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
The anarchist sailor who dissolved the Constituent Assembly with 'The guard is tired', an icon of the revolution who fell in battle at 24
Tauride Palace, 4 a.m., 5 January 1918. 'The guard is tired. I ask you to leave the chamber.' With those words, after 13 hours of debate, the Russian Constituent Assembly closed forever.
An anarchist revolutionary from the Baltic Fleet. He took part in the storming of the Winter Palace in October 1917, and on 5 January 1918, as chief of the guard at the Tauride Palace, he dissolved the Russian Constituent Assembly with the immortal words 'The guard is tired,' becoming a legend of the revolution. During the Civil War he fought the Don, Krasnov, and Denikin forces as a machine-gunner and armored train commander, though he never joined the Bolshevik Party. Killed by Denikin's artillery in July 1919, he was posthumously revived as a hero of Soviet songs, poems, and films.
Career timeline
1915Conscripted into the 2nd Baltic Fleet crew, entered engine school
1916Deserted fearing arrest, worked under alias as stoker and assistant mechanic on Black Sea merchant ships
1917.05Elected delegate to the 1st Congress of the Baltic Fleet (Tsentrobalt)
1917.06Defended Durnovo Dacha against government troops; arrested, sentenced to 14 years; escaped Kresty Prison in September
1917.10Naval Revolutionary Committee member; led capture of the Admiralty and storming of the Winter Palace
1918.01Chief of the guard at Tauride Palace — dissolved the Constituent Assembly
1918.03Commander of Birzula fortified district; fought Austro-German forces
1918.06–09Commander of the 1st Yelansky Infantry Regiment in Kikvidze's division; fought Krasnov's Cossacks on the Tsaritsyn front
1918.10–1919.04Underground work in Odessa under alias Viktors; after uprising, chairman of the merchant marine union
1919.05–07Commander of armored train Khudyakov; suppressed Grigoriev revolt, killed by artillery on the Denikin front
The anarchist IV Army Corps commander who saved Casado's Madrid coup from Communist counter-attack
'I was aghast at donning a military uniform, but I could see no other option. From here on my conduct will bear witness to my integrity.'
A Madrid bricklayer who led the CNT construction union and was jailed on the eve of the war, he was freed when the rising began and organized a column that crushed the revolt in Guadalajara and Cuenca. Rising to command the 14th Division and then the IV Army Corps, he routed the Italian CTV at the Battle of Guadalajara and became one of the Republic's most prominent anarchist commanders. In March 1939 he backed Casado's coup against the Negrín government's Communist dependence, and when Communist forces were closing in on Madrid, Mera's IV Corps reserves entered the city and crushed the resistance in three days, sealing the path by which the war would end.
Career timeline
1931Secretary of the Madrid CNT construction union
1936.07Organized a militia column, retook Guadalajara and Cuenca
1936.11–1937Commander of the 14th Division
1937–1939Commander of the IV Army Corps
1939.03Backed Casado's coup, crushed Communist resistance in Madrid
1939–1942Exile in Oran and Casablanca, extradited to Spain by Vichy regime
1946–1975Freed, re-exiled to France, worked as a bricklayer in Paris
