The Anarchism of Nestor Makhno, 1918-1921 by Michael Palij

Author:Michael Palij [Palij, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 0295955112
Publisher: UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON PRESS
Published: 1976-01-08T23:00:00+00:00

16. The Bolsheviks Break with Makhno

Although the Bolsheviks appreciated Makhno's struggle against Denikin, they also recognized his movement as an organized force opposing Bolshevik dictatorship in Ukraine. Even before Makhno destroyed Hryhor'iv, the Bolsheviks renewed their anti-Makhno propaganda. Trotsky, in particular, led a violent campaign against the Makhno movement. He published a series of defensive articles in his paper Vputi [On the road] in which he charged that all the Makhnovites' talk of "down with the party, down with the Communists, long live the nonparty Soviets!" was only a cunning device to conceal the anarchists' ambition to establish a government of the "kulaks."1 At the same time, the supplies of arms and other war material to Makhno were stopped, thus weakening the Makhno forces vis-a-vis the Denikin troops. Trotsky, an advocate of extreme centralized discipline, concluded that Makhno's army was more of a menace than the Denikin army and declared in June of 1919, according to Emma Goldman, that

... it were better to permit the Whites to remain in the Ukraina than to suffer Makhno. The presence of the Whites . . . would influence the Ukrainian peasantry in favor of the Soviet Government, whereas Makhno and his povstantsi would never make peace with the Bolsheviki; they would attempt to possess themselves of some territory and to practice their ideas, which would be a constant menace to the Communist Government.2

In his speech delivered at the Tenth Congress of the Russian Communist Party in March 1921, Lenin, though not referring specifically to Makhno, obviously had him in mind when he said: "This petty bourgeois counterrevevolution is, no doubt, more dangerous than Denikin, IUdenich, and Kolchak put together because we have to deal with a country where proletarians constitute a minority.' In view of Bolshevik hostility and the Denikin offensive, the partisans' Revolutionary Military Council decided to call a fourth congress of peasants, workers, and partisans of Katerynoslav and Tavriia provinces and the adjacent districts in Kherson and Kharkiv provinces. The Council sent telegrams to these places informing them of the calling of an extraordinary congress on June 15, 1919, at Huliai-Pole.4

Trotsky's response was an order issued on June 4:

To all Military Commissars and the Executive Committees of the districts of Olek-sandrivs'k, Mariupil', Berdians'k, Bakhmut, Pavlohrad, and Kherson. . . . This Congress is directed squarely against the Soviet government in Ukraine and against the organization of the southern front, which includes Makhno's Brigade. The result of this congress can be only a new disgraceful revolt in the spirit of Hryhor'iv, and the opening of the front to the Whites, before whom Makhno's Brigade incessandy retreats because of the incompetence, criminal designs, and treason of its leaders. 1. This Congress is forbidden and in no case shall it be allowed.

2. All the worker-peasant population shall be warned orally and in writing that participation in the Congress shall be considered an act of state treason against the Soviet Republic and the front.

3. All the delegates to this Congress shall be arrested immediately and brought before the Revolutionary Military Tribunal of the Fourteenth, formerly Second, Army.

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