Makhnovists

Jacques Doubinsky
Aka Iakov Dubinsky, born 26 March – Ukraine, died 18 February 1959 - France

This movement was the manifestation of the Russian Revolution of 1917 in the Ukraine, where it took a libertarian form and where the workers and peasants fought both the counter-revolutionary Tsarist armies and the authoritarian Bolsheviks.

Nestor Ivanovich Makhno
Born Ukraine, 27 October 1889, died France, 25 June 1934

The revolution in the Ukraine was a libertarian revolution, and the workers and peasants fought both Tsarist reaction and Bolshevik domination.

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I was born February 17th, 1889, in the city of Yekotirenodar (the gift of Catherine the Great), now known as Krasnodar, located in the province of Kuban, in the northern part of southern Russia. I was the fourth child of a middle-class family. My father had a shop that manufactured fur hats for the Cossacks.

1 The Makhnovists are peasants and workers who rose as early as 1918 against the tyranny of the German-Magyar, Austrian and Hetmanite1 bourgeois power in the Ukraine. The Makhnovists are those toilers who raised the banner of combat against the rule of Denikin and all other forms of oppression, violence and lies, whatever their origin.

To be transmitted by telegraph, telephone, or post to all villages, townships, districts, and provinces of the Ukraine. To be read in village assemblies, factories, and workshops.

The anthology deals with both Makhno's experiences during the Russian Revolution and wider questions of organisation etc.

Manifesto of the Makhnovists

by Nestor Makhno

It arose not from some academic study but from their concrete experiences in the revolution. They had taken part in the overthrow of the old ruling class, had been part of the blossoming of workers' and peasants' self- management, had shared the widespread optimism about a new world of socialism and freedom...

Exiled to France, he later appeared to split with anarchism, but was killed after re-entering the USSR in 1937 for apparently attempting to organise anarchist groups.

Peter Arshinov
Aka Piotr Andrievich Marin, Peter Arshinoff or F. I. Mikhailski. Born 1887 – Andreivka, Russia, died in or around 1937, USSR

Leah Feldman, who was cremated in London on January 7th, 1994 was one of the ordinary men and women who rarely get into history books but have been the backbone of the anarchist movement.