Topilin, Sergei (1900–1921)

“I first saw Sergei Topilin in 1920, at a concert in Ryazan. I saw him again in February 1921, at Kropotkin's coffin in Moscow. It was when I saw him at a concert in Ryazan that I learned he was an anarchist.” Tatiana Garaseva.

Sergei Nikolaevich Topilin was born into a peasant family in the village of Kuzminka in the Ryazan district of Russia. He attended a gymnasium (high school) in Ryazan, where he completed four classes. Under the influence of his older brother Alexander, he joined the anarchist communist movement in 1919. He was active in propaganda work in the anarchist communist group in Ryazan.

In spring 1920 he was working as director of the amateur theatre group of the Red Army garrison Kultprosveta (Cultural Enlightenment), and as a junior policeman. At the May Day rally that year in Ryazan, he was arrested for “calling on the Red Army to abandon their service and weapons, as well as for openly agitating for the overthrow of Soviet power” and imprisoned until further notice in the Ryazan prison. He was then sent to Moscow, where on 6th July, he was sentenced by the Cheka to 3 months imprisonment in a concentration camp. This must have increased his bitterness and hostility towards the Bolsheviks, as on his release he joined the All-Russian Organization of Anarchists Underground (VOAP) at the end of 1920.

Topilin attended Kropotkin’s funeral in Moscow on February 13th, 1921.

Because the Butyrka prison in Moscow was now overcrowded with anarchist and Makhnovist prisoners, it was decided to transfer some of them to provincial prisons on April 26th, 1921, including in Ryazan. Yuli Perelman, active in the VOAP, began to plan an escape of anarchist prisoners at Ryazan. He and Vladimir Potekhin travelled to Ryazan, where they contacted Topilin, F. A. Krasavchikov, and I.A. Povarikhin, the latter two also members of the Ryazan anarchist group.

The security of the provincial prisons was compromised by the abrupt notice to fill them with anarchists. In addition, Topilin knew the layout of the Ryazan prison well, due to his previous incarceration there.

As a representative of the Anarchist Black Cross, Topilin was able to gain access to the prison to deliver aid parcels. He was able to pass documents and money to anarchist prisoners. During the night of June 18th, nine anarchists escaped through a hole in the toilet wall opposite Fanya Baron’s cell. They climbed down ropes to an unguarded floor, entered the prison yard and climbed over a fence to escape. As well as Fanya Baron, the escapees included anarchists David Kogan, V.M. Kurbatov, B. E. Lilov, I.N. Gavrilov-Mikhnevich, K.Y. Pilipenko, I.V. Tarasiuk, A. E. Budov, and P. I. Khokhotva, as well as the Socialist Revolutionary, Petrov.

Topilin then went into hiding. Investigators established that the escape had been accomplished "according to a premeditated plan with the participation of the anarchist-communist Topilin, who had disappeared without a trace."

In July 1921, Topilin had moved to Moscow. Later that month, he visited an OAU flat to meet with Potekhin, Kurbatov, and others. On August 16th, together with Kurbatov, Ivan Bubnov and others, he took part in an expropriation of the cash desk of the Main Military Engineering Directorate. They seized 100 million roubles, but were forced to abandon it as they were pursued. One of the group, Trofim Silantyev, was surrounded and arrested. After a second unsuccessful expropriation, Topilin was arrested on August 22nd, with other underground anarchists. He was charged with organising the Ryazan escape and with banditry (participation in a raid at the Smolensky Market in Moscow). He was moved to Lefortovo Prison on 1st, October, sentenced to death by the Cheka on the same day, and most likely shot very soon after.

Nick Heath

Sources:

Ovsyannikov, Sergey. Anarchy and Theatre, Theatre and Anarchy: G.S. Khodes, E.P. Garin, and I.A. Charin’s engagements with the anarchist movement during the Russian Revolution (1917-1921) and its aftermath (in Anarchist Developments in Cultural Studes, 2025, 1.