Makhno years. Makhno Nestor Ivanovich: biography, career, personal life

Nestor Makhno was born in a village with an exotic name Gulyaypole October 26 (November 7), 1888. Now it is the Zaporizhzhya region of Ukraine, then - the Yekaterinoslav province. The father of the future famous leader of the anarchists was a simple cattleman, his mother was engaged in housekeeping.

The family had five children. Parents tried to give the children a decent education. Nestor himself graduated from a parish school, but at the age of seven worked part-time: he labored for more wealthy villagers. Subsequently, Makhno managed to work at the iron foundry.

The biography of Nestor Ivanovich was abruptly changed by the revolution of 1905. He ended up in a group of anarchists, behind which were robberies and terrorist acts. In one of the clashes with law enforcement officials, Makhno killed a policeman. The criminal was caught and tried. Makhno was sentenced to death. Only age saved him from imminent death: at the time the crime was committed, Nestor was a minor. The execution was replaced by ten-year hard labor.

The young anarchist ended up in Butyrka prison. Here he did not waste time in vain, but took up active self-education. This was facilitated by communication with experienced cellmates and a rich prison library. In the cell, Makhno was not with ordinary criminals, but with political criminals. The outlook of the young rebel was formed by anarchist prisoners. Makhno has his own vision of the country's development prospects.

Makhno during the years of revolution and civil war

Makhno was released after the February Revolution. The knowledge gained in conclusion inspired Nestor. He returns to his homeland and becomes the head of the Committee for the Salvation of the Revolution. This organization called on the people to ignore the orders of the Provisional Government and to proceed with the division of the land.

Makhno was wary of the October Revolution: he believed that it infringed on the interests of the peasantry.

In 1918, Ukrainian lands were occupied by the German army. Makhno put together his rebel detachment and actively fought both against the invaders and against the government of the hetman Skoropadsky. Gradually, the head of the anarchists won the favor of the broad peasant masses.

After entering the political arena of Petlyura, Makhno entered into an agreement with the Soviet government, pledging to fight against the new Ukrainian government. Nestor Ivanovich felt like a real master of his land. He sought to establish the life of the people, opened schools, hospitals, workshops.

The position of the anarchists changed after the capture of Gulyaypole by Denikin’s troops. Makhno launched a real guerrilla war against the White Army and effectively foiled the advance of Denikin’s troops to Moscow. However, after the victory over the White Guard, the Bolsheviks declared Makhno their enemy. He was outlawed. General Wrangel tried to use this, offering the Old Man cooperation in the fight against the "Reds". Makhno did not go to this union. Moreover, he once again trusted the Soviet government when she invited him to fight against the remnants of Wrangel’s troops. But this alliance was short-lived and ended with the liquidation of partisan detachments subordinate to the leader of the anarchists.

With a small detachment of associates and with his wife Agafya Nestor Ivanovich in 1921 managed to move to Romania. Romanian authorities transferred the remnants of the anarchist army to Poland, from where Makhno and his comrades were deported to France. Makhno spent the last years of his life in need. He had to remember what it means to be a laborer.

Nestor Makhno passed away in Paris on July 25, 1934 at the age of 45. The cause of death was tuberculosis.

On November 7 (October 26), 1888, 130 years ago, Nestor Ivanovich Makhno was born - one of the most controversial and controversial figures during the Civil War. For some, a ruthless bandit, for some, a fearless peasant leader, Nestor Makhno most fully personified that terrible era.

Today Gulyaypole is a small city in the Zaporizhzhya region of Ukraine, and at that time, which will be discussed below, it was still a village, albeit a large one. Founded in the 1770s to protect against attacks by the Crimean Khanate, Gulyaypole developed rapidly. Different people inhabited Gulyaypole - Little Russians, Poles, Jews, Greeks. The father of the future leader of the anarchists, Ivan Rodionovich Makhno, was a native of enslaved Cossacks, he worked as a shepherd with different owners. Ivan Makhno and his wife Evdokia Matveevna, nee Peredriy, had six children - daughter Elena and sons Polycarp, Savely, Emelyan, Grigory and Nestor. The family lived very poorly, and the year after the birth of Nestor, in 1889, Ivan Makhno died.

The childhood and adolescence of Nestor Makhno passed in deep poverty, if not poverty. Since they fell during the heyday of revolutionary sentiments in Russia, revolutionary propaganda fell on natural discontent with their social status and prevailing order of things.

In Gulyaipol, as in many other settlements of Little Russia, a circle of anarchists appeared. He was headed by two people - Voldemar Anthony, a Czech by birth, and Alexander Semenyuta. Both of them were a little older than Nestor - Anthony was born in 1886, and Semenyuta - in 1883. The everyday experience of both the "founding fathers" of the Gulaypol anarchism was then abrupt than that of the young Makhno. Anthony managed to work in the factories of Yekaterinoslav, and Semenyut managed to desert from the army. They created the Union of Poor Farmers in Gulyaypole, an underground group that proclaimed itself anarchist communists. The group eventually included about 50 people, among whom was the unremarkable peasant boy Nestor Makhno.
  The activities of the Union of poor farmers - Gulyaypolsky peasant group of anarchist communists occurred in 1906-1908. These were the “peak” years for Russian anarchism. Gulyaypol anarchists took an example from other similar groups - they were engaged not only in propaganda among peasant and craft youth, but also in expropriations. This activity summed up Makhno, as they would say now, "under the article."

At the end of 1906 he was arrested for the first time - for illegal possession of weapons, and on October 5, 1907 he was again detained - this time for a serious crime - the attempt on the life of the village guards Bykov and Zakharov. After spending some time in the Aleksandrovsky district prison, Nestor was released. However, on August 26, 1908, Nestor Makhno was arrested for the third time. He was charged with the murder of an officer of the military council and on March 22, 1910, the Odessa Military Court sentenced Nestor Makhno to death.

If Nestor had been a bit older at the time the crime was committed, he could have been executed. But since Makhno committed the crime as a minor, he was commuted to the death penalty with indefinite penal servitude and in 1911 he was transferred to the Butyrka prison penitentiary in Moscow.
  The years spent on the “porch” became for Makhno a real life university.

It was in prison that Nestor closely engaged in self-education under the guidance of his cellmate - the famous anarchist Peter Arshinov. This moment is shown in the famous series Nine Lives of Nestor Makhno, but only there Arshinov is depicted as an elderly man. In fact, Pyotr Arshinov was almost as old as Nestor Makhno - he was born in 1886, but, despite his working background, he knew literacy, history, and the theory of anarchism well. However, during his studies, Makhno did not forget about the protests - he regularly clashed with the prison administration, ended up in a punishment cell, where he caught pulmonary tuberculosis. This illness tormented him for the rest of his life.

Nestor Makhno spent six years in Butyrka prison before being released in connection with the general amnesty of political prisoners following the February Revolution of 1917. Actually, the February Revolution and opened Nestor Makhno the path to all-Russian glory. Three weeks after his release, he returned to his native Gulyaypole, from where he was taken away by the gendarmes by a 20-year-old guy, already an adult man with a nine-year prison term behind him. The poor person greeted Nestor warmly - he was one of the few surviving members of the Union of poor farmers. Already on March 29, Nestor Makhno headed the steering committee of the Gulyaypol Peasant Union, and then became chairman of the Council of Peasant and Soldier Deputies.

Quite quickly, Nestor managed to create a combat-ready detachment of young anarchists, who began to expropriate the property of wealthy villagers. In September 1917, Makhno confiscated and nationalized the landed estates. However, on January 27 (February 9), 1918, in Brest-Litovsk, the delegation of the Ukrainian Central Council signed a separate peace with Germany and Austria-Hungary, after which they turned to them for help in the fight against the revolution. Soon, German and Austro-Hungarian troops appeared on the territory of Yekaterinoslav.

Understanding that the anarchists from the Gulyaypol detachment would not be able to resist the regular armies, Makhno retreated to the territory of modern Rostov region - to Taganrog. Here he dismissed his detachment, and he went on a trip to Russia, having visited Rostov-on-Don, Saratov, Tambov and Moscow. In the capital, Makhno held several meetings with prominent anarchist ideologists - Alexei Borov, Lev Cherny, Judas Grossman, and also met, which was even more important for him, with the leaders of the government of Soviet Russia - Yakov Sverdlov, Leo Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin himself. Apparently, even then the Bolshevik leadership understood that Makhno was far from being as simple as it seems. Otherwise, Yakov Sverdlov would not have organized his meeting with Lenin.

It was with the assistance of the Bolsheviks that Nestor Makhno returned to Ukraine, where he set about organizing partisan resistance to the Austro-German invaders and the Central Rada regime they supported. Quite quickly, Nestor Makhno from the leader of a small partisan detachment turned into the commander of an entire rebel army. Detachments of other field commanders — anarchists, including the detachment of Theodosius Shchusya — the equally popular anarchist “father”, a former naval sailor, and the detachment of Viktor Belash — a professional revolutionary, leader of the Novospasskaya group of anarchist communists, joined the Makhno formation.

At first, the Makhnovists acted as partisan methods. They attacked Austrian patrols, small detachments of the Hetman Wart, robbed landowners' estates. By November 1918, the size of the rebel army of Makhno had already reached 6 thousand people, which allowed the anarchists to act more decisively. In addition, in November 1918, the monarchy fell in Germany, the withdrawal of occupation forces from the territory of Ukraine began. In turn, the regime of Hetman Skoropadsky, relying on Austrian and German bayonets, was in a state of complete decline. Deprived of external support, members of the Central Council did not know what to do. This was used by Nestor Makhno, who established control over the Gulyaypol district.

  The size of the rebel army by the beginning of 1919 was already about 50 thousand people. The Bolsheviks hastened to conclude an agreement with the Makhnovists who needed such a powerful ally in the conditions of the activation of the troops of General A.I. Denikin on the Don and the offensive of the Petliurists in Ukraine. In mid-February 1919, Makhno signed an agreement with the Bolsheviks, according to which, from February 21, 1919, the rebel army became part of the 1st Zadniprovsk Ukrainian Soviet division of the Ukrainian Front in the status of the 3rd Zadniprovsk brigade. At the same time, the Makhnovist army retained internal autonomy - this was one of the main conditions for cooperation with the Bolsheviks.

However, relations with the Reds at Makhno did not develop. When in May 1919 the whites broke through the defenses and broke into the Donbass, Leon Trotsky declared Makhno “outlawed”. This decision put an end to the alliance of the Bolsheviks and Gulaypolsky anarchists. In mid-July 1919, Makhno headed the Revolutionary Military Council of the United Revolutionary Rebel Army of Ukraine (RPAU), and when his rival and opponent Ataman Grigoryev was killed, he took over as the RPAU commander-in-chief.

Throughout 1919, the army of Makhno fought against both the whites and the Petliurists. On September 1, 1919, Makhno proclaimed the creation of the “Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine (Makhnovists),” and when Yekaterinoslav was busy with it, Makhno began to build an anarchist republic. Of course, it is unlikely that Father Makhno’s experiment can be called successful from a socio-economic point of view - in the conditions of the Civil War, the ongoing hostilities against several opponents, it was very difficult to deal with any economic issues.

Nevertheless, the social experiment of the Makhnovists became one of the few attempts to “materialize” the anarchist idea of \u200b\u200ba powerless society. In fact, of course there was power in Gulyaypol. And this power was no less rigid than tsarist or Bolshevik - in fact, Nestor Makhno was a dictator who had extraordinary powers and was free to do what he wanted at a particular moment. Probably, otherwise it was impossible in those conditions. Makhno tried his best. maintain discipline - severely punished subordinates for looting and for anti-Semitism, although in some cases he could easily give estates for plunder to his fighters.

The Bolsheviks managed to take advantage of the Makhnovists once more - when liberating the Crimean peninsula from whites. By agreement with the Reds, Makhno sent up to 2,500 of his soldiers to storm Perekop under the command of Semyon Karetnik, one of his closest associates. But as soon as the Makhnovists helped the Reds break into the Crimea, the Bolshevik leadership quickly decided to get rid of dangerous allies. According to Karetnik’s detachment, machine-gun fire was opened, only 250 fighters who returned to Gulyaipol and told about everything to the father managed to survive. Soon, the Red Army command demanded that Makhno relocate his army to the South Caucasus, but the Old Man did not obey this order and began to retreat from Gulyaypol.

On August 28, 1921, Nestor Makhno, accompanied by a detachment of 78 people, crossed the border with Romania in the Yampol region. All Makhnovists were immediately disarmed by the Romanian authorities and placed in a special camp. The Soviet leadership at that time to no avail demanded that Bucharest extradite Makhno and his associates. While the Romanians were negotiating with Moscow, Makhno, together with his wife Galina and 17 colleagues, managed to escape to neighboring Poland. Here they also ended up in an internment camp, and received a very unfriendly attitude from the Polish leadership. Only in 1924, thanks to the ties of Russian anarchists living at that time abroad, Nestor Makhno and his wife received permission to travel to neighboring Germany.

In April 1925, they settled in Paris, in the apartment of the artist Jean (Ivan) Lebedev, a Russian emigrant and an active participant in the Russian and French anarchist movement. During his stay with Lebedev, Makhno mastered the simple craft of weaving slippers and began to earn a living from this. Yesterday's insurgent commander, who kept all of Little Russia and New Russia at bay, lived in almost poverty, barely earning a living. Nestora continued to torment and a serious illness - tuberculosis. The numerous wounds received during the Civil War also made themselves felt.

But, despite his state of health, Nestor Makhno continued to maintain contacts with local anarchists, regularly participated in the events of French anarchist organizations, including May Day demonstrations. It is known that when the anarchist movement intensified in Spain in the early 1930s, the Spanish revolutionaries called Makhno to come and become one of the leaders. But health no longer allowed the Gulaypol dad to take up arms again.

July 6 (according to other sources - July 25), 1934 Nestor Makhno died of bone tuberculosis in a hospital in Paris. July 28, 1934 his body was cremated, and the urn with ashes was immured in the wall of the columbarium of the Pere Lachaise cemetery. His wife Galina and daughter Elena subsequently returned to the Soviet Union, lived in the Dzhambul of the Kazakh SSR. The daughter of Nestor Makhno, Elena Mikhnenko, died in 1992.

“Old Man”, Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Revolutionary Workers and Peasants Army of the Yekaterinoslavsky District, commander of the Red Army brigade, commander of the 1st Rebel Division, commander of the “Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine”.
  Makhno himself considered himself a military commander, and not the leader of the population of the occupied territory.

Nestor Ivanovich Makhno was born on October 26, 1888 in the village of Gulyai-pole of the Ekaterinoslav province in a peasant family. It was a large village, in which there were even factories, in one of which he worked as a foundry worker.

The revolution of 1905 fascinated the young worker, he joined the Social Democrats, and in 1906 joined the group of “free growers” \u200b\u200b—anarchist communists, participated in raids and propaganda of the principles of anarchy. In July-August 1908 the group was uncovered, Makhno was arrested and in 1910, together with accomplices, was sentenced to death by a military court. However, many years before, Makhno’s parents changed his date of birth for a year, and he was considered a minor. In this regard, the execution was replaced by indefinite hard labor.
In 1911, Makhno ended up in Moscow Butyrs. Here he was engaged in self-education and met with the more “savvy” in anarchist teachings, Peter Arshinov, who would later become one of the ideologists of the Makhnovist movement. In prison, Makhno fell ill with tuberculosis, and his lung was removed.

The February Revolution of 1917 opened the doors of the prison in front of Makhno, and in March he returned to Gulyai-Pole. Makhno gained popularity as a fighter against the autocracy and speaker at the gatherings of the population, was elected to the local government - the Public Committee. He became the leader of the Gulyai-Polish group of anarcho-communists, which subordinated the Public Committee to its influence and established control over the network of public structures of the region, including the Peasant Union (from August - Council), the Council of Workers' Deputies and the trade union. Makhno headed the volost executive committee of the Peasant Union, which actually became the authority in the region.

After the start of Kornilov’s speech, Makhno and his supporters created the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution under the Council and confiscated weapons from the landlords, kulaks and German colonists in favor of their detachment. In September, the volost congress of Soviets and peasant organizations convened by the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution in Gulyai-Pole proclaimed the confiscation of landowners' lands, which were transferred to peasant farms and communes. So Makhno ahead of Lenin in the implementation of the slogan "Earth - to the peasants!"

On October 4, 1917, Makhno was elected Chairman of the Board of the Professional Union of Metalworkers, Woodworkers and Other Professions, which brought together virtually all the workers of the Gulyai Field and a number of neighboring enterprises (including mills). Makhno, who combined union leadership with leadership in the largest local armed political group, forced entrepreneurs to fulfill workers' demands. On October 25, the union’s board decided: “It is incumbent on workers who are not members of the union to immediately join the Union, otherwise they risk losing the Union’s support.” A course was taken towards the universal introduction of an eight-hour working day. In December 1917, Makhno, busy with other affairs, transferred the chairmanship of the trade union to his deputy A. Mishchenko.

Makhno was already faced with new tasks - a power struggle broke out around the supporters and opponents of the Soviets. Makhno stood for the power of the Soviets. Together with the detachment of the walk-polish, commanded by his brother Savva, Nestor disarmed the Cossacks, then took part in the work of the Alexander Revolutionary Committee, and also led the revolutionary in Gulyai-Pole. In December, at the initiative of Makhno, the Second Congress of Soviets of the Gulyai-Polish District convened, which adopted the resolution "Death to the Central Council". The Makhnovsky district was not going to submit to either the Ukrainian, red, or white authorities.

At the end of 1917, a daughter was born to Makhno from Anna Vassetskaya. Makhno lost contact with this family in the maelstrom of spring 1918. After the conclusion of the Brest Peace in March 1918, German troops began to advance to Ukraine. Residents of the Gulyai-Pole formed a "free battalion" of about 200 soldiers, and now Makhno himself took command. He went to the headquarters of the Red Guard to get weapons. In his absence, on the night of April 15-16, a coup in favor of Ukrainian nationalists was committed in Gulyai-Pole. At the same time, a detachment of nationalists suddenly attacked the “free battalion” and disarmed it.

These events took Makhno by surprise. He was forced to retreat to Russia. At the end of April 1918, at a meeting of the Gulyai-Polish anarchists in Taganrog, it was decided to return to the area in a few months. In April-June 1918, Makhno travels to Russia, visiting Rostov-on-Don, Saratov, Tsaritsyn, Astrakhan and Moscow. Revolutionary Russia causes him complex feelings. On the one hand, he saw the Bolsheviks as allies in the revolutionary struggle. On the other hand, it was very cruel that they crushed the revolution "for themselves", creating a new, already their own power, and not the power of the Soviets.
  In June 1918, Makhno met with leaders of the anarchists, including P.A. Kropotkin, was among the visitors of V.I. Lenin and Ya.M. Sverdlov. In a conversation with Lenin, Makhno presented to him on behalf of the peasantry his vision of the principles of Soviet power as self-government, and argued that the anarchists in the village of Ukraine are more influential than the communists. Lenin made a strong impression on Makhno, the Bolsheviks helped the anarchist leader to cross over to occupied Ukraine.

In July 1918, Makhno returned to the vicinity of Gulyai Pole, then created a small partisan detachment, which in September began military operations, attacking estates, German colonies, invaders and employees of the hetman Skoropadsky. The first major battle with the Austro-Hungarian troops and supporters of the Ukrainian state in the village of Dibrivki (B. Mikhailovka) turned out to be successful for the partisans, bringing Makhno an honorary nickname "father". In the area of \u200b\u200bDibrivok, detachment Makhno teamed up with detachment F. Schusya. Then other local detachments began to join Makhno. Successful partisans began to receive the support of peasants. Makhno emphasized the anti-landlord and anti-kulak nature of his actions.

The collapse of the occupation regime after the November Revolution in Germany caused a surge in rebel movement and the collapse of the Hetman Skoropadsky regime. As the Austro-German forces were evacuated, detachments coordinated by the Makhno headquarters began to take control of the area around the Gulyai Pole. On November 27, 1918, Makhno’s forces occupied the Gulyai-Pole and did not leave him. The rebels ousted the invaders from their area, defeated the opposing farms and estates, and established links with local governments. Makhno fought with unauthorized extortions and robberies. Local rebels were subordinate to the main headquarters of the rebel troops "named after Old Man Makhno." In the south of the district there were clashes with the troops of Ataman Krasnov and the Volunteer Army.
  In mid-December, hostilities began between the Makhnovists and supporters of the UPR. Makhno concluded an agreement on joint actions with the Yekaterinoslav Bolsheviks and was appointed Provincial Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Revolutionary Workers and Peasants Army of the Yekaterinoslav District. On December 27-31, 1918, Makhno, in alliance with a detachment of Bolsheviks, recaptured Yekaterinoslav from the Petliurites. But the Petliurists launched a counterattack and recaptured the city; Makhno and the Communists accused each other of defeating. Having lost half of the detachment, Makhno returned to the left bank of the Dnieper.

Makhno considered himself a military commander, and not the leader of the population of the occupied territory. The principles of the organization of political power were determined by congresses of front-line soldiers and Soviets. The First Congress was held on January 23, 1919 without the participation of Makhno and began preparations for a more representative II Congress.
In January 1919, units of the Volunteer Army launched an offensive on Gulyai-Pole. The Makhnovists suffered from a lack of ammunition and weapons, which forced them to enter into an alliance with the Bolsheviks on January 26, 1919. On February 19, the Makhnovist detachments entered the 1st Zadniprovsky division of the Red Army under the command of P.E. Dybenko as the 3rd brigade under the command of Makhno.

With the Order of the Red Banner for No. 4 (perhaps this is a legend, no one can say for sure, it is not in the award lists, although this does not mean anything yet).

Having received red ammunition, on February 4 Makhno went on the offensive and took Bamut, Volnovakha, Berdyansk and Mariupol, defeating the White group. The peasants, obeying "voluntary mobilization", sent their sons to the Makhnovist regiments. The villages patronized their regiments, the fighters elected commanders, the commanders discussed the upcoming operations with the fighters, each soldier knew his task well. This "military democracy" gave the Makhnovists unique combat readiness. The growth of Makhno’s army was limited only by the ability to arm recruits. 15-20 thousand armed fighters accounted for more than 30 thousand unarmed reserve.

On February 8, 1919, in his appeal, Makhno put forward the following task: “Building a true Soviet system, in which the Soviets, elected by the workers, would be the servants of the people, the executors of those laws, of those orders that the workers themselves would write at the All-Ukrainian Labor Congress ...”

  “Our labor community will have all the power in itself and its will, its own economic and other plans and considerations, and will conduct it through its bodies, which it itself creates, but which it does not endow with any authority, but only certain instructions”, Makhno and Arshinov wrote in May 1919.

Subsequently, Makhno called his views anarcho-communism of the "Bakunin-Kropotkin style."

Speaking at the II Gulyai-Polish District Congress of Front-line Soldiers, Soviets and Divisions on February 14, 1919, Makhno said: “I urge you to unite, because in unity the guarantee of the victory of the revolution over those who sought to strangle it. If the Bolshevik comrades go from Great Russia to Ukraine to help us in the difficult struggle against the counter-revolution, we must say to them: “Welcome, dear friends!” But if they come here with the goal of monopolizing Ukraine, we will tell them: “Hands off!” We ourselves we are able to raise the height of the emancipation of the laboring peasantry, we ourselves will be able to arrange a new life for ourselves - where there will be no males, slaves, oppressed and oppressors. ”

Hiding behind the slogan of “the dictatorship of the proletariat”, the Bolshevik communists declared a monopoly on revolution for their party, considering all dissenters to be counter-revolutionaries ... We urge the workers' and peasants’s comrades not to entrust the liberation of the working people of any party, of any central authority: liberation workers is the work of the workers themselves. ”

At the congress, the political organ of the Military Revolutionary Council (VRS) movement was elected. The party composition of the VRS was left-socialist - 7 anarchists, 3 left Social Revolutionaries and 2 Bolsheviks and one sympathizing with them. Makhno was elected an honorary member of the VRS. Thus, on the territory controlled by the Makhnovists, an independent system of Soviet power emerged, autonomous from the central authority of the Ukrainian SSR. This caused mutual distrust of Makhno and the Soviet command.

Makhno invited anarchist brigade to the area of \u200b\u200boperation to promote anarchist views and cultural and educational work. Of the visiting anarchists, the influence on Makhno was of old comrade P.A. Arshinov. In the area where the Makhnovists were operating, political freedom existed for leftist movements - Bolsheviks, Left Socialist-Revolutionaries and Anarchists. Makhno received the chief of staff, left Social Revolutionary Y.V., sent by the chief of staff Dybenko. Ozerov and the Communist Commissars. They were engaged in propaganda, but had no political power.

The commander of the Ukrainian Front V. Antonov-Ovseenko, who visited the district in May 1919, reported: “children's communes, schools are being established, - Gulyai-Pole - one of the most cultural centers of New Russia - there are three secondary schools, etc. Through the efforts of Makhno, ten hospitals were opened for the wounded, a workshop was organized to repair the guns and castles for the guns were made. ”

The Communists endured the frankly anti-Bolshevik character of the Makhnovists ’speeches while the Makhnovists were advancing. But in April, the front stabilized, the struggle with Denikinites was with varying success. The Bolsheviks took a course towards eliminating the special situation of the Makhnovsky district. Heavy battles and supply disruptions exhausted the Makhnovists more and more.

On April 10, the III district congress of peasants, workers and rebels in Gulyai-Pole adopted decisions against the military-communist policy of the RCP (B.). Nachdiv Dybenko responded with a telegram: "Any congresses convened on behalf of the military-revolutionary headquarters dismissed in accordance with my order are considered clearly counter-revolutionary, and the organizers of such will be subjected to the most repressive measures until the outlawing." The congress responded with a sharp rebuke to the commander, which further compromised Makhno in the eyes of the command.

April 15, 1919 a member of the PJS Yuzhfronta G. Ya. Sokolnikov, with the consent of some of the members of the RCF of the Ukrfront, put before the chairman of the RCF of the Republic L.D. Trotsky question of the elimination of Makhno from command.
  On April 25, an article “Down with the Makhnovism” appeared in Kharkov Izvestia, which said: “The rebel movement of the peasantry accidentally fell under the leadership of Makhno and his“ Military Revolutionary Headquarters ”, in which they found refuge and recklessly anarchist, and white-left Socialist-Revolutionary, and other remnants of the “former” revolutionary parties that have decayed. Having fallen under the leadership of such elements, the movement has significantly lost its strength, the successes associated with its rise could not be fixed by the anarchism of actions ... The outrages that occur in Makhno’s “kingdom” must be put to an end. ” This article outraged Makhno and raised concern that it was a prelude to an attack by the Bolsheviks. On April 29, he ordered some of the commissars to be detained, deciding that the Bolsheviks were preparing an attack on the Makhnovists: "Let the Bolsheviks sit with us as they are in our Cheka’s casemates."

The conflict was resolved during negotiations between Makhno and Ukrainian Front Commander V.A. Antonova-Ovseenko. Makhno even condemned the harshest provisions of the resolutions of the Congress of Soviets of the region, and promised to impede the election of the command staff, which (apparently, due to the contagious example) were so feared in neighboring parts of the Red Army. Moreover, commanders have already been selected, and no one was going to change them at this time.

But, having made some concessions, the Old Man put forward a new, fundamentally important idea that could try on two strategies of the revolution: “Before a decisive victory over whites, a revolutionary front must be established, and he (Makhno. - A.Sh.) seeks to prevent civil strife between the various elements of this revolutionary front. "

On May 1, the brigade was withdrawn from submission to the division of P.E. Dybenko is subordinate to the emerging 7th Division of the 2nd Ukrainian Army, which never became a real formation. In fact, not only the 7th division, but the entire 2nd army consisted of a Makhno brigade and several regiments, which were significantly inferior to it in number.

Ataman N.A. filed a new reason for the growth of mutual distrust. Grigoriev, who raised a rebellion on right-bank Ukraine on May 6. On May 12, a “military congress” convened under the chairmanship of Makhno, that is, a meeting of the command staff, representatives of units and the political leadership of the Makhnovsky movement. Makhno and congress condemned the speech of N.A. Grigoryeva, but also criticized the Bolsheviks, who provoked an uprising with their policies. The Military Congress proclaimed the reorganization of the 3rd Brigade into the 1st Rebel Division under the command of Makhno.
  The reason for the new aggravation of relations with the Communists was the deployment of the 3rd brigade into the division. The paradoxical situation, when the brigade made up a large part of the army, interfered with the appropriate supply, and the interaction of the command with the huge "brigade", and the management of its units. The Soviet command at first agreed to the reorganization, and then refused to create a division under the command of the obstinate opposition commander. On May 22, Trotsky, who arrived in Ukraine, called such plans "the preparation of a new Grigoryevschina." On May 25, at a meeting of the Workers 'and Peasants' Defense Council of Ukraine, chaired by H. Rakovsky, the issue of “Makhnovshchina and its liquidation” was discussed. It was decided to “liquidate Makhno” by the forces of the regiment.

Upon learning of the intentions of the command, Makhno on May 28, 1919 announced that he was ready to relinquish his powers, as he “never aspired to high ranks” and “would do more in the future among the lower classes for the revolution”. But on May 29, 1919, the headquarters of the Makhnovsky division decided: “1) to urge Comrade Makhno to remain with his duties and powers, which Comrade Makhno tried to relieve himself; 2) convert all the forces of the Makhnovists into an independent rebel army, entrusting the leadership of this army to Comrade Makhno. The army is operatively subordinate to the Southern Front, since the latter’s operational orders will come from the lively needs of the revolutionary front. ” In response to this step, the RCF of the Southern Front on May 29, 1919 decided to arrest Makhno and give it to the Revolutionary Tribunal. Makhno did not accept the title of commander and continued to consider himself a divisional commander.

This was announced when the Southern Front itself began to fall apart under the blows of Denikin. The headquarters of the Makhnovists called for the restoration of unity: “We need unity, unity. Only with a common effort and consciousness, with a common understanding of our struggle and our common interests for which we are fighting, will we save the revolution ... Come on, comrades, all sorts of party disagreements, they will ruin you. "

On May 31, the VRS announced the convening of the IV Congress of District Councils. The center regarded the decision to convene a new "unauthorized" congress as preparation for an anti-Soviet uprising. On June 3, the commander of the Southern Front V. Gittis ordered the liquidation of the “Makhnovism” to begin and the arrest of Makhno.
  On June 6, Makhno sent a telegram to V.I. Lenin, L.D. Trotsky, L.B. Kamenev and K.E. Voroshilov, in which he proposed "to send a good military leader who, having examined the case at my place, could take command of the division from me."

On June 9, Makhno sent a telegram to V.I. Lenin, L.D. Kamenev, G.E. Zinoviev, L.D. Trotsky, K.E. Voroshilov, in which he summed up his relationship with the communist regime: “The hostile and recently offensive behavior of the central government that I noted has led to rebellion with the fatal inevitability of creating a special internal front, on both sides of which there will be a mass of people who believe in revolution. "I consider this the greatest crime that is never forgiven before the working people and I consider myself obligated to do everything possible to prevent this crime ... The most reliable way to prevent a crime looming from the side of the authorities, I consider my resignation from my post."
  Meanwhile, whites invaded the Gulyai Pole area. For some time, with a small detachment, Makhno still fought side by side with the red units, but on June 15 left the front with a small detachment. Its units continued to fight in the ranks of the Red Army. On the night of June 16, seven members of the Makhnovsky headquarters were shot by the verdict of the Donbass Revtribunul. Chief of Staff Ozerov continued to fight with the whites, but on August 2, by the verdict of the VUCHK, he was shot. Makhno gave money to the groups of anarchists who traveled to prepare terrorist acts against the whites (M.G. Nikiforova and others) and the Bolsheviks (K. Kovalevich and others). On June 21, 1919, the Makhno detachment crossed to the right bank of the Dnieper.

In July, Makhno married Galina Kuzmenko, who for many years became his fighting girlfriend.

Makhno tried to stay away from the front lines, so as not to contribute to the success of the whites. Detachment Makhno July 10, 1919 attacked Elisavetgrad. On July 11, 1919, the Makhnovists united with the detachment of the nationalist Ataman N.A. Grigoryeva. In accordance with the agreement of the two leaders, Grigoryev was declared commander, and Makhno - chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Rebel Army. The chief of staff was Brother Makhno Gregory. Disagreements arose between the Makhnovists and the Grigorievites in connection with N.A. anti-Semitism. Grigoriev and his unwillingness to fight against whites. July 27 N.A. Grigoriev was killed by the Makhnovists. Makhno sent a telegram to the air: “Everyone, everyone, everyone. Copy - Moscow, Kremlin. We killed the famous chieftain Grigoriev. Signature - Makhno. "

Under pressure from Denikin, the Red Army was forced to retreat from Ukraine. Former Makhnovists, in June under the command of the Bolsheviks, did not want to leave for Russia.

Most of the Makhnovist units operating as part of the Red Army, as well as part of the 58th Red Division, went over to the Makhno side. September 1, 1919 at a meeting of the army command in the village. The “Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine (Makhnovists)” was proclaimed to Dobrovelichkovka, the new Revolutionary Military Council and the army headquarters, headed by the commander of Makhno, were elected.
  Superior White forces pushed the Makhnovists under Uman. Here the Makhnovists made an “alliance” with the Petliurites, to whom they handed over their convoy with the wounded.

In July-August 1919, the White Army advanced in the vastness of Russia and Ukraine to Moscow and Kiev. The officers peered into the horizon. A few more victorious battles, and Moscow will meet its liberators with a bell ringing. On the flank of the Denikin’s campaign in Moscow, it was necessary to solve the “simple” task - to finish off the remnants of the southern group of the Reds, the Makhno gang and, if possible, the Ukrainian nationalist Petlyura, who was confused under the feet of Russian statehood. After the white forces drove the Reds out of Yekaterinoslav in a dashing raid and thereby overcame the Dnieper’s barrier, the cleansing of Ukraine seemed to be a settled matter. But, when in early September the whites entered the area where Makhno gathered his forces, difficulties arose. On September 6, the Makhnovists launched a counterattack under the Assistant. They moved from all sides, and the inconsistent crowd before the attack itself turned into a tight formation. The whites fought back, but it turned out that Makhno at that time circumvented their positions and seized the convoy with ammunition. “Father” needed them.

On September 22, 1919, General Slashchev gave the order to end Makhno in the Uman area. How much time can you spend on this gang! Of course, the Makhnovists are numerous, but this is a rabble, and the disciplined forces of the Volunteer Army are superior to bandits in their combat effectiveness. After all, they are driving the Reds! Parts of Slashchev dispersed in different directions to drive the beast. The Simferopol White Regiment occupied the distillation. The trap slammed shut. The detachment of General Sklyarov entered Uman and began to wait for the "game" to be driven to him.

  "Game" meanwhile drove the hunters herself. On September 26, a terrible roar rang out - the Makhnovists undermined their stockpile of mines, which were still difficult to carry with them. It was both a signal and a “psychic attack”. The cavalry and infantry mass rushed at the whites, supported by many machine guns on carts. The Denikinites could not stand it and began to seek salvation on the heights, thereby opening the way to the Makhnovists for key crossings and forks in the roads. At night, the Makhnovists were already everywhere, the cavalry chased the departing and fleeing. On the morning of September 27, the Makhnovist cavalry mass crushed the Lithuanian battalion and cut down those who did not manage to scatter. This formidable force moved on, destroying whites that fell in the way. Having rolled up the guns, the Makhnovists began to shoot the battle formations pressed to the river. Their commander, Captain Gattenberger, realizing that defeat is inevitable, shot himself. Having killed the remaining whites, the Makhnovists moved to Uman and knocked out Sklyarov’s forces from there. Slashchev's regiments were broken up in parts, the Denikin front was broken through on the flank.

The Makhnovist army, plunging into carts, moved along the deep rear of Denikin. Looking at this breakthrough, one of the surviving officers sadly said: "At that moment, great Russia lost the war." He was not so far from the truth. The Denikin rear was disorganized, in the center of the white Volunteer a Makhnovia hole was formed. And then the news came - the same force delivered a blow to the Bolsheviks almost to the very heart of their regime - on September 25, the Moscow City Committee of the Communist Party took off. Anarchists avenged the Communists for the comrades Makhno who were shot by the Revolutionary Tribunal. This was the third force of the Civil War, subject to its will and its logic.
Makhno’s army broke free into the rear of Denikin’s troops. Makhno, commanding the central column of rebels, at the beginning of October occupied Alexandrovsk and Gulyai-Pole. In the area of \u200b\u200bGulyai-Pole, Aleksandrovsk and Yekaterinoslav, an extensive rebel zone arose, which pulled out a portion of the white forces during Denikin’s attack on Moscow.

In the Makhnovsky district on October 27 - November 2, a congress of peasants, workers and rebels was held in Aleksandrovsk. In his speech, Makhno stated that “the best volunteer regiments are gene. Denikin was utterly broken up against insurgent detachments, "but he criticized the Communists, who" sent punitive detachments to "suppress the counter-revolution" and prevented free rebellion in the fight against Denikin. " Makhno called for joining the army "to destroy all violent power and counter-revolution." After the speeches of the working delegates of the Mensheviks, Makhno again took the floor and sharply opposed the "underground agitation by the Mensheviks," whom, like the Socialist Revolutionaries, he called "political charlatans", urged "not to give mercy" to them and "drive them out." After that, part of the working delegates left the congress. Makhno in response stated that he did not “brand” all the workers, but only “charlatans”. On November 1, he appeared in the newspaper “The Way to Freedom” with the article “It Can't Be Otherwise”: “Is it permissible for the workers of the city of Aleksandrovsk and its entourage, represented by their Menshevik delegates and right-wing Social Revolutionaries, to be free business workers and peasants and "were the opposition of the Denikin constituent party holding the rebel congress?"

October 28 - December 19 (with an interval of 4 days), the Makhnovists held the large city of Yekaterinoslav. Enterprises were handed over to those who work for them. On October 15, 1919, Makhno turned to the railway workers: “In order to speedily restore normal railway traffic in the area liberated by us, and also on the basis of the principle of arranging a free life by the workers and peasant organizations and their associations, I suggest that the comrade railway workers and employees organize themselves vigorously and establish the movement itself, setting a reward for its labor for a sufficient fee from passengers and cargo, except for the military, organizing its cash desk on comradely and fair principles and x entering into the closest relations with the workers' organizations, peasant communities and the rebel units. "

In November 1919, on charges of plotting and poisoning Makhno, counterintelligence arrested a group of Communists led by the regiment M. Polonsky. On December 2, 1919, the accused were shot. In December 1919, the Makhnovist army was disorganized by the typhoid epidemic, and then Makhno became ill.

Having retreated from Yekaterinoslav under the onslaught of the whites, Makhno with the main forces of the army retreated to Alexandrovsk. On January 5, 1920, parts of the 45th Red Army division arrived here. In negotiations with representatives of the Red Command, Makhno and representatives of his headquarters demanded that they allocate a front section for them to fight the whites and maintain control over their area. Makhno and his headquarters insisted on a formal agreement with the Soviet leadership. January 6, 1920. The commander of 14 I.P. Uborevich ordered Makhno to advance to the Polish front. Without waiting for an answer, the All-Ukrainian Revolutionary Committee on January 9, 1920 declared Makhno illegal under the pretext of not fulfilling his order to go to the Polish front. The Reds attacked the headquarters of Makhno in Aleksandrovsk, but on January 10, 1920, he managed to escape to Gulyai-Pole.
  At a meeting of the command staff in Gulyai-Pole on January 11, 1920, it was decided to provide the rebels with a monthly vacation. Makhno declared his readiness to "go hand in hand" with the Red Army, while maintaining independence. At that time, more than two divisions of the Reds attacked, disarmed and partially shot the Makhnovists, including the sick. Brother Makhno Gregory was captured and shot, and in February - another brother Savva, who was engaged in the supply of the Makhnovist army. Makhno went into an illegal position for the duration of his illness.

After the recovery of Makhno in February 1920, the Makhnovists resumed military operations against the Reds. In the winter and spring, an exhausting guerrilla war broke out, the Makhnovists attacked small detachments, workers of the Bolshevik apparatus, warehouses, distributing stocks of bread to the peasants. In the area of \u200b\u200boperations of Makhno, the Bolsheviks were forced to go underground, and openly acted only accompanied by large military units. In May 1920, the Council of the Revolutionary rebels of Ukraine (Makhnovists) was created, headed by Makhno, which included the chief of staff V.F. Belash, commanders Kalashnikov, Kurilenko and Karetnikov. The name of the SRPU emphasized that we are not talking about the usual PBC for a civil war, but about the “wandering” authority of the Makhnovist republic.

Wrangel's attempts to establish an alliance with Makhno ended in the execution of the emissary of the whites by decision of the SRPU and the headquarters of the Makhnovists on July 9, 1920.
In March-May 1920, detachments under the command of Makhno fought with units of the 1st Cavalry Army, VOKhR and other forces of the Red Army. In the summer of 1920, the army under the general command of Makhno numbered more than 10 thousand soldiers. On July 11, 1920, the Makhno army launched a raid outside its area, during which it took the cities of Izum, Zenkov, Mirgorod, Starobelsk, and Millerovo. On August 29, 1920, Makhno was seriously wounded in the leg (in total, Makhno had more than 10 injuries).

Under the conditions of the Wrangel advance, when the White occupied the Gulyai-Pole, Makhno and his SRPU were not opposed to conclude a new alliance with the Reds, if they were ready to recognize the equal rights of the Makhnovists and the Bolsheviks. At the end of September, consultations about the union began. On October 1, after a preliminary agreement on the cessation of hostilities with the Reds, Makhno, in an appeal to the rebels operating in Ukraine, urged them to cease hostilities against the Bolsheviks: “Remaining indifferent spectators, the Ukrainian rebels would help to reign in Ukraine either a historical enemy - the Polish pan, or again royal authority, led by the German baron. " On October 2, an agreement was signed between the government of the Ukrainian SSR and the SRPU (Makhnovists). In accordance with the agreement between the Makhnovists and the Red Army, hostilities ceased, an amnesty was announced in Ukraine to the anarchists and Makhnovists, they received the right to propagate their ideas without calls for the violent overthrow of the Soviet government, to participate in councils and in the elections to the Fifth Congress of Soviets, scheduled for December. The parties mutually pledged not to accept deserters. The Makhnovist army passed into operational subordination to the Soviet command with the condition that “it retains the previously established routine”.
  Acting together with the Red Army, on October 26, 1920, the Makhnovists liberated the Gulyai-Pole, where Makhno was located, from the whites. The best forces of the Makhnovists (2,400 sabers, 1,900 bayonets, 450 machine guns and 32 guns) under the command of S. Karetnikov were sent to the front against Wrangel (Makhno himself, wounded in the leg, remained in Gulyai-Pole) and participated in forcing Sivash.

After defeating the whites on November 26, 1920, the Reds suddenly attacked the Makhnovists. Having taken command of the army, Makhno managed to escape from the blow inflicted on his forces in Gulyai-Pole. The Southern Front of the Red Army under the command of M.V. Frunze, relying on a multiple superiority in forces, managed to surround Makhno in Andreevka near the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov, but on December 14-18 Makhno broke into the operational space. However, he had to leave on the Right Bank of the Dnieper, where the Makhnovists did not have sufficient support from the population. During heavy fighting in January-February 1921, the Makhnovists broke into their native places. On March 13, 1921, Makhno was again seriously wounded in the leg.

May 22, 1921 Makhno moved to a new raid to the north. Despite the fact that the headquarters of the unified army was restored, the forces of the Makhnovists were dispersed, Makhno was able to concentrate only 1300 fighters for action in the Poltava region. In late June - early July M.V. Frunze inflicted a sensitive defeat on the Makhnovist strike group in the area of \u200b\u200bthe Sulla and Psel rivers. Following the announcement of the NEP, peasant support for the rebels weakened. On July 16, 1921, at a meeting in Isaevka near Taganrog, Makhno offered his army to break through to Galicia in order to raise an uprising there. But disagreement arose over further actions, and only a minority of fighters followed Makhno.

Makhno with a small detachment broke through Ukraine to the Romanian border and on August 28, 1921 crossed the Dniester to Bessarabia.

Tanks Wrangel.

Once in Romania, the Makhnovists were disarmed by the authorities, in 1922 they moved to Poland and were placed in an internment camp. On April 12, 1922, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee announced a political amnesty, which did not apply to 7 “inveterate criminals,” including Makhno. The Soviet authorities demanded the extradition of Makhno as a "bandit." In 1923, Makhno with his wife and two associates was arrested and charged with preparing an uprising in Eastern Galicia. October 30, 1923 at the Warsaw prison at Makhno and Kuzmenko daughter Elena was born. Makhno and his associates were acquitted by the court. In 1924, Makhno moved to Danzig, where he was again arrested in connection with the killings of Germans during the Civil War. Having fled from Danzig to Berlin, Makhno arrived in Paris in April 1925, and from 1926 settled in the suburbs of Vincennes. Here Makhno worked as a turner, joiner, painter and shoemaker. He participated in public discussions about the Makhnovist movement and anarchism.

In the years 1923-1933. Makhno published articles and brochures on the history of the Makhnovist movement, the theory and practice of anarchism and the labor movement, and criticism of the communist regime. In November 1925, Makhno wrote about anarchism: "the lack of an organization capable of opposing its living forces to the enemies of the Revolution made it a helpless organizer." Therefore, it is necessary to create a "Union of Anarchists, built on the principle of general discipline and common leadership of all anarchist forces."
  In June 1926, Arshinov and Makhno put forward a draft of the "Organizational platform of the General Union of Anarchists", which proposed uniting the world's anarchists on the basis of discipline, combining the anarchist principles of self-government with institutions where "leading posts of the country's economic and social life" are preserved. Supporters of the Platform held a conference in March 1927, which proceeded to the creation of the International Anarcho-Communist Federation. Makhno entered the secretariat at the convening of her congress. But soon the leading theorists of anarchism criticized the project "Platforms" as too authoritarian, contrary to the principles of the anarchist movement. Desperate to come to an agreement with the anarchists, in 1931 Arshinov switched to the position of Bolshevism, and the idea of \u200b\u200b"platformism" failed. Makhno did not forgive the old comrade for this renegade.
  A peculiar political testament of Makhno was his 1931 letter to the Spanish anarchists H. Carbo and A. Pestanya, in which he warned them against an alliance with the Communists during the revolution that began in Spain. Makhno warns the Spanish comrades: "Having experienced relative freedom, the anarchists, like the townsfolk, were carried away by free-speaking."

Makhno with her daughter.

Since 1929, Makhno's exacerbated tuberculosis, he took part in social activities less and less, but continued to work on memoirs. The first volume was published in 1929, the other two posthumously. There he set forth his views on the future anarchist system: "I thought of such a system only in the form of a free Soviet system, in which the whole country is covered by completely free local and independent social and social self-government of workers."

In early 1934, Makhno exacerbated tuberculosis, he was hospitalized. He died in July.

The ashes of Makhno were buried in the Pere Lachaise cemetery near the graves of Parisian communards. Two years after his death, the black banner of anarchy that fell out of Makhno’s hands will again develop next to the red and republican banners in revolutionary Spain - contrary to the warnings of the father and in accordance with the experience of the Makhnovist movement, in accordance with the very logic of the fight against oppression and exploitation.

Name: Nestor Mahno

Age: 45 years

Place of Birth: Gulyaypole, Russia

Place of death: Paris, France

Activity: political and military figure, anarchist

Family status: was married

Nestor Makhno - biography

Historians often painted Makhno an ataman of slobs who did not recognize order and lived in a robbery. This was partly true. But why the mighty Red Army and the well-trained White Guard regiments could not cope with yesterday's farm laborers, historians could not answer.
Born October 26, 1888. Also known as "Father Makhno."

The transformation of Nestor’s couple into the dashing ataman Makhno did not happen overnight. It all began in 1906 at the iron foundry in Gulyai-Pole, where the teenage laborer was taken as an apprentice. It was here that the fragile consciousness was replenished with the first information about the struggle of the proletariat for their rights. But Nestor was more concerned about laborers than workers, but this did not change the essence of the matter. He was pleased to participate in tasks assigned by senior comrades, and at the age of 18 he was arrested for possession of weapons.

Nestor Makhno - Sentenced to the Gallows

During interrogations, Nestor was silent, like a fish, and did not betray anyone. He was released, but the lesson did not go in vain. Despite the mother’s attempt to marry her son, the guy was not ready for marriage and abandoned the bridegroom. And six months later, in 1908, he took part in an attack on prison staff, ending in a double murder. Almost all the detainees were sentenced to death, and 20-year-old Nestor was no exception. A heartbroken mother in despair wrote a letter to the king asking for pardon of her son. And a miracle happened - the execution was replaced by life imprisonment.

During his imprisonment, Makhno was beaten more than once; he sat six times in a punishment cell, where he caught tuberculosis. Doctors were categorical: the disease is progressing, it is necessary to remove the lung. No one hoped he would survive, but Nestor scrambled out.

Makhno talked a lot with political prisoners. One of them is a classic of anarchism - Peter Arshinov became a mentor for him, forced him to work on self-education: literature, history, mathematics, philosophy ... The February Revolution interrupted prison universities.

To the sounds of the Marseillaise, all political were released. It seemed that Russia had a bright democratic future. The fact that it turns into a bloody nightmare, no one imagined.

After serving nine years for the ideals of the revolution, Makhno returned to his native places an authoritative person. In addition to his mother, a pen-friend Nastya Vasetskaya was waiting for him in Gulyai-Pole. Hungry for female affection, Nestor immediately made her an offer, which the girl accepted. But the love of revolution turned out to be stronger than the love of woman. Leaving his pregnant wife in the care of her mother, Nestor plunged headlong into the maelstrom of revolutionary passions.

Makhno - Protector of the farm laborers

When a German boot stepped onto the land of Ukraine, and in Kiev, the Rada announced independence from Russia, Makhno went around spinning. Black suddenly turned white, and vice versa. In the same prison, he could ask Arshinov for advice, but here Makhno was like a blind kitten.

Finding no answers to the questions, Nestor went to the cities of Russia to meet with leaders of the anarchist movement. So, in Moscow, he saw the classic of anarchism, Prince Kropotkin and mentor Arshinov. But to all persuasion to go with them, the latter refused.

In the Kremlin, Makhno managed to get an appointment with Lenin. The leader of the proletariat liked the future dad, but their views diverged. Nevertheless, Ilyich agreed with a visitor that with the support of local underground workers, he would launch a guerrilla war against German troops. So the first union of the Bolsheviks and the anarchist Makhno was concluded.

At the beginning of the struggle, Makhno’s detachment was one of dozens of gangs scouring for prey. But wherever Nestor came, he convinced the peasants that he stood guard over their interests.

Unlike the Bolsheviks, who proposed nationalizing the land, the Old Man said that it should not belong to someone, and those who cultivate it should be given allotments for use. The villagers liked these speeches, they willingly recorded in the detachment or brought sons into it. Moreover, many villages took patronage of the father’s units to show their unity with him.

War is war, but love has not been canceled: Nestor met the ataman of the anarchist Marus Nikiforov. They say about such people: a horse will stop racing, it will enter a burning hut.

Legends circulated about the dad’s courage, despite his delicate physique, and Marusya could not resist. However, two strong personalities were not destined to get along.

When the beautiful brunette Galya appeared in Nestor's life, he undoubtedly broke off his previous relationship. A former nun, she fled from the monastery and nailed to the army of Makhno, becoming a telephone operator. But the timid young lady Galina Kuzmenko could not be called. She participated in battles, scribbled from a machine gun and personally shot two Makhnovists convicted of looting and violence.

With the Bolsheviks out of the way

Having done away with the Germans, the Bolshevik government was in mortal danger from the army of Denikin. The White Guard general was already preparing to take Moscow, as his semi-literate chieftain Makhno disrupted his plans.

However, it’s wrong to call the ataman the man who commanded the 50,000th army with cavalry, artillery and even airplanes. But how could a man who had never learned tactics, who had under the arms of yesterday's farm laborers, resist the White Guard? But it was Makhno who, in 1919, made a stunning raid on the cities of Donbass, caused a commotion in the rear of Denikins.

For this, the Bolsheviks introduced Makhno to the Order of the Red Banner for number 4. White urgently had to remove the best units from the front and send to suppress the "peasant" rebellion. The delay allowed the Red Army to organize defense and defend Moscow.

However, observing what the Bolsheviks were doing in the occupied villages, how they unceremoniously seized grain and livestock from the peasants, the Old Man thought about it.

This difficult situation was aggravated when General Shkuro began to squeeze the Makhnovists, and those who did not receive ammunition and medicines from the Allies could not keep the defenses and retreated. Upon learning of this, the commander of the Red Army, Trotsky fell into a rage and outlawed Makhno. Yes, only the Old Man was ahead of him, sending a message to the Kremlin that he was devoted to the cause of the revolution, but did not see the same in the Bolsheviks.

In Moscow, the dispatch did not attach much importance. Denikin was still strong, and the Bolsheviks again asked Makhno for help.

Choosing from two evils, Nestor sided with the Communists. And again, as soon as the Denikin threat had passed, the Reds decided to neutralize the peasant leader. Baron Wrangel interfered.

Unlike Denikin, he was a reformer and promised fundamental changes if he won. Wrangel sent Makhno a parliamentarian, but he, not wanting to deal with the nobility, defiantly executed him.

Together with units of the Red Army, the Makhnovists crossed Lake Sivash and defeated Wrangel. Now, nothing prevented the Communists from finally getting rid of their freedom-loving ally. Parts of Makhno were to be disbanded, and refuseniks - to destruction. Old Man with this situation did not agree.

Ultimately, the chieftain was unable to repulse the superior forces and retreated to the border. At the end of the summer of 1921, he was seriously wounded, with his wife and a small detachment, he ended up in Romania, from where he was interned in Poland. A little later, fate threw him to Paris.

In recent years, Nestor Ivanovich lived poorly, barely making ends meet. At the same time, he participated in the work of anarchist cells, was published in the Parisian journal “The Work of Labor”, and fought against slander against him.

Several times, employees of the Cheka tried to liquidate it, but to no avail. In 1934, at the age of 45, Old Man Makhno died of bone tuberculosis. His remains are still buried in the cemetery of Pere Lachaise.

Walk the field now - a sleepy town where a quick Berdyansk train stands for a couple of minutes, where a grandmother of immense size, deftly jumping on rails, offers beer and juicy apples to vacationers. In the bloody and confused years of the Civil there was the capital of a free state - the country of Makhnovia.

There is a legend that at the priest who baptized Nestor Makhno, the vestments lit from the flame of a candle. According to popular belief, this means that a robber was born, whom the world had not seen. Nestor Makhno was born on October 26, 1888. Father, Ivan Makhno, a coachman of a rich Gulaypol rich man, wrote down the date of birth of his son a year later - this was sometimes done so as not to send very young sons to the army (fate: a year later attributed saved Nestor's life). Ivan Rodionovich died early. “Five of us, orphans, are fewer, fewer, left in the hands of an unhappy mother, who had neither a stake nor a yard. I vaguely recall my early childhood, devoid of the usual games and fun for a child, marred by the strong want and deprivation our family until the boys got to their feet and began to earn money for themselves, "Makhno recalled in his memoirs (written, by the way, in Russian - the old man did not know Ukrainian mov).

Eight-year-old Nestor was sent to school. The boy studied well, but at some point he became addicted to skates. He regularly collected books in the morning, but did not appear at school. The teachers have not seen him for weeks. Once at a carnival, Nestor fell through the ice and nearly drowned. Upon learning of the incident, the mother for a long time “regaled” her son with a piece of twisted rope. After the execution, Nestor could not sit for several days, but he became a diligent student. "... In winter, I studied, and in the summer I hired to rich farmers to graze sheep or calves. During threshing, I drove oxen from the landlords in arbs, receiving 25 kopecks (60-70 rubles today) per day."

At the age of 16, Makhno entered a laborer at the Gulaypol Iron Foundry, where he joined the theater circle (an amazing detail that does not fit into our ideas about the working life of the beginning of the century).

In the fall of 1906, Makhno became a member of a group of anarchists. After some time, he was arrested for illegal possession of a pistol (there was a reason for this: Makhno tried to shoot an opponent of his jealous friend), but he was released after infancy.

During the year, the group committed four robberies. On August 27, 1907, Makhno entered into a shootout with the guards and wounded a peasant. After some time, he was detained and identified, but the anarchists either intimidated or bribed witnesses, and they refused the initial testimony. The young anarchist was released. The group committed several killings. Nestor did not participate in these killings, but then they did not particularly understand. The military “Stolypin” court, before which accomplices appeared, gave the gallows and not for that. Makhno saved the registry for a year and her mother's chores: the death penalty was replaced by hard labor.

He spent six years in Butyrka prison (for shameful behavior - in shackles). Here he learned to write poetry, met the anarchist-terrorist Pyotr Arshinov (Marin), and received thorough theoretical training, and not only on the part of anarchism: in conclusion, according to Makhno, he read "all Russian writers, beginning with Sumarokov and ending with Lev Shestov " On March 2, 1917, the revolution liberated Makhno and Arshinov.

Nestor returned home and married a peasant woman, Nastya Vassetskaya, with whom he corresponded while in prison. They had a son who soon died. The marriage broke up. Makhno was no longer up to family life: he quickly advanced into the Gulaypol leadership.

In the fall of 1917, Makhno was elected to as many as five public posts. How compatible is anarchy with the elected leadership, and where is the line beyond which the self-organization of the masses ends and the "monster shreds, mischievously ... harshly" - the state begins? For the answer, Makhno went to the Yekaterinoslav anarchists and immediately realized that he was at the wrong address. "... I asked myself: why did they take away from the bourgeoisie such a magnificent building and a large building? Why do they need it when here, in the midst of this screaming crowd, there is no order even in the cries that they solve a number of the most important problems of the revolution when the hall is not swept, in many places the chairs are overturned, on a large table covered with luxurious velvet, pieces of bread, heads of herrings, gnawed bones lying around? "

Landowners' lands were confiscated in favor of the "labor peasantry". In the environs of Gulyaypol, communes began to emerge (Makhno himself worked in one of them twice a week), and workers' self-government bodies became increasingly powerful at enterprises. In December 1917, Makhno came to Yekaterinoslav as a delegate to the provincial congress of Soviets: the people's representatives "were angry at each other and fought among themselves, drawing workers into a fight."

Meanwhile, Ukraine, according to the conditions of the "obscene" Brest peace, was occupied by German and Austro-Hungarian detachments. March 1, 1918 they entered Kiev, at the end of April occupied Gulyaypole. Makhno and several of his fellow anarchists left for Taganrog. From there, the future dad went to the Volga region, and then to Moscow.

What the anarchist Makhno saw in the "red" provinces, he was alarmed. He declared the dictatorship of the proletariat announced by the Bolsheviks as an attempt to split the workers. Impressions of the "new Moscow" in the summer of 1918 further strengthened it in this thought. Neither the conversation with Sverdlov and Lenin in June 1918 in the Kremlin helped, nor even a visit to the elderly Prince Peter Kropotkin. "There are no parties," the old man lamented three years later, "... but there are heaps of charlatans who, in the name of personal benefits and thrills ... destroy the working people."

According to false documents, Makhno returned to Gulyaypole - to raise a rebellion of workers under the black banner of anarchy. Bad news awaited him: the Austrians shot one of his brothers, tortured another, burned the hut.

In September 1918, Makhno gave the invaders the first battle. He raided rich German farms and estates, killed Germans and army officers of the nominal ruler of Ukraine, hetman Skoropadsky. A lover of daring enterprises, once, having changed into a hetman's officer uniform, he appeared in the name of the landowner and, in the midst of the celebration, when the guests drank to catch the “bandit Makhno,” threw a grenade on the table. The surviving "guests" were killed with bayonets. The estate was burned.

Shot, hanged, seated on a stake, with their heads chopped off, raped by thousands fell into the land of Ukraine. And everyone was guilty of this: the "civilized" Germans, the "noble" white guard, and the reds, and the rebels, of whom there were a great many then Makhno. Having taken Gulyaipole, the whites raped eight hundred Jews and killed many of them in the most brutal way - stomach tears. The Reds shot the monks of the Spaso-Mgar Monastery. All ... At the Orekhovo station, Makhno ordered the priests to be burned alive - in a locomotive firebox.

Makhno was not anti-Semite. An anarchist cannot be an anti-Semite at all, because anarchism is international in nature. Under Makhno, individual rebels smashed Jews, but the lands of Makhnovia were not known as mass riots. Once, at the Upper Tokmak station, the Old Man saw a poster: "Beat the Jews, save the revolution, long live Old Makhno." Makhno ordered the execution of the author.

Anarchists enjoyed popular support because the Makhnovists, unlike the white and red ones, didn’t rob the local residents (the idea of \u200b\u200bMakhnovism as a rampant of uncontrolled banditry is late ideological cliches). The authority of Makhno was recognized by the chieftains operating near Guliaipol; for punishers he was elusive. The core of the detachment was a small mobile group, and the dad called volunteers for major operations, who willingly went to him. Having done this, the men dispersed in the huts, and Makhno disappeared with two or three dozen fighters - until the next time.

In the fall of 1918, the Skoropadsky government collapsed. Hetmanism was replaced by a nationalist Directory led by Petlyura. Directory troops entered Yekaterinoslav and dispersed the local Council.

When, at the end of December 1918, the rebel detachment Makhno and the Bolsheviks who agreed on an alliance with him took Yekaterinoslav, the Bolsheviks first took up the division of power. The robberies began. “I am in the name of the partisans of all regiments,” Makhno addressed the residents of the city, “I declare that any robberies, robberies, and violence will in no way be allowed at the moment to be my responsibility to the revolution and they will completely stop me.” In exile, Nestor Ivanovich recalled: “In fact, I shot everyone for the robberies, as well as for violence in general. Of course, among the executed ... to the shame of the Bolsheviks, almost all of the newly and hastily Bolsheviks put together the Kaydatsky Bolshevik detachment, which the Bolsheviks themselves arrested and crossed them with the Makhnovists. "

Under the new year of 1919, the Petlyura units defeated the Bolsheviks and captured the city, but they could not occupy the Gulyaypol area, where Makhno had retreated. The social structure of Makhnovia was built in strict accordance with the resolution of one of the Makhnovist congresses, calling on "comrades of peasants and workers" to "build themselves on the ground without violent decrees and orders, contrary to the inhabitants and oppressors of the whole world, without oppressors of lords, without subordinates slaves, without the rich, without the poor. "

A completely biased witness, the Bolshevik Antonov-Ovseenko, reported "up": "Children's communes, schools are being established, Gulyaypole is one of the most cultural centers of Novorossia - there are three secondary educational institutions, etc. Ten hospitals for the wounded were opened by Makhno’s efforts, a workshop was organized , mending guns, and castles for guns are made. "

The Makhnovists lived freely. Cultural enlightenment of the rebel army gave performances, grandiose drunkards regularly took place with the participation of the Old Man.

The Bolsheviks did not like this “enclave of freedom”. The reports went to the "center": "... that area is a special state in the state. Around this famous headquarters all the forces of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, anarchists, notorious bandits and recidivists concentrated." The Reds wanted to subjugate the troops of Makhno and use them in the struggle against the Petliurites and the White Guards. Both the Reds and the Makhnovists hoped on occasion to destroy each other. The resolution of the second congress of free councils of Gulyaypol said: "Hiding behind the slogan" dictatorship of the proletariat ", the Bolshevik communists declared a monopoly on revolution for their party, considering all dissenters as counter-revolutionaries."

Nevertheless, the Makhnovists came under operational control of the Red Army as the Third Insurgent Brigade and launched battles against Denikin. However, the Bolsheviks deliberately kept the Makhnovist army on a starvation diet, sometimes depriving the most necessary. Moreover, in April, at the initiative of Trotsky, a propaganda campaign began against the Makhnovists.

Having sent an angry telegram to Lenin, Trotsky, Kamenev and Voroshilov, in the middle of June the old man with a small detachment disappeared in the Gulaypol forests. The Reds executed the chief of staff of the Makhnovists Ozerov and several prominent anarchists. In response, Moscow anarchists blew up the building of the city party committee in Leontyevsky Lane (Lenin, who was supposed to come there, miraculously escaped death). A new phase of relations between the Old Man and the Reds began - open hostility.

On August 5, Makhno issued an order: “Every revolutionary rebel must remember that both his personal and national enemies are the people of the rich bourgeois class, regardless of whether they are Russians, Jews, Ukrainians, etc. The enemies of the working people are also those who protects an unfair bourgeois order, that is, Soviet commissars, members of punitive detachments, emergency commissions, traveling around cities and villages and tormenting the working people, who do not want to obey their arbitrary dictatorship. each rebel is obliged to detain and transfer to the army headquarters, and in case of resistance, to shoot on the spot. ", of ranks, emergency commissions and other bodies of enslavement and oppression."

The troops of the Red Army, sent to catch the father, in droves passed to his side. Gaining strength, Makhno began active fighting against white and red at the same time. He even made an agreement with Petliura, who also fought with the Volunteer Army. Having penetrated under the guise of merchants into Yekaterinoslav, the Makhnovists seized the city for a whole week (and then a second month), which, according to eyewitnesses, rested from constant fear and ... robberies. The Old Man gained particular popularity among the townspeople when he personally shot several looters at the bazaar.

Makhno tried to establish a peaceful life. Communities, trade unions, a system of assistance to the poor were organized in the liberated territories, production and trade were established. Incidentally, earlier and then newspapers continued to be published, which allowed (seemingly unthinkable, it seemed, the case) criticism of the Makhnovist government. Old Man stood firmly for freedom of speech.

Denikin had to remove large forces from the front against the rebels (the corps of General Slashchev — the one who became the prototype of Khludov in the Bulgakov’s “Run”), giving the Reds a life-giving respite. In December 1919, Slashchev managed to knock out the Makhnovists from Yekaterinoslav.

Makhno again began negotiations with the Bolsheviks. But he was declared a thug deserving of arrest and execution. Baron Wrangel sent several delegates to the Old Man several times, but someone was captured by the Reds, and someone was executed by Makhno.

The repressions that brought down the advancing parts of Wrangel against the inhabitants of the province forced Makhno to stop the war with the Bolsheviks first and then unite with them. In early October 1920, representatives of the rebels signed an agreement with the Bolshevik commanders. The rebel army came under operational subordination to the commander of the Southern Front Timur Frunze.

Anarchists again pulled in Gulyaypole, whom the Reds released from their prisons. After Wrangel's retreat to the Crimea, it was time for Makhnovia to take a break. But it was short-lived and ended with the defeat of the White Guards. In the decisive throw through Sivash, the four thousandth rebel detachment under the command of the Makhnovist Karetnikov played an important role.

November 26, 1920 Karetnikov was summoned to a meeting with Frunze, captured and shot, and his units were surrounded. However, the Makhnovists managed to knock down the Reds' barriers and leave Crimea. Of the fighters who had gone to Perekop a month ago, no more than half returned to the Old Man. The fight did not begin for life, but for death. Parts of the Red Army were thrown against the remnants of the father’s army. It was now easier for them: the enemy was left alone, and the superiority of forces was astronomical.

Makhno darted around Ukraine. His days were numbered. Fending off almost daily punitive punishers, Makhno with a handful of surviving fighters and faithful wife Galina Kuzmenko broke through to the Dniester and left for Bessarabia on August 28, 1921.

The rest of his life, Nestor Ivanovich Makhno spent in exile - first in Romania, then in Poland (where he spent time in prison on suspicion of anti-Polish activities) and in France. In Paris, Makhno was actively engaged in the propaganda of the ideas of anarchism - he spoke, wrote articles, and published several brochures. At the same time, if health allowed, he worked physically as a worker at a film studio, cobbled.

Nestor Ivanovich’s body was weakened by numerous wounds and chronic tuberculosis, even from the imperial penal servitude. It was he who brought the Old Man to the grave: Nestor Ivanovich died in a Paris hospital on July 6, 1934. Either an evil genius, or the liberator of the Ukrainian peasantry, the holder of the Order of the Battle of the Red Banner, the anarchist Old Man Makhno rests in the Pere Lachaise cemetery. In World War II, the old man and his daughter were first sent to a concentration camp, and then to the cellars of the GPU. After the death of Stalin, both of them settled in Dzhambul. The co-workers daughter Makhno was a little afraid - you never know ...