Peasant uprising under the leadership of N. Makhno. Makhno army in the civil war. Biography of Old Man Makhno

"Old Man", Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Revolutionary Workers' and Peasants' Army of the Yekaterinoslav region, commander of the Red Army brigade, commander of the 1st Insurgent Division, commander of the "Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine".
Makhno himself considered himself a military commander, and not a leader of the population of the occupied territory.

Nestor Ivanovich Makhno was born on October 26, 1888 in the village of Gulyai-Polye, Yekaterinoslav province, into a peasant family. It was a large village, in which there were even factories, at one of which he worked as a foundry worker.

The revolution of 1905 captivated the young worker, he joined the Social Democrats, and in 1906 he joined the group of “free grain growers” ​​- anarchist-communists, participated in raids and propaganda of the principles of anarchy. In July-August 1908, the group was discovered, Makhno was arrested and in 1910, together with his accomplices, was sentenced to death by a military court. However, many years before this, Makhno’s parents changed his date of birth by a year, and he was considered a minor. In this regard, the execution was replaced by indefinite hard labor.
In 1911, Makhno ended up in Moscow Butyrki. Here he studied self-education and met Pyotr Arshinov, who was more “savvy” in anarchist teaching, who would later become one of the ideologists of the Makhnovist movement. In prison, Makhno fell ill with tuberculosis and had his lung removed.

The February Revolution of 1917 opened the doors of prison for Makhno, and in March he returned to Gulyai-Polye. Makhno gained popularity as a fighter against autocracy and a speaker at public gatherings, and was elected to the local government body - the Public Committee. He became the leader of the Gulyai-Polye group of anarcho-communists, which subordinated the Public Committee to its influence and established control over the network of public structures in the region, which included the Peasant Union (since August - the Council), the Council of Workers' Deputies and the trade union. Makhno headed the volost executive committee of the Peasant Union, which actually became the authority in the region.

After the start of Kornilov’s speech, Makhno and his supporters created the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution under the Soviet and confiscated weapons from landowners, kulaks and German colonists in favor of their detachment. In September, the volost congress of Soviets and peasant organizations in Gulyai-Polye, convened by the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution, proclaimed the confiscation of landowners' lands, which were transferred to peasant farms and communes. So Makhno was ahead of Lenin in implementing the slogan “Land to the peasants!”

On October 4, 1917, Makhno was elected chairman of the board of the trade union of metalworkers, woodworkers and other trades, which united virtually all the workers of Gulyai-Polye and a number of surrounding enterprises (including mills). Makhno, who combined leadership of the trade union with leadership of the largest local armed political group, forced entrepreneurs to fulfill the demands of the workers. On October 25, the union board decided: “Workers who are not members of the union are required to immediately enroll as members of the Union, otherwise they risk losing the support of the Union.” A course was set for the universal introduction of an eight-hour working day. In December 1917, Makhno, busy with other matters, transferred the chairmanship of the trade union to his deputy A. Mishchenko.

Makhno was already faced with new tasks - a struggle for power began to boil between supporters and opponents of the Soviets. Makhno stood for Soviet power. Together with a detachment of Gulyai-Polye men, commanded by his brother Savva, Nestor disarmed the Cossacks, then took part in the work of the Alexander Revolutionary Committee, and headed the revolutionary committee in Gulyai-Polye. In December, on Makhno’s initiative, the Second Congress of Soviets of the Gulyai-Polye region met, which adopted the resolution “Death to the Central Rada.” The Makhnovsky district was not going to submit to either the Ukrainian, Red or White authorities.

At the end of 1917, Makhno had a daughter from Anna Vasetskaya. Makhno lost contact with this family in the military whirlpool of the spring of 1918. After the conclusion of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty in March 1918, German troops began advancing into Ukraine. Residents of Gulyai-Polye formed a “free battalion” of about 200 fighters, and now Makhno himself took command. He went to the Red Guard headquarters to get weapons. In his absence, on the night of April 15-16, a coup was carried out in Gulyai-Polye in favor of Ukrainian nationalists. At the same time, a detachment of nationalists suddenly attacked the “free battalion” and disarmed it.

These events took Makhno by surprise. He was forced to retreat to Russia. At the end of April 1918, at a meeting of Gulyai-Polye anarchists in Taganrog, it was decided to return to the area in a few months. In April-June 1918, Makhno traveled around Russia, visiting Rostov-on-Don, Saratov, Tsaritsyn, Astrakhan and Moscow. Revolutionary Russia evokes complex feelings in him. On the one hand, he saw the Bolsheviks as allies in the revolutionary struggle. On the other hand, they very cruelly crushed the revolution “under themselves”, creating a new one, their own power, and not the power of the Soviets.
In June 1918, Makhno met with anarchist leaders, including P.A. Kropotkin, was among the visitors of V.I. Lenin and Ya.M. Sverdlov. In a conversation with Lenin, Makhno, on behalf of the peasantry, outlined to him his vision of the principles of Soviet power as self-government, and argued that anarchists in the countryside of Ukraine are more influential than communists. Lenin made a strong impression on Makhno, the Bolsheviks helped the anarchist leader cross to occupied Ukraine.

In July 1918, Makhno returned to the vicinity of Gulyai-Polye, then created a small partisan detachment, which in September began military operations, attacking estates, German colonies, occupiers and employees of Hetman Skoropadsky. The first major battle with the Austro-Hungarian troops and supporters of the Ukrainian state in the village of Dibrivki (B. Mikhailovka) turned out to be successful for the partisans, earning Makhno the honorary nickname “father”. In the Dibrivok area, Makhno’s detachment united with F. Shchusya’s detachment. Then other local detachments began to join Makhno. The successful partisans began to receive the support of the peasants. Makhno emphasized the anti-landowner and anti-kulak nature of his actions.

The collapse of the occupation regime after the November Revolution in Germany caused a surge in the insurgency and the collapse of the regime of Hetman Skoropadsky. As the Austro-German troops evacuated, detachments coordinated by Makhno's headquarters began to take control of the area around Gulyai-Polye. On November 27, 1918, Makhno’s forces occupied Gulyai-Polye and never left it. The rebels drove the occupiers out of their area, destroyed the resisting farmsteads and estates, and established ties with local governments. Makhno fought against unauthorized extortions and robberies. Local rebels were subordinate to the main headquarters of the rebel troops “named after Old Man Makhno.” In the south of the region there were clashes with the troops of Ataman Krasnov and the Volunteer Army.
In mid-December, fighting began between the Makhnovists and UPR supporters. Makhno entered into an agreement on joint actions with the Ekaterinoslav Bolsheviks and was appointed gubernatorial committee and Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Revolutionary Workers' and Peasants' Army of the Ekaterinoslav region. On December 27-31, 1918, Makhno, in alliance with a detachment of Bolsheviks, recaptured Ekaterinoslav from the Petliurists. But the Petliurists launched a counterattack and recaptured the city. Makhno and the communists blamed each other for the defeat. Having lost half of his detachment, Makhno returned to the left bank of the Dnieper.

Makhno considered himself a military commander, and not a leader of the population of the occupied territory. The principles of organizing political power were determined by the congresses of front-line soldiers and Soviets. The First Congress took place on January 23, 1919, without Makhno’s participation, and began preparations for the more representative Second Congress.
In January 1919, units of the Volunteer Army launched an offensive on Gulyai-Polye. The Makhnovists suffered from a shortage of ammunition and weapons, which forced them to enter into an alliance with the Bolsheviks on January 26, 1919. On February 19, Makhnovist troops entered the 1st Trans-Dnieper Division of the Red Army under the command of P.E. Dybenko as the 3rd brigade under the command of Makhno.

With the Order of the Red Banner for No. 4 (perhaps this is a legend, no one can say for sure, it is not in the award lists, although this does not mean anything).

Having received ammunition from the Reds, on February 4, Makhno went on the offensive and took Bamut, Volnovakha, Berdyansk and Mariupol, defeating the White group. The peasants, submitting to “voluntary mobilization,” sent their sons to the Makhnovist regiments. The villages patronized their regiments, the soldiers chose commanders, the commanders discussed upcoming operations with the soldiers, each soldier knew his task well. This “military democracy” gave the Makhnovists a unique fighting ability. The growth of Makhno's army was limited only by the ability to arm new recruits. For 15-20 thousand armed fighters there were over 30 thousand unarmed reserves.

On February 8, 1919, in his appeal, Makhno put forward the following task: “Building a true Soviet system, in which the Soviets, elected by the working people, would be servants of the people, implementers of those laws, those orders that the working people themselves will write at the All-Ukrainian Labor Congress...”

“Our working community will have full power within itself and will carry out its will, its economic and other plans and considerations through its bodies, which it itself creates, but which it does not endow with any power, but only with certain instructions,” - wrote Makhno and Arshinov in May 1919.

Subsequently, Makhno called his views anarcho-communism of the “Bakunin-Kropotkin sense.”

Speaking on February 14, 1919 at the II Gulyai-Polye district congress of front-line soldiers, Soviets and sub-departments, Makhno stated: “I call on you to unity, because unity is the guarantee of the victory of the revolution over those who sought to strangle it. If comrade Bolsheviks come from Great Russia to Ukraine to help us in the difficult struggle against counter-revolution, we must say to them: “Welcome, dear friends!” But if they come here with the goal of monopolizing Ukraine, we will tell them: “Hands off!” We ourselves know how to raise the liberation of the working peasantry to a height, we ourselves will be able to arrange a new life for ourselves - where there will be no lords, slaves, oppressed and oppressors.”

Hiding behind the slogan of the “dictatorship of the proletariat,” the Bolshevik Communists declared a monopoly on the revolution for their party, considering all dissenters to be counter-revolutionaries... We call on the comrades of workers and peasants not to entrust the liberation of the working people to any party, to any central power: liberation of the working people is the work of the working people themselves.”

At the congress, the political body of the movement, the Military Revolutionary Council (VRC), was elected. The party composition of the VRS was left-socialist - 7 anarchists, 3 left Socialist Revolutionaries and 2 Bolsheviks and one sympathizer. Makhno was elected an honorary member of the VRS. Thus, on the territory controlled by the Makhnovists, an independent system of Soviet power arose, autonomous from the central government of the Ukrainian SSR. This caused mutual distrust between Makhno and the Soviet command.

Makhno invited brigades of anarchists to the area of ​​​​operation to promote anarchist views and cultural and educational work. Among the visiting anarchists, the old comrade P.A. had an influence on Makhno. Arshinov. In the area where the Makhnovists operated, political freedom existed for leftist movements - the Bolsheviks, left Socialist Revolutionaries and anarchists. Makhno received the chief of staff sent by the division commander Dybenko, the left Socialist Revolutionary Ya.V. Ozerov and communist commissars. They engaged in propaganda, but had no political power.

The commander of the Ukrainian Front, V. Antonov-Ovseenko, who visited the area in May 1919, reported: “children’s communes and schools are being established - Gulyai-Polye is one of the most cultural centers of Novorossia - there are three secondary educational institutions, etc. Through Makhno’s efforts, ten hospitals for the wounded were opened, a workshop was organized to repair guns and locks for guns were made.”

The communists tolerated the openly anti-Bolshevik nature of the Makhnovists' speeches as long as the Makhnovists advanced. But in April the front stabilized, the fight against Denikin’s forces continued with varying degrees of success. The Bolsheviks set a course to eliminate the special situation of the Makhnovist region. Heavy fighting and supply shortages increasingly exhausted the Makhnovists.

On April 10, the III regional congress of peasants, workers and rebels in Gulyai-Polye adopted decisions directed against the military-communist policy of the RCP (b). Chief Dybenko responded with a telegram: “Any congresses convened on behalf of the military-revolutionary headquarters dissolved according to my order are considered clearly counter-revolutionary, and the organizers of such will be subjected to the most repressive measures, up to and including outlawing.” The congress responded to the division commander with a sharp rebuke, which further compromised Makhno in the eyes of the command.

April 15, 1919 member of the RVS of the Southern Front G.Ya. Sokolnikov, with the consent of some members of the RVS of the Ukrfront, brought before the Chairman of the RVS of the Republic L.D. Trotsky questioned the removal of Makhno from command.
On April 25, the Kharkov Izvestia published an article “Down with Makhnovshchina,” which said: “The insurgent movement of the peasantry accidentally fell under the leadership of Makhno and his “Military Revolutionary Headquarters,” in which both the reckless anarchists and the White-Left Socialist Revolutionaries found refuge. and other remnants of “former” revolutionary parties that disintegrated. Having fallen under the leadership of such elements, the movement significantly lost its strength; the successes associated with its rise could not be consolidated by the anarchic nature of its actions... The outrages that are happening in Makhno’s “kingdom” must be put to an end.” This article outraged Makhno and raised fears that it was a prelude to an attack by the Bolsheviks. On April 29, he ordered the detention of some of the commissars, deciding that the Bolsheviks were preparing an attack on the Makhnovists: “Let the Bolsheviks sit with us, just as our Cheka sits in the Cheka’s dungeons.”

The conflict was resolved during negotiations between Makhno and the commander of the Ukrainian Front V.A. Antonova-Ovseenko. Makhno even condemned the most harsh provisions of the resolutions of the Congress of Soviets of the region and promised to prevent the election of command personnel, which (apparently due to the contagiousness of the example) was so feared in neighboring parts of the Red Army. Moreover, the commanders had already been chosen, and no one was going to change them at that time.

But, having made some concessions, the old man put forward a new, fundamentally important idea that could try on two strategies of the revolution: “Before a decisive victory over the whites, a revolutionary front must be established, and he (Makhno. - A.Sh.) strives to prevent civil strife between the various elements of this revolutionary front."

On May 1, the brigade was withdrawn from the subordination of the P.E. division. Dybenko and subordinated to the emerging 7th Division of the 2nd Ukrainian Army, which never became a real formation. In fact, not only the 7th Division, but the entire 2nd Army consisted of Makhno’s brigade and several regiments that were significantly inferior to it in numbers.

Ataman N.A. provided a new reason for increasing mutual distrust. Grigoriev, who started a rebellion on the right bank of Ukraine on May 6. On May 12, under the chairmanship of Makhno, a “military congress” convened, that is, a meeting of the command staff, representatives of units and the political leadership of the Makhnovist movement. Makhno and the congress condemned N.A.’s speech. Grigoriev, but also expressed criticism towards the Bolsheviks, who provoked the uprising with their policies. The “Military Congress” proclaimed the reorganization of the 3rd Brigade into the 1st Insurgent Division under the command of Makhno.
The reason for a new aggravation of relations with the communists was the deployment of the 3rd brigade to the division. The paradoxical situation, when the brigade made up the majority of the army, interfered with the appropriate supply, and the interaction of the command with the huge “brigade”, and the management of its units. The Soviet command first agreed to the reorganization, and then refused to create a division under the command of an obstinate opposition commander. On May 22, Trotsky, who arrived in Ukraine, called such plans “preparation of a new Grigorievshchina.” On May 25, at a meeting of the Council of Workers' and Peasants' Defense of Ukraine, chaired by Kh. Rakovsky, the issue of “Makhnovshchina and its liquidation” was discussed. It was decided to “liquidate Makhno” with the help of the regiment.

Having learned about the intentions of the command, Makhno announced on May 28, 1919 that he was ready to resign, since he “never aspired to high ranks” and “will do more in the future among the grassroots of the people for the revolution.” But on May 29, 1919, the headquarters of the Makhnov division decided: “1) urgently invite Comrade Makhno to remain in his duties and powers, which Comrade Makhno tried to relinquish; 2) transform all Makhnovist forces into an independent rebel army, entrusting the leadership of this army to Comrade Makhno. The army is operationally subordinate to the Southern Front, since the latter's operational orders will proceed from the living needs of the revolutionary front." In response to this step, the Revolutionary Military Council of the Southern Front decided on May 29, 1919 to arrest Makhno and bring him before the Revolutionary Tribunal. Makhno did not accept the title of army commander and continued to consider himself a division commander.

This was announced when the Southern Front itself began to fall apart under the blows of Denikin. The Makhnovist headquarters called for the restoration of unity: “There is a need for cohesion, unity. Only with common effort and consciousness, with a common understanding of our struggle and our common interests for which we are fighting, will we save the revolution... Give up, comrades, all sorts of party differences, they will destroy you.”

On May 31, the VRS announced the convening of the IV Congress of District Councils. The center regarded the decision to convene a new “unauthorized” congress as preparation for an anti-Soviet uprising. On June 3, the commander of the Southern Front, V. Gittis, gave the order to begin the liquidation of the Makhnovshchina and the arrest of Makhno.
On June 6, Makhno sent a telegram to V.I. Lenin, L.D. Trotsky, L.B. Kamenev and K.E. Voroshilov, in which he offered to “send a good military leader who, having familiarized himself with the matter on the spot with me, could take command of the division from me.”

On June 9, Makhno sent a telegram to V.I. Lenin, L.D. Kamenev, G.E. Zinoviev, L.D. Trotsky, K.E. Voroshilov, in which he summed up his relationship with the communist regime: “The hostile and recently offensive behavior of the central government towards insurrection that I have noted leads with fatal inevitability to the creation of a special internal front, on both sides of which there will be a working mass who believes in the revolution. I consider this the greatest, never forgivable crime against the working people and I consider myself obligated to do everything possible to prevent this crime... I consider my resignation from my post to be the surest means of preventing the crime impending on the part of the authorities.”
Meanwhile, the Whites invaded the Gulyai-Polye region. For some time, with a small detachment, Makhno still fought side by side with the red units, but on June 15, with a small detachment, he left the front. Its units continued to fight in the ranks of the Red Army. On the night of June 16, seven members of the Makhnovist headquarters were shot by the verdict of the Donbass revolutionary tribunal. The chief of staff of Ozerov continued to fight with the whites, but on August 2, according to the verdict of the VUCHK, he was shot. Makhno gave money to groups of anarchists who went out to prepare terrorist attacks against the Whites (M.G. Nikiforova and others) and the Bolsheviks (K. Kovalevich and others). On June 21, 1919, Makhno’s detachment crossed to the right bank of the Dnieper.

In July, Makhno married Galina Kuzmenko, who became his fighting friend for many years.

Makhno tried to stay away from the front rear so as not to contribute to the successes of the Whites. Makhno's detachment attacked Elisavetgrad on July 10, 1919. On July 11, 1919, the Makhnovists united with the detachment of the nationalist ataman N.A. Grigorieva. In accordance with the agreement of the two leaders, Grigoriev was declared commander, and Makhno - chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Insurgent Army. Makhno's brother Grigory became the chief of staff. Disagreements arose between the Makhnovists and the Grigorievites in connection with N.A.’s anti-Semitism. Grigoriev and his reluctance to fight against the Whites. July 27 N.A. Grigoriev was killed by the Makhnovists. Makhno sent a telegram on air: “Everyone, everyone, everyone. Copy - Moscow, Kremlin. We killed the famous ataman Grigoriev. Signed - Makhno."

Under pressure from Denikin, the Red Army was forced to retreat from Ukraine. The former Makhnovists, who found themselves under the command of the Bolsheviks in June, did not want to go to Russia.

Most of the Makhnovist units operating as part of the Red Army, as well as part of the 58th Red Division, went over to Makhno’s side. On September 1, 1919, at a meeting of army command staff in the village. The “Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine (Makhnovists)” was proclaimed in Dobrovelichkovka, a new Revolutionary Military Council and army headquarters headed by Army Commander Makhno were elected.
The superior forces of the Whites pushed the Makhnovists back near Uman. Here the Makhnovists entered into an “alliance” with the Petliurists, to whom they handed over their convoy with the wounded.

In July-August 1919, the White Army advanced across the vastness of Russia and Ukraine towards Moscow and Kyiv. The officers peered into the horizon. A few more victorious battles, and Moscow will greet its liberators with the ringing of bells. On the flank of Denikin’s campaign against Moscow, it was necessary to solve a “simple” task - to finish off the remnants of the Southern Group of Reds, Makhno’s gang and, if possible, the Ukrainian nationalist Petlyura, who was getting under the feet of Russian statehood. After the Whites drove the Reds out of Yekaterinoslav with a dashing raid and thereby overcame the Dnieper barrier, the cleansing of Ukraine seemed a done deal. But when the Whites entered the area where Makhno had gathered his forces in early September, difficulties arose. On September 6, the Makhnovists launched a counterattack near Pomoschnaya. They moved from all sides, and the discordant crowd just before the attack turned into a dense formation. The Whites fought back, but it turned out that Makhno at that time bypassed their positions and captured a convoy with ammunition. They were what the “father” needed.

On September 22, 1919, General Slashchev gave the order to put an end to Makhno in the Uman region. How much time can you waste on this gang! Of course, the Makhnovists are numerous, but they are a rabble, and the disciplined forces of the Volunteer Army are superior to the bandits in their combat effectiveness. After all, they are chasing the Reds! Slashchev's units dispersed in different directions to drive the beast. The Simferopol White Regiment occupied Peregonovka. The trap slammed shut. General Sklyarov’s detachment entered Uman and began to wait for the “game” to be brought to him.

Meanwhile, the “game” itself drove the hunters. On September 26, a terrible roar was heard - the Makhnovists blew up their stock of mines, which were still difficult to carry with them. It was both a signal and a “psychic attack.” The cavalry and infantry rushed towards the whites, supported by many machine guns on carts. Denikin’s troops could not stand it and began to seek salvation on the heights, thereby opening the way for the Makhnovists to key crossings and forks in the roads. At night, the Makhnovists were already everywhere, the cavalry pursued those retreating and fleeing. On the morning of September 27, the Makhnovist cavalry mass crushed the ranks of the Lithuanian battalion and cut down those who did not have time to flee. This formidable force moved on, destroying the whites who got in their way. Having brought up their guns, the Makhnovists began to shoot the battle formations pressed against the river. Their commander, Captain Hattenberger, realizing that defeat was inevitable, shot himself. Having killed the remaining whites, the Makhnovists moved to Uman and drove Sklyarov’s forces out of there. Slashchev's regiments were broken in parts, Denikin's front was broken through on the flank.

The Makhnovist army, loaded onto carts, moved deep into Denikin’s rear. Looking at this breakthrough, one of the surviving officers sadly said: “At that moment, great Russia lost the war.” He was not so far from the truth. Denikin’s rear was disorganized, and a Makhnovia hole formed in the center of the white “Dobrovoliya”. And then the news came - the same force struck the Bolsheviks almost at the very heart of their regime - on September 25, the Moscow City Committee of the Communist Party took off. The anarchists took revenge on the communists for Makhno’s comrades shot by the revolutionary tribunal. This was the third force of the Civil War, obeying its own will and its own logic.
Makhno's army burst into operational space behind Denikin's rear. Makhno, commanding the central column of rebels, occupied Aleksandrovsk and Gulyai-Polye in early October. In the area of ​​​​Gulyai-Polye, Aleksandrovsk and Yekaterinoslav, a vast rebel zone arose, which absorbed part of the White forces during Denikin’s attack on Moscow.

In the Makhnovist region, on October 27 - November 2, a congress of peasants, workers and rebels was held in Aleksandrovsk. In his speech, Makhno stated that “the best volunteer regiments of Gen. Denikin was completely defeated by rebel detachments,” but also criticized the communists, who “sent punitive detachments to “suppress the counter-revolution” and thereby interfered with the free insurrection in the fight against Denikin.” Makhno called for joining the army “to destroy all violent power and counter-revolution.” After the speech of the Menshevik worker delegates, Makhno again took the floor and sharply spoke out against the “underground agitation on the part of the Mensheviks,” whom, like the Socialist Revolutionaries, he called “political charlatans” and called for “no mercy” for them and “drive them out.” After this, some of the working delegates left the congress. Makhno responded by saying that he did not “brand” all workers, but only “charlatans.” On November 1, he appeared in the newspaper “Path to Freedom” with the article “It cannot be otherwise”: “Is it acceptable that the workers of the city of Aleksandrovsk and its surroundings, in the person of their delegates - the Mensheviks and right Socialist Revolutionaries - on a free business worker-peasant and at the insurgent congress held opposition to the Denikin founders?

From October 28 to December 19 (with a break of 4 days), the Makhnovists held the large city of Yekaterinoslav. Enterprises were transferred into the hands of those who work for them. On October 15, 1919, Makhno addressed the railway workers: “In order to quickly restore normal railway traffic in the area we liberated, as well as based on the principle of establishing a free life by the workers’ and peasants’ organizations themselves and their associations, I propose to fellow railway workers and employees to energetically organize and establish the movement itself, setting a sufficient payment for passengers and cargo, except for military personnel, as a reward for its work, organizing its cash desk on a comradely and fair basis and entering into the closest relations with workers’ organizations, peasant societies and rebel units.”

In November 1919, counterintelligence arrested a group of communists led by regimental commander M. Polonsky on charges of preparing a conspiracy and poisoning of Makhno. On December 2, 1919, the accused were shot. In December 1919, the Makhnovist army was disorganized by a typhus epidemic, then Makhno also fell ill.

Having retreated from Yekaterinoslav under the onslaught of the Whites, Makhno with the main forces of the army retreated to Aleksandrovsk. On January 5, 1920, units of the 45th division of the Red Army arrived here. At negotiations with representatives of the red command, Makhno and representatives of his headquarters demanded that they be allocated a section of the front to fight the whites and maintain control over their area. Makhno and his staff insisted on concluding a formal agreement with the Soviet leadership. January 6, 1920 Commander of the 14th I.P. Uborevich ordered Makhno to advance to the Polish front. Without waiting for an answer, the All-Ukrainian Revolutionary Committee declared Makhno outlawed on January 9, 1920, under the pretext of his failure to comply with the order to go to the Polish front. The Reds attacked Makhno's headquarters in Aleksandrovsk, but he managed to escape to Gulyai-Polye on January 10, 1920.
At a meeting of command staff in Gulyai-Polye on January 11, 1920, it was decided to grant the rebels a month's leave. Makhno declared his readiness to “go hand in hand” with the Red Army while maintaining independence. At this time, more than two Red divisions attacked, disarmed and partially shot the Makhnovists, including the sick. Makhno's brother Grigory was captured and shot, and in February, another brother Savva, who was involved in supplies in the Makhnovist army, was captured. Makhno went into hiding during his illness.

After Makhno's recovery in February 1920, the Makhnovists resumed hostilities against the Reds. In winter and spring, a grueling guerrilla war unfolded; the Makhnovists attacked small detachments, workers of the Bolshevik apparatus, warehouses, distributing grain supplies to the peasants. In the area of ​​Makhno's actions, the Bolsheviks were forced to go underground, and acted openly only when accompanied by large military units. In May 1920, the Council of Revolutionary Insurgents of Ukraine (Makhnovists) was created, headed by Makhno, which included Chief of Staff V.F. Belash, commanders Kalashnikov, Kurylenko and Karetnikov. The name SRPU emphasized that we are not talking about the RVS, usual for a civil war, but about a “nomadic” government body of the Makhnovist republic.

Wrangel’s attempts to establish an alliance with Makhno ended in the execution of the White emissary by decision of the SRPU and the Makhnovist headquarters on July 9, 1920.
In March-May 1920, detachments under the command of Makhno fought with units of the 1st Cavalry Army, VOKhR and other forces of the Red Army. In the summer of 1920, the army under the overall command of Makhno numbered more than 10 thousand soldiers. On July 11, 1920, Makhno’s army began a raid outside its region, during which it took the cities of Izyum, Zenkov, Mirgorod, Starobelsk, Millerovo. On August 29, 1920, Makhno was seriously wounded in the leg (in total, Makhno had more than 10 wounds).

In the conditions of Wrangel’s offensive, when the Whites occupied Gulyai-Polye, Makhno and his Socialist Party of Ukraine were not against concluding a new alliance with the Reds if they were ready to recognize the equality of the Makhnovists and the Bolsheviks. At the end of September, consultations about the union began. On October 1, after a preliminary agreement on the cessation of hostilities with the Reds, Makhno, in an address to the rebels operating in Ukraine, called on them to stop hostilities against the Bolsheviks: “by remaining indifferent spectators, the Ukrainian rebels would help the reign in Ukraine of either the historical enemy - the Polish lord, or again royal power headed by a German baron." On October 2, an agreement was signed between the government of the Ukrainian SSR and the Socialist Party of Ukraine (Makhnovists). In accordance with the agreement between the Makhnovists and the Red Army, hostilities ceased, an amnesty was declared in Ukraine for anarchists and Makhnovists, they received the right to propagate their ideas without calling for the violent overthrow of the Soviet government, to participate in councils and in elections to the V Congress of Councils scheduled for December. The parties mutually agreed not to accept deserters. The Makhnovist army came under operational subordination to the Soviet command with the condition that it “preserved the previously established routine within itself.”
Acting together with the Red Army, on October 26, 1920, the Makhnovists liberated Gulyai-Polye, where Makhno was stationed, from the Whites. The best forces of the Makhnovists (2,400 sabers, 1,900 bayonets, 450 machine guns and 32 guns) under the command of S. Karetnikov were sent to the front against Wrangel (Makhno himself, wounded in the leg, remained in Gulyai-Polye) and participated in the crossing of Sivash.

After the victory over the Whites on November 26, 1920, the Reds suddenly attacked the Makhnovists. Having taken command of the army, Makhno managed to escape from the blow dealt to his forces in Gulyai-Polye. Southern Front of the Red Army under the command of M.V. Frunze, relying on his multiple superiority in forces, managed to encircle Makhno in Andreevka near the Sea of ​​Azov, but on December 14-18, Makhno broke into operational space. However, he had to go to the Right Bank of the Dnieper, where the Makhnovists did not have sufficient support from the population. During heavy fighting in January-February 1921, the Makhnovists broke through to their native places. On March 13, 1921, Makhno was again seriously wounded in the leg.

On May 22, 1921, Makhno moved to a new raid to the north. Despite the fact that the headquarters of the unified army was restored, the forces of the Makhnovists were dispersed, Makhno was able to concentrate only 1,300 fighters for operations in the Poltava region. At the end of June - beginning of July M.V. Frunze inflicted a sensitive defeat on the Makhnovist strike group in the area of ​​the Sulla and Psel rivers. After the announcement of the NEP, peasant support for the rebels weakened. On July 16, 1921, Makhno, at a meeting in Isaevka near Taganrog, proposed that his army make its way to Galicia to raise an uprising there. But disagreements arose over what to do next, and only a minority of fighters followed Makhno.

Makhno with a small detachment broke through all of Ukraine to the Romanian border and on August 28, 1921 crossed the Dniester into Bessarabia.

Wrangel tanks.

Once in Romania, the Makhnovists were disarmed by the authorities, in 1922 they moved to Poland and were placed in an internment camp. On April 12, 1922, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee announced a political amnesty, which did not apply to 7 “hardened criminals,” including Makhno. The Soviet authorities demanded the extradition of Makhno as a “bandit.” In 1923, Makhno, his wife and two associates were arrested and accused of preparing an uprising in Eastern Galicia. On October 30, 1923, a daughter, Elena, was born to Makhno and Kuzmenko in a Warsaw prison. Makhno and his comrades were acquitted by the court. In 1924, Makhno moved to Danzig, where he was again arrested in connection with the killings of Germans during the civil war. Having fled from Danzig to Berlin, Makhno arrived in Paris in April 1925 and from 1926 settled in the suburb of Vincennes. Here Makhno worked as a turner, carpenter, painter and shoemaker. Participated in public discussions about the Makhnovist movement and anarchism.

In 1923-1933. Makhno published articles and brochures devoted to the history of the Makhnovist movement, the theory and practice of anarchism and the labor movement, and criticism of the communist regime. In November 1925, Makhno wrote about anarchism: “the absence of his own organization capable of opposing its living forces to the enemies of the Revolution made him a helpless organizer.” Therefore, it is necessary to create a “Union of Anarchists, built on the principle of common discipline and common leadership of all anarchist forces.”
In June 1926, Arshinov and Makhno put forward a draft “Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists,” which proposed to unite the anarchists of the world on the basis of discipline, combining anarchist principles of self-government with institutions where “leading positions in the economic and social life of the country” are preserved. Supporters of the "Platform" held a conference in March 1927, which began to create the International Anarcho-Communist Federation. Makhno entered the secretariat to convene its congress. But soon leading anarchist theorists criticized the Platform project as too authoritarian and contrary to the principles of the anarchist movement. Desperate to come to an agreement with the anarchists, in 1931 Arshinov switched to the position of Bolshevism, and the idea of ​​“platformism” failed. Makhno did not forgive his old comrade for this renegade.
Makhno’s original political testament was his 1931 letter to the Spanish anarchists J. Carbo and A. Pestaña, in which he warned them against an alliance with the communists during the revolution that had begun in Spain. Makhno warns his Spanish comrades: “Having experienced relative freedom, the anarchists, like ordinary people, became carried away by free speech.”

Makhno with his daughter.

Since 1929, Makhno’s tuberculosis worsened; he took part in public activities less and less, but continued to work on his memoirs. The first volume was published in 1929, the other two were published posthumously. There he outlined his views on the future anarchist system: “I thought of such a system only in the form of a free Soviet system, in which the entire country is covered by local, completely free and independent social self-government of workers.”

At the beginning of 1934, Makhno’s tuberculosis worsened and he was admitted to the hospital. He died in July.

Makhno's ashes were buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery next to the graves of the Parisian communards. Two years after his death, the black banner of anarchy, which had fallen from Makhno’s hands, would again develop next to the red and republican banners in revolutionary Spain - contrary to the warnings of the father and in accordance with the experience of the Makhnovist movement, in accordance with the very logic of the struggle against oppression and exploitation.

Makhno - anarchist

From the end of August - beginning of September, a member of the “Peasant Group of Anarchist-Communists” (another name is the “Union of Free Grain Growers”), operating in Gulyai-Polye. As part of the group, he participated in expropriations (for the first time - October 14, 1906). He was first arrested at the end for illegal possession of weapons (soon released), then on October 5 on charges of attempted murder of Gulyai-Polye guards Zakharov and Bykov (held in the Aleksandrovsk district prison, released on July 4 on bail of 2 thousand rubles). Arrested on August 26. At the session of the Odessa Military District Court on March 22, he was sentenced to death by hanging, which was replaced by indefinite hard labor. The following year he was transferred to the convict department of Butyrka prison in Moscow. This is where Makhno’s “universities” began. The rich prison library and communication with other prisoners also helped. In his cell, Makhno met the famous anarchist activist, former Bolshevik Pyotr Arshinov, who in the future would become a significant figure in the history of the Makhnovshchina. Arshinov, although he was only a year older than Makhno, began his ideological training. In addition, the illiterate Makhno studied history, mathematics and literature in his cell.

Being an active participant in prison protests, he was sent to a punishment cell 6 times, contracted pulmonary tuberculosis, after which he could not smoke. After the February Revolution, Makhno, like many other prisoners, both political and criminal, was released early from prison and returned to Gulyai-Polye after 3 weeks. There he was elected fellow chairman of the volost zemstvo. On March 29, he became chairman of the Gulyai-Polye Peasant Union (he remained so after the reorganization of the Union into the Council of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies). He advocated immediate radical revolutionary changes, before the convening of the Constituent Assembly. On May 1, he signed a dispatch to Petrograd demanding the expulsion of 10 “capitalist ministers” from the Provisional Government. In June, on Makhno’s initiative, village enterprises installed worker control, in July, with the support of Makhno’s supporters, he dispersed the previous composition of the zemstvo, held new elections, became chairman of the zemstvo and at the same time declared himself commissar of the Gulyai-Polye region. In August, on Makhno’s initiative, a committee of farm laborers was created under the Gulyai-Polye Council of Workers’ and Peasants’ Deputies, whose activities are directed against local landowners; in the same month he was elected as a delegate to the provincial congress of the Peasant Union in Yekaterinoslav.

In the summer of 1917, Nestor Ivanovich Makhno headed the “committee to save the revolution” and disarmed the landowners and bourgeoisie in the region. At the regional Congress of Soviets (mid-August) he was elected chairman and, together with other anarchists, called on the peasants to ignore the orders of the Provisional Government and the Central Rada, proposed to “immediately take away church and landowner land and organize a free agricultural commune on estates, if possible with participation in these communes the landowners and kulaks themselves."

After the October events of 1917

From the memoirs of the chief of staff of the Makhnovist army V.F. Belash:

...On September 20, we united in the Dibrovsky forest. Our squad has grown to fifteen people. We stood quietly in the forest for about three days, expanded Shchusya’s dugout, and then decided to go for a ride to Gulyai-Polye. But due to the fact that there were many Austrians there pumping out bread, it was dangerous to stay there. Then we decided to go to the village of Shagarovo and pick up our guys there who were hiding from the Austrians. Makhno did not show himself in any way at that time and was like everyone else, small and equal. Before this, Shchus, who had suffered raids, enjoyed military authority among us. However, he had no power over us, and if we had to go somewhere, everyone decided the issue together and, depending on the mood of the detachment, made one decision or another...

...There were thirty-six of us, and, being in the center of the forest, we did not know how to get out of the ring into the field. What to do? Should I stay here or play for a breakthrough? We hesitated. Shchus, a supporter of dying in the forest, lost heart. The opposite of him was Makhno. He gave a speech and called on the Shchusevites to follow the Gulyai-Polye people, who were supporters of the breakthrough. The Shchusevites succumbed to his influence and said: “From now on, be our dad, lead us where you know.” And Makhno began to prepare a breakthrough. ..."

News of Makhno's victories spread throughout the local villages, from where new recruits flocked. The peasants said:

From now on, you are our Ukrainian father, we will die with you. Lead us against the enemy.

Makhno - red commander

In the context of the offensive of the troops of General A.I. Denikin in Ukraine in mid-February, Makhno entered into a military agreement with the command of the Red Army and on February 21, he became the commander of the 3rd brigade of the 1st Trans-Dnieper division, which fought against Denikin’s troops on the Mariupol - line. Volnovakha.

He repeatedly expressed dissatisfaction with the emergency policy of Soviet power in the liberated areas. On April 10, at the 3rd regional congress of Soviets of the Gulyai-Polye region, he was elected honorary chairman; in his speech he stated that the Soviet government had betrayed the “October principles”, and the Communist Party legitimized power and “protected itself with extraordinary events.” Together with Shchus, Kogan and Mavroda, Makhno signed a congress resolution, which expressed disapproval of the decisions of the 3rd All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets (March 6-10, Kharkov) on the land issue (on the nationalization of land), protest against the Cheka and the policies of the Bolsheviks, demand removal of all persons appointed by the Bolsheviks from military and civilian posts (later, when meeting with Antonov-Ovseenko, he refused to sign); at the same time, the Makhnovists demanded the “socialization” of land, factories and factories; food policy changes; freedom of speech, press and assembly to all left parties and groups; personal integrity; rejection of the dictatorship of the Communist Party; freedom of elections to the Soviets of working peasants and workers.

1919-1920

Break with the Reds

After the break with the Bolsheviks, Makhno retreated into the depths of Ukraine and continued armed resistance to Denikin’s troops, while simultaneously absorbing small detachments of rebels and encircled Red Army soldiers. In mid-July, Mr. Makhno headed the Revolutionary Military Council of the United Revolutionary Insurgent Army (RPAU).

The battle near Peregonovka and the raid on the rear of the whites

Pressed by the regular units of the Whites, Makhno led his troops to the west and by the beginning of September approached Uman, where he was completely encircled: from the north and west by the Petliurists, from the south and east by the Whites. In Denikin’s memoirs we read:

Makhno entered into negotiations with the Petliura headquarters, and the parties entered into an agreement: mutual neutrality, the transfer of wounded Makhnovists to the care of Petliura and the supply of Makhno with military supplies. To escape the encirclement, Makhno decided to take a bold step: on September 12, he unexpectedly raised his troops and, having defeated and thrown back two regiments of General Slashchev, moved east, back to the Dnieper. This movement was carried out on replaceable carts and horses with extraordinary speed: on the 13th - Uman, on the 22nd - the Dnieper, where, having knocked down our weak units, hastily abandoned to cover the crossings, Makhno crossed the Kichkassky bridge, and on the 24th he appeared in Gulyai-Polye, having covered about 600 versts in 11 days.

One of Makhno’s closest assistants, P. Arshinov, wrote about the same events in his “Memoirs” as follows:

In the dead of night, all units of the Makhnovists stationed in several villages disbanded and moved east - towards the enemy, who positioned his main forces near the village of Peregonovka, occupied by the Makhnovists.

In the night battle that followed, the Whites were defeated, with Makhno himself personally leading the cavalry into the attack.

As a result of the breakthrough from the encirclement near Peregonovka, Makhno’s detachments scattered throughout the Azov region. As Denikin further writes:

... as a result, in early October, Melitopol, Berdyansk, where they blew up artillery depots, and Mariupol, 100 versts from Headquarters (Taganrog), fell into the hands of the rebels. The rebels approached Sinelnikov and threatened Volnovakha - our artillery base... Random units - local garrisons, reserve battalions, State Guard detachments, initially deployed against Makhno, were easily defeated by his large gangs. The situation became formidable and required exceptional measures. To suppress the uprising, it was necessary, despite the serious situation of the front, to remove units from it and use all reserves. ...This uprising, which assumed such wide proportions, upset our rear and weakened the front at the most difficult time for it.

Thus, Makhno’s actions had a noticeable impact on the course of the war and helped the Reds repulse Denikin’s attack on Moscow.

Peasant Republic

Behind the mountains, behind the valleys, our wise father, our glorious father, our kind father - Makhno - has been waiting for his blue ones for a long time...

(peasant song from the Civil War)

Again with the Reds against Wrangel

Wanting to use combat-ready rebel units against Wrangel, in the fall of 1920 the Bolshevik government again proposed a military alliance to Makhno. On November 2, Makhno once again signed an agreement (Starobelskoe) with the command of the Red Army. As a result of this agreement, rebel detachments under the overall command of Semyon Karetnik were sent to the Perekop area. During the battles for Crimea, Makhnovist detachments took part in the crossing of Sivash and in battles with the cavalry corps of the general. Barbovich near Yushun and Karpova Balka. After the end of hostilities, the Red command decided to get rid of the ally that had become unnecessary. The Makhnovist detachment was surrounded, but was able to leave the peninsula. During the retreat, it was overtaken by superior forces of the “Reds” and partially destroyed by machine-gun fire. Only a few managed to escape and reported what happened in Gulyai-Polye.

The end of Gulyai-Polye

Soon after the fall of White Crimea, the command of the Red Army issued an order to redeploy the Makhnovists to the South Caucasus. Considering this order a trap, Makhno refused to obey. The Bolsheviks’ response was a military operation to “liquidate partisanship.” Makhno’s troops fought out of encirclement in the Gulyai-Polye region and moved around Ukraine for several months, escaping persecution. At the same time, individual Red formations, especially those who took part in joint battles with Makhno, fought against the Makhnovists “reluctantly,” sometimes going over to the side of the rebels.

Family

Makhno had a wife with whom he lived in a civil marriage, G. A. Kuzmenko, he met her while moving around Ukraine in the village of Peschany Brod (now Dobrovelichkovsky district, Kirovograd region). Her father was a gendarme who died in the revolution. Nestor's mother-in-law died of hunger in 1933, because she was not given parcels from her daughter from France.

In exile

The image of Makhno in popular culture

"In the back seat made of red morocco leather, a frail little man in a landau, in a black hat and an unbuttoned Cossack coat, with a green, sallow face, was reclining in a landau. He put his feet on the sawhorse, and his whole pose expressed laziness and languid, well-fed peace. This man held a Mauser in his lowered hand and played with it, slightly tossing it and catching it in mid-flight. I saw the man's face, and a nausea of ​​disgust rolled up to my throat. His wet bangs hung over his narrow, wrinkled forehead. In his eyes - angry and at the same time empty, the eyes of a ferret and a paranoid - a furious malice gleamed "The shrill rage, obviously, never subsided in this man, even now, despite his imposing and calm pose."

In a number of fantasy novels by Michael Moorcock, a character named Nestor Makhno participates in fictional events, such as, for example, anarchist uprisings in Canada (the novel “The Entropy Tango” from the series about Jerry Cornelius), the war with the Steel Tsar Dzhugashvili (the novel “The Steel Tsar” from the series about Oswald Bastable), etc.

In music

In cinema

In literature

• M. Weller "Makhno"

Historical facts

Awarding the Order of the Red Banner

There is no consensus on whether Makhno was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. According to official data, Order No. 4 was given to J. Fabritius. However, Fabricius, also according to official data, was awarded the order four times. Moreover, the last three awards are documented: the second - “for distinction in breaking through the defense of the White Poles near Smogan on July 14, 1920”, the third - “for participation in the suppression of the Kronstadt rebellion”, the fourth - “for battles during the attack on Warsaw and subsequent rearguard battles” in 1921. And not a word about the first award. Apparently, the order for No. 4 was assigned to Fabricius later, retroactively. As for Makhno, the award is not documented; it is only mentioned in the memoirs of fairly distant people (wife of G. Kuzmenko, cousin V. Yalansky). There are versions that Makhno was awarded, but this was not documented, because some painters did not bother with documents, they grabbed what they took from their own chest; was not awarded, and what was mistaken for the Order was in fact just the badge of the red commander.

According to other authors, Makhno also cannot have the Order of the Red Banner No. 4, because he was awarded together with his subordinate commander V. Kurylenko, and the latter had the Order No. 74. However, it should be noted that the number of the order (order badge) speaks not about the time of awarding, but about the time of production of the sign, indirectly - about the time of presentation. Thus, by the first order to award the Order of the Red Banner, it was awarded to V.K. Only seven and a half months after the order, Blucher received the badge of the order with No. 114. Panyushkin did not receive the badge. Who was hiding under the name “Kuzmich” was found out much later.

see also

Notes

1. Nestor's memories are quite accurate in describing events, documents and people. Makhno kept a diary, saving many documents of the insurgent movement. A significant part of the archive was seized by security officers in January during a search of the anarchist Arshinov, who received the archive from its author himself.
2. Elena G. I rushed into battle headlong... // Comrade: magazine. - Kyiv: 2006. - No. 87.
3. Vasily Golovanov. Old Man Makhno, or the “werewolf” of the Civil War // Literary newspaper. - 1989. - V. February 8. - No. 6.
4. Belash A. V., Belash V. F. Roads of Nestor Makhno. - Kyiv: REC "Proza": 1993.
5. Makhno N.I. Memories . - M.: TERRA; "Bookstore - RTR": 1996.
6. Golovanov V. Ya. Nestor Makhno. - M.: Young Guard, 2008. - 528 p. - (Life of wonderful people). - 5000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-235-03141-8
7. Komin V.V. Nestor Makhno: myths and reality. . - 1990.
8. Makhno and the Civil War. Retrieved May 26, 2009.
9. Denikin A.I. Essays on Russian Troubles. Paris: 1921 ISBN 985-13-1148-0 ISBN 985-13-2439-6
10. Arshinov P. history of the Makhnovist movement (1918-1921). - Zaporozhye: Wild Field: 1995.
11. Perekop and Chongar. Collection of articles and materials. Under the general editorship of A. V. Golubev. - M. State Military Publishing House, 1933
12. Shubin A.V. Makhno and the Makhnovist movement. . - M.: MIC: 1998.
13. Yesenin S. A. Collected works in 3 volumes. - M.: “Pravda”, 1970. - T. 2. - P. 427.
14. Song "Sing the horses guys" on the Makhno.ru forum
15. Song "Makhno", Song "Makhno and Jack the Ripper"
16. Song "Old Man Makhno" (Lube) audio
17. Song "Makhno" (A. Malinin)
18. “The 13th wound” (“Old Man Makhno”) video, “The 13th wound” (“The thirteenth wound”) audio, lyrics, chords, video. Based on the film “9 Lives of Nestor Makhno”
19. Song “Walk the Field”, Song “Freedom in a Pouch”
20. Vladimir Sutyrin (English) on the Internet Movie Database website
21. Shubin A.V. Anarchist social experiment. Ukraine and Spain. 1917-1939 - M: IVI RAS, 1998.
22. Article by Ermakov and Apteker in the magazine “Rodina” for 1990.
23. TsGASA, f.54, op.3, d.1, l.136 (published “Questions of History”, No. 9-1963, p.198.)
24. Yarutsky L. Makhno and the Makhnovists. Mariupol, 1995

Literature and sources

• Arshinov P. History of the Makhnovist movement (1918-1921). - Zaporozhye: Wild Field: 1995.
• Belash A. V., Belash V. F. The roads of Nestor Makhno. - Kyiv: REC "Proza": 1993.
• Volin V. M. Unknown revolution, 1917-1921. - M.: SPC "Praxis": 2005.ISBN 5-901606-07-8
• Volkovinsky V. N. Makhno and his collapse. - M.: 1991.
• Golovanov V. Ya. Nestor Makhno. - M: Young Guard: 2008 (Life of wonderful people). ISBN 978-5-235-03141-8
• Danilov A. Unglamorous Makhno (with rare photographs). 2008
• Denikin A.I. Essays on Russian Troubles. - Paris: 1921. ISBN 985-13-1148-0 ISBN 985-13-2439-6
• Komin V.V. Nestor Makhno: myths and reality. - Kalinin: 1990.
• Makhno N.I. ABC of an anarchist. - M.: Vagrius: 2005. ISBN 5-9697-0045-2
• Makhno N.I. Memories. - M.: TERRA; "Bookstore - RTR": 1996. ISBN 5-319-00836-8 ISBN 5-319-00973-9
• Makhno N.I. In a foreign land 1924-1934 Notes and articles. - Paris: Gromada: 2004.
• Nestor Makhno. Peasant movement in Ukraine. 1918-1921: Documents and materials. - M.: "Russian Political Encyclopedia" (ROSSPEN): 2006. ISBN 5-8243-0769-5
• Political parties of Russia. The end of the 19th - the beginning of the 20th century. - M.: 1996.
• Semanov S. N. Nestor Makhno. The leader of the anarchists. - M.: Veche: 2005.
• Skirda A. Nestor Makhno, Cossack of Freedom (1888-1934). Civil War and the Struggle for Free Soviets in Ukraine 1917-1921. - Paris: Gromada: 2001.
• Timoshchuk A.V. Anarcho-communist formations N. Makhno. September 1917 - August 1921. - Simferopol: Tavria: 1996.
• Shubin A.V. Anarchist social experiment. Ukraine and Spain. 1917-1939 - M.: IVI RAS: 1998.
• Shubin A.V. Makhno and the Makhnovist movement. - M.: MIC: 1998.
• Shumov S., Andreev A. Makhnovshchina. - M: Eksmo: 2005.
• Evrich P. Russian anarchists. 1905-1917. - M.: Tsentrpoligraf: 2006.
• Yarutsky L. D. Makhno and the Makhnovists. - Mariupol: 1995.

The legendary Old Man Makhno is a bright and controversial figure in Russian history, a convinced anarchist and a frantic fighter.

Childhood and adolescence

Nestor Ivanovich Makhno was born in the village of Gulyaypole (now Zaporozhye region) on November 7, 1888. The boy's parents were poor peasants, his father Ivan Rodionovich worked as a coachman for the master, his mother Evdokia Matreevna ran the house and took care of the children: Nestor was the youngest of five sons.

With the death of their father, the family was orphaned, the children lost their only breadwinner. The youngest of the brothers also had a hard time. Having reached the age of seven, the boy began to hire out for daily work: herding cattle, working as a laborer for landowners. Despite this, Nestor managed to study for four years at a parish school, where he was sent at the age of eight.

Prison and anarchy

Since 1903, the young man worked at an iron foundry. In 1906, Makhno was arrested for carrying weapons, but he was released due to his youth. It was during this period that the future chieftain became acquainted with the concept of anarchism, and anarchy forever became his muse.

Having joined the “Free Union of Anarchist Grain Growers,” Nestor Makhno participated in many terrorist acts related to the expropriation of the property of landowners and wealthy peasants. In 1910, members of the group were put on trial. The military court of the city of Yekaterinoslav (now Dnepropetrovsk) sentenced the anarchist-terrorists to various terms of hard labor (according to other sources, to the death penalty).

Nestor Makhno was sentenced to 20 years of hard labor. For some time, Makhno was kept in the Yekaterinoslav prison, then transferred to Butyrka in Moscow. Here he met the anarchist Arshinov, who had a considerable influence on the young cellmate.

In Butyrka, Nestor did not waste time: he not only absorbed the basics of ideology gleaned from his senior colleague in the struggle, but also engaged in self-education, read many books on political economy, history, studied mathematics, grammar, and Russian literature. Makhno was released from prison together with Arshinov in March 1917, under an amnesty in honor of the February Revolution. In addition to knowledge and experience, the prisoner also took away from his imprisonment a terrible acquisition - consumption, which killed him many years later.

Political and military career: beginning

There are many inaccuracies in Makhno's biography. Over time, his associates were killed, and evidence of his activities in Ukraine is rather contradictory. However, his role in the war, the Civil War, cannot be underestimated, even though he went to realize his anarchist ideals over corpses.

Returning from imprisonment in Gulyai-Polye, Nestor found himself in the thick of revolutionary events. He, “who suffered for a just cause,” was elected by his fellow villagers as the head of the peasant union and the local peasant council. With the participation of Makhno, in the fall of 1917, representatives of the Provisional Government were driven out of the Alexandrovskaya volost and Soviet power was established. In 1918, as a representative of the Gulyai-Polye Revolutionary Committee, he participated in the all-Don conference of revolutionary committees and Soviets.

The establishment of a new government was prevented by the invasion of interventionists: in the summer of 1918, Austro-German troops occupied Ukraine. This time can be considered the beginning of Makhno's military career, since it was then that the rebels first united into a partisan detachment under his leadership. The detachment fought both against the Germans and Ukrainian nationalists. As revenge, the authorities dealt with Nestor's older brother and burned the house where his mother lived.

Then, in May 1918, Nestor Makhno came to Moscow, where he personally met with Sverdlov, as well as with the leaders of the anarchist party. Meetings with the leadership of the Soviet government did not bring anything useful, but at the Moscow Conference of Anarchists, tactics for fighting the occupiers in Ukraine were developed. Armed with forged documents, Makhno went home to organize a rebel army.

"Inflexible Dad"

Father Makhno's whole life was an endless struggle. While recognizing some of the Bolsheviks’ positions as correct, he did not resign himself to their desire to “crush the entire revolution and its merits.” At the same time, he more than once concluded a temporary truce with the Soviet regime, fighting against the White Guards and interventionists.

Nestor Makhno became a living ideal for anarchists around the world. He managed to create his own state within a state, establish communes in the cities under his control, establish production, open schools, trade unions, create all the conditions for the peaceful life of ordinary people, without neglecting the principles of anarchy.

His army was a significant force on the political map of the former Russian Empire for several years, but Makhno is especially revered by Ukrainian Jews, because pogroms and robberies concerned only landowners, and nationalism in the ranks of the rebel army was punished harshly, even by execution.

The activities of Father Makhno in Ukraine during the Civil War can be briefly described by the following theses:

• in 1918 he formed an alliance with the Red Army and fought against the troops under the command of Petliura;
• in 1919, Dad again united with the Bolsheviks and fought with Denikin’s troops;
• On May 29, 1919, he broke the agreement with the Bolsheviks, who announced the liquidation of the “Makhnovshchina”;
• in July-December 1919 he waged a partisan war against Denikin’s army, then again supported the “Reds”, broke through the White Guard front and took the cities of Gulyaypole, Berdyansk, Nikopol, Melitopol and Yekaterinoslav;
• in 1920, Makhno again came into conflict with the Bolsheviks, but rejected Wrangel’s proposals to create an alliance;
• in September 1920, another reconciliation between the father and the “Reds” followed, followed by participation in the Crimean campaign;
• after the victory over the White Guards in Crimea, Makhno refused to join the Red Army, for which the Bolsheviks destroyed almost all of his troops;
• at the end of 1920, dad gathered a new army of fifteen thousand and waged a guerrilla war in Ukraine, but the forces were unequal, and in August 1921, Makhno and his closest associates crossed the border into Romania.

Emigration and personal life

Romania did not hand him over to the Soviet authorities, but Makhno, along with his wife and comrades-in-arms, were placed in a concentration camp. From there the Makhnovists fled to Poland, then to Danzig and France. Only in Paris did they manage to live a peaceful life. Local anarchists and other freedom-loving citizens participated in the fate of the legendary chieftain, providing him with all possible assistance.

The American anarchist Alexander Berkman became especially friendly with Nestor, who eventually found funds for the funeral of the great revolutionary. Makhno's death was the result of a long-standing illness that had undermined his health since the days of hard labor. The cause of death was consumption. Nestor Ivanovich died in a Paris hospital on July 6, 1934. Makhno's grave is located in the Père Lachaise cemetery.

There are legends about the personal life of Nestor Makhno: without a doubt, the ataman of an army of thousands could afford any pleasure. With a rather unprepossessing appearance according to contemporaries (although in the photo he looks like a bright personality), short stature, and puny figure, women loved him. They were loved and feared, because they, like his soldier, were awed by the father’s cold, calculating, piercing gaze.

The marriage did not work out with his first wife, Nastya Vasetskaya, whom Nestor married after leaving prison. They had a son, but he soon died and the couple separated. But Makhno’s second wife, Galina Kuzmenko, went through the whole war, emigration and camps hand in hand with him. They say that she herself participated in pogroms and executions, finding special pleasure in such a life. In Paris, their daughter Elena was born, but Galina, unable to withstand the plight, took the girl and left her husband.

In 2009, a monument to Nestor Makhno was unveiled in Gulyai-Polye, about a dozen films have been made about him, many novels, studies, memoirs have been written, and Nestor Ivanovich himself is the author of a number of memoir books. The latest to appear on domestic screens was the series “The Nine Lives of Nestor Makhno” starring.

On November 7 (October 26), 1888, 130 years ago, Nestor Ivanovich Makhno was born - one of the most controversial and controversial figures during the Civil War. For some, a ruthless bandit, for others, a fearless peasant leader, Nestor Makhno most fully personified that terrible era.

Today Gulyaipole is a small town in the Zaporozhye region of Ukraine, but at that time, which will be discussed below, it was still a village, albeit a large one. Founded in the 1770s to defend against attacks by the Crimean Khanate, Gulyaypole developed rapidly. Gulyai-Polye was inhabited by different people - Little Russians, Poles, Jews, Greeks. The father of the future leader of the anarchists, Ivan Rodionovich Makhno, came from enslaved Cossacks and worked as a shepherd for different owners. Ivan Makhno and his wife Evdokia Matveevna, nee Perederiy, had six children - daughter Elena and sons Polikarp, Savely, Emelyan, Grigory and Nestor. The family lived very poorly, and the next year after the birth of Nestor, in 1889, Ivan Makhno died.

Nestor Makhno's childhood and adolescence were spent in deep poverty, if not destitution. Since they fell during the heyday of revolutionary sentiment in Russia, revolutionary propaganda was based on natural dissatisfaction with one’s social situation and the established order of things.

In Gulyai-Polye, like in many other settlements of Little Russia, its own circle of anarchists appeared. It was headed by two people - Voldemar Anthony, a Czech by birth, and Alexander Semenyuta. Both of them were slightly older than Nestor - Anthony was born in 1886, and Semenyuta in 1883. The life experience of both “founding fathers” of Gulyai-Polye anarchism was then better than that of young Makhno. Anthony managed to work in the factories of Yekaterinoslav, and Semenyuta managed to desert from the army. They created the Union of Poor Grain Growers in Gulyai-Polye, an underground group that declared itself anarchist-communists. The group eventually included about 50 people, among whom was the unremarkable peasant boy Nestor Makhno.
The activities of the Union of Poor Grain Growers - Gulyai-Polye peasant group of anarchist-communists occurred in 1906-1908. These were the “peak” years for Russian anarchism. Gulyai-Polye anarchists followed the example of other similar groups - they were engaged not only in propaganda among peasant and artisan youth, but also in expropriations. This activity brought Makhno, as they would say now, “under investigation.”

At the end of 1906, he was arrested for the first time - for illegal possession of weapons, and on October 5, 1907, he was detained again - this time for a serious crime - an attempt on the life of village guards Bykov and Zakharov. After spending some time in the Aleksandrovsk district prison, Nestor was released. However, on August 26, 1908, Nestor Makhno was arrested for the third time. He was accused of murdering an official of the military administration and on March 22, 1910, Nestor Makhno was sentenced to death by the Odessa military court.

If Nestor had been a little older at the time of the crime, he could have been executed. But since Makhno committed a crime while a minor, his death penalty was replaced with indefinite hard labor and in 1911 he was transferred to the convict department of Butyrka prison in Moscow.
The years spent on the shelter became a real life university for Makhno.

It was in prison that Nestor began to seriously engage in self-education under the guidance of his cellmate, the famous anarchist Pyotr Arshinov. This moment is shown in the famous series “The Nine Lives of Nestor Makhno,” but only there Arshinov is depicted as an elderly man. In fact, Pyotr Arshinov was almost the same age as Nestor Makhno - he was born in 1886, but despite his working-class origin, he knew literacy, history, and the theory of anarchism well. However, while studying, Makhno did not forget about the protests - he regularly clashed with the prison administration, ended up in a punishment cell, where he contracted pulmonary tuberculosis. This illness tormented him for the rest of his life.

Nestor Makhno spent six years in Butyrka prison before being released due to the general amnesty of political prisoners that followed the February Revolution of 1917. Actually, the February Revolution opened the path to all-Russian glory for Nestor Makhno. Three weeks after his release, he returned to his native Gulyai-Polye, from where the gendarmes took him away as a 20-year-old boy, already an adult man with a nine-year prison sentence behind him. The poor greeted Nestor warmly - he was one of the few surviving members of the Union of Poor Grain Growers. Already on March 29, Nestor Makhno headed the steering committee of the Gulyai-Polye Peasant Union, and then became chairman of the Council of Peasants and Soldiers' Deputies.

Quite quickly, Nestor managed to create a combat-ready detachment of young anarchists, who began expropriating the property of wealthy fellow villagers. In September 1917, Makhno carried out the confiscation and nationalization of landowners' lands. However, on January 27 (February 9), 1918, in Brest-Litovsk, the delegation of the Ukrainian Central Rada signed a separate peace with Germany and Austria-Hungary, after which it turned to them for help in the fight against the revolution. Soon, German and Austro-Hungarian troops appeared on the territory of the Yekaterinoslav region.

Realizing that the anarchists from the Gulyai-Polye detachment would not be able to resist the regular armies, Makhno retreated to the territory of the modern Rostov region - to Taganrog. Here he disbanded his detachment, and he himself went on a trip around Russia, visiting Rostov-on-Don, Saratov, Tambov and Moscow. In the capital, Makhno held several meetings with prominent anarchist ideologists - Alexei Borov, Lev Cherny, Judas Grossman, and also met, which was even more important for him, with the leaders of the government of Soviet Russia - Yakov Sverdlov, Leon Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin himself. Apparently, even then the Bolshevik leadership understood that Makhno was far from being as simple as he seemed. Otherwise, Yakov Sverdlov would not have organized his meeting with Lenin.

It was with the assistance of the Bolsheviks that Nestor Makhno returned to Ukraine, where he began organizing partisan resistance to the Austro-German interventionists and the Central Rada regime they supported. Quite quickly, Nestor Makhno from the leader of a small partisan detachment turned into the commander of an entire rebel army. Makhno’s formation was joined by detachments of other anarchist field commanders, including the detachment of Feodosius Shchus, an equally popular anarchist “father” at that time, a former naval sailor, and the detachment of Viktor Belash, a professional revolutionary, leader of the Novospasovskaya group of anarchist-communists.

At first, the Makhnovists acted using partisan methods. They attacked Austrian patrols, small detachments of the Hetman Warta, and plundered landowners' estates. By November 1918, the size of Makhno's rebel army had already reached 6 thousand people, which allowed the anarchists to act more decisively. In addition, in November 1918, the monarchy fell in Germany, and the withdrawal of occupation troops from the territory of Ukraine began. In turn, the regime of Hetman Skoropadsky, which relied on Austrian and German bayonets, was in a state of complete decline. Having lost external support, the members of the Central Rada did not know what to do. Nestor Makhno took advantage of this and established control over the Gulyai-Polye district.

The size of the rebel army by the beginning of 1919 was already about 50 thousand people. The Bolsheviks hastened to conclude an agreement with the Makhnovists, who needed such a powerful ally in the context of the activation of the troops of General A.I. Denikin on the Don and the Petliurists’ offensive in Ukraine. In mid-February 1919, Makhno signed an agreement with the Bolsheviks, according to which, from February 21, 1919, the rebel army became part of the 1st Trans-Dnieper Ukrainian Soviet Division of the Ukrainian Front in the status of the 3rd Trans-Dnieper Brigade. At the same time, the Makhnovist army retained internal autonomy - this was one of the main conditions for cooperation with the Bolsheviks.

However, Makhno’s relationship with the Reds did not work out. When the Whites broke through the defenses and invaded the Donbass in May 1919, Leon Trotsky declared Makhno an “outlaw.” This decision put an end to the alliance of the Bolsheviks and Gulyai-Polye anarchists. In mid-July 1919, Makhno headed the Revolutionary Military Council of the united Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine (RPAU), and when his competitor and opponent Ataman Grigoriev was killed, he took the post of commander-in-chief of the RPAU.

Throughout 1919, Makhno’s army fought against both the Whites and the Petliurists. On September 1, 1919, Makhno proclaimed the creation of the “Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine (Makhnovists),” and when Ekaterinoslav was occupied with it, Makhno began building an anarchist republic. Of course, it is unlikely that Father Makhno’s experiment can be called successful from a socio-economic point of view - in the conditions of the Civil War, continuous hostilities against several opponents, it was very difficult to resolve any economic issues.

But nevertheless, the social experiment of the Makhnovists became one of the few attempts to “materialize” the anarchist idea of ​​a powerless society. In fact, of course there was power in Gulyai-Polye. And this power was no less harsh than the tsarist or Bolshevik - in fact, Nestor Makhno was a dictator who had extraordinary powers and was free to do as he wanted at a particular moment. Probably, it was impossible to do otherwise under those conditions. Makhno tried his best. maintain discipline - he harshly punished his subordinates for both looting and anti-Semitism, although in some cases he could easily hand over estates to be plundered by his soldiers.

The Bolsheviks managed to take advantage of the Makhnovists once again - during the liberation of the Crimean Peninsula from the Whites. By agreement with the Reds, Makhno sent up to 2.5 thousand of his soldiers under the command of Semyon Karetnik, one of his closest associates, to storm Perekop. But as soon as the Makhnovists helped the Reds break into Crimea, the Bolshevik leadership quickly decided to get rid of their dangerous allies. Machine gun fire was opened on Karetnik’s detachment, only 250 soldiers managed to survive, who returned to Gulyai-Polye and told the dad about everything. Soon the command of the Red Army demanded that Makhno redeploy his army to the South Caucasus, but the old man did not obey this order and began a retreat from Gulyai-Polye.

On August 28, 1921, Nestor Makhno, accompanied by a detachment of 78 people, crossed the border with Romania in the Yampol region. All Makhnovists were immediately disarmed by the Romanian authorities and placed in a special camp. The Soviet leadership at this time unsuccessfully demanded that Bucharest hand over Makhno and his associates. While the Romanians were negotiating with Moscow, Makhno, along with his wife Galina and 17 comrades, managed to escape to neighboring Poland. Here they also ended up in an internment camp and met with a very unfriendly attitude from the Polish leadership. Only in 1924, thanks to the connections of Russian anarchists living abroad at that time, Nestor Makhno and his wife received permission to travel to neighboring Germany.

In April 1925, they settled in Paris, in the apartment of the artist Jean (Ivan) Lebedev, a Russian emigrant and active participant in the Russian and French anarchist movement. While living with Lebedev, Makhno mastered the simple craft of weaving slippers and began to make a living from it. Yesterday's rebel commander, who kept all of Little Russia and Novorossia in fear, lived practically in poverty, barely earning a living. Nestor continued to be tormented by a serious illness - tuberculosis. Numerous wounds received during the Civil War also made themselves felt.

But, despite his state of health, Nestor Makhno continued to maintain connections with local anarchists and regularly participated in the events of French anarchist organizations, including May Day demonstrations. It is known that when the anarchist movement intensified in Spain in the early 1930s, Spanish revolutionaries called Makhno to come and become one of the leaders. But his health no longer allowed the Gulyai-Polye dad to take up arms again.

On July 6 (according to other sources - July 25), 1934, Nestor Makhno died in a Paris hospital from bone tuberculosis. On July 28, 1934, his body was cremated, and the urn with his ashes was walled up in the wall of the columbarium of the Père Lachaise cemetery. His wife Galina and daughter Elena subsequently returned to the Soviet Union and lived in Dzhambul, Kazakh SSR. Nestor Makhno's daughter Elena Mikhnenko died in 1992.

Biography of Old Man Makhno

Makhno Nestor Ivanovich (Batko Makhno) - (born October 26 (November 7), 1888 - death July 6, 1934) Rebel “father”, organizer of the insurrection in the south of Ukraine and a large anarchist army that fought the Reds, Whites, invaders, Petliurists.

Nestor Ivanovich Makhno was born on October 26, 1888 in the village of Gulyaypole, Aleksandrovsky district, Yekaterinoslav province (now the regional center of Zaporozhye region) into a poor peasant family. Left without a father early and being the last, fifth, son in the family, Nestor worked as a shepherd, painter, and laborer from childhood. His entire education was 4th grade at a local parochial school. As a worker at an agricultural machinery factory, Nestor Makhno joined the Gulyai-Polye group “Free Union of Anarchist Grain Growers” ​​(Peasant Group of Anarchist Communists).

Arrest

In 1906–1908 Makhno took part in a number of terrorist attacks and expropriations, which were the work of local anarchists. 1908 - was arrested along with the entire group. During the investigation, Nestor did not plead guilty, but in 1910 the military district court sentenced him to death, which, as a minor, was replaced by 20 years of hard labor. In the forged documents, Nestor was drunk a year younger; his year of birth is mistakenly considered to be 1889, although he was born in 1888. Makhno served his sentence in the Yekaterinoslav prison and in Moscow Butyrki. Makhno was influenced by the anarchists A. Semenyuta, V. Antoni, and P. Arshinov.

After the February events of 1917

Immediately after the victory of the February Revolution of 1917, Nestor was released as a political prisoner and he soon went to his homeland - Gulyai-Polye. In Gulyai-Polye in the summer of 1917, Nestor Makhno, the revolutionary leader of the volost, was elected chairman of the Peasant Union, the local Peasant Council, the Revolutionary Committee, the workers' trade union, and the commander of an anarchist detachment. 1917, autumn - he expelled the administration of the Provisional Government from the volost and began the redistribution of land, carrying out the “October Revolution” a month earlier than in St. Petersburg.

Beginning of 1918, Nestor takes part in the battles for the establishment of Soviet power in Aleksandrovsk, takes part in the Don Conference of Revolutionary Committees and Soviets, convened by decision of the Bureau of the Military Revolutionary Committee of Donbass. In those days, Makhno’s detachment successfully disarmed the Cossack echelons. In the winter - spring of 1918, Makhno welcomed the Bolsheviks and advocated for a “union of left forces” against the White Guards and White Cossacks, the Central Rada and the countries of the German bloc. In Gulyai-Polye, Makhno organized detachments to resist the Austro-German troops and himself commanded these detachments at the front. But under pressure from the interventionists, Makhno’s troops rolled back east, to Taganrog.

After the occupation of Ukraine by Austro-German interventionists in the summer of 1918, Makhno came to the Volga region, where he took part in a number of anti-Bolshevik protests. Then his path lies to Moscow, where he met with the leaders of the anarchists: Kropotkin, Cherny, Grossman, Arshinov, as well as with the leaders of the Bolsheviks - Lenin and Sverdlov.

1918, August - Nestor Makhno returned illegally, under an assumed name, to the south of Ukraine. There he created a small partisan detachment to fight the interventionists and police units of Hetman Skoropadsky. 1918, September - Makhno’s detachment included several dozen local partisan detachments. 1918, November - after a series of successfully fought battles, during which Makhno showed remarkable organizational skills, talent as a military leader and amazing courage, the rebels and local peasants elected him “father.”

In mid-December 1918, Makhno’s partisan detachments, which already included 7,000 rebels, took control of six volosts. In this anarchist “republic of Makhnovia” only the will of Father Makhno is recognized. After the defeat of the interventionists and the hetman, Makhno temporarily fought in alliance with the Petliura troops. But at the end of December 1918, he opposed his allies.

The underground Ekaterinoslav provincial committee of the CP(b)U and the revolutionary committee appointed Father Makhno as commander of all the rebel troops of the Ekaterinoslav region. During the battles with the Petliurists, he was able to capture Yekaterinoslav for several days, but due to the weakness of his forces and disagreements between the Bolsheviks, left Socialist Revolutionaries and anarchists, the city had to be surrendered.

Nestor Makhno's first alliance with the Reds

Nestor Makhno (center) with his headquarters

1919, February - when Denikin’s army invaded Ukraine and was already approaching the “free” regions of “Makhnovia” from all authorities, Makhno’s rebel troops became allies of the Red Army in the fight against the whites. January-February 1919, the Makhnovists waged fierce battles for Gulyai-Polye, which changed hands several times. 1919, February - Makhnovist detachments joined the 2nd Ukrainian Red Army as a separate brigade of the 1st Trans-Dnieper Rifle Division of Divisional Commander Dybenko (later the 7th Division), while retaining elected command, internal independence, and the black banners of anarchy.

1919, March - Makhno's brigade, numbering 12,000 soldiers (in May 1919 - 20,000), developed a successful offensive, knocking out the Whites from Melitopol, Berdyansk, Grishino (now Krasnoarmeysk), Mariupol, Yuzovka. Makhno held the most important section of the Red Front from Volnovakha to Mariupol and tried to capture Taganrog, where Denikin had his headquarters. For military services he was nominated for the Order of the Red Banner. But in the spring of 1919, Makhno had an acute conflict with the Red command and the Red administration of Ukraine.

Nestor Ivanovich did not allow security officers, food detachments, or commissars into his “free region”, controlled by his brigade, and the Bolsheviks did not want to tolerate such a situation, this was a state within a state. The authorities were also afraid of the structure of “free Soviets” created in the “Makhnovist” region.

Break with the Reds

Beginning of June 1919 - the Bolsheviks outlawed Father Makhno, allegedly for the collapse of the front, retreat and arrests of communists. A real hunt began for him, hundreds of Makhnovists and their commanders were shot or thrown into prison. The White Guards, taking advantage of this, launched an offensive in the south of Ukraine, breaking through the front held by the Makhnovists. In heavy battles with the Whites for Berdyansk and Gulyai-Polye, several thousand Makhnovists died. Several thousand more, led by the father, went to the red rear, to the area of ​​​​the Dnieper floodplains for the partisan war against the Bolsheviks.

10,000 Makhnovists temporarily remained at the front as part of the Red Army. 1919, July - in the Kherson region, Makhno’s army united with the remnants of Ataman Grigoriev’s division that rebelled against the Bolsheviks. But soon Makhno eliminated Grigoriev and annexed his units to his detachment, creating a powerful unit - the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine named after Father Makhno.

Conclusion of an alliance with Petlyura

Local peasants, Makhnovists who were still in the Red Army, and even former Red Army soldiers joined Makhno’s army. This army (40,000 bayonets) fought against the Whites and Reds in Right Bank Ukraine in August-September 1919. 1919, September - Makhno entered into an alliance with Petlyura on joint military operations against the White Guards, occupied a section of the front near Uman.

1919, end of September - Makhno’s cavalry units defeated the whites near the village of Peregonovka and rushed east in three columns, smashing the rear of the whites. In 5-6 days they were able to cover the distance from Uman to the Dnieper region, capturing Aleksandrovsk, Nikopol, Gulyaypole, and soon drove the whites out of Melitopol, Mariupol, and Yekaterinoslav. Makhno became the “master” of a vast territory, proclaiming “the beginning of the world’s first experiment in building an anarchist society” and the creation of an anarchist state – the South Ukrainian Labor Federation.

1919, October - the number of Makhno’s troops increased to 80,000 people. His army played one of the decisive roles in the defeat of Denikin’s troops, carrying out an unprecedented surprise raid on the White Guard’s rear and cutting off the routes for supplying the White Guard with weapons. This affected the White advance on Moscow. To prevent the complete capture of Ukraine by the rebels, Denikin was forced to withdraw several divisions from the Moscow direction and throw them against the Makhnovists.

Nestor Ivanovich Makhno and daughter Elena

1919, November - bloody battles took place between the Makhnovists and the Whites in the area of ​​​​Gulyai-Polye and Aleksandrovsk. Despite a number of defeats, the Makhnovists were able to keep the Dnieper region with Ekaterinoslav and Nikopol in their hands. But by the beginning of December 1919, almost a third of Makhno’s rebels were victims of the typhus epidemic that was raging in the south of Ukraine.

1919, end of December - when the Red Army entered Ukraine, the prospect of a new alliance between the Makhnovists and the Red Army emerged. But the failure of the Makhnovists to comply with the order of the Revolutionary Military Council of the 14th Red Army to move to the Kovel area to fight against the White Poles became the pretext for declaring Makhno “outlawed.” The rebel army of the Makhnovists was disbanded by order of Makhno himself, and some of the Makhnovists were disarmed and arrested. The old man, in typhoid delirium, was taken by supporters from Aleksandrovsk and hidden in Gulyai-Polye. Subsequently, the sick Makhno was secretly transported from village to village, hiding from the all-seeing eye of the Cheka.

1920, March - Makhno announced the revival of his army and again entered into a fierce battle with the Reds. In March - September 1920, the Makhnovists carried out destructive raids on the Soviet rear - Poltava region, Yekaterinoslav region, Northern Tavria, Kharkov region, Donbass. At this time, Makhno's army numbered 10–15,000 bayonets.

New military alliance with the Reds

But in October 1920, Makhno concluded a new military alliance with the Red Army for a joint fight against General Wrangel, who had invaded the boundaries of “Makhnovia” - the area of ​​​​free Gulyai-Polye. Makhno's army took part in operations to expel the White Guards from the south of Ukraine and from Crimea, in the assault on Perekop and Yushun. 15,000 Makhnovists attacked the White Guard fortifications near Aleksandrovsk and Gulyai-Polye. The Makhnovists, being the first to cross the Sivash, hit the Whites in the rear at Perekop, thereby ensuring the Reds' victory over the Russian army of General Wrangel.

"Outlaw" again

The old man himself did not participate in the battles against Wrangel, since he had not yet recovered from his serious wound. After the final defeat of Wrangel at the end of November 1920, the Bolshevik command declared Makhno “outlaw” for the third time.

Despite the fact that 90,000 soldiers of the Red Army were thrown against the Makhnovists (17,000 fighters), the Makhnovists were not only able to preserve their army, but also carried out a raid on the Red rear, passing through the Kherson region, Kiev region, Poltava region, Chernigov region. They even invaded the Kursk-Belgorod region and returned in February 1921 to the Yekaterinoslav region. 1921, March - July - the Makhnovists, of whom 10,000 remained, raided Left Bank Ukraine, causing significant damage to the Soviet government and the Red Army.

But after the defeat in the Poltava region and in the Gulyai-Polye region, Makhno was forced to send the remnants of the army to the Don. But, having received no support from the Don Cossacks, he decided to take his army abroad - to Western Ukraine, which was part of Poland, and there to raise an uprising.

Emigration

Père Lachaise Cemetery. The last resting place of Nestor Makhno

1921, August 28 - Makhno, his wife Galina and 76 Makhnovists crossed the border river Dniester and, finding themselves on the territory of Romania, surrendered to the Romanian authorities. The governments of Soviet Russia and Ukraine, in a note to the government of Romania, demanded the extradition of Makhno, but received no response. Makhno settles in Bucharest, and ordinary Makhnovists end up in internment camps.

1922, April 11 - together with 11 comrades, Makhno fled to Poland, where he, his wife and companions were arrested and imprisoned in the Strzhaltava camp. 1922 - Makhno’s daughter Elena was born. 1923, November - the Warsaw District Court heard a case on charges of Makhno, his wife, associates Khmara and Domashchenko of trying to raise an anti-Polish uprising in Galicia and of having connections with Bolshevik agents. After the acquittal and release, Makhno and his wife moved to the free city of Danzig, where the old man again faced prison and then escape to France.

Since 1925, Makhno lived in France, where he took part in the publication of the anarchist magazine “Delo Truda”, wrote articles for anarchist-emigrant publications and his memoirs. Abroad, he established contacts with all the influential leaders of world anarchism and was recognized by everyone as a “great practitioner” of the cause of anarchism. At the same time, Makhno dreamed of forming a single organization - a party that would unite all the anarchists of the world, dreamed of returning to his homeland, a new uprising. However, by 1925, the Makhnovist underground in Ukraine was completely eliminated.

In Paris, Makhno continued to popularize the anarchist Platform program with the goal of uniting different anarchist organizations. Makhno made a fiery appeal to the participants of the Congress of the Revolutionary Communist Anarchist Union, which took place in May 1930 in Paris, and called for the creation of an International “libertarian” (free) anarcho-communist federation. 1927, autumn - supporters of the “Platform” defeated adherents of the “Synthesis” program (Volin and company).

Death of Nestor Makhno

But Makhno’s health was undermined by 12 serious wounds and tuberculosis. While living in Paris, he was seriously ill and could not work in the same place for a long time. Due to financial difficulties and tuberculosis, Makhno settled separately from his wife and daughter. After an operation on July 6, 1934, he died in Paris and was buried with great honors in the Père Lachaise cemetery.