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TheMakhnovshchina (Ukrainian:Махновщина,romanized: Makhnovshchyna,IPA:[mɐxˈnɔu̯ʃtʃɪnɐ]) was amass movement to establishanarchist communism during theUkrainian War of Independence of 1917–1921. Named afterNestor Makhno, the commander-in-chief of theRevolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine, its aim was to create a system offree soviets that would manage the transition towards astateless andclassless society. It controlled territory insouthern andeastern Ukraine.
The Makhnovist movement first gained ground in the wake of theFebruary Revolution, when it established a number ofagricultural communes in Makhno's home town ofHuliaipole. After siding with theBolsheviks during theUkrainian–Soviet War, the Makhnovists were driven underground by theAustro-German invasion and wagedguerrilla warfare against theCentral Powers throughout 1918. After the insurgent victory at theBattle of Dibrivka, the Makhnovshchina came to control much ofKaterynoslav province and set about constructing anarchist-communist institutions. ARegional Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents was convened to organise the region politically and economically, with aMilitary Revolutionary Council being established as the movement'sde factoexecutive organ.
Surrounded on all sides by different enemies, the Makhnovist line in thebattle for the Donbas eventually fell to the advancingWhite movement in June 1919. The Makhnovists were subsequently driven into a retreat toKherson, where they reorganised their military and led a successful counteroffensive against the Whites at theBattle of Peregonovka. With the White advance defeated, the Makhnovists came to control most of southern and eastern Ukraine in late 1919, even taking over a number of large industrial cities, despite being a predominantly peasant movement.
The Makhnovist control over the region was brought to an end when theRed Army invaded Ukraine in January 1920, initiating theBolshevik–Makhnovist conflict. The Makhnovists waged a guerrilla war against the Red Army which enforced theBolshevik policies ofRed Terror andwar communism. Makhnovists were supported in large part by their peasant base. Although a peace was briefly secured by the two factions with theStarobilsk agreement (in order to combat the remnants of the White movement), the Makhnovists were again attacked by the Red Army and eventually defeated by August 1921. Leading Makhnovists were either driven into exile, defeated or captured and killed by the Red Army.
The term "Makhnovshchina" (Ukrainian:Махновщина,romanized: Makhnovshchyna) can be loosely translated as the "Makhno movement",[1] referring to themass movement ofsocial revolutionaries that supported the anarchistNestor Makhno and hisRevolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine (RIAU).[2] In his translation ofPeter Arshinov'sHistory of the Makhnovist Movement,Fredy Perlman also translated the term as "Makhnovism".[3]
The area controlled by the RIAU also came to be known as "Makhnovia"[4] (Ukrainian:Махновія;Russian:Махновия), a term used primarily inSoviet historiography.[5] This "Makhnovist territory"[6] or "Makhnovist region"[7] was alternatively referred to as a "liberated zone",[8] "liberated region",[9] "liberated area",[10] or "autonomous area".[11]
In June 1919, the Bolsheviks began to refer to the Makhnovist territory as the "independent anarchist republic of Huliaipole", in calls for the Makhnovshchina's abolition.[12] According to Bolshevik sources, that month'sPlanned Fourth Regional Congress intended to assert the region'sindependence and establish the "Priazov-Donets Republic"[13] or a "libertarian republic of Makhnovia".[7]
What became the territory of the Makhnovshchina was centered in the region ofZaporizhzhia, which had previously been inhabited byCossacks before its conquest by theRussian Empire.[14] Rechristened as the province ofKaterynoslav, land largely came to be used for agriculture, leading to the rise of alanded nobility and a middle-peasant class known as thekulaks, many of whom wereBlack Sea Germans. The region's poor peasants attempted to resistPyotr Stolypin'sagrarian reforms, which threatened to break up theirtraditional communes, but by the 20th century the region had been thoroughly integrated into the grain market and came to export nearly half of its wheat each year.[15]
As the price of land was raised in order to prevent poor peasants from buying it, they became actively hostile to theconcentration of land ownership by thepomeshchiks andkulaks.[16] Supported by theirlocal governments, peasants resolved to found their ownagricultural cooperatives and began trading their grain in a system ofmarket socialism. This eventually led to the development of anagricultural industry in Katerynoslav, which produced almost a quarter of the Russian Empire'sagricultural machinery and developed the region's settlements into small industrial centers. The development of industry brought together thepeasantry andproletariat for the first time, with peasants often moving to centers of industry to become wage-earners and then back to their villages during times of industrial crisis.[17] This also caused the region to become quite ethnically diverse, withUkrainians,Russians,Germans,Jews andGreeks all settled alongside each other. The region'scommon language soon becameRussian and eventually, much of its Ukrainian population stopped speaking theUkrainian language.[6]
Due in part to the diversity of the region's peasantry, the local Jewish population faced relatively littleantisemitism, in comparison to the Jewish communities living inright-bank Ukraine.[18] It was young Jews that eventually formed the nucleus of the nascentUkrainian anarchist movement,[19] which became a leading force during the1905 Revolution in Ukraine.[20] The town ofHuliaipole sawstrike actions and a series of robberies, carried out by a group of young anarchist-communists known as theUnion of Poor Peasants.[21] The group was eventually caught and its leading members arrested, with many of them being sentenced to thedeath penalty orlife imprisonment.[22]
In the wake of theFebruary Revolution, Ukrainian intellectuals aroundMykhailo Hrushevsky established theCentral Rada, which initially soughtfreedom of the press andeducation in theUkrainian language, and eventuallydeclared the autonomy of theUkrainian People's Republic.[23] In concert with the emergence of the movement forUkrainian nationalism, largely made up ofsocial democrats andsocialist revolutionaries, the Ukrainian anarchist movement also began to experience a revival, catalyzed by the return ofNestor Makhno from his imprisonment inMoscow.[24]
With Makhno as its leading figure, the anarchist movement inHuliaipole established a peasants' union, seized control of the town from thelocal provisional government and established aSoviet in its place, laying the foundations for the implementation ofanarcho-communism.[25] According to Michael Malet, Huliaipole "was moving leftwards at a faster pace than elsewhere", with the town successfully organizing aMay Day demonstration and even declaring its support for theworkers' uprising inPetrograd, while the Oleksandrivsk Soviet still supported theProvisional Government.[26] The nascent Makhnovist movement undertook the seizure of land from thepomeshchiks andkulaks in Huliaipole and redistributed it to the peasantry, aiming to abolish theconcentration of land ownership. By the summer of 1917, the town's peasants hadstopped paying rent and had brought the land largely under the control of aland trust, which prevented landlords from selling off livestock or farming equipment.[27]
In August 1917, the Ukrainian Central Council and Russian Provisional Government reached an agreement on the position of theRussia–Ukraine border, which placedKaterynoslav within the territory of theRussian Republic, a decision which was rejected by the province's anarchist movement.[28]Viktor Chernov, the RussianMinister of Agriculture, attempted to implement a comprehensive package ofland reform in the province, but his efforts were blocked by the Provisional Government. However, theKornilov affair had resulted in the Provisional Government losing its control over Katerynoslav and the Makhnovists becoming the dominant force in the region. They subsequently resolved to implement land reform directly, without waiting for the Provisional Government's consent.[29] On 8 October [O.S. 25 September], the Huliaipole Congress of Soviets announced that it would be confiscating all land owned by the nobility and bringing it undercommon ownership, leading many landlords to flee the region.[30] Attempts to bring the region back under the control of the Provisional Government met with resistance, both from thearmed anarchist detachments led byMaria Nikiforova and from a series ofstrike actions by sympathetic industrial workers.[31]
On 7 November 1917, the Central Councildeclared the autonomy of Ukraine, which brought Katerynoslav back within its borders.[32] Although the Central Council safely controlledright-bank, its new territorial claims in theleft-bank were met with indifference from the more ethnically mixed population.[33] By December 1917,Eastern Ukraine had come under Soviet influence, with theFirst All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets establishing theUkrainian People's Republic of Soviets inKharkiv.[34] Unable to reconcile their differences, acivil war soon broke out between the forces of thePeople's Republic and the newSoviet Republic.[35]
Before the outbreak of theOctober Revolution, the Makhnovists had already established "soviet power" in Katerynoslav, implementing initiatives ofworkers' control andself-management. So when theBolsheviks seized power under the slogan of "all power to the soviets", the Ukrainian anarchists initially supported it, while remaining critical of political and economiccentralisation.[32] As the Makhnovists desired to bring the region under Soviet power, they declared themselves against the new Ukrainiannation state, establishing armed detachments to combat both the forces of theUkrainian People's Army and theDon Cossacks.[36] An anarchist detachment led bySavelii Makhno aided in thecapture ofOleksandrivsk and the reestablishment of Soviet power in the city.[37] By January 1918,Southern Ukraine had largely come under the control of the Soviet Republic, which establishedrevolutionary committees as its local organs of power.[38] In Huliaipole, the local revolutionary committee included members of theUkrainian Socialist-Revolutionary Party and theLeft Socialist-Revolutionaries, alongside the anarchists.[39]
The rapid capture of territory by the Soviet Republic culminated on 8 February 1918, when the Ukrainian capital ofKyiv wascaptured byMikhail Muravyov'sRed Guards.[34]
Just one day after the fall of Kyiv, theCentral Rada signed apeace treaty with theCentral Powers, which invited theImperial German Army to invade Ukraine and oust the Soviets from power.[40] The Red Guards were unable to halt the imperial advance, which within a month forced theBolsheviks to negotiate their ownpeace treaty with the Central Powers, ceding control ofUkraine to theGerman Empire andAustria-Hungary.[41]
When theUkrainian nationalists in Huliaipole began threatening anarchists with reprisals, localanarcho-syndicalists initiated a campaign of "revolutionary terror" against them, assassinating one nationalist leader before being forced to the negotiating table byNestor Makhno.[42] The nationalists subsequently began planning a coup, threatening pogroms against the local Jewish community in order to bring them on side.[43] On the night of 15–16 April, the Ukrainian nationalists carried out the coup, launching a surprise attack against the anarchist "free battalion" and disarming them, before arresting leading anarcho-communists.[44] The following day, a demonstration managed to secure the release of the arrested anarchists but were unable to organize any armed defense of the town, which was soon occupied by theAustro-Hungarian Army.[45] Before the end of the month, theUkrainian People's Republic was overthrown by the Central Powers and replaced with theUkrainian State. Under the rule ofPavlo Skoropadskyi, the new regime began returning land to the nobility and requisitioning grain from the peasantry, which fomented popular discontent that ignited theUkrainian War of Independence.[46]
At a conference inTaganrog, anarchist insurgents regrouped and agreed to return to Huliaipole in July 1918, in order to carry out an insurrection against the occupation forces.[47] By the time they returned to Ukraine, the country was already in revolt against the Ukrainian State, with hundreds of thousands participating in armed uprisings and rail strikes, even in the face of harsh reprisals by the occupation forces.[48] Peasant bands under various self-appointedotamans now attacked the occupation forces and eventually came to dominate the countryside; some defected to theDirectorate or theBolsheviks, but the largest portion followed either socialist revolutionaryNykyfor Hryhoriv or the anarchist flag of Makhno.[49]
On 30 September, insurgent detachments led byNestor Makhno andFedir Shchus linked up atDibrivka anddefeated the occupation forces in battle.[50] When theNovember Revolution broughtWorld War I to an end, the occupation finally began to melt away. Inright-bank Ukraine, the Ukrainian State was overthrown by the Directorate and the Ukrainian People's Republic was reestablished, while the region ofPryazovia quickly fell under the control of the Makhnovshchina.[51] On 27 November, the Makhnovshchina's capital of Huliaipole was definitively retaken by the insurgents, who reestablished the localSoviet and reorganized the town'strade unions.[52] Before long the territory without official authority had expanded as far west asKaterynoslav, as far north asPavlohrad, as far east asYuzivka and as far south as theSea of Azov. This then being the territory the Makhnovists would go on to expand within.[53]
The end of the imperial occupation and the fall of theUkrainian State allowed the Makhnovshchina to shift its emphasis from military campaigns towards political concerns, transforming the movement "from a destructive peasant uprising to asocial revolutionary movement".[54] In order to restart the construction of ananarchist-communist society, the Makhnovists convened aRegional Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents, which would act as the supreme authority of the Makhnovshchina.[55] The Congress declared its intention to create "a society without ruling landowners, without subordinate slaves, without rich or poor", and called on workers and peasants to begin building this society themselves, "without tyrannical decrees and orders, and in defiance of tyrants and oppressors throughout the world."[56]
Under the direction of the democratically electedMilitary Revolutionary Council (VRS), the Makhnovshchina began to establish a new system of education, redistributed land and set up a number ofagricultural cooperatives. TheUkrainian Soviet Army commanderVladimir Antonov-Ovseenko reported that the Makhnovists had established a number of schools, hospitals and "children's communes", which had transformed Huliaipole into "one of the most cultured centres ofNovorossiya."[57] The VRS also instituted adult educational programs and extended a number ofcivil liberties to the population, includingfreedom of speech,press andassociation, even allowing theBolsheviks to agitate amongst the local populace.[58] During this period, the peasants of the Makhnovshchina implemented a system ofcommon ownership where "land belongs to no one, and only those who work it may use it." The largest of the peasant communes was one named after the Polish communistRosa Luxemburg, which, in May 1919, counted 285 members and 125 hectares of land.[59]
While in the Ukrainian Soviet capital ofKharkiv, the insurgent commanderViktor Bilash met with theNabat and requested they begin producing anarchist propaganda for the Makhnovshchina, securing the passage of numerous Russian anarchist intellectuals to Ukraine,[60] includingPeter Arshinov andAron Baron. With the Nabat having moved its headquarters to Huliaipole, anarchist newspapers such asThe Road to Freedom and theMakhnovist Voice quickly began circulating throughout the Makhnovist territory, widely publicizing anarchist ideas.[59] The arrival of these "urban anarchist newcomers" accelerated the development of the Makhnovshchina'sanarcho-communist character, which aimed to completely restructure Ukrainian society along the lines of "free soviets".[61] These soviets, independent of all political parties, began to be set up by industrial workers, with some even receiving financing from the Makhnovists in order to make up for lost wages, which hadn't been paid due to the conditions of war.[62] The end goal of the free soviet system was to eventually convene an "all-Ukrainian labour congress", which would become the new central organ of an independent Ukraine, as a result of the Ukrainian workers'self-determination.[63]
Around this time, the Bolsheviks finally broke theTreaty of Brest-Litovsk and ordered theRed Army toinvade Ukraine, withChristian Rakovsky proclaiming the establishment of theUkrainian Soviet Socialist Republic inKharkiv.[64] As the Makhnovshchina had found itself surrounded by theUkrainian People's Republic andSouth Russia, the Makhnovists resolved to form an alliance with theBolsheviks in order to maintain "soviet power" in the region, although they explicitly ruled out a political alliance and held that their pact was an exclusively military endeavor.[65] Now integrated into the Red Army, the Makhnovists secured and expanded their territory with the capture ofOrikhiv,Polohy,Bakhmut,Berdiansk andVolnovakha.[66]
However, the implementation of Bolshevik rule in Ukraine was soon followed byrepression. As the Bolsheviks favored theproletariat over thepeasantry, on 13 April, the Ukrainian Soviet government implementedfood requisitioning in order to supply its urban centers, shooting any peasants that resisted, which caused a resurgence of peasant revolts in Ukraine.[67] TheCheka also carried out itsRed Terror in the areas captured by the Bolsheviks, with residents of Katerynoslav reporting arbitrary political persecution and increased economic hardship.[68] Regiments of the Red Army even began to commit robberies against the local population and carried out a number ofantisemitic pogroms, as part of a rising wave of violence against Ukrainian Jews that was perpetrated by the Reds, Whites and nationalists alike.[69] In comparison to the surrounding states, the Makhnovshchina "represented a relatively peaceful model", given the ethnically diverse makeup of the Makhnovists, who severely punished acts of antisemitism.[70]
The Bolsheviks' implementation ofbureaucratic collectivism and theirauthoritarianism brought them into opposition with the Makhnovshchina, which still upheldsoviet democracy andlibertarian socialism.[71] In May 1919, tensions between the two were exacerbated whenNykyfor Hryhoriv led an anti-Bolshevik uprising inright-bank Ukraine, during which hisgreen army carried out a series of antisemitic pogroms andanti-communist purges.[72] The Makhnovists decided to take up arms against Hryhoriv and maintain their alliance with the Bolsheviks, hoping that talks between the two parties would result in the official extension ofautonomy to the territory of the Makhnovshchina.[73] But tensions between the two parties only increased with time, eventually resulting in the Makhnovists completely breaking from their Bolshevik commanders.[74]
When the Military Revolutionary Council called an extraordinary Regional Congress, it was considered to be an act oftreason by the Bolshevik government, which ordered the Congress be prohibited and that any of its participants beexecuted by firing squad.[75] The Bolsheviks subsequently attacked the Makhnovshchina, killing a number of the Makhnovist general staff and forcing the insurgents to flee, which began a period ofguerrilla warfare in the region.[76] By June 1919, the autonomy of the Makhnovshchina had been suppressed by the successiveRed Terror andWhite Terror.[77]
It was at this time that theWhite movement broke through the Soviet lines inDonbas, with theKuban Cossacks underAndrei Shkuro leading an attack against Huliaipole, capturing the town from the Makhnovists.[78] As the Red Army had also declared war against the Makhnovshchina, labelling Huliaipole as a "paradise on earth for cowards and good-for-nothings," the local insurgents were left without Bolshevik support and many peasants were forced to defend the town themselves, armed only with farming tools and a few rifles.[79] The Cossacks massacred the peasant rebels and raped 800 of the town's women, before restoring the property rights of the former landowners, causing a mass exodus of the town's peasantry.[80]
The Makhnovists fled toright-bank Ukraine and linked up withNykyfor Hryhoriv'sgreen army.[81] But after revelations of the otaman having committed antisemitic pogroms, the Makhnovists assassinated Hryhoriv and began rebuilding their forces to take on the Whites.[82] By September 1919, the Makhnovshchina had been pushed back as far asUman, the last stronghold of theUkrainian People's Republic. In order for their wounded to be tended to, the Makhnovists formed a temporary alliance with theDirectorate, before turning back around and leading an attack against theGeneral Command of the Armed Forces of South Russia.[83] After theBattle of Peregonovka, the tide turned against the Whites as the Makhnovists pushed them back intoKaterynoslav, which was brought back under the control of the Makhnovshchina on 11 November 1919.[84]
The Makhnovist advance brought with it a second period of reconstruction, during which a system oflibertarian socialism was once again implemented throughout the territory of the Makhnovshchina, with all enterprises being directly transferred toworkers' control.[86] Wherever the insurgents captured, the locals were invited to elect their own trade union delegates andSoviets, which would then convoke a regional congress that would form the decision-making body for the region.[87]
Regional workers' conferences were subsequently held in Oleksandrivsk between 27 October and 2 November, bringing together 180 peasant delegates, 20 worker delegates and 100 delegates from left-wing political organizations and insurgent units.[88]Volin, the chair of the congress, proposed that they adopt the anarchist thesis of establishing "free soviets", outside of political party control, throughout the Makhnovist territory. This proposal was objected to by 11 delegates from theMensheviks andSocialist Revolutionary Party, who still desired the reestablishment of theConstituent Assembly and walked out of the congress.[89] Further objections were made by a Bolshevik delegate, who rejected calls foranarchy.[90]
By December 1919, the Makhnovshchina was struck by an outbreak ofepidemic typhus, which incapacitated the Makhnovist forces, allowing the White movement to briefly recapture Katerynoslav and the Red Army to invade the region.[91]
By the end of January 1920, the territory of the Makhnovshchina had been overrun by the Red Army.[92] TheCheka set about disarming the local populace, taking villagers hostage while their troops set about searching homes, killing the hostages if they found any unreported weaponry.[93]Petro Grigorenko would later state that "there was no end of bloodshed", drawing attention to reports of one massacre in the Makhnovist town ofNovospasivka, where the Cheka had "shot down one in every two able-bodied men". In whatAlexandre Skirda described as an act of "outright genocide", an estimated 200,000 Ukrainian peasants were killed during theRed Terror.[94]
The Bolshevik government implementedwar communism in Ukraine, introducing a strict system ofrationing andfood requisitioning, which confiscated agricultural produce and livestock from the peasantry, and even forbade them from fishing, hunting or collecting lumber.[95] The attacks against the Ukrainian peasantry were justified under the policy ofDekulakization, despite the fact that, by this point in time, only 0.5% of the peasantry owned more than 10 hectares of land.[96] Thesovkhozes also collapsed, with the number of state-owned farms halving and their land area reducing to a third, over the course of 1920. Even the Soviet historianMikhail Kubanin [ru] noted that to most of the Ukrainian peasantry: "the Soviet economy was a new and abhorrent form of rule [...] which in reality had merely set the State in the place of the former big landowner." The implementation of war communism thus resulted in a resurgence of peasant revolts. Before the fall of 1920, over 1,000 Bolshevik victualers had been killed by the Ukrainian peasantry.[97]
The Makhnovists themselves began to wage a campaign ofguerrilla warfare against the Bolsheviks, launching a series of attacks against small Red detachments and infrastructure. In the areas which they captured, they abolished war communism and redistributed requisitioned food back to the peasantry, forcing many Bolsheviks in the area back underground.[92]
Following a successfulWhite offensive intoNorthern Taurida, the Makhnovists and Bolsheviks once again formed an alliance.[98] The conditions of thePolitical Agreement between the two parties stated that: all anarchist political prisoners were to be released andpolitical repression against the anarchist movement ceased; anarchists were to be extended a number ofcivil liberties includingfreedom of speech,freedom of the press andfreedom of association, excluding anyanti-Soviet agitation; and anarchists were to be allowed to freely participate inelections to theSoviets and the upcomingFifth All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets.[99]
A fourth clause of the political pact would have extended fullautonomy to the Makhnovshchina, allowing them to establishinstitutions ofworkers' self-management andself-government in south-eastern Ukraine, under afederative agreement with the Ukrainian SSR.[100] But this clause was disputed by the Bolshevik delegation,[101] who feared this would limit their access to theUkrainian rail network and turn the Makhnovshchina into a "magnet for all dissidents and refugees from Bolshevik-held territory."[11] The issue was postponed indefinitely.[102]
But now that Ukrainian anarchists were once again free to operate, they quickly pushed theRussian Army out ofHuliaipole and Makhnovshchina control was once again reestablished.[103] Having once again regained control of their home territory, the Makhnovists drew up a program to reorganize the economy and society along anarchist lines.[104] By mid-November, thefree soviets were being reconstituted,libertarian schools were established andtheater shows were put on daily.[105] According to the Polish anarchist Casimir Teslar, the scars of war ran deep throughout the region. He reported seeing abandoned trenches, demolished houses and a strong presence of insurgent detachments, detailing that even the local children were playingwargames based on recent events.[106]
AfterSemen Karetnyk's detachment assisted in thesiege of Perekop, which had forced theArmy of Wrangel toevacuate from Crimea, the Bolsheviks turned against the Makhnovshchina on 26 November 1920.[107] Many prominent Ukrainian anarchists were arrested and shot, while the Makhnovist capital of Huliaipole was itself captured by the Red Army.[108] The Cheka also intensified theRed Terror in Ukraine, ordering theSouthern Front to search and disarm peasants, and to shoot any that resisted. They also purged the district of any suspected Makhnovists, arresting the entirerevolutionary committee inPolohy and executing a number of its members for allegedly collaborating with the Makhnovists during theUkrainian War of Independence in 1918.[109] In the place of the liquidatedfree soviets, the Bolsheviks establishedcommittees of Poor Peasants to take over local administration of Ukrainian villages.[110]
Hoping to keep the Makhnovshchina safe from reprisals, the Insurgent Army retreated intoright-bank Ukraine then moved on north, passing throughPoltava,Chernihiv andBelgorod, before returning toKaterynoslav in February 1921. Once again on their home turf, they aimed to spread the Makhnovshchina to new territories and to establish reliable insurgent bases throughout Ukraine.[111] However, the Bolshevik government's implementation of theNew Economic Policy resulted in many Ukrainian peasants losing their will to fight, leading to a series of military defeats and the dwindling of insurgent forces.[112] On 28 August 1921,Nestor Makhno's forces fled toRomania, leaving the country entirely under control of theUkrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.[113]
The political system established by the Makhnovshchina was variously described as a "people's commune" or an "anarchistrepublic",[114] one based on the theories ofanarcho-communism and built on a network oftrade unions,factory committees,peasant committees andpopular assemblies. The assemblies were used by the local citizens as a form ofreferendums, where decisions were made throughdirect democracy, and became the basis forcivil law.[25] The vast majority of the Makhnovshchina's decisions were made independently, through a system of localself-governance at the village and district level. Networks of "free soviets" acted as institutions ofparticipatory democracy, where issues would be discussed and dealt with directly.[115]
Thefree soviets were conceived of as the basic form of organization in the Makhnovshchina. Thesesoviets acted independently from anyCentral Authority, excluding allpolitical parties from participation, and met toself-manage the activities of workers and peasants throughparticipatory democracy.[116] The soviets acted as the local organs ofself-governance andfederated together up to the regional and national levels, resulting in the relativelyhorizontal 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.[117]
TheRegional Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents represented the "highest form of democratic authority" within the political system of the Makhnovshchina.[118] They brought together delegates from the region's peasantry, industrial workers and insurgent soldiers, which would discuss the issues at hand and take their decisions back with them to localpopular assemblies.[119] Four Congresses were held over the course of 1919, while one was banned by theBolsheviks and another was unable to convene due to renewed conflict with theRed Army.[120]
TheMilitary Revolutionary Council (VRS) acted as theexecutive in the interim between sittings of the Regional Congresses.[121] Its powers covered both military and civil matters in the region, although it was also subject toinstant recall at the will of the Regional Congress[122] and its activities were limited to those explicitly outlined by the Congresses themselves.[123] At each Regional Congress, the VRS was to provide detailed reports of its activities and subjected itself to reorganization.[124] When it came to the decisions of localsoviets andassemblies, the VRS presented itself as a solelyadvisory board, with no power over the local bodies of self-government.[115]
TheRevolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine (RIAU), commanded byBat'koNestor Makhno, constituted the principal armed force of the Makhnovshchina. Composed largely of peasant partisans and generally supported by the wider peasantry, the RIAU was able to capture large amounts of territory throughoutsouthern Ukraine.[63] Within this area, the RIAU'sDraft Declaration stated that its aim was to "serve and protect" thesocial revolution in Ukraine, but also that it would not impose its own ideals upon the Ukrainian people.[125] Nominally overseen by the civilian VRS,[126] the RIAU played a purely military role, with Makhno himself functioning as little more than a military strategist and advisor.[127] According to the Soviet historianMikhail Kubanin [ru], "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."[128]
Civil liberties were first introduced tosouthern andeastern Ukraine following theFebruary Revolution, but were suspended with the outbreak of theUkrainian War of Independence, when the territory fell under the sequential control of theUkrainian State,Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic andSouth Russia. Following the defeat of theWhite movement in October 1919 and the subsequent extension of the Makhnovshchina throughout the area,freedom of speech,freedom of the press andfreedom of association were all reintroduced.[129]
The implementation of freedom of the press resulted in the appearance of a number of newspapers in the territory, including the official organs of several political organizations. These included theSocialist Revolutionary Party'sPeople's Power (Narodovlastie), theLeft Socialist-Revolutionaries'Banner of Revolt (Znamya Vosstanya), theBolsheviks'Star (Zvezda), theMensheviks'Workers' Gazette (Rabochaia Gazeta), theUkrainian Anarchist Confederation'sNabat and theInsurgent Army's ownRoad to Freedom.[129]
In the territory controlled by the Makhnovshchina, a system ofmarket socialism was implemented, to the particular benefit of thepeasantry and workers that producedconsumer goods, whilesocial welfare was introduced through theredistribution of income and wealth.[86]
For the first year of theRussian Revolution, an energized Ukrainian peasantry carried out a campaign ofexpropriations against thepomeshchiks andkulaks, redistributing land to those that worked it and creating anagrarian socialist economy.[130] In the wake of theKornilov affair, the revolutionary defense committee in Huliaipole sanctioned the disarmament and dispossession of the localbourgeoisie, bringing all private enterprise in the area underworkers' control.[131] Peasants took control of the farms they worked and large estates were collectivized, creating agrarian communes that were settled by previously landless peasant families and individuals, with each commune counting around 200 members.[132]
Land was held in common, with shared meals also being eaten incommunal kitchens, though members who wished to cook separately or to take food from the kitchen and eat it in their own quarters were allowed to do so. The work was collectivelyself-managed, with work programs beingvoluntarily agreed upon throughconsensus decision-making atgeneral assemblies, and those who were unable to work could notify their neighbors in order for a replacement to be found.[133] Many commune members considered communal life to be the "highest form ofsocial justice", with some former landowners even voluntarily adopting the new lifestyle.[134]
The father ofVictor Kravchenko was one of the promoters of a commune called the "Tocsin", which counted 100 families on an estate made up of 200hectares ofwheat fields andorchards. The estate had been divided up and supplied by the localsoviet, with many former industrial workers flocking to the new commune due to the promise of "well-being for everybody", while others were driven to communal life by their own ideological commitments. Some peasants even made fun of the urban communists that had joined the commune, although Kravchenko insisted that "such teasing was without malice", as the peasants still undertook to help the unskilled industrial laborers.[135] However, this commune eventually dissolved, "with commune workers quitting one after another".[136]
While the Makhnovshchina was a primarilyagrarian society, efforts were also made to organize the industrial economies in the cities which the Makhnovists briefly occupied, despite the pervasive lack of understanding that the (largely peasant) insurgents had for large-scale industry.[137] Upon the occupation of cities, the Makhnovists organized workers' conferences with the intention of restarting production under a system ofworkers' self-management. When urban workers asked for the payment of theirwages, still inarrears following the end of theWhite occupation, the Makhnovists responded by proposing they extract payment directly from their customers, albeit exempting theInsurgent Army from such payment.[138]
InKaterynoslav, the localanarcho-syndicalist movement took the reins on bringing the city's industrial economy undersocial ownership.Collective agreements were won at atobacco factory and the city's bakeries were brought underworkers' control, with a number of anarcho-syndicalist bakers drawing up plans to ensurefood security for the local population.[139]
Many industrial workers ended up becoming disillusioned with the Makhnovshchina and instead supported the program of theMensheviks.[86] At oneRegional Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents, Menshevik trade union delegates were denounced as "counter-revolutionaries" for speaking out against the Makhnovist platform offree soviets and subsequently walked out of the congress.[140]
The Makhnovshchina came up against difficulties concerning the issue of money, as its largely peasant base could easily go without money throughsubsistence agriculture, while urban workers still needed to buy their own food. When the direct exchange of goods was not possible, the Makhnovshchina largely continued to use money, but planned to build a moneyless system following theRussian Civil War.[141]
Early on,barter had been a popular means of exchange, with the Huliaipole Soviet even establishing links with textile factories in industrial centers such asMoscow. The Soviet procured wagon loads of cloth in exchange for grain, directly exchanged in quantities determined by the needs of both parties.[142] However, this barter economy was frustrated by the newly establishedCouncil of People's Commissars, controlled by theBolsheviks andLeft Socialist-Revolutionaries, which demanded an end to the independent barter economy and called for it to be brought under the control of the government.[136]
Although the anarchists of the Makhnovshchina preferred a barter economy, they recognized that the working poor were still in need of money and permitted the use of any currencies, including theImperial ruble,Soviet ruble and Ukrainiankarbovanets.[143] One account even suggests that the Makhnovists printed their own money (theMakhnovist ruble), which stated on its reverse that "no-one would be prosecuted for forging it".[144]
The regional congresses imposed levies against the localbourgeoisie and banks, extracting about 40 million rubles from the bourgeoisie and seizing 100 million rubles from the banks.[145] An extensivewealth redistribution campaign was subsequently implemented, in which the poor were able to apply for material assistance from the Military Revolutionary Council. One resident of Katerynoslav reported that thousands of people queued up on a daily basis for the redistribution packages, which they would receive in varying amounts depending on the assessment of their needs, with applicants being awarded up to thousands of rubles.[146] Redistribution measures reportedly continued up until the final days of Makhnovshchina control, with an estimate 3–10 million rubles being distributed to the population of Katerynoslav alone.[147]
The Makhnovists' unfamiliarity with monetary economics led to high rates ofinflation, while the changing military situation resulted in wild fluctuations of currency value, with Soviet rubles appreciating in value as theRed Army advanced into Ukraine.[148] They also did not imposeprice controls, which allowed the price of bread to rise by 25% during Makhnovshchina control.[147]
The territory of the Makhnovshchina was mainly spread across the regions ofPryazovia andZaporizhzhia.[149] At its height, the population of the Makhnovshchina was roughly 7.5 million people, spread across 75,000 km2 of territory. At its greatest extent, the territory covered fiveprovinces, including the entirety ofKaterynoslav, as well as the northern part ofTaurida, the eastern part ofKherson and the southern parts ofPoltava andKharkiv.[5]
Following the end ofWorld War I, the existingempires andmultinational states were collapsing, leading to a rise of thenation state as the dominantpolity.[150] While a number of ethnic minorities of the formerRussian Empire began tobreak off and form their own independent states, such as theUkrainian People's Republic, the territory of the Makhnovshchina was notablymulticultural and resisted the rising wave ofUkrainian nationalism.[6] According toPeter Arshinov, while 90% of the Makhnovshchina was made up ofUkrainians, 6–8% was made up ofRussians and the remainder consisted ofGreek andJewish communities. There also existed small minorities ofArmenians,Bulgarians,Georgians,Germans andSerbs.[151]
As such, the Makhnovshchina sought "to deconstruct the entire state-based national paradigm, and build local socio-economic relations from the bottom up on anarchist principles."[152] In February 1919, theSecond Regional Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents passed a resolution denouncingnationalism and called on "the workers and peasants of every land and all nationalities" to join together in asocial revolution to overthrow thestate andcapitalism.[153] In October 1919, theDraft Declaration adopted by theMilitary Revolutionary Council hoped to put an end to the "domination of one nationality over others" through the introduction offree soviets.[154] Although it proclaimed "the right of the Ukrainian people (and every other nation) toself-determination", it also considered nationalism to be "profoundly bourgeois and negative" and called instead for the "union of nationalities" undersocialism, which it believed would "lead to development of the culture peculiar to each nationality."[155]
The Makhnovists specifically railed againstantisemitism, which they considered to be a "bequest" of theTsarist autocracy,[156] and the Military Revolutionary Council even went so far as to declare a "war on anti-Semitism".[157] Instances of antisemitic violence were notably much less common in the territory of the Makhnovshchina than they were inright-bank Ukraine,[158] with any cases of antisemitism being punished severely by the Makhnovists.[159] After one documented instance of anantisemitic pogrom taking place in Makhnovist territory, the insurgents responsible wereexecuted by firing squad and weapons were redistributed to the local Jewish communities for their own protection.[160] Many of the Makhnovshchina's most influential figures also came from a Jewish background, including a number ofNabat's leading members:Aron Baron,Mark Mratchny andVolin.[161]
In contrast to the Makhnovist hostility to antisemitism,anti-German sentiment was allowed to proliferate throughout the ranks of the Makhnovshchina,[162] as the result of long and deeply-held resentments between the native Ukrainian peasantry andGerman Mennonite colonists.[163] Following thebattle of Dibrivka and the destruction ofVelykomykhailivka by theAustro-Hungarian Army and local German collaborators, the Insurgent Army carried out a campaign of reprisals against Mennonite colonists in southern Ukraine.[164] Anti-Mennonite repression intensified when theSelbstschutz formed an alliance with theWhite movement, leading to a number of insurgent raids against Mennonite settlements.[165] Violence against the Mennonites reached its apex following thebattle of Peregonovka, when the insurgents rapidly occupied most of southern and eastern Ukraine, bringing numerous Mennonite colonies under their occupation.[166] Throughout late-1919, hundreds of Mennonites were murdered in a series of massacres committed by the insurgent forces, the most infamous of which was theEichenfeld massacre.[167]
The differentlanguage policies of the various regimes that occupied Ukraine during thewar of independence led to a number of shifts in the use oflanguage throughoutZaporizhzhia. TheUkrainian State had prioritized the use of theUkrainian language, enforcing its use in education,[168] and following the region's occupation by theVolunteer Army in June 1919,Vladimir May-Mayevsky banned the use of the Ukrainian language in schools throughoutSouth Russia, instead enforcing the use of theRussian language.[169] In reaction to the linguistic restrictions enforced by the various preceding governments, after the Makhnovist victory over theWhite movement at theBattle of Peregonovka, the Makhnovshchina's "Cultural Enlightenment Section" declared that people were to be educated in whichever language was used by the local population, to be decided on voluntarily by the people themselves.[170] In the majority of villages and towns in the Makhnovist territory, this meant a return to the use of the Ukrainian language[171] and an end to theprivileged status of the Russian language.[172]
Nevertheless, the Russian language had a notable prevalence inleft-bank Ukraine.[173] Since the1905 Revolution, the Ukrainian anarchist movement's publications had largely been in the Russian language,[174] and the predominance of the Russian language in anarchist literature continued following the emigration ofRussian anarchists to the territory of the Makhnovshchina.[175] But driven by a small number of Ukrainian intellectuals, led byHalyna Kuzmenko, the Makhnovshchina increasingly started to use the Ukrainian language in both its propaganda and educational activities, leading to a notableUkrainization of the Makhnovist movement.[176] In late 1919, the Makhnovists began to publish a Ukrainian language edition ofThe Road to Freedom (Ukrainian:Шлях до Волі) inKaterynoslav, and set up a new publication calledAnarchist Rebel (Ukrainian:Анархіст-Повстанець) inPoltava. But this would prove to be the extent of the Makhnovist movement's Ukrainian language publications, as they still lacked editors and proofreaders that were competent in the written Ukrainian language, and sometimes had no access toprinting presses that carried theUkrainian alphabet.[177]
During the1917 Revolution, members of the Huliaipole Anarchist Group first proposed the creation of a new system of education,[178] inspired by the work of the Catalan pedagogueFrancesc Ferrer.[179] One group member,Abram Budanov, took the initiative to establish a Cultural-Educational section for the nascent Makhnovist movement. This section would publish pamphlets and hold meetings, but would also organise the establishment of educational institutions, theatre productions and live music shows.[180] With the outbreak of the war, the Cultural-Educational Section was brought under the oversight of theMilitary Revolutionary Council.[181] At the beginning of 1919, a number of Russian anarchist intellectuals emigrated to southern Ukraine, where they began work for the Cultural-Educational section.[182]Peter Arshinov, who had educatedNestor Makhno during their time in prison, became the section's Chairman and edited the insurgent newspaperThe Road to Freedom.[183] In the summer of 1919, he was joined members of theNabat,[180] includingVolin andAron Baron.[184] Volin, who had briefly worked in theDepartment of Education of theUkrainian Soviet Republic,[185] oversaw the drawing up of theDraft Declaration, which declared the need for cultural and educational institutions to be outside of state control, instead proposing they be established asvoluntary associations.[186]
The Makhnovshchina's education system was spearheaded byHalyna Kuzmenko, a Ukrainian pedagogue and former primary school teacher.[187] From as early as theFebruary Revolution, teachers were already engaged in setting up schools in Huliaipole,[172] with threesecondary schools being established by 1919, despite the conditions of the war.[188] Adult education was also carried out, with a focus on political agitation,[189] by educational workers within the Insurgent Army itself.[190] But by the time that the armistice with the Bolsheviks was promulgated in October 1920, most of the region's teachers had fled and few schools were still open. Driven by the ideology of theFerrer movement, the Makhnovshchina responded with plans to open new workers' schools, supported by their local communities, which would educate both children and adults.[191] The Nabat member Levandovski proposed the establishment of an anarchist university inKharkiv, which would have cost the Huliaipole Soviet some 10 million rubles.[192] ButNestor Makhno himself rejected the idea, as he considered educational institutions to be most needed in rural areas and believed that the instinct to establish such a university in a large city like Kharkiv was indicative ofcentralism.[193]
Meanwhile, the cultural section travelled with the Insurgent Army, publishingflyers and issues ofThe Voice of the Free Insurgent using a mobileprinting press. When the Insurgent Army halted, the cultural section provided entertainment and organised conferences, where they advocated forfree soviets.[194] As part of their cultural activities, Makhnovist men and women staged dailyamateur theatre shows, during which they dramatised the region's recent history and the story of the Insurgent Army.[195] The theatre section itself had a number of units that specialised in different types of productions, whethermusical,dramatic,operatic orsatirical.[187] The Cultural-Educational Section often used entertainment as a way to raise money for wounded insurgents, holding plays andDutch auctions in a number of southern Ukrainian towns.[172] Music also played an important role in the Makhnovshchina, withmusical ensembles often accompanying meetings and theharmonica becoming a popular instrument among the insurgents.[188] Makhnovist musicians played a number of original songs, including their own version of the popular folk songYablochko, which depicted insurgents triumphing over the forces ofAnton Denikin'sWhite movement.[172]
Following thesiege of Perekop and the renewal of Bolshevik attacks against the Makhnovshchina, the remains of the Makhnovist cultural and educational programs were finally destroyed.[196] Bolshevik reforms to education included the scrapping of the final year of secondary education and the requirement that all teachers seek election. Political commissars and Bolshevik cells were established in all schools, in order to remove teachers that contradicted the party line.[197]
While the territory of the Makhnovshchina was a predominantly rural, it also included a number of cities, with theInsurgent Army capturing several following theBattle of Peregonovka.[198] Its capital city wasNestor Makhno's relatively small hometown ofHuliaipole, which was nicknamed "Makhnograd" by theBolsheviks.[5]
| Rank | Province | Pop. | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Katerynoslav | Katerynoslav | 189,000(1920) | ||||||
| 2 | Yelisavetgrad | Kherson | 65,000(1926) | ||||||
| 3 | Oleksandrivsk | Katerynoslav | 58,517(1917) | ||||||
| 4 | Mariupol | Katerynoslav | 30,000(1921) | ||||||
| 5 | Berdiansk | Taurida | 26,400(1926) | ||||||
| 6 | Huliaipole | Katerynoslav | 25,000(1917) | ||||||
| 7 | Melitopol | Taurida | 22,022(1912) | ||||||
| 8 | Nikopol | Taurida | 21,282(1897) | ||||||
| 9 | Kryvyi Rih | Kherson | 19,000(1923) | ||||||
| 10 | Polohy | Katerynoslav | 16,490(1959) | ||||||
