Makhnovism
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Makhnovism refers to various related political and economic theories elaborated by Anarchist revolutionary leader Batko Makhno, and by other theorists (Peter Arshinov etc.) who claim to be carrying on Makhno's work. Makhnovism builds upon and elaborates the ideas of Peter Kropotkin, and serves as the philosophical basis for Anarchism-Communism. In early 1918, the new Bolshevik government in Russia signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk making peace with the Central Powers, but ceding large amounts of territory to them, including Ukraine. The people living in Ukraine did not want to be ruled by the Central Powers, and so rebelled. Partisan units were formed that waged guerilla war against the Germans and Austrians. This rebellion turned into an anarchist revolution. Nestor Makhno was one of the main organizers of these partisan groups, who united into the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine (RIAU), also called the Black Army (because they fought under the anarchist black flag), "Makhnovists" or "Makhnovshchina" (i.e., "Makhnovism"). The RIAU also battled against the Whites (counter-revolutionaries) and anti-semitic pogromists. In areas where the RIAU drove out opposing armies, villagers (and workers) sought to abolish capitalism and the state through organizing themselves into village assemblies, communes and free councils. The land and factories were expropriated and self-management implemented.
[edit] Triumph and defeat
By November 1918 the Central Powers had been decisively beaten by the Allied Nations and could by no means hold onto the Ukraine in the face of the fierce partisan warfare being waged against them by Nestor Makhno and almost every worker and peasant in the Donetz Basin. Thus, the Austro-Germans left the Ukraine and the brutal dictatorship of the Hetman Skorapadskiy collapsed without them. But almost immediately after the people had freed themselves, a new government, led by the Ukrainian Nationalist Symon Petlura, installed itself in Kiev. Petliura had completely misjudged what the Ukrainian people wanted (the immediate abolition of capitalism was what most Ukrainians were striving for. His regime was easily vanquished by the invading Bolsheviks. But all these assorted Palace Revolutions went unnoticed by the mostly Anarchist peasants of the South-Central region of the Ukraine where Makhno and Kropotkin were far more popular than Lenin or Marx. It was in that region where freedom was valued just as much as equality, that the Revolution flourished. From November 1918 to June 1919 there were no governors or slaves, no policemen or gendarmes, no capitalists or landowners, no capital or private property, only the communes and councils of a truly free people. Of course this state of affairs could not last in the face of a massive invasion of the Free Territory by the counter-revolutionary troops of Anton Denikin's White Army. The Makhnovists were driven out of their home region and were forced to retreat along the Left Bank of the Dniepr river all the way to the small town of Peregonovka. There they reassembled their troops and prepared for one mighty last stand of the Ukrainian Revolution.
[edit] Peregonovka and after
At Peregonovka the Makhnovists fought a battle with a regiment of White Army.
