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Nestor Makhno and Rural Anarchism in Ukraine, 1917–21
Nestor Makhno and Rural Anarchism in Ukraine, 1917–21
Colin Darch
First published 2020 by Pluto Press
345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA
Copyright © Colin Darch 2020
The right of Colin Darch to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 7453 3888 0 Hardback
ISBN 978 0 7453 3887 3 Paperback
ISBN 978 1 7868 0526 3 PDF eBook
ISBN 978 1 7868 0528 7 Kindle eBook
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For my grandchildren
Historia scribitur ad narrandum, non ad probandum – Quintilian
Contents
1. The Deep Roots of Rural Discontent: Guliaipole, 1905–17
2. The Turning Point: Organising Resistance to the German Invasion, 1918
3. Brigade Commander and Partisan: Makhno’s Campaigns against Denikin, January–May 1919
4. Betrayal in the Heat of Battle? The Red–Black Alliance Falls Apart, May–September 1919
5. The Long March West and the Battle at Peregonovka
6. Red versus White, Red versus Green: The Bolsheviks Assert Control
7. The Last Act: Alliance at Starobel’sk, Wrangel’s Defeat, and Betrayal at Perekop
8. The Bitter Politics of the Long Exile: Romania, Poland, Germany, and France, 1921–34
9. Why Anarchism? Why Ukraine? Contextualising Makhnovshchina
10. Epilogue: The Reframing of Makhno for the Twenty-First Century
Maps
0.1 Makhnovshchina’s Areas of Activity and Influence, 1918–21
2.1 The Occupation of Ukraine by Germany and Austro-Hungary, 1918
2.2 Makhno’s Journey to Moscow and Back, 1918
4.1 Denikin’s Advance on Moscow, 1919
5.1 The Engagement at Peregonovka, September 1919
5.2 The Advance Eastwards by the Makhnovtsy, late 1919
7.1 The Battle against Wrangel, Perekop, Crimea, 1920
Acknowledgements
My interest in makhnovshchina dates back to the late 1960s, and the research for this book was carried out intermittently over the many years since then by visits to, or through correspondence with the following libraries, archives and research centres. I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the librarians and archivists who have assisted me both personally and by providing me with photocopies or microfilm of necessary documents: the Bibliothèque de Documentation Internationale Contemporaine (BDIC), Nanterre; the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; the British Library, London; the Bundesarchiv, Koblenz; the Canadian Mennonite Bible College Library, Winnipeg; the Centre Internationale des Recherches sur l’Anarchisme, Lausanne; Columbia University Library, New York City; the Deutsche Bücherei, Leipzig; what was then the Gosudarstvennaia Biblioteka SSSR im. V. I. Lenina, Moscow; the then Gosudarstvennaia Publichnaia Biblioteka im. M. E. Saltykova-Shchedrina, St. Petersburg; the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford University; Indiana University Library, Bloomington; the Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis, Amsterdam; the Library of Congress, Washington DC; the National Library of Canada, Ottawa; New York Public Library, New York City; the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London; the Schweizerische Landesbibliothek, Berne; the Bodleian Library, Oxford; the University Libraries of the University of Birmingham, the University of Bradford, the University of Helsinki, the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, the University of Toronto and the University of Wisconsin; and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York City.
I want to acknowledge and thank the people who, over a long period of many years have given generous, willing and unstinting assistance in the research, writing, correspondence and, of course, conversation that have led to this book. It’s possible that some may have forgotten assisting me. Their help included granting me access to unpublished memoirs and other documents, responding to factual and other queries, criticising draft chapters and helping with translation. I must mention especially Ivan Antypenko of Philadelphia; Paul Avrich; Delice Baker-Duly who provided Swedish translations many years ago; G. N. Britten; the late E. H. Carr; the late Richard Caulk; Georgi Derluguian; Irina Filatova for several points of clarification; M. Fransiszyn; Daniel Guérin; Zenon Jaworskyi; Viktor Kachun; Annemarie Kinfu who provided German translations; Michel Kovetzki; the late A. L. Morton; Richard and Rita Pankhurst; Sean Patterson; Victor Peters; Michael Petrowsky; Mark Plant; the Very Rev. N. Pliczkowski; Jenny Sandler, who drew the maps; Alexandre Skirda; the late Teodor Shanin; Iuri Shevchenko of the University of Khar’kov for assistance with routes and distances; Vladimir Shubin (no relation of Aleksandr