Vasily Danilov was from a poor peasant family in the village of Gulyai Polye. He was, according to different accounts, either a shoemaker or a blacksmith.
He was involved in the uprising against the Hetman Skoropadsky from the first days, and became permanent head of the Makhnovist artillery supply, a member of the Makhnovist division headquarters, and then of the army headquarters.
He was one of the Makhnovists who crossed over the border to Romania on 28th August 1921.He remained in Romania, in Bucharest, and married a woman there called Rosa.
In the late 1920s, he was in charge of one Makhnovist centre for re-establishing and galvanising a Makhnovist underground in the Soviet Union, the other centre being Paris, around Makhno and his associates. Because it was closer to Ukraine, the Bucharest centre was the most active, and sent militants over the border. For example, in September 1928 the Makhnovists Foma Kusch and Konstantin Chuprina were able to visit both Odessa and Gulyai Polye to set up contacts with former Makhnovists and underground anarchist groups. They were able to carry out their mission successfully. The following September they again crossed the border but were arrested and recruited as OGPU agents. However Kusch let the Makhnovist centre know about the turning, and was able to carry on a double game with the Chekists, supplying them with false information.
It is unclear what happened to the Makhnovist underground activities, and whether they ceased with the consolidation of Stalin’s rule and the death of Makhno.
Danilov himself kept up a correspondence with his niece Nadia, the daughter of his brother Ignat, back home in Gulyai Polye. He died in Bucharest in 1960.
Nick Heath
Sources:
https://www.litres.ru/nestor-mahno/vospominaniya/chitat-onlayn/page-29/
https://xn--90adhkb6ag0f.xn--p1ai/arhiv/uchastniki-grazhdanskoj-vojny/mahnovcy.html
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