People of the Revolution and the USSR

Vsevolod Mikhailovich Eikhenbaum

Всеволод Михайлович Эйхенбаум

Russian anarchist intellectual who theorized anarchist synthesis and chronicled the revolution the Bolsheviks suppressed

In Golos Truda, 1917: 'Once their power has been consolidated and legalized, the Bolsheviks… will start running the life of the country and of the people from the top. They will develop an authoritarian political and state apparatus that will crush all opposition with an iron fist.'

Russian anarchist intellectual and leading theorist of the Makhnovshchina. Editor of Golos Truda in Petrograd, co-founder of the Nabat Confederation in Ukraine, and chairman of the Makhnovist Military Revolutionary Council, he developed the theory of anarchist synthesis to unite communist, individualist, and syndicalist anarchists. After exile from Soviet Russia in 1922, he wrote The Unknown Revolution, the definitive anarchist history of 1917–1921, and opposed the Platformist centralization pushed by his comrade Makhno.

Career timeline
  • 1904Drops out of St. Petersburg University law faculty; joins Socialist Revolutionary Party; organizes workers' study groups
  • 1905Participates in Bloody Sunday march and helps form the St. Petersburg Soviet; imprisoned at Peter and Paul Fortress
  • 1907Arrested by Okhrana, deported to Siberia; escapes and flees to France
  • 1911Becomes anarchist under Apollon Karelin's influence; joins Brotherhood of Free Communists in Paris
  • 1915–1916Flees anti-war persecution in France to USA; edits Golos Truda in New York
  • 1917Returns to Petrograd after February Revolution; relaunches Golos Truda as leading anarcho-syndicalist organ
  • 1918–1920Co-founds Nabat Confederation in Ukraine; chairs Makhnovist Military Revolutionary Council; arrested twice by Cheka
  • 1922Exiled from Soviet Russia after hunger strike and Profintern delegate intervention
  • 1924–1939Moves to Paris at Sébastien Faure's invitation; contributes to Anarchist Encyclopedia; writes for anarchist periodicals in five languages
  • 1940Completes The Unknown Revolution in Marseille while living in poverty
  • 1945Dies of tuberculosis in Paris; buried at Père Lachaise near Nestor Makhno

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