The Russian Revolution in Ukraine (March 1917 — April 1918) — Part 2 - Chapter 20 : With the Left Bloc Against the Counter-Revolution

By Nestor Makhno (1926)

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Untitled Anarchism The Russian Revolution in Ukraine (March 1917 — April 1918) Part 2 - Chapter 20

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(1888 - 1934)

Anarchist Leader of the Anti-Bolshevik, Anti-Capitalist Partisans of the Ukraine

: Nestor Makhno was the leader of a libertarian peasant and worker army and insurrection in the Ukraine which successfully fought Ukrainian nationalists, the Whites, the Bolsheviks and the bourgeoisie and put anarchism into practice in the years following the Russian Revolution. (From: Intro to Struggle Against the State.)
• "'Soviet' power is a power no better and no worse than any other. Currently, it is every bit as wobbly and absurd as any State power in general." (From: "'Soviet' Power -- Its Present and Its Future," Bo....)
• "Burn their laws and destroy their prisons, kill the hangmen, the bane of mankind. Smash authority!" (From: "The Anarchist Revolution," by Nestor Makhno.)
• "...any State, whether bourgeois or proletarian, tends, by its very nature, simply to exploit and oppress man, to destroy in each and every one of us all the natural qualities of the human spirit that strive for equality and for the solidarity that underpins it." (From: "Paths of 'Proletarian' Power," Probuzdeniye, No. ....)


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Part 2 - Chapter 20

On December 31 1917 I was doing organizational work in the village of Pologi when I received an accurate report that a battle was going on in Aleksandrovsk between detachments of the Red Guard group of Bogdanov and some haidamak units of the Central Rada.

At such a moment it was impossible to remain on the sideline as a neutral observer. The population was clearly hostile towards the Central Rada, whose agents were combing the countryside, hunting down revolutionaries, and treating them as “traitors...of Mother Ukraine” and defenders of the “katzaps”, whom it considered necessary to exterminate as mortal enemies of the Ukrainian language.

Such concepts were offensive to the peasants. They dragged down from the tribune any speakers who espoused such notions and rained blows down on them as enemies of the fraternal unity of the Ukrainian and Russian peoples.

This rancorous propaganda of the Ukrainian nationalists pushed the toilers of Gulyai-Pole rayon on the road of armed struggle against any form of Ukrainian separatism because toilers saw in this chauvinism — which was in fact the ruling idea of Ukrainian nationalism — death for the Revolution.

While fighting was going on in Aleksandrovsk between the Red Guards and the haidamaks, several train-loads of Cossacks were grouped along the Aleksandrovsk — Apostolovo — Krivoi Rog line. These troops had removed themselves from the External Front and were on their way to the Don to General Kaledin. (Kaledin’s movement was in essence a genuine throwback to the old monarchist system. It went under the flag of independence for the Don, but suddenly at its very heart appeared the black forces of reaction whose intention was to use the Cossacks to finish off the Revolution and restore the rule of the Romanovs.)

On January 2, 1918, the Gulyai-Pole Soviet, with the participation of the Union of Metal & Carpentry Workers and the Anarchist Communist Group, met around the clock. There was a heated discussion about what urgent measures to take to prevent the Cossacks from reaching the Don, because, once they joined up with Kaledin, they would form a Front which would constitute a threat to all the conquests of the Revolution. We, the peasants, all agreed on this.

This long and tiring session inspired in all its participants one and same thought: we must, in spite of the obvious contradiction, form a united front with the government forces. We must arm ourselves and go to to the aid of the Left Bloc. Our devotion to anti-authoritarian ideas would allow us to overcome any contradictions. After annihilating the black forces of reaction, we would extend and deepen the Revolution for the greatest good of all oppressed humanity. I said then:

“Each of us present today must keep our final goal in mind and make sure our actions are compatible with this goal: no person must be dominated by another person — an idea which opens to us the road to peace, liberty, equality, and solidarity for the whole human family. At each step we must think about this and it will help us to remain true to all we have discussed and agreed to here.”

In this way we resolved the problem of what our actions were to be in the immediate future.

From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org

(1888 - 1934)

Anarchist Leader of the Anti-Bolshevik, Anti-Capitalist Partisans of the Ukraine

: Nestor Makhno was the leader of a libertarian peasant and worker army and insurrection in the Ukraine which successfully fought Ukrainian nationalists, the Whites, the Bolsheviks and the bourgeoisie and put anarchism into practice in the years following the Russian Revolution. (From: Intro to Struggle Against the State.)
• "Burn their laws and destroy their prisons, kill the hangmen, the bane of mankind. Smash authority!" (From: "The Anarchist Revolution," by Nestor Makhno.)
• "Arrest all governors for as long as need be, tear up and burn their laws! Tear down the prisons, once you have annilihated the executioners and eradicated all State power!" (From: "The ABC of the Revolutionary Anarchist," by Nesto....)
• "The more a man becomes aware, through reflection, of his servile condition, the more indignant he becomes, the more the anarchist spirit of freedom, determination and action waxes inside him. That is true of every individual, man or woman, even though they may never have heard the word 'anarchism' before." (From: "The ABC of the Revolutionary Anarchist," by Nesto....)

Chronology

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1926
Part 2 - Chapter 20 — Publication.

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July 16, 2019; 4:52:31 PM (UTC)
Added to http://revoltlib.com.

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January 15, 2022; 4:55:20 PM (UTC)
Updated on http://revoltlib.com.

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