Nestor Makhno

This movement was the manifestation of the Russian Revolution of 1917 in the Ukraine, where it took a libertarian form and where the workers and peasants fought both the counter-revolutionary Tsarist armies and the authoritarian Bolsheviks.

Nestor Ivanovich Makhno
Born Ukraine, 27 October 1889, died France, 25 June 1934

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

Russian Anarchists and the Civil War

Paul Avrich

from Russian Review, Volume 27, Issue 3 (Jul., 1968), 296-306.

1 The Makhnovists are peasants and workers who rose as early as 1918 against the tyranny of the German-Magyar, Austrian and Hetmanite1 bourgeois power in the Ukraine. The Makhnovists are those toilers who raised the banner of combat against the rule of Denikin and all other forms of oppression, violence and lies, whatever their origin.

To be transmitted by telegraph, telephone, or post to all villages, townships, districts, and provinces of the Ukraine. To be read in village assemblies, factories, and workshops.

Dear Comrades Carbó and Pestana,

Whenever a revolution breaks out - and regardless of its character - (the most important point is that broad masses of workers and peasants should have a hand in it) and its guides, whether a compact group or a scattering of individuals, enjoying a special authority in the eyes of the workers, place themselves above these masses and do not march in step with them and do not earn their trust, waiti