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Nestor Makhno
Nestor Makhno
Born	October 26, 1888; Hulyai Pole, Russian Empire (today Ukraine)
Died	July 6, 1934; Paris, France
Occupation(s)	Anarcho-communist revolutionary, painter, stagehand
Spouse	Agafya Kuzmenko
Children	Yelena

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Nestor Ivanovich Makhno (Ukrainian: Нестор Іванович Махно, October 26, 1888–July 6, 1934) was an anarcho-communist revolutionary who refused to join the Bolsheviks after the October Revolution.

A commander of the peasant Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine, also known as the anarchist Black Army, Makhno led a guerrilla campaign during the Russian Civil War. He supported the Bolsheviks, the Ukrainian Directory, the Bolsheviks again, and then turned to organizing the Free Territory of Ukraine, an anarchist society, committed to resisting state authority, whether capitalist or state Communist.^[1]^[2] This project was cut short by the consolidation of Bolshevik power. Makhno was described by anarchist theorist Emma Goldman as "an extraordinary figure" leading a revolutionary peasants' movement.^[3] He is also credited as the inventor of the Tachanka.^{[citation needed]}

Early life

Nestor Makhno was born into a poor peasant family in Hulyai Pole, Yekaterioslav Governorate in Novorossiya region of Russian Empire (now Zaporizhia Oblast, Ukraine).^[4]^[5] He was the youngest of five children. Church files show a birthdate of October 27, 1888, but Nestor Makhno's parents registered his date of birth as 1889 (possibly in an attempt to postpone conscription, or a later attempt to avoid execution after his arrest in 1910 for belonging to the anarchist group and for robberies).

His father died when he was ten months old.^[6] Due to extreme poverty, he had to work as a shepherd at the age of seven.^[6] He studied at the Second Hulyai Pole primary school in winter at the age of eight and worked for local landlords during the summer.^[6] He left school at the age of twelve and employed as a farmhand on the estates of nobles and on the farms of wealthy peasants called kulaks.^[6]

At the age of seventeen, he was employed in Hulyai Pole itself as an apprentice painter, then as a worker in a local iron foundry and, ultimately worked as a founder in the same organization.^[6] During this time he became involved in revolutionary politics.^[6] His involvement in revolutionary politics was based on his experiences of injustice at work and seeing the terror of the Tsarist regime during the 1905.^[6] In 1906, Makhno joined the anarchist organization in Hulyai Pole.^[4] He was arrested in 1906, tried, and acquitted. He was again arrested in 1907, but Makhno could not be incriminated, and the charges were dropped.^[6] The third arrest came in 1908, when an infiltrator was able to testify against Makhno.^[6] In 1910 Makhno was sentenced to death by hanging, but the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and he was sent to Butyrskaya prison in Moscow.^[6] In prison he came under the influence of intellectual cell mate Piotr Arshinov.^[6]^[7]^[8] He was released from prison after the February Revolution in 1917.^[7]

Organizing peasants' movement

After liberation from prison, Makhno organized a peasants' union.^[8] It gave him a "Robin Hood" image and he expropriated large estates from landowners and distributed the land among the peasants.^[8]

In March 1918, the new Bolshevik government in Russia signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk concluding peace with the Central Powers, but ceding large amounts of territory, including Ukraine, to them. As the Central Rada of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR) was unable to maintain order, a coup by former Tsarist general Pavlo Skoropadsky resulted in the establishment of the Hetmanate. Already dissatisfied by the UNR's failure to resolve the question of land ownership, much of the peasantry refused to support a conservative government administered by former imperial officials and supported by the Austro-Hungarian and German occupiers.^[9] Peasant bands under various self-appointed otamany which had been counted on the rolls of the UNR's army now attacked the Germans, later going over to the Directory in summer 1918 or the Bolsheviks in late 1918–19, or home to protect local interests, in many cases changing allegiances, plundering so-called class enemies, and venting age-old resentments.^[10] They finally dominated the countryside in mid 1919, the largest portion would follow either Socialist Revolutionary Matviy Hryhoriyiv or the anarchist flag of Nestor Makhno.^[11]

In Yekaterinoslav province, the rebellion soon took on anarchist political overtones. Nestor Makhno joined one of such groups (headed by sailor-deserter Fedor Shuss) and eventually became its commander. Due in part to the impressive personality and charisma of Makhno, all Ukrainian anarchist detachments and peasant guerrilla bands in the region were subsequently known as Makhnovists (Russian: махновцы). In areas where they drove out opposing armies, villagers (and workers) sought to abolish capitalism and the state by organizing themselves into village assemblies, communes and free councils. The land and factories were expropriated and put under nominal peasant and worker control by means of self-governing committees; however, town mayors and many officials were drawn directly from the ranks of Makhno's military and political leadership.

The Makhnovists and Formation of the Anarchist Black Army

Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky, head of a criticized Ukrainian State—considered by some a puppet Republic—lost support of the Central Powers in the collapse of the German western front, saw his best forces evaporate, and was driven out of Kyiv by the Directory. In March 1918, the RIAU had successes against the Germans, Austrians, Ukrainian Nationalists of Symon Petlura, and multiple regiments of the White Army. The brilliant victory over a much larger Austrian force established Makhno's reputation as a military tactician and he became known as Batko (Little Father) to the Ukrainian people.^[8]

At this point, the emphasis on military campaigns that Makhno had adopted in the previous year shifted to political concerns. The first Congress of the Confederation of Anarchists Groups, under the name of Nabat ("the Bell"), issued five main principles: rejection of all political parties, rejection of all forms of dictatorships (in particular the Marxist dogma of "Dictatorship by Proletariat", viewed by Makhnovists and many anarchists of the day as a term synonymous with the dictatorship of the Bolshevik communist party), negation of any concept of a central state, rejection of a so-called "transitional period" necessitating a temporary dictatorship of the proletariat, and self-management of all workers through free local workers' councils (soviets). While the Bolsheviks argued that their concept of "Dictatorship by Proletariat" meant precisely "rule by workers' councils," the Makhnovist platform opposed the "temporary" Bolshevik measure of "party dictatorship."

In 1918, after recruiting large numbers of Ukrainian peasants, as well as numbers of Jews, anarchists, naletchki, and a few foreign-born anarchists, Makhno formed the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine, otherwise known as the Anarchist Black Army. At its formation, the Black Army consisted of about 15,000 armed troops, including infantry and cavalry (both regular and irregular) brigades; artillery detachments were incorporated into each regiment. From November 1918 to June 1919, using the Black Army to secure its hold on power, the Makhnovists attempted to create an anarchist society in the Ukraine, administered at the local level by autonomous peasants' and workers' Councils.

The agricultural most part of these villages was composed of peasants, someone understood at the same time peasants and workers. They were founded first of all on equality and solidarity of his members. All, men and women, worked together with a perfect conscience that they should work on fields or that they should be used in housework... Working program was established in meetings where all participated. They knew then exactly what they had to make.
— Russian Revolution in Ukraine, in Makhno

New relationships and values were generated by this new social paradigm, which led Makhnovists to formalize the policy of free communities as the highest form of social justice. Education was organized on Francisco Ferrer's principles, and the economy was based upon free exchange between rural and urban communities, from crop and cattle to manufactured products, according to the science proposed by Peter Kropotkin.^{[citation needed]}

Makhno called the Bolsheviks dictators and opposed the "Cheka [secret police]... and similar compulsory authoritative and disciplinary institutions" and called for "[f]reedom of speech, press, assembly, unions and the like".^[12] In practice, the Makhnoists formed an overall government over the area they controlled, and following the lead of Trotsky and the Bolshevik Red Army, used forced conscription, summary executions(,^[13] 121), strict political controls^[12](,^[13] 119), and two military and counter-intelligence forces: the Razvedka and the Kommissiya Protivmakhnovskikh Del (patterned after the Cheka and the GRU).(^[14])

Allegations of Racial and Ethnic Atrocities

The image of Makhno as leader of the peasant uprising has been called "legendary"^[15] and a "colourful personality",^[16] but his tenure characterized as "military ravages",^[17] and he has been considered by its victims an "inhuman monster" whose path is "literally drenched with blood."^[18]

Like the White army, the Ukrainian National Republic and forces loyal to the Bolsheviks, Makhno's forces are also accused of conducting pogroms against Jews in Ukraine during the civil war.^[19] However, this claim is frequently disputed. Paul Avrich writes, "Maknno's alleged anti-Semitism...Charges of Jew-baiting and of anti-Jewish pogroms have come from every quarter, left, right, and center. Without exception, however, they are based on hearsay, rumor, or intentional slander, and remain undocumented and unproved."^[20] Other historians have pointedly noted that Jewish anarchists, both Ukrainian and foreign born, formed a significant part of Makhno's anarchist Black Army, including subordinate officers and historians of the Makhnovist movement such as Vsevolod Mikhailovich Eikhenbaum, aka Volin.^[21]^[22]

During the height of Makhno's power in 1919, his Black Army attacked many German villages in the Katerynoslav Oblast in retaliation for previous depredations by German forces, killing the inhabitants or forcing many to flee, eventually to Germany and North America. The larger rural landholdings of pacifist Mennonites were prominent targets.^[23] The combination of Tsarist resettlement of Germans in WWI and peasant attacks during the civil war reduced the German population from 750,000 in 1914 to 514,000 in 1926.^[24]

National issues

While the bulk of Makhno's forces consisted of ethnically Ukrainian peasants, his attitude to Ukrainian nationalism was explicitly negative.

White and Red Army Attacks

Bolshevik hostility to Makhno and his anarchist army increased after the defection of 40,000 Red Army troops in Crimea to the Black Army in July 1918. The Nabat confederation was banned and the Third Congress (specifically Pavel Dybenko) declared the "Makhnovschina" (Ukrainian anarchists) outlaws and counter-revolutionaries. In response, the Anarchist Congress publicly questioned, "[M]ight laws exist as made by few persons so-called revolutionaries, allowing these to declare the outlawing of an entire people which is more revolutionary than them?" (Archinoff, The Makhnovist Movement). Relying largely on a September 1920 report from V. Ivanov, a Bolshevik delegate to Makhno's camp, Moscow justified its hostility to Makhno and the anarchists by claiming that 1) Makhno's anarchist army and state had no free elections to the general command staff, with all commanders up to company commander appointed by Makhno and the Anarchist Revolutionary War Council; 2) Makhno had refused to provide food for Soviet railwaymen and telegraph operators (an attempt to capitalize on Makhno's view of railroads as capitalist frivolities); 3) there was a ‘special section’ in the Anarchist Revolutionary Military Council constitution that dealt with disobedience and desertion "secretly and without mercy”; 4) that Makhno's forces had raided Red Army convoys for supplies, and had failed to pay for an armored car seized from Briansk; and 5) that the Nabat was responsible for deadly acts of terrorism in Russian cities (a reference to attempts on the lives of Bolshevik officials by independent anarchists and other dissident leftist groups unrelated to Makno). The Bolshevik press was silent on the subject of Moscow's refusal to send arms to the Black Army, or Makhno's continued willingness to ship of food supplies to Bolshevik-held cities.

Lenin soon sent Lev Kamenev to Ukraine, who conducted a cordial interview with Makhno. After Kamenev's departure, Makhno claimed to have intercepted two Bolshevik messages, the first an order to the Red Army to attack the Makhnovists, the second ordering Makhno's assassination. Soon after the Fourth Congress, Trotsky sent the clear order to arrest every congress member, then supposedly declared that "it's better to cede the entire Ukraine to Denikin (White Army) than to allow an expansion of Makhnovism" (quoted by Arshinov in his History of the The Makhnovist Movement). Pursued by White Army forces, Makhno and the Black Army responded by withdrawing further into the interior of the Ukraine. In 1919, the Black Army suddenly turned eastwards in a full-scale offensive, surprising General Denikin's White forces and causing them to fall back. Within two weeks, Makhno and the Black Army had recaptured all of the southern Ukraine.

Having consolidated their base, Makhno and the other Ukrainian anarchists turned again to the political adminstration of the Ukraine, destroying prisons and guardhouses, freeing prisoners, and granting freedom of speech, conscience, association, and the press.^{[citation needed]} When nearly half^{[citation needed]} of Makhno's troops were struck by a typhus epidemic, Trotsky resumed hostilities; the Cheka sent two agents to assassinate Makhno in 1920, but were captured and after confessing, were executed.

There was a new truce between Makhnovist forces and the Red Army in October 1920 in the face of a new advance by Wrangel's White army. While Makhnov and the anarchists were willing to assist in ejecting Wrangel and White Army troops from the southern Ukraine and Crimea, they distrusted the Bolshevist government in Moscow and its motives. However, after the Bolshevik government agreed to a pardon of all anarchist prisoners throughout Russia, a formal treaty of alliance was signed.

By late 1920, Makhno had successfully halted General Wrangel's White Army advance into the Ukraine from the southwest, capturing 4,000 prisoners and stores of munitions, and preventing the White Army from seizing the all-important yearly grain harvest in the Ukraine. Eventually, after shifting forces from the Polish-Soviet campaign, Red Army units also participated in the southern campaign that pursued Wrangel and the remainder of his forces down the Crimean peninsula. To the end, Makhnov and the anarchists maintained their main political structures, refusing demands to join the Red Army, to hold Bolshevik-supervised elections, or accept Bolshevik-appointed political commissars.^{[citation needed]} The Red Army temporarily accepted these conditions, but within a few days ceased to provide the Makhnovists with basic supplies, such as cereals and coal.

When General Wrangel's White Army forces were decisively defeated and forced to evacuate from the Crimea in November 1920, the communists immediately turned on Makhno and the anarchists once again. Makhno intercepted three messages from Lenin to Christian Rakovsky, the head of the Bolshevik government of Ukraine. Lenin's orders were to arrest all members of Makhno's organization and to try them as common criminals. On November 26, 1920, Makno's headquarters staff and many of his subordinate commanders were arrested and liquidated at a Red Army planning conference to which they had been invited by Moscow. Makhno escaped, but was soon forced into retreat as the full weight of the Red Army was brought to bear against anarchist forces in the Ukraine.

Exile

In August 1921, an exhausted Makhno was finally driven by Trotsky's Red Army forces into exile with the remainder of his anarchist army, fleeing to Romania, then Poland, Danzig, Berlin and finally to Paris. In 1926, joining other Russian exiles in Paris as part of the Group of Russian Anarchists Abroad (Группа Русских Анархистов Заграницей) who produced the monthly journal "Dielo Truda" (Дело Труда, The Сause of Labour), Makhno co-wrote and co-published the Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists (often referred to as the Organizational Platform of the Libertarian Communists), which put forward ideas on how anarchists should organize, based on the experiences of revolutionary Ukraine and the defeat at the hand of the Bolsheviks. The document was initially rejected by many anarchists, but today has a wide following. It remains controversial to this day, continuing to inspire some anarchists (notably the platformism tendency) because of the clarity and functionality of the structures it proposes, while drawing criticism from others (including, at the time of publication, Volin and Malatesta) who view its implications as too rigid and hierarchical.

At the end of his life Makhno lived in Paris and worked as a carpenter and stage-hand at the Paris Opera, at film-studios, and at the Renault factory. He died in Paris in 1934 from tuberculosis. He was cremated three days after his death, with five hundred people attending his funeral at the famous cimetière du Père-Lachaise in Paris. Makhno's widow, along with his daughter Yelena, were deported to Germany for forced labor at the end of the WW2. After the end of the war they were arrested by the NKVD and taken to Kiev for trial in 1946 and sentenced to eight years of hard labor. They lived in Kazakhstan after their release in 1953.

File:Makhnoparis.jpg

The memorial panel on Makhno's crematory vault in Pere-Lachaise cemetery in Paris

Personal life

In 1919, Nestor Maknho married Agafya (aka Halyna) Kuzmenko, a former elementary schoolteacher (1892-1978), who became his aide. They had one daughter, Yelena. Halyna Kuzmenko personally carried out a death sentence of ataman Nikifor Grigoriev, a subordinate commander who committed a series of anti-semitic pogroms (according to other versions, Grigoriev was killed by Chubenko, a member of Makhno's staff or Makhno himself).^{[citation needed]}

Two of Makhno's brothers were his active supporters and aides before being captured in battle by the German occupation forces and executed by firing squad.

According to Paul Avrich Makhno was a thoroughgoing anarchist and down-to-earth peasant.^[7] He rejected metaphysical systems and abstract social theorizing.^[7]

Notes

^ Yekelchyk 2007, p 80.
^ Charles Townshend, John Bourne, Jeremy Black (1997). The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern War. Oxford University Press. pp. p163. ISBN 0198204272. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ Emma Goldman (2003). My Disillusionment in Russia. Courier Dover Publications. pp. p61. ISBN 048643270X. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
^ ^a ^b Paul Avrich (1988). Anarchist portraits. Princeton University Press. pp. p111. ISBN 0691006091. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
^ Alexandre Skirda (2004). Nestor Makhno: Anarchy's Cossack. AK Press. pp. p17. ISBN 1902593685. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k Makhno, Nestor, 1889-1934 Libcom
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Paul Avrich (1988). Anarchist portraits. Princeton University Press. pp. p112. ISBN 0691006091. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Edward R. Kantowicz (1999). The Rage of Nations. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. pp. p173. ISBN 0802844553. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
^ Magocsi 1996, p 499.
^ Magocsi 1996, p 498–9, Subtelny 1988, p 360.
^ Magocsi 1996, p 498–9, Subtelny 1988, p 360.
^ ^a ^b [http://www.ditext.com/arshinov/appendix.html Declaration Of The Revolutionary Insurgent Army Of The Ukraine (Makhnovist)]. Peter Arshinov, History of the Makhnovist Movement (1918-1921), 1923. Black & Red, 1974
^ ^a ^b Avrich, Paul. Anarchist Portraits, 1988 Princeton University Press
^ Footman, David. Civil War In Russia Frederick A.Praeger 1961, p287
^ Subtelny 1988, p 360.
^ Yekelchyk 2007, p 80
^ Magocsi 1996, p 508.
^ Magocsi 1996, p 509.
^ Paul Robert Magocsi (1996). A History of Ukraine. University of Toronto Press. pp. pp 506-7. ISBN 0802078206. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
^ Paul Avrich (1988). Anarchist portraits. Princeton University Press. pp. p122. ISBN 0691006091. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
^ Voline, The Unknown Revolution, 1917-1921, (1947)
^ Arshinov, Peter, History of the Makhnovist Movement (1918-1921), (1923)
^ Paul Robert Magocsi (1996). A History of Ukraine. University of Toronto Press. pp. pp 508–10. ISBN 0802078206. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
^ Magocsi 1996, p 508.

External links

Nestor Makhno Photo Archive and Library (in Russian)
The Nestor Makhno Archive
Text of the "Platform"
Libertarian Communist Library - Nestor Makhno holdings
My visit to the Kremlin by Nestor Makhno
The Nestor Makhno FAQ
Nestor Makhno (1) on YouTube
Kramer, A., (2004) The Makhno anarchists, Kronstadt and the position of the Russian peasants in post-revolutionary Russia
Nestor Makhno page from Daily Bleed's Anarchist Encyclopedia
Max Nomad, "The Warrior: Nestor Makhno, the Bandit Who Saved Moscow," in Apostles of Revolution, 1939.
review of book on Makhno
Frank Sysyn, "Nestor Makhno and the Ukrainian Revolution," in Taras Hunchak, ed., The Ukraine, 1917-1921: A Study in Revolution, 1977.
Paul Avrich, Nestor Makhno: The Man and the Myth, Chapter 7 of Anarchist Portraits, 1988.
The Myth of Makhno (a critical appraisal of the Makhnovist movement)
- Letter Exchange on above article
- On the Bolshevik Myth (a reply to the above article)
Anarchist Idol Nestor Makhno and Peasant Counterrevolution

Template:Persondata

[1] Yekelchyk 2007, p 80.

[OIHMW163-2] Charles Townshend, John Bourne, Jeremy Black (1997). The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern War. Oxford University Press. pp. p163. ISBN 0198204272. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

[MDR-3] Emma Goldman (2003). My Disillusionment in Russia. Courier Dover Publications. pp. p61. ISBN 048643270X. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)

[AP111-4] Paul Avrich (1988). Anarchist portraits. Princeton University Press. pp. p111. ISBN 0691006091. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)

[NMAC17-5] Alexandre Skirda (2004). Nestor Makhno: Anarchy's Cossack. AK Press. pp. p17. ISBN 1902593685. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)

[LIBCOMMAKHNO-6] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k Makhno, Nestor, 1889-1934 Libcom

[AP112-7] Paul Avrich (1988). Anarchist portraits. Princeton University Press. pp. p112. ISBN 0691006091. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)

[RN173-8] Edward R. Kantowicz (1999). The Rage of Nations. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. pp. p173. ISBN 0802844553. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)

[9] Magocsi 1996, p 499.

[10] Magocsi 1996, p 498–9, Subtelny 1988, p 360.

[11] Magocsi 1996, p 498–9, Subtelny 1988, p 360.

[RIAdeclaration-12] [http://www.ditext.com/arshinov/appendix.html Declaration Of The Revolutionary Insurgent Army Of The Ukraine (Makhnovist)]. Peter Arshinov, History of the Makhnovist Movement (1918-1921), 1923. Black & Red, 1974

[avrich1988-13] Avrich, Paul. Anarchist Portraits, 1988 Princeton University Press

[footman1961-14] Footman, David. Civil War In Russia Frederick A.Praeger 1961, p287

[15] Subtelny 1988, p 360.

[16] Yekelchyk 2007, p 80

[17] Magocsi 1996, p 508.

[18] Magocsi 1996, p 509.

[HU506-7-19] Paul Robert Magocsi (1996). A History of Ukraine. University of Toronto Press. pp. pp 506-7. ISBN 0802078206. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)

[AP122-20] Paul Avrich (1988). Anarchist portraits. Princeton University Press. pp. p122. ISBN 0691006091. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)

[21] Voline, The Unknown Revolution, 1917-1921, (1947)

[22] Arshinov, Peter, History of the Makhnovist Movement (1918-1921), (1923)

[HU508–10-23] Paul Robert Magocsi (1996). A History of Ukraine. University of Toronto Press. pp. pp 508–10. ISBN 0802078206. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)

[24] Magocsi 1996, p 508.

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