Lyuty, Isidor (Petya) Efimovich (1896-1919)

Isidor Lyuty was born into a poor peasant family in 1896 in Gulyai Pole. He served as a private in the Tsarist army during World War One. He worked as a painter and decorator and became a member of the Gulyai Pole Anarchist Communist Group in 1917, and a member of the Poor Peasants Union. He preferred the first name of Petya to that of Isidor. He was one of those who welcomed Nestor Makhno on his return from prison. As a member of the Anarchist Communist Group, he served on the local Peasants’ Soviet and on the Land Committee. With the occupation of Gulyai Pole by the Austro-Germans, he was one of those who fled and later attended a conference in Taganrog in April 1918, where the Gulyai Pole anarchists had regrouped and where it was decided what to do.

He, together with Alexei Marchenko, Semyon and Pantaleimon Karetnik, and others, joined Nestor Makhno and Alexei Chubenko, who had returned to Gulyai Pole clandestinely. This small group decided to take action against the Austro-Germans.
Unfortunately, the presence of the group was reported to the authorities and they were forced to leave the village. Deciding to take punitive action against the Austro-German command centre in Gulyai Pole, Lyuty, disguised as a woman , was sent by the group to reconnoitre. He and Makhno, also disguised as a woman, then went to hurl bombs at the officers there. However, the presence of women and children decided them to abort the attack.

Lyuty was heavily involved in the activity of the Makhnovist detachments from then on. Considered as a selfless and honest comrade, he acted as one of Makhno’s aides.

Disguising themselves as officers of the Varta (State Guard) the armed detachments sanctioned by the Austro-German puppet Hetman Skoropadsky, Lyuty and Makhno set off for Gulyai Pole on 22nd September 1918. On the way they encountered a Varta detachment, managed to obtain information from them, and then gunned them down.
Lyuty, along with Makhno and Fedor Shchus, took an active commanding role in the battle of Dibrivka on 30th September, which inflicted a heavy defeat on the Austro-Germans.

However, on 15th November, the insurgents were ambushed by a Hungarian detachment at Temyrovka. Using a Lewis automatic rifle, poised on Lyuty’s shoulder, Makhno managed to deter the attack for a while, but was wounded in the ensuing rout, only being rescued by Lyuty, Marchenko, and Petr Petrenko. Makhno squatted on two rifles between their horses as they escaped at a gallop.

At an extraordinary congress at the end of 1918, Lyuty was one of those elected to the command of the insurgent forces.
After the Makhnovist insurgents broke with the Bolsheviks in summer 1919, Lyuty joined their retreat from Gulyai Pole to Kherson. In a clash with the Whites, Petya Lyuty was killed no later than September 15th, 1919.

Nick Heath
Photo: Makhnovists, Lyuty sitting on far left.