Nestor Makhno and the Ukrainian War of Independence
During the struggle that followed the Russian Revolution, Ukrainian anarchist Nestor Makhno waged war against Whites and Reds alike for an independent Ukraine.
Soon after the October Revolution, civil war broke out in Ukraine and southern Russia which lasted with many fluctuations of fortune until 1921. White and Red armies, German, Austrian and Polish forces, and independent Ukrainian command were all at different times involved.
In these events, an important part was played by the Revolutionary Insurgent Army under Nestor Makhno, a peasant by origin, an out-and-out revolutionary of Anarchist views, and a guerilla leader of outstanding ability.
Apart from his influence on the course of the war, his story provides a unique example of an attempt to put Anarchist principles into practice. It also illustrates the problems confronting the Soviet Government in dealing with the Ukrainian peasant and the measures and methods they employed to solve them.
Mr. Leonard Schapiro has well described the Russian Anarchists as a “varied conglomeration of harmless idealists, active terrorists, groups of anarcho-syndicalists, partisans, theorists and some criminal elements.”
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