#SORTtopics anarchism, makhnovism, 1917, russian revolution, Ukraine, 1921 black army, anarcho-communism

#source Retrieved on September 8th, 2006 from https://libcom.org/history/articles/ukrainian-uprising-1917-21

#lang en

#notes <em>From Zabalaza</em>

<em>The revolution in the Ukraine was a libertarian revolution, and the workers and peasants fought both Tsarist reaction and Bolshevik domination.</em>

Official historians have failed to record the military genius of Nestor Makhno and the heroic deeds of his comrades in the Revolutionary Insurrection Army of the Ukraine. If the Makhnovists, as they became known, are mentioned at all they are referred to as "bandits" or (rather bizarrely) as part of the local right-wing "Kulak" movement. But if truth is the first casualty of war, then the history of war must be a pack of lies.

In February 1917, there was a Popular uprising in the Russian empire. The Tsar abdicated the principal political parties - most of them Socialist, and began to set up a crude parliamentary democracy, led by the Mensheviks. But Russia was a big, bleak, backward old empire that sprawled across five time zones, communication was bad; the uprisings continued. Radicals were released from prison, dissidents returned from exile, and ordinary people became increasingly aware of the possibilities of communal power. Peasants chased out the landowners, workers took over the factories and many organized themselves democratically through local mass meetings - Soviets.

In the months that followed, Lenin persuaded the Bolsheviks that his scam was a runner and they concentrated their efforts on gaining influence in the Soviets and in the army. The October revolution of 1917 was a spontaneous affair, The Bolsheviks simply pushed through the crowd shouting "Stand aside! There's nothing to be afraid of- trust me, I'm a doctor". Freedom was quarantined and strictly rationed. Soon, with the Bolshevik Secret Police, the Cheka quietly overseeing the running of the Soviets and the trade unions, freedom had disappeared.

During the uprisings and reaction that followed the October Revolution, the fertile earth of the Southern Ukraine was trampled under the boots of at least four advancing and retreating armies. Variously at war with each other [and] faced with a strong spirit of independence amongst the local insurgent peasants, none of these forces conquered the region or stayed long enough to set up any form of government.

-Tony Allen, September, 1990

The remainder of the Revolutionary Insurrection Army managed to fight their way to Romania where many went their own ways into exile In other lands. A few remained to reorganise and fight Ukraine. In response to the bloody and wholesale massacre of fellow Anarchists by Lenin and his bloodthirsty butchers, the Communist Party HQ in Moscow was blown up in September 1921.