Nestor Makhno

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Nestor Makhno bigraphy, stories - Revolutionary, anarchist

Nestor Makhno : biography

October 26, 1888 – July 6, 1934

Nestor Ivanovych Makhno or Bat’ko ("Father") MakhnoAlexandre Skirka,Nestor Makhno – Anarchy’s Cossack, Translated by Paul Sharkey, (Oakland: AK Press, 2004), 9. "The literal translation, ‘little father’ does not quite capture the meaning that the word had in Ukrainian; ever since the days of the Zaporog warrior communities it had implied an elected and irrevocable military leader. At the same time when being so called, Makhno was only 29 and thus had nothing paternal or venerable about him; anyway there were other ‘Batkos’ even in the Makhnovist movement and throughout the region." ( ; October 26, 1888 (N.S.November 8) – July 6, 1934) was a Ukrainian anarcho-communist revolutionary and the commander of an independent anarchist army in Ukraine during the Russian Civil War.

As commander of the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine, more commonly referred to as the Makhnovshchina, Makhno led a guerrilla campaign during the Russian Civil War.Makhnovshchina can be loosely translated as "Makhno movement". The term encompasses not only the army but the whole of the movement’s activities and overall spirit. The suffix –shchina can be employed in a slightly derogatory manner, but this is not the intention in this case given that the movement’s adherents including Makhno himself frequently used the term to describe themselves. Makhno fought all factions that sought to impose any external authority over southern Ukraine, battling in succession the Ukrainian Nationalists, the Imperial German and Austro-Hungarian occupation, the Hetmanate Republic, the White Army, the Red Army, and other smaller forces led by Ukrainian atamans. Makhno and his movement repeatedly attempted to reorganize life in the Gulai-Polye region along anarchist-communist lines, however, the disruptions of the civil war precluded any long term social experiments. Although Makhno considered the Bolsheviks a threat to the development of an anarchist Free Territory within Ukraine, he twice entered into military alliances with them to defeat the White Army. In the aftermath of the White Army’s final defeat in November 1920, the Bolsheviks initiated a military campaign against Makhno, which concluded with his escape across the Romanian border in August 1921. After a series of imprisonments and escapes, Makhno finally settled in Paris with his wife Galina and daughter Yelena. In exile Makhno wrote three volumes of memoirs.Nestor Makhno, [1927] The Russian Revolution in Ukraine, Edmonton: Black Cat Press, 2007; [1936] Under the Blows of the Counterrevolution, Edmonton: Black Cat Press, 2009; [1937] The Ukrainian Revolution, Edmonton: Black Cat Press, 2011. Makhno died in exile at the age of 45 from tuberculosis-related causes. He is also credited as the inventor of the tachanka, a horse-drawn platform mounting a heavy machine gun.William Henry Chamberlin, Russia’s Iron Age, Ayer Publishing, 1970, p201; V. Rapoport, Y. Alekseev, V. G. Treml (translated by B. Adams), High Treason: Essays on the History of the Red Army, 1918-1938, Duke University Press, 1985, p68; Michael Malet, Nestor Makhno in the Russian Civil War, Macmillan, 1982, p85; Steve Zaloga, Leland S. Ness, Red Army Handbook, 1939-45, Sutton, 1998, p105; for mention of the pioneering use of tachanki by Makhno and a statement to the effect that the Red Army "copied" Makhno’s tachanki see: Leon Trotsky, How the Revolution Armed: The Military Writings and Speeches of Leon Trotsky, New Park Publications, 1981, p 295 (note); for a statement to the effect that Makhno’s use of tachanki was "innovative" see: Edward R. Kantowicz, The Rage of Nations: The World In The Twentieth Century, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1999, p173

Organizing the peasants’ movement

After liberation from prison, Makhno organized a peasants’ union. It gave him a "Robin Hood" image and he expropriated large estates from landowners and distributed the land among the peasants.