Efim Yarchuk | |
|---|---|
Юхим Ярчук | |
| Born | Yukhym Zakharovych Yarchuk 1882 (1882) |
| Died | 1937(1937-00-00) (aged 54–55) |
| Cause of death | Execution by shooting |
| Nationality | Ukrainian Jew |
| Occupation | Tailor |
| Political party | Communist Party of the Soviet Union(1925–1937) |
| Other political affiliations | Black Banner(1903–1905) Union of Russian Workers(1913–1917) Russian Confederation of Anarcho-Syndicalists(1918–1920) |
| Movement | Anarcho-syndicalism |
Efim Zakharovych Yarchuk[a] (1882–1937, also known asKhaim Zakharev)[b] was a Ukrainian Jewish anarcho-syndicalist. A partisan of theBlack Banner organisation during theRussian Revolution of 1905, he was exiled toSiberia and then emigrated to the United States, where he joined theUnion of Russian Workers. In the wake of theFebruary Revolution of 1917, he returned from exile and took up the leadership of the anarchist movement on the island ofKronstadt, leading local soldiers during theJuly Days and theOctober Revolution.
Following the suppression of his newspaperGolos Truda and a series of arrests by theCheka, Yarchuk became disillusioned with theBolsheviks and began to agitate against them. For this he was imprisoned and only released after ahunger strike attracted protests from syndicalist delegates to the founding congress of theProfintern. He was deported from Russia and briefly resumed his publishing activities in exile, but in 1925, he was permitted to return to the Soviet Union, where he was executed during theGreat Purge.
Efim Yarchuk was born in 1882,[1][2] into a Jewish family,[1] in the Ukrainian city ofBerezne, where he worked as a tailor.[1][2]
In 1903, he became ananarchist,[2] and co-founded theBlack Banner organisation inBiałystok, where he agitated among the workers during theRussian Revolution of 1905. For his revolutionary activities, he was deported toSiberia for five years,[1][3] after which he emigrated to the United States in 1913.[1][2][3] He settled in New York City,[1] where he joined theanarcho-syndicalists of theUnion of Russian Workers and wrote for its newspaperGolos Truda.[1][2]
Yarchuk returned from exile in the wake of theFebruary Revolution of 1917.[1][2][3] He moved toPetrograd, where he continued his work withGolos Truda and was elected to thePetrograd Soviet.[2] He was subsequently delegated to thesoviet on the island ofKronstadt, where he organised the local anarchist movement,[1][2][3] as a member of the soviet's executive committee.[2] Yarchuk played a leading role during theJuly Days,[1][2][3] giving a speech on 3 July in Kronstadt'sAnchor Square, which initiated an armed uprising against theRussian Provisional Government.[2][3] The following day, he led the soldiers of Kronstadt to Petrograd, where they took part in an armed demonstration. During a meeting of the revolutionaries at theKshesinskaya Palace on 5 July, he aligned with theBolsheviks, who considered any attempt to seize power to be premature.[2]
During theOctober Revolution, Yarchuk led the Kronstadt sailors in the storming of theWinter Palace, hoping that the overthrow of the Russian bourgeoisie would eventually lead towards anarchy. He was subsequently delegated to theSecond All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies and led the Kronstadt soldiers in battle againstAlexey Kaledin'sDon Army.[2] He later returned to Petrograd as a delegate to theThird All-Russian Congress of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants Deputies' Soviets,[2] following which he continued his work withGolos Truda,[1][2][4] which was soon suppressed by the new Bolshevik-led government. In August 1918, he participated in the First All-Russian Conference of Anarcho-Syndicalists,[1][4] which established a new newspaper,Volnyi Golos Truda, with Yarchuk joining its editorial board.[1][2][4] The new paper represented the far-left of the Russian anarcho-syndicalist movement, which advocated a militant form of syndicalism inspired byMikhail Bakunin.[4] At the Second All-Russian Conference of Anarcho-Syndicalists, which took place in November 1918, Yarchuk andGrigorii Maksimov were tasked with establishing an All-Russian Confederation of Anarcho-Syndicalists.[5][1] However, this organisation would prove stillborn,[5][1] and Yarchuk himself was arrested by theCheka that month.[2]
This experience turned Yarchuk and the anarcho-syndicalists against the Bolsheviks. In March 1920, at a conference of food industry workers in Moscow, Yarchuk and Maksimov proposed a resolution that denounced the Bolsheviks for creating a centralised dictatorship over the country's workers.[6] Following the conclusion of thesiege of Perekop in November 1920, the Bolsheviks launched a crackdown on the anarchist movement,[7] during which Yarchuk was again arrested by the Cheka and detained for a number of weeks.[8][1][2] He was released in January 1921 and joined the organisation committee forPeter Kropotkin's funeral, petitioningVladimir Lenin to allow the release of imprisoned anarchists for the event.[2]
Yarchuk was arrested again during the events of theKronstadt rebellion,[9][1][2] which prevented him from participating in it.[9][1] Yarchuk and Maksimov were interned inTaganka Prison, where they joined a number of other imprisoned anarchists.[10][1] In June 1921, while the founding congress of theProfintern was being held in Moscow, Yarchuk and the other imprisoned anarchists went on hunger strike, to attract the attention of visiting syndicalist delegates.[11][1][2] As a result, the striking prisoners were released and deported from Soviet Russia toGermany in January 1922.[12][1][2] InBerlin, Yarchuk and Maksimov established a new anarcho-syndicalist newspaperRabochii Put'.[13][1][2] The following year, he moved to Paris, where he published an account of his time in Kronstadt during the Revolution.[1]
In 1925, Yarchuk applied for permission to return to theSoviet Union and join theCommunist Party, which was granted byNikolai Bukharin. A decade later, he was executed during theGreat Purge.[14][1]
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