Nestor Ivanovich Makhno
Нестор Иванович Махно
The anarchist peasant commander who fought Bolsheviks, Whites, Germans, and nationalists in succession
Kremlin, June 1918. Lenin told Makhno, "If anarchists were like you, we'd gladly work together." Two years later, Makhno would be betrayed by the Bolsheviks twice.
Ukrainian anarcho-communist revolutionary. Led a peasant army and built the Free Territory, an experiment in anarchist self-governance. Allied with the Red Army twice to defeat the Whites, and was betrayed each time. Exiled in 1921, he wrote his memoirs in Paris.
Career timeline
- 1906Joins Huliaipole anarcho-communist 'Union of Free Grain-Growers'; begins expropriations
- 1910Sentenced to death, commuted to life hard labour; educated in anarchist theory by Arshinov in Butyrka prison
- 1917–1918Amnestied, returns to Huliaipole as soviet chair; organizes Black Guard; confiscates landlords' land
- 1919.02–06Allies with Red Army, commands 3rd Brigade, 1st Zadneprovsk Division; breaks when Trotsky declares him an outlaw
- 1919.07–10Commander-in-chief of the RPAU; 600-km raid through Denikin's rear disrupts White advance on Moscow; proclaims Free Territory
- 1920.10–11Re-allies with Red Army against Wrangel, fights in Crimea; Red Army surrounds and destroys his units after victory
- 1921–1925Retreats across Romania, Poland, and Danzig to exile in Paris
- 1925–1934Active in anarchist circles in Paris exile; writes memoirs; dies of bone tuberculosis