Nikolai Pavlov aka Petrov, Petrov-Pavlov

N. Pavlov
N. Pavlov

A short biography of Russian anarchist Nikolai Pavlov, famous for his statement "Why I Am An Anarchist"

Author
Submitted by Battlescarred on October 31, 2015

Nikolai Ivanovich Pavlov was born in Russia in 1881. He joined the Social-Revolutionary Party in 1901. During the 1905 Revolution he took part in the armed uprising of the soldiers’ penal battalion in Bobruisk. He was subsequently arrested four times and sentenced to death, spending five years in prison. In 1910 he escaped abroad where he became an anarchist-communist.

In 1917 he was one of the leading lights of the Petrograd Federation of Anarchist Communists, and subsequently the Union of Anarcho-Syndicalist Propaganda -Voice of Labour . He was an active participant in the July and October uprisings against the Provisional Government of Kerensky. He wrote the famous and well known statement Why I Am An Anarchist on 23rd October 1917 in the paper Vol’nyi Kronshtadt. During the Civil War, he was a leading light in the Moscow bakers union, a member of the Secretariat of the Russian Anarcho-Syndicalists (1918) and of the Secretariat of the Moscow Workers' Union of Anarchists (1920-1922), and of the Provisional Executive Bureau of the Russian Confederation of Anarchist-syndicalists(1920-1921). He and other Moscow anarchist-communists and anarcho-syndicalists united to set up the Moscow Union of Anarcho-Syndicalists-Communists in early 1919.

Pavlov was repeatedly elected by workers to the Moscow City Soviet. When the Communist regime attempted to replace delegates to the bakers’ union with their own appointees, the bakers revolted and threatened to stop work. When the Cheka attempted to arrest Pavlov, the elected candidate, the bakers surrounded him, allowing him to get home safely. They subsequently issued an ultimatum which meant that the authorities backed off from deposing their choice of Pavlov.

The Moscow bakers union was a stronghold of anarchism, along with similar sections in Kiev and Kharkhov. It heavily criticised the official Communist unions as controlled by the State and operating to police workers. Alongside the anarchists and working closely with them were SR-Maximalists. Maximalists like Nyushenkov were also elected as delegates by the bakers, as well as one Left SR, I. Steinberg. The bakers worked in two large cooperatives (artels), Freedom of Labour and Anthill.

Writing about the Freedom of Labour cooperative in the anarchist paper The Initiative Pavlov wrote: "There was a developed charter that puts forward the following objectives: the most complete and fair satisfaction of the vital needs of its members. This goal is achieved through co-operative sustainable use of technical means and the comradely use of manpower in accordance with the basic principles of the socialist system. The artel with the same purpose, puts the problem of raising the cultural level of its members through the device of lectures, courses, schools and so on. …Upbringing of the growing generation in the spirit of the new free-communist development. "

Subsequently the Moscow Trade Union Council, controlled by the regime, made a decision to dissolve the bakers’ union on 17th-18th June 1920. Pavlov was arrested, along with Niushenkov and another Maximalist, Kamyshev (1). Also arrested were two section members Kusnetsov and Viurgov.

A complete report by Melnitschansky , Chair of the Council appeared in No. 125 of Pravda. “The meeting thereupon adopted the following resolution : Due to the systematic abuse and breach of union discipline by the members of the union committee of the Moscow bakers, it was decided to dissolve the section of the Moscow bakers and include the bakers in the union of the foodstuff workers. The members of the former committee of the section of the bakers' union, N. Pavlov, Kamyshev, Niushenkov, Viurgov and Kusnetsov are excluded from the union movement and shall, furthermore, be held to answer before a judiciary board. They lose their right to speak before any assembly and can never more be elected to a responsible post in the unions."
Pavlov was driven from holding positions in the union and of the mandate of delegate to the Moscow Soviet.

Pavlov’s home at 18 Bolshoi Cheryshevsky was raided by the Cheka on October 24th , 1920 when a meeting of anarchists took place there. Pavlov was arrested along with Volin who had only just been released from a Cheka prison, and fifty others. Later on December 1st of that year he, Volin and all the participants in a conference of anarcho-syndicalists in Kharkhov were arrested by the Cheka.

On February 8th 1921 , learning of the grave condition of Kropotkin, he went with Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman and Alexander Schapiro to visit him. Unfortunately the train was delayed and Kropotkin died one hour before they arrived. Pavlov was subsequently heavily involved in the committee to prepare for Kropotkin’s funeral. He can be seen in the short film dedicated to the funeral which has recently re-emerged.

Later on June 8th of the same tear, Pavlov was arrested with Vasily Lukich Panyushkin,(2) the Kronstadt sailor. He was exiled for a year to the mouth of the North Dvina river.

Pavlov’s various spells in prison had severely affected his health, and the constant pressure and recurring arrests forced him to withdraw from the anarchist movement. However this did not stop him from being arrested as an "anarchist underground fighter" in 1930 and exiled to Tashkent in Central Asia for three years, where he soon died on July 29th 1932.

Nick Heath

(1) Pyotr Dementevich Kamyshev (1879-1938) born at Vyazma in Smolensk province who joined the revolutionary movement in the late 1890s, was a member of the Social Democrats (RSDLP) and then the Socialist-Revolutionaries, and from the end of 1905 was an SR-Maximalist. . in 1918-1922 he was a member of the Central Council of the Union of Socialist Revolutionary-Maximalists. He was a consistent supporter of the alliance with the anarcho-syndicalists. He was repeatedly arrested by the Tsarist police and then the Soviet authorities.He was shot in Krasnoyarsk on July 20th, 1938 along with Sergei Sergeevich Tuzhilkin. The latter born in 1909 was an anarchist from the late 1920s, and first arrested in 1929. From that time he was constantly imprisoned and exiled., and was a member of groups of exiled anarchists in Tashkent and Petropavlovsk. There is a harrowing and poignant testimony by Kamyshev at his trial (in Russian pkk.memo.ru/letters_pdf/000151.pdf

(2) Panyushkin , born in 1887 emigrated to St Petersburg, where he worked as a tool-maker. He joined the Bolsheviks in 1907. He later was drafted into the Navy and was a leading light in the revolt of the Kronstadt sailors in February 1917. He left the Party in disgust in 1921, forming his own Workers and Peasants Socialist Party. After his arrest he was sentenced to two years hard labour. He later rejoined the Communist Party, was again arrested in 1937 and served over 10 years more in prison, dying in 1960.

Comments

syndicalist

8 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by syndicalist on October 31, 2015

" Moscow Union of Anarcho-Syndicalists-Communists... 1919."

New one for me. Additional information?

Battlescarred

8 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Battlescarred on October 31, 2015

Bleikhman was also a member of thid group. See Avrich The Russian Anarchists:
"Early in 1919, a handful of prominent anarchists from both wings of the movement (most notable were Nikolai Pavlov and Sergei Markus of the syndicalists and Vladimir Barmash, German Askarov, and I. S. Bleikhman of the Anarchist-Communists) made a feeble attempt at unity by founding the Moscow Union of Anarcho-Syndicalists-Communists. But this venture, like all its predecessors, ended in dismal failure. The single achievement of the Moscow Union was the publication of a new journal called Trud i Volia (Labor and Liberty), which chastised the Bolshevik regime for "statizing the human personality" and issued appeals for direct action "to destroy every authoritarian or bureaucratic system." In May 1919, after its sixth number, Trud i Volia was, quite predictably, shut down."

Battlescarred

8 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Battlescarred on October 31, 2015

Nikolai Pavlov's partner was Anna Pavlova.also very active with Golos Truda. See Boris Yelensky, In The Social Storm:
" I entered a large room and tapped on one of the seven or eight doors I found there. A woman emerged and told me that Maximov and his wife would return home that evening. She introduced herself as Anna Pavlova and told me that her husband Nikolai would be home soon and would be pleasantly surprised to meet me. I recalled that Pavlov was one of those to whom we used to send financial assistance through the Chicago Red Cross and that I had corresponded with him.
I learned from the Pavlovs that Yarchuk and his wife, as well as the Orgeany couple were living there. In addition, various comrades arriving in Moscow would come to stay there, and a mattress would be spread out on the floor as a bed for them. That house-keeping chore fell on Anna Pavlova as the Pavlovs section of the house was a sort of large hallway and, since I had no other accommodations, I became a guest at the Pavlovs
When Pavlov arrived home he was accompanied by two or three other comrades, and since I had brought along some edibles, we prepared tea and refreshments ,a veritable banquet for these half-starved comrades. We spent the night thus, affording me the opportunity to get myself oriented about our movement in Moscow. The news was far from encouraging. Unexpectedly, Maximov arrived and invited me to visit him the following afternoon. He was eager to speak to me and I accepted the invitation." Anna herself suffered imprisonment, persecution and surveillance.
The Dictionnaire International des Militants Anarchistes tells us that she had emigrated to the USA where she was active in the anarchist movement. She returned to Russia after the February Revolution of 1917 and conducted an active anarchist propaganda in the factories and workshops of the Urals. at the beginning of 1921 she went to moscow where she worked with the Golos Truda publishing house. Arrested by the Communists, she suffered a long imprisonment and later, after being freed, was put under special surveillance

syndicalist

8 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by syndicalist on October 31, 2015

Thanks for both additional postings,

David in Atlanta

8 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by David in Atlanta on October 31, 2015

Any chance of getting his "why I am an anarchist" statement?

syndicalist

8 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by syndicalist on October 31, 2015

David in Atlanta

Any chance of getting his "why I am an anarchist" statement?

Why?

Battlescarred

8 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Battlescarred on November 1, 2015

Here you are David.
http://struggle.ws/africa/wsfws/2_2why.html

Battlescarred

8 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Battlescarred on November 1, 2015

Sorry folks . got my notes messed up with another anarchist I am doing a bio of, Petrovsky ( notes for both were all on the same page). It was Petrovsky who together with Perkus, Goldman and Berkman issued an appeal for mediation between the Kronstadters and the Communist regime, not Pavlov. Have amended the bio. Sorry! Stand by for the Petrovsky bio.

David in Atlanta

8 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by David in Atlanta on November 2, 2015

syndicalist

David in Atlanta

Any chance of getting his "why I am an anarchist" statement?

Why?

Har-har

Battlescarred

7 years 2 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Battlescarred on July 17, 2017

I've amended the mention of Kamyshev on further information I've discovered. , He was not,as I first wrote, an anarchist but a maximalist. See the footnote (1)

Battlescarred

3 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Battlescarred on September 25, 2021

More on Anna Pavlova,
Anna Alekseevna Petrova-Pavlova . Until 1906 she was in the ranks of the Social Democrats, then she became an anarchist. After the revolution of 1917, she worked as a freight forwarder at the anarcho-syndicalist publishing house Golos Truda in Petrograd and Moscow. Under the Tsarist regime engaged in aid to political prisoners and participated in organising escape of eight political prisoners from the Bobruisk fortress and two from the Amur Wheel Road (built with prison labour). Served two year sentence for her activities in a Tsarist prison. When arrested with her husband in Moscow in 1921, she went on a hunger strike in prison, from which she was removed after six days.