 | |
| Black flag of Anarchy | |
| Adopted | c. 1905 |
|---|---|
| Relinquished | c. 1921 |
The flags of the Makhnovshchina consisted of a number of different black and red flags, each emblazoned with anarchist and socialist slogans.
| | |
| Black flag of Anarchy | |
| Adopted | c. 1905 |
|---|---|
| Relinquished | c. 1921 |
The flags of the Makhnovshchina consisted of a number of different black and red flags, each emblazoned with anarchist and socialist slogans.
The Makhnovshchina flew multiple variations of the black and red flags during the Ukrainian War of Independence. These flags often carried anarchist and socialist slogans, or the name of the insurgent unit they represented, embroidered in white on the black flags and in gold on the red flags. [1] In his memoirs, the Makhnovist chief-of-staff Viktor Bilash wrote about a number of the slogans used on the flags of the Makhnovshchina, including: [2]
The black flag had been used by Ukrainian anarchists since the 1905 Revolution, when a militant organization known as the Black Banner carried out a number of attacks in the region. [3] The Union of Poor Peasants also used their own variation of the black flag, which was emblazoned with the words: "Always with the oppressed against the oppressors". [4] When one of the Union's members, Egor Bondarenko, was due to be hanged, he prophesied that his comrade Nestor Makhno would "hoist again the black flag of Anarchy that our enemies have snatched from us..." [5] During his prison sentence, Makhno himself wrote poetry depicting a peasant revolution breaking out beneath the anarchist black flag. [6]
With the outbreak of the February Revolution, the anarchist black flag was raised once again in Huliaipole, [7] and with the subsequent October Revolution, black flags were flown during anarchist demonstrations in Katerynoslav. [8] According to Makhno, following the invasion of Ukraine by the Central Powers, anarchist banners hung up in Huliaipole were torn down by the " haidymaky " of the Ukrainian People's Army. [9]
When the Insurgent Army was integrated into the Red Army in 1919, the Makhnovists were permitted to retain their black flags. [10] They also made use of their official position within the Soviet power structure to commission their own red flags from the Bolshevik artist A. A. Briantsev. [11]
During the Makhnovist advance against the White movement in October 1919, Volin reported that after a priest had been captured by insurgents, they stripped him of his cassock, which they claimed they intended to use as fabric for a black flag, before shooting him. [12]
On 9 February 1920, after the Southwestern Front of the Red Army attacked the insurgent positions in Huliaipole, the Red units reported that they had seized the insurgent staff's black flag. [13] On 12 December 1920, following an engagement between the Insurgents and the Red Army that had ended in a stalemate, the Red command declared victory after they captured one of the insurgents' black flags. [14]
Decades after the defeat of the Makhnovshchina, Ukrainian Makhnovists raised the black flag once again during World War II, when they took up a partisan struggle against the Nazi occupation. [15]
A photo emblazoned with a skull and crossbones and the motto "Death to all who stand in the way of freedom for the working people" is often attributed to Makhnovists, first in the Soviet Russian book Jewish Pogroms 1917–1921 by Zelman Ostrovsky , [16] but this was categorically denied by Nestor Makhno, [17] who said the photo "does not show Makhnovists at all". [18] The reverse side of this flag reads Naddniprians'kyi kish, roughly translating to the "Dnipro Division," a unit which was under the command of Svyryd Kotsur, the ataman of Chyhyryn. [19]
Various national flags have also been associated with the Makhnovshchina. Following the White offensive in Northern Taurida, a number of Makhnovists found themselves trapped in the region occupied by the Russian Army. Led to believe that Pyotr Wrangel had formed an alliance with the Makhnovists, a number of these isolated insurgents defected to the White movement, flying their black flags alongside the flag of Russia. [20] In contemporary Ukraine, the blue-and-yellow flag of Ukraine has been flown at public events commemorating the Makhnovshchina, depicting Makhno as a figure that fought for the country's independence. [21]
Peter Andreyevich Arshinov, was a Russian anarchist revolutionary and intellectual who chronicled the history of the Makhnovshchina.
Nestor Ivanovych Makhno (1888–1934), also known as Bat'ko Makhno, was a Ukrainian anarchist revolutionary and the commander of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine during the Ukrainian Civil War. He established the mass movement known as the Makhnovshchina, a mass movement by the Ukrainian peasantry to establish anarchist communism in the country between 1918 and 1921. Initially centered around Makhno's home province of Katerynoslav and hometown, Huliaipole, it came to exert a strong influence over large areas of southern Ukraine.
The Makhnovshchina was a mass movement to establish anarchist communism in southern and eastern Ukraine during the Ukrainian War of Independence of 1917–1921. Named after Nestor Makhno, the commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine, its aim was to create a system of free soviets that would manage the transition towards a stateless and classless society.
Fedir Shchus, also Fyodor Shuss or Feodosiy Shchus, was a commander (ataman) in the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine of Nestor Makhno.
Viktor Fedorovych Bilash was the Chief of Staff of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine (RIAU) under Nestor Makhno. A gifted military commander, Bilash himself planned many of the Insurgent Army's operations, later becoming its commander in chief after Makhno's flight into exile.
Semen Mykytovych Karetnyk was a Ukrainian anarchist and a commander of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine (RIAU). He often replaced Nestor Makhno as supreme commander of the Black Army in 1920. Karetnyk gained a reputation for his central role in defeating the White Army in Crimea in November 1920.
The Nabat Confederation of Anarchist Organizations, better known simply as the Nabat, was a Ukrainian anarchist organization that came to prominence during the Ukrainian War of Independence. The organization, based in Kharkiv, had branches in all of Ukraine's major cities. Its constitution was designed to be appealing to each of the different anarchist schools of thought.
Free soviets were the basic form of organization in the Makhnovshchina. These soviets acted independently from any central authority, excluding all political parties from participation, and met to self-manage the activities of workers and peasants through participatory democracy.
The Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine, also known as the Black Army or as Makhnovtsi, named after their leader Nestor Makhno, was an anarchist army formed largely of Ukrainian peasants and workers during the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922. They protected the operation of "free soviets" and libertarian communes by the Makhnovshchina, an attempt to form a stateless anarcho-communist society from 1918 to 1921 during the Ukrainian War of Independence.
Agafya "Halyna" Andriivna Kuzmenko was a Ukrainian teacher and anarchist revolutionary. After moving to southern Ukraine, she became a prominent figure within the ranks of the Makhnovshchina, a mass movement to establish a libertarian communist society. Kuzmenko spearheaded the movement's educational activities, promoted Ukrainization and acted as an outspoken advocate of women's rights. Along with her husband, the anarchist military leader Nestor Makhno, in 1921 she fled into exile from the political repression in Ukraine. While imprisoned for subversive activities in Poland, she gave birth to her daughter Elena Mikhnenko, whom she brought with her to Paris. Following the death of her husband, the outbreak of World War II saw her deportation for forced labour, first by the Nazis and then by the Soviets. After her release, she spent her final days with her daughter in Kazakhstan.
The Union of Poor Peasants, also known as the Peasant Group of Anarcho-Communists or the Huliaipole Anarchist Group, was an underground anarchist organization, operating in the years 1905–1908 in the Huliaipole Raion in Ukraine.
The Military Revolutionary Council was the de facto executive of the Makhnovshchina, empowered to act during the interim between sittings of the Regional Congresses.
The Regional Congresses of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents represented the "highest form of democratic authority" within the political system of the Makhnovshchina. They brought together delegates from the region's peasantry, industrial workers and insurgent soldiers, which would discuss the issues at hand and take their decisions back with them to local popular assemblies.
The Battle of Dibrivka was a military conflict between Ukrainian insurgents, led by Nestor Makhno and Fedir Shchus, and the Central Powers that were occupying southern Ukraine. It took place on 30 September 1918, towards the end of World War I. The battle began when Makhno, Shchus, and a group of anarchist supporters ambushed Austrian and Ukrainian detachments stationed in Dibrivka. The anarchists were armed with machine guns and were assisted by local peasants, who together captured ammunition, arms, and prisoners of war. It resulted in an insurgent victory and the establishment of an autonomous territory in the region, following the subsequent defeat of the Central Powers.
The Polonsky conspiracy, also known as the Polonsky plot or Polonsky affair, was an attempt by Ukrainian Bolsheviks to overthrow the Makhnovshchina during the autumn of 1919.
Yevgeny Polonsky, also known as M. L. Polonsky, was a Ukrainian soldier in the Red Army and the leader of a Bolshevik conspiracy to overthrow the Makhnovshchina.
Yosif Isaakovich Gotman, also known by his nom de plureYosif the Emigrant, was a Ukrainian anarchist and a leading member of the Nabat and the Makhnovshchina.
The Road to Freedom was the main newspaper of the Makhnovist movement, publishing 50 issues from May 1919 to November 1920.
The Starobilsk agreement was a 1920 political and military alliance between the Makhnovshchina, an anarchist mass movement led by Nestor Makhno's Insurgent Army, and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which the Bolsheviks had established as the legitimate government of Ukraine.
The Bolshevik–Makhnovist conflict was a period of political and military conflict between the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Makhnovshchina, for control over southern Ukraine. The Bolsheviks aimed to eliminate the Makhnovshchina and neutralise its peasant base. In turn, the Makhnovists fought against the implementation of the Red Terror and the policy of war communism.