many months, even causing several major defections; in the end, however, the survivors decided to escape to the West.<ref>Gelderloos, [[Anarchy Works]].</ref>
 
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
The Makhnovists stuck to defending the region, leaving socio-economic organization to the individual towns and cities; this hands-off approach to others was matched by an internal emphasis on direct democracy. Officers were elected from within every sub-group of fighters, and they could be recalled by that same group; they were not saluted, they did not receive material privileges, and they could not lead from behind to avoid the risks of combat.


In contrast, officers in the Red Army were appointed from above and received privileges and higher pay on the scale of the Tsarist Army. In fact the Bolsheviks had essentially taken over the structure and personnel of the Tsarist Army after the October Revolution. They retained most of the officers but reformed it into a “people’s army” by adding political officers responsible for identifying “counter-revolutionaries” to be purged. They also adopted the imperialist practice of stationing soldiers far across the continent from their homes, in areas where they did not speak the language, so they would be more likely to obey orders to repress locals and less likely to desert.


To be sure, the Revolutionary Insurgent Army enforced a strict discipline, shooting suspected spies and those who abused the peasants for personal gain such as embezzlers and rapists. The insurgents must have held many of the same powers over the civilian population as does any army. Among their many opportunities to abuse that power, some of them probably did. However, their relationship with the peasants was unique among the military powers. The Makhnovists could not survive without popular support, and during their lengthy guerrilla war against the Red Army many peasants provided them with horses, food, lodging, medical help, and intelligence gathering. In fact the peasants themselves provided the majority of the anarchist fighters.
=Neighboring Societies=


It is also debated how democratic the Makhnovist organizations were. Some historians say Makhno exerted substantial control over the “free soviets” — the non-party assemblies where workers and peasants made decisions and organized their affairs. Even sympathetic historians relate anecdotes of Makhno bullying delegates he saw as counter-revolutionary in meetings. But one must weigh these against the many occasions Makhno refused positions of power, or the fact that he left the Military Revolutionary Soviet, the assembly that decided military policy for the peasant militias, in an attempt to save the movement from the Bolshevik repression<ref>Makhno hoped that Lenin and Trotsky were motivated by a personal vendetta against him rather than an absolute desire to crush the free soviets, and would call off the repression if he left.</ref>.
Contrary to a myth that the Makhnovists tolerated anti-Semitism, Makhno organized meetings to confront anti-semitism and sent guns and ammunition to rural Jewish communities. Working class Jews participated in the Makhnovists' assemblies and even volunteered for their army. After a 12 May 1919 pogrom killed 20 Jews near Aleksandrovsk, the Makhnovist army established a commission to investigate the incident and then shot the perpetrators. <ref>Arshinov, ''History of the Makhnovist Movement''.</ref>


One criticism the Bolsheviks had of the Makhnovists was that their Military Revolutionary Soviet, the closest thing they could have had to a dictatorial organization, wielded no real power — it was really just an advisory group — while individual workers’ groups and peasant communities retained their autonomy. More charitable is the description by Soviet historian Kubanin: “the supreme body of the insurgent army was its Military Revolutionary Soviet, elected at a general assembly of all insurgents. Neither the overall command of the army nor Makhno himself truly ran the movement; they merely reflected the aspirations of the mass, acting as its ideological and technical agents.” Another Soviet historian, Yefimov, says “No decision was ever taken by just one individual. All military matters were debated in common.”<ref> Alexandre Skirda, <em>Nestor Makhno, Anarchy’s Cossack: The Struggle for Free Soviets in the Ukraine 1917–1921</em>, London: AK Press, 2005, p. 314.</ref>
Peter Ashinov describes the Makhnovists' outreach to the city workers: “The Makhnovshchina . . . understands that the victory and consolidation of the revolution . . . cannot be realised without a close alliance between the working classes of the cities and those of the countryside. The peasants understand that without urban workers and powerful industrial enterprises they will be deprived of most of the benefits which the social revolution makes possible. Furthermore, they consider the urban workers to be their brothers, members of the same family of workers.”<ref> “Appendix: The Russian Revolution” in ''An Anarchist FAQ'', http://anarchism.pageabode.com/afaq/append46.html#app10.</ref>


Grossly outnumbered and outgunned volunteer anarchist militias successfully defeated the armies of the Germans, the Austrians, the Ukrainian nationalists, and the White Russians. It took a professional army supplied by the world’s greatest industrial powers and simultaneous betrayal by their allies to stop them. If they had known then what we know now — that authoritarian revolutionaries can be as tyrannical as capitalist governments — and Russian anarchists in Moscow and St. Petersburg had succeeded in preventing the Bolsheviks from hijacking the Russian Revolution, things might have turned out differently.
Anarchists in the cities did not always lend concrete support to the Makhovists, a situation Arshinov attributed to Anarchists' preoccupation with theory rather than practice and organizational weakness. Arshinov laments, " We are obliged to state that Russian anarchists remained in their circles and slept through a mass movement of paramount importance, a movement which is unique in the present revolution for having undertaken to realize the historic tasks of oppressed humanity."<ref>Arshinov, ''History of the Makhnovist Movement'', Conclusion.</ref> Murray Bookchin recounts, "A number of urban anarchists, most notably Voline, Arshinov and Aron
</blockquote>  
Baron, found their way to the Ukraine, where they functioned on Makhno's
 
propaganda and educational committees; but other urban anarchists inflexibly
=Neighboring Societies=
denigrated the mahhnovshchina as an elemental peasant movement with the  
Peter Ashinov describes the Makhnovists' relationship with the city workers: “The Makhnovshchina . . . understands that the victory and consolidation of the revolution . . . cannot be realised without a close alliance between the working classes of the cities and those of the countryside. The peasants understand that without urban workers and powerful industrial enterprises they will be deprived of most of the benefits which the social revolution makes possible. Furthermore, they consider the urban workers to be their brothers, members of the same family of workers.”<ref> “Appendix: The Russian Revolution” in ''An Anarchist FAQ'', http://anarchism.pageabode.com/afaq/append46.html#app10.</ref>
traits of a military command-no less!"<ref>Bookchin, ''The Third Revolution, Book 3'', 317.</ref>




<references/>
<references/>

Latest revision as of 05:05, 23 October 2024

Approximate anarchist territory in Ukraine. Transferred from en.wikipedia; transfer was stated to be made by User:P.o.l.o..
Nestor Makhno with members of the anarchist Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine

For a broader article, see Russian Revolution and Anarchy.

From 1918 to 1921, Ukrainians established an autonomous region with seven million residents. Surrounding the city of Gulai-Polya, residents ran several anarcho-communist communes and held regional Congresses. The Insurrectionary Army, with grassroots rule-making procedures and elected officers, defended the region against Austrian and German invaders, the right-wing White Army and against the Bolsheviks' Red Army. The movement's participants are often called “Makhnovists,” after the region's prominent organizer and military commander Nestor Makhno. By the end of 1921, the Red Army had wiped out the Makhnovist movement.

Culture

While opposing nationalism, the Makhnovists sought “to encourage local culture and language.” In October of 1919, the Insurrectionary Army encouraged school teachers to teach their classes in whatever language the local population preferred.[1]

Voline, an anarchist supporter of Makhno and author of The Unknown Revolution, observed widespread sexism in the movement: “The second fault of Makhno and of many of his intimates — both commanders and others — was their behaviour towards women. Especially when drunk, these men let themselves indulge in shameful and even odious activities, going as far as orgies in which certain women were forced to participate.”[2]

Decisions

When the Insurrectionary Army liberated a town from state control, it would post a notice clarifying they would not impose any authority on the town:

Workers, your city is for the present occupied by the Revolutionary Insurrectionary (Makhnovist) Army. This army does not serve any political party, any power, any dictatorship. On the contrary, it seeks to free the region of all political power, of all dictatorship. It strives to protect the freedom of action, the free life of the workers, against all exploitation and domination.

The Makhnovist Army does not therefore represent any authority. It will not subject anyone to any obligation whatsoever. Its role is confined to defending the freedom of the workers. The freedom of the peasants and the workers belongs to themselves, and should not suffer any restriction.[3]

The territory's workers and peasants governed themselves without a state, but the most systematic direct democracy took place in the towns that organized themselves as free communes. The first commune, “based on the non-authoritarian principle”, was located near Gulai-Polya and had over 300 residents.[4]

The Makhovists organized periodic Regional Congresses, where delegates from many communities gathered. Voline describes the Regional Congress of October 1919, where over 200 delegates showed up, made their own agenda, and made decisions on issues like how to provide medical care to soldiers in the Insurrectionary Army.[5]

Economy

Voline writes that the communes near Gulai-Polya were “experiments in free communism.”[6] Workplaces federated into districts, and districts federated into regions.[7] The Makhnovists established a Commission of Initiative, made of delegates from labor unions. The Commission advised workers, helping them restart factories and railroads. The Makhnovists continued using paper currency but planned “more fundamental reforms” toward anarcho-communism. In Gulai-Polya, people organized classes and schools based on the anti-authoritarian pedagogy of the Spanish educator Fransisco Ferrer.[8] In Gulya-Polya, anarchists set up three secondary schools, and literacy increased throughout the area.[9]

Crime

The Makhnovists “demolished prisons wherever they went. In Berdyansk the prison was dynamited in the presence of an enormous crowd, which took an active part in its destruction. At Aleksandrovsk, Krivoi-Rog, Ekaterinoslav and elsewhere, prisons were demolished or burned by the Makhnovists. Everywhere the workers cheered this act.”[10] In a 7 Jaunary 1920 declaration, the Makhnovists called for police to be replaced by grassroots self-defense groups.[11]

An episode at a regional congress on 12 October 1919 shows how militants held their own Commanders accountable to rules they had set. Delegates called Commander Klein to explain why he had gotten very drunk at a party after Klein had himself posted notices against excessive public drinking. A delegate asked him, “Tell me, Commander Klein, as a citizen of our city, and its military commander, do you consider yourself morally obliged to obey your own recommendations or do you believe yourself outside or above this notice?” Having been publicly called out for his hypocrisy, Klein apologized, complained of boredom at a civilian post, and asked to be sent back to the battlefront.[12]

Revolution

In 1918, the Communist government signed the 1918 Brest-Litovsk Treaty, which without the consent of the Ukranians, ceded the Ukraine to the control of the German and Austrian empires.[13] As these empires prepared to return expropriated land to Ukranian landlords, peasants organized under the auspices of the all-volunteer Revolutionary Insurgent Army of the Ukraine (RIAU), guided by Anarchist organizer and ex-prisoner Nestor Makhno. This army elected officers and decided on all its rules at general assemblies. "The army was organized on a specifically libertarian, voluntary basis," writes Daniel Guerin.[14]

By December of 1918, the Revolutionary Insurgent Army "was just over 110,000 strong, divided into four Corps, consisting of 83,000 infantry, 20,000 cavalry, assault groups, artillery, reconnaissance, medical, and other detachments, including armoured cars and seven armoured trains."[15]

The Makhnovists had to fight not only against the German and Austrian invaders, but also against Ukranian nationalists, White Army counter-revolutionaries, and ultimately against Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky's Red Army. In 1919, Trotsky declared his preference for a White Army victory against the Makhnovists: "It would be better to yield the whole Ukraine to Denikin, a frank counter-revolutionary, who could be easily compromised later by means of class propaganda, while the Makhnovichina developed in the depths of the masses and aroused the masses against themselves.”[16] The Communists stopped supplying the Insurgent Army and even tried to assassinate Makhno in May 1919 according to Voline. After a pro-Makhnovist council in Gulai-Polya called for a Fourth Regional Congress to take place that June, the Red Army, following Trotsky's orders, attacked the village, destroying the communes and seizing and executing Insurgent Army militants. On 4 June, Trotsky issued Order No. 1824, which declared the Fourth Congress “forbidden," with all its promoters and delegates subject to be “arrested immediately.”[17] In response, the Congress was cancelled. Makhno temporarily fled in order to avoid being arrested by the Red Army.

The Makhnovists' impressive military accomplishments included a victory against Denikin's White Army in the fall of 1919 and a joint victory with the Bolsheviks against Wrangel's reconstituted White Army in 1921. Peter Gelderloos summarizes some of these battles:

They went on to hold the southern front against the armies of the White Russians — the aristocratic, pro-capitalist army funded and armed largely by the French and Americans — while their supposed allies, the Bolsheviks, withheld guns and ammunition and began purging anarchists to stop the spread of anarchism emanating from the Makhnovist territory. The White Russians eventually broke through the starved southern front, and reconquered Gulyai-Polye. Makhno retreated to the West, drawing off a large portion of the White armies, the remainder of which beat back the Red Army and advanced steadily towards Moscow. At the battle of Peregenovka, in western Ukraine, the anarchists obliterated the White army pursuing them. Although they were outnumbered and outgunned, they carried the day by effectively executing a series of brilliant maneuvers developed by Makhno, who had no military education or expertise. The volunteer anarchist army raced back to Gulyai-Polye, liberating the countryside and several major cities from the Whites. This sudden reversal cut off the supply lines of the armies that had almost reached Moscow, forcing them to retreat and saving the Russian Revolution.

For another year, an anarchist society again flourished in and around Gulyai-Polye, despite the efforts of Lenin and Trotsky to repress the anarchists there the way they had repressed them throughout Russia and the rest of Ukraine. When another White incursion under General Wrangel threatened the revolution, the Makhnovists again agreed to join the Communists against the imperialists, despite the earlier betrayal. The anarchist contingent accepted a suicide mission to take out enemy gun positions on the Perekop isthmus of Crimea; they succeeded in this and went on to capture the strategic city of Simferopol, again playing a crucial role in defeating the Whites. After the victory, the Bolsheviks surrounded and massacred most of the anarchist contingent, and occupied Gulyai-Polye and executed many influential anarchist organizers and fighters. Makhno and a few others escaped and confounded the massive Red Army with an effective campaign of guerrilla warfare for many months, even causing several major defections; in the end, however, the survivors decided to escape to the West.[18]


Neighboring Societies

Contrary to a myth that the Makhnovists tolerated anti-Semitism, Makhno organized meetings to confront anti-semitism and sent guns and ammunition to rural Jewish communities. Working class Jews participated in the Makhnovists' assemblies and even volunteered for their army. After a 12 May 1919 pogrom killed 20 Jews near Aleksandrovsk, the Makhnovist army established a commission to investigate the incident and then shot the perpetrators. [19]

Peter Ashinov describes the Makhnovists' outreach to the city workers: “The Makhnovshchina . . . understands that the victory and consolidation of the revolution . . . cannot be realised without a close alliance between the working classes of the cities and those of the countryside. The peasants understand that without urban workers and powerful industrial enterprises they will be deprived of most of the benefits which the social revolution makes possible. Furthermore, they consider the urban workers to be their brothers, members of the same family of workers.”[20]

Anarchists in the cities did not always lend concrete support to the Makhovists, a situation Arshinov attributed to Anarchists' preoccupation with theory rather than practice and organizational weakness. Arshinov laments, " We are obliged to state that Russian anarchists remained in their circles and slept through a mass movement of paramount importance, a movement which is unique in the present revolution for having undertaken to realize the historic tasks of oppressed humanity."[21] Murray Bookchin recounts, "A number of urban anarchists, most notably Voline, Arshinov and Aron Baron, found their way to the Ukraine, where they functioned on Makhno's propaganda and educational committees; but other urban anarchists inflexibly denigrated the mahhnovshchina as an elemental peasant movement with the traits of a military command-no less!"[22]


  1. ↑ An Anarchist FAQ, “Why does the Makhnovist movement show there is an alternative to Bolshevism: Were the Makhnovists nationalists” in Appendix—The Russian Revolution. http://anarchism.pageabode.com/afaq/append4.html.
  2. ↑ Voline, The Unknown Revolution Book 3, http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/voline-the-unknown-revolution-1917-1921-book-three-struggle-for-the-real-social-revolution.
  3. ↑ Voline, The Unknown Revolution, 1917–1921. Book Three. Struggle for the Real Social Revolution. The Anarchist Library. http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/voline-the-unknown-revolution-1917-1921-book-three-struggle-for-the-real-social-revolution.
  4. ↑ Voline, ibid.
  5. ↑ Voline, ibid.
  6. ↑ Voline, ibid.
  7. ↑ Daniel Guérin, Anarchism: From Theory to Practice (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1970). 99
  8. ↑ Voline, ibid.
  9. ↑ Peter Gelderloos, Anarchy Works.
  10. ↑ Peter Arshinov, History of the Makhnovist Movement, 1923, translated by Lorraine and Fredy Perlman, https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/peter-arshinov-history-of-the-makhnovist-movement-1918-1921.html.
  11. ↑ Arshinov, History of the Makhnovist Movement.
  12. ↑ Voline, The Unknown Revolution, Volume Three.
  13. ↑ Peter Gelderloos, Anarchy Works.
  14. ↑ Daniel Guerin, Anarchism: From Theory to Practice (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1970), 100, translated by Mary Klopper.
  15. ↑ Michael Schmidt, Cartography of Revolutionary Anarchism.
  16. ↑ Voline, The Unknown Revolution, Book 3
  17. ↑ Voline, The Uknown Revolution, Book 3.
  18. ↑ Gelderloos, Anarchy Works.
  19. ↑ Arshinov, History of the Makhnovist Movement.
  20. ↑ “Appendix: The Russian Revolution” in An Anarchist FAQ, http://anarchism.pageabode.com/afaq/append46.html#app10.
  21. ↑ Arshinov, History of the Makhnovist Movement, Conclusion.
  22. ↑ Bookchin, The Third Revolution, Book 3, 317.
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