History of the Makhnovist Movement, 1918-1921 - Peter Arshinov

Peter Arshinov (1887 - c 1937) first met Nestor Makhno in Butyrki prison in Moscow.

Arshinov was serving 20 years for smuggling arms into Russia, having earlier escaped whilst awaiting hanging for the shooting of the boss of the railway workshops of Alexandrovska.

Makhno was serving life imprisonment with hard labour (commuted from the death penalty) for political assassinations. Both men were liberated by the Revolution, and in 1919, Arshinov joined Makhno in Ukraine, where he became involved in cultural and educational work in the area controlled by the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine. He was also the leader of the Confederation of the Anarchist Organizations of Ukraine.

He wrote his History of the Makhnovist Movement in 1921.

Here's a link to the text , courtesy of Libcom:
http://libcom.org/history/history-makhnovist-movement-1918-1921-peter-arshinov

When Buenaventura met Nestor- Makhno and Durruti- Paris 1927

Paris, July 21st 1927- the Anarchist International Defence Committee gave a banquet to celebrate the release of the Spanish comrades Ascaso, Durruti and Jover. They had been imprisoned for plotting to assassinate King Alfonso of Spain . Whilst they were in custody both Argentina and Spain had applied for their extradition. If extradited they would face the death penalty. A sustained effort by the Anarchist International Defence Committee succeeded in frustrating the extradition attempts.
Following the beano a meeting was arranged- Ascaso and Durruti went back to Makhno's. A Russian interpreter was present (like many eastern Ukrainians Makhno's first language was Russian rather than Ukrainian).
The three men had a lot in common- they were all under 40, exiles, fugitives, anarchists, workers (in fact Makhno and Durruti had both worked in the Renault factory) .
At 38 Makhno's halcyon days were behind him- sentenced to death at the age of 17 for his revolutionary activities, by the age of 28 he had served ten years in Russian gaols - in 1918 he met Lenin in the Kremlin; between 1918 and 1921 he had led the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine to successes against the German/ Austro- Hungarians, the Whites and The Red Army before eventually being driven from his homeland . Now in exile in Paris, his life was a struggle. He had suffered many serious injuries during the conflicts in Ukraine (one of his ankles was shattered by a dum dum bullet) and had suffered the effects of typhus and tuberculosis.

Buenaventura Durruti was one week past his 31st birthday. He had been at odds with the authorities since his teens, and had first gone into exile in France in 1917. Returning to Spain in 1919, he joined the CNT. Durruti gained a reputation as a man of action, involved in many acts of expropriation. in Gijón, in September 1923, he and his comrades carried out what was at the time the most lucrative bank raid in Spanish history. Following a coup detat Durruti and his comrades organized attacks on the military barracks in Barcelona and on the border stations with France. These attacks achieved little and cost the lives of a number of comrades. Following these setbacks, Durruti and his companions (including Ascaso) once again went into exile, this time to Argentina (later travelling to Cuba and other South American countries- they carried out the first bank robbery in Chile’s history). The proceeds of these expropriations funded anarchist and union movements in Europe and the Americas. When Durruti returned to Europe he worked in a Renault factory in Paris.
In 1924 King Alfonso XIII of Spain visited Paris. Ascaso and Durruti plotted an assassination attempt. They were arrested and gaoled for a year, along with a third comrade, Jover.

When they met Durruti acknowledged the manner in which Makhno's activities had inspired him, and Makhno reciprocated by making positive observations about the likelihood of an anarchist revolution succeeding in Spain, for which he saw several encouraging factors.
Makhno is recorded as saying:
Anarchism is neither sectarian nor dogmatic.It is theory in action. it doesn't have a pre-determined worldview.It is a fact that anarchism is manifest historically in all of mans' attitudes, individually or collectively. Its a force in the march of history itself: the force that pushes it forward.
...Makhno has never refused a fight. If I am still alive when your revolution begins, i'll be one fighter amongst many.
Durruti's 'revolution'- Anarchist Catalonia- came nine years later, but by then Makhno had died (on July 6th, 1934, at the age of 46) of the tuberculosis which had troubled him since his youth in prison.
Some veterans of the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine did actually fight alongside the Durruti Column.
Ascosa was killed in Barcelona on the first day of hostilities in the Civil War, July 20th, 1936. He was 35.
Durruti was killed in action (possibly accidentally shot by a companion) in November 1936.

Accounts of these interesting lives are often contradictory.
The following books are well worth a look :

Durruti in the Spanish Revolution - Abel Paz.
Nestor Makhno: Anarchy's Cossack - Alexandre Skirda

Nestor Makhno- My Visit To The Kremlin

When the Bolsheviks invaded Ukraine in January 1918 they were assisted by the anarchist forces of Nestor Makhno (1888 – 1934). However, In March 1918, the Bolsheviks signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which as well as ending hostilities with the central powers also ordered the surrender of large amounts of territory (including Ukraine).
In April 1918 a conference of Ukrainian anarchists delegated Makhno to travel to Russia to contact other anarchist groups and determine the Bolsheviks' attitude towards anarchist activity in Ukraine .
Following a harrowing 2 month journey Makhno arrived in Moscow at the beginning of June, and met with leading anarchists and representatives of other political factions. Makhno was impatient with the attitude he encountered in Moscow . He felt that much revolutionary work remained to be done in Ukraine, where the old order still held sway. He wrote of the 'paper revolution' of the Russian intellectuals as opposed to the vigorous anarchist movement he expected to evolve in Ukraine.

In Moscow Makhno was able to meet with two leading Bolsheviks:
Yakov Sverdlov (1885 — 1919), chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Soviets (technically the head of the Soviet state) and General Secretary of the Russian Communist Party.
V.I. Lenin (1870 – 1924), Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars and Leader of the Bolshevik Party.
You can read Makhno's account of these meetings here.

Makhno did not meet Trotsky during his stay in Moscow, as Trotsky was too busy working on the organisation of the Red Army.

The Bolsheviks ensured Makhno's safe return to Ukraine, hoping that he would work as an agent for them, but they were opposed to any form Ukrainian autonomy, and Makhno's activities were deemed counterrevolutionary.

Black Flag #2...

The Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine (known as The Black Army or Makhnovchina) was led by the legendary Anarchist Nestor Makhno (1888-1934). Active during the turbulent years 1918-1921, the army consisted largely of peasants and workers and numbered between 15,000 and 110,000.
Discipline was democratically imposed, commanders were elected and recallable and rules were approved by soldier committees.
Initially armed with equipment abandoned by the retreating German and Austro Hungarian armies, the Black Army won victories against German, Austrian and Ukrainian Nationalist forces and predominantly Czech units of the White Army.
In the areas that they liberated the Makhnovists abolished capitalism and the state, helping to organize village assemblies and councils. Land and factories were expropriated and put under peasant and worker control by means of self-governing committees.
Captured officers were summarily executed but the proletarian rank and file soldiers were at liberty to either return home or join the Makhnovchina.
An independent Ukraine, regardless of political colour, was not on the agenda of the Bolsheviks, who determined to crush both the Makhnovists and the Ukrainian nationalist movement.
In August 1921 the Red Army of the Southern Front, under the command of Mikhail Frunze, finally defeated Makhno, who spent the rest of his life in exile.
The message on these banners is (approximately)- death to landowners and enemies of the workers- Liberty or Death.

Makhno said...

Nestor Makhno said: ANARCHISM - a life of freedom and creative independence for humanity.
Anarchism does not depend on theory or programs, which try to grasp man's life in its entirety. It is a teaching, which is based on real life, which outgrows all artificial limitations, which cannot be constricted by any system.
Anarchism's outward form is a free, non-governed society, which offers freedom, equality and solidarity for its members. Its foundations are to be found in man's sense of mutual responsibility, which has remained unchanged in all places and times. This sense of responsibility is capable of securing freedom and social justice for all men by its own unaided efforts. It is also the foundation of true communism.
Anarchism therefore is a part of human nature, communism its logical extension.