Makhnovchina – “The Free Territory” – Is history repeating in Ukraine?

When the outlines of a movement in eastern Ukrania to secede fromKiev became apparent, the propaganda campaigns designed to obscure thatstruggle lurched into high gear. The advocates of the Nato/Nazi factionbranding the separatist movement as “terrorist”… and the Russophilemedia labeling it as a second Crimean campaign to return to motherRussia.  Both those narratives depend upon a forgotten bit of C20thhistory staying ‘forgotten.’ But one glimpse at these two maps will be

enough to dispel that desperate hope! That area to the north of the Sea of Azov currently fighting for it’s independence is reminiscent of another map

Makhnovia – the free Ukraine of the Black Flag Fighters 1918-1921

from another time – when the people of eastern Ukraine were alsosqueezed in a vice between east and west. Almost one hundred yearslater, the same dynamics are playing out… with all too likely the samesad results.

The Free Territory  or Makhnovchina was that part of Ukraine which refused to join either the Bolshevik“reds” or the western-backed “whites” in the aftermath of the fall ofthe Czar and the October Revolution.  Protected by the guerrillafighters of Nestor Makhno’s  Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army, theyattempted to create a stateless society, an experiment which lasted from1918 to 1921.  The population of the area was around seven million.Rather similar to the population of the eastern territory currentlyunder dispute!

As the spotlight now shifts away from Ukraine – towards the next manufactured crisis – in Iraq, there are sure to be many covert moves by the NATO-Nazis to enforce their will overthe break-away region. And countermoves from the Russian side. Hard tosee anything but sorrow ahead for the people themselves. Ukraine hassuffered the true “Holocaust” – along with the Armenians – of the C20th…they don’t deserve more bloodshed now!

The epic resistance put up by the guerrilla riders of the Makhnovistmilitias was a miracle of stubborn determination by a society unwillingto accept masters of any kind… matched only by the equally brief butamazing effort of the Catalonian anarchists to break free of theFascisto-Commie criminals who worked as a team to destroy Spain in the1930s.  In the dystopian future coming towards us all, I suspect thatfacility with fast movement on horseback, and self-reliance for defenseand survival may well come into play once again… for many more of us

than just Ukranians!

Readersof this site may have already connected the dots between my themes of ‘neo-nomadics,’  portable wealth, post-western living, and the futureprimitive… if not… welcome to my world – where the neo-Cossack is theonce and future King – and vast hordes of horses once again roam thesteppe lands of Asia! Our distant ancestors were buried in tumuli withtheir gold and their four-legger friends… our hopes of the present relyupon our duplicating the wild freedom of their lifestyle… or see our

peoples and their legacy buried alive by an Agenda 21 style slave systemthat herds them like cattle into a nightmare realm of neo-feudalism!

When I placed this comment on the Russia Today website…

“Map provided shows what was Makhnovshchina – “FreeTerritory” https://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/Free_Terri tory – Ukrainiansneither ‘left’ nor ‘right’ stood tall for 3 long years, from both theReds and Whites, while the world looked away. So, they of necessity hadto look to themselves.

People LOOK to the record, situation is identical. You must holdon at all costs because if you stop defending all you hold dear, it willbe taken from you by stealth or force of arms. Вільна територія vilnaterytoriya”

I still had vague hopes that the independence movement could be leftalone by both sides to take it’s natural course. That seems unlikelynow... as it was removed -twice! Censorship on all sides…sretty much sums up the situation it seems… neither the Russians northe West want folks finding out bout what is really going on!

Here follows a little extract from the wikipedia pages which discussthis experiment in anarchist resistance. Much food for thought, as weenter into the stage of terminal decline in the west, during which thesame Bankster factions of Wall Street/Frankfurt/London that bankrolledLenin and his Bolshie hordes are supervising a gigantic transfer ofwealth and power to the East -again!

The territory was occupied by Russian forces under Anton Denikin and a temporary government of Southern Russia formed, but, by 1920, Denikin’s forces had been driven out of the area by the Red Army in cooperation with Makhno’s forces, whose units were conducting guerrilla warfare behind Denikin’s lines.

As the Free Territory was organized along anarchist lines, referencesto “control” and “government” are highly contentious. For example, theMakhnovists, often cited as a form of government (with Nestor Makhnobeing their leader), played a purely military role, with Makhno himselfbeing little more than a military strategist and advisor.The military role Makhno had adopted in his early years shifted to anorganizing one. The first congress of the Confederation of AnarchistsGroups, under the name of Nabat (“The Alarm Drum”), issued five main points: suspension of all political parties,rejection of all dictatorships (mainly those organizing over people),negation of any State concept, rejection of any “transitory period” or“proletarian dictatorship”, and advocated the self-management of all

workers through free workers’ councils (soviets). These were in clear contrast to Bolshevik views.

The color that this anarchist group used to distinguish itself was black (the traditional color of anarchism),as that was how its military was described – as opposed to Tsarist“Whites” and Bolshevik “Reds”. The principles of governance were laidout in the manifesto published by the Cultural and Educational Sectionof the Insurrectional Makhnovite Army and widely distributed among thepopulace with particular attention to peasants and workers.

Development and characteristics

From November 1918 to June 1919, the Makhnovists established ananarchist society run by peasants and workers in Ukraine. The territoryunder their control stretched approximately between Berdyansk, Donetsk, Alexandrovsk (later known as Zaporizhia), and Yekaterinoslav,(Sicheslav, later Dnipropetrovsk). According to Makhno, “Theagricultural majority of these villages was composed of peasants, onewould understand at the same time both peasants and workers. They werefounded first of all on equality and solidarity of its members.Everyone, men and women, worked together with a perfect conscience thatthey should work on fields or that they should be used in housework… Thework program was established in meetings in which everyoneparticipated. Then they knew exactly what they had to do”.

According to the leaders of the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine(RIAU), society was reorganized according to anarchist values, whichlead Makhnovists to formalize the policy of free communities as thehighest form of social justice. Education followed the principles of Francesc Ferrer,and the economy was based on free exchange between rural and urbancommunities, from crops and cattle to manufactured products, accordingto the theories of Peter Kropotkin.

The Makhnovists said they supported “free worker-peasant soviets”andopposed the central government. Makhno called the Bolsheviks dictatorsand opposed the “Cheka [secret police]… and similar compulsoryauthoritative and disciplinary institutions”. He called for “[f]reedomof speech, press, assembly, unions and the like”.The Makhniovists calledvarious congresses of soviets, in which all political parties andgroups – including Bolsheviks – were permitted to participate, to theextent that members of these parties were elected delegates from worker,peasant or militia councils. By contrast, the Bolshevik territory, bymid-1918, no non-Bolsheviks were permitted to participate in soviets,the decisions of which were also all subject to Bolshevik party tutelageand veto.

A declaration stated that Makhnovist revolutionaries were forbidden to participate in the Cheka,and all party-run militias and party police forces (includingCheka-like secret police organizations) were to be outlawed inMakhnovist territory. Historian Heather-Noël Schwartzcomments that “Makhno would not countenance organizations that soughtto impose political authority, and he accordingly dissolved theBolshevik revolutionary committees The Bolsheviks, however, accused himof having two secret police forces operating under him.[11]

The Bolsheviks began their formal efforts to disempower Makhno on 4 June 1919 with Trotsky‘sOrder No. 1824, which forbade electing a congress and attempted todiscredit Makhno by stating: “The Makhno brigade has constantlyretreated before the White Guards, owing to the incapacity, criminaltendencies, and the treachery of its leaders.”[5]

Defeat

The Bolshevik government in Petrograd initially allied with Makhnoand considered allowing an independent area for Makhno’s libertarianexperiment.]

But the Bolsheviks increasingly saw the Makhnovists as a threat totheir power, both as an example and as a site of anarchist influence andrestarted a propaganda campaign declaring the Free Territory to be a warlord regime, and eventually broke with it by launching surprise attacks on Makhnovist militias[13] despite the pre-existing alliance between the factions.[14]

The Bolshevik press alleged – contrary to the evidence – that leadersin the Free Territory, rather than being elected democratically, wereappointed by Makhno’s military clique. They also alleged – again,without evidence – that Makhno himself had refused to provide food forSoviet railwaymen and telegraphoperators, that the “special section” of the Makhnovist constitutionprovided for secret executions and torture, that Makhno’s forces hadraided Red Army convoys for supplies, stolen an armored car from Bryansk when asked to repair it, and that the Nabat group was responsible for deadly acts of terrorism in Russian cities.

A massive military occupation took place. This suppressed theMakhnovists, the Ukrainian nationalists and other non-Bolshevik groups. AMoscow-run “Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic” was created, whichwould last until 1991. This effectively restored, and then extended, theterritory controlled by the Russian state under Tsarism. An undergroundMakhnovist presence would persists into the 1940s.

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