Chapter 8. Short biography The origin of our hero is dark and modest… Gogol. Dead Souls. From the Publisher: "Capital" is a brilliant work of Marxism. Marx worked on the creation of his main work for four decades, from the beginning of the 40s to the end

49. “I. V. Stalin. Brief biography" Khrushchev: "Comrades! The cult of personality acquired such monstrous proportions mainly because Stalin himself encouraged and supported the exaltation of his person in every possible way. Numerous facts testify to this. One of the most

Walk the field now - a sleepy town, where a fast Berdyansk train stops for a couple of minutes, where an immense grandmother, deftly jumping along the rails, patter offers vacationers beer and juicy apples. In the bloody and confused years of the Civil War, there was the capital of a free state - the country of Makhnovia.

There is a legend that on the priest who baptized Nestor Makhno, a vestment caught fire from the flame of a candle. By popular belief this means that a robber was born, whom the world has not seen. Nestor Makhno was born on October 26, 1888. The father, Ivan Makhno, the coachman of a wealthy Gulyai-Polye, wrote down the date of birth of his son a year later - this was sometimes done in order not to send very young sons to the army (fate: later attributed year saved Nestor's life). Ivan Rodionovich died early. “Five of us, orphan brothers, a little less, were left in the hands of an unfortunate mother who had neither a stake nor a yard. 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 father did not know the Ukrainian MOV very well).

Eight-year-old Nestor was sent to school. The boy studied well, but at some point he became addicted to skating. He regularly collected books in the morning, but he never showed up at school. The teachers haven't seen him for weeks. One day at Shrovetide, Nestor fell through the ice and almost drowned. Having learned about what had happened, the mother “treated” her son for a long time with a piece of twisted rope. After the execution, Nestor could not sit for several days, but he became a diligent student. "... In the winter I studied, and in the summer I was hired by rich farmers to graze sheep or calves. During threshing, I drove oxen from the landowners in carts, receiving 25 kopecks (in today's money - 60-70 rubles) per day. "

At the age of 16, Makhno entered the Gulyai-Polye iron foundry as a laborer, where he joined a theater group (an amazing detail that does not fit into our ideas about the life of workers at the beginning of the century).

In the autumn 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 was trying to shoot his rival's rival, a jealous friend), but he was released due to infancy.

During the year, the group committed four robberies. On August 27, 1907, Makhno exchanged fire with the guards and wounded a peasant. Some time later, he was detained and identified, but the anarchists either intimidated or bribed the witnesses, and they retracted their initial testimony. The young anarchist was released. The group committed several murders. Nestor did not participate in these murders, but then they did not particularly understand. The military field "Stolypin" court, before which the accomplices appeared, gave the gallows and not for that. Makhno was saved by a postscript for a year and the troubles of his mother: the death penalty was replaced by hard labor.

For six years he was in Butyrka prison (for bad behavior - in shackles). Here he learned to write poetry, met the anarchist terrorist Pyotr Arshinov (Marin) and received a thorough theoretical training, and not only in terms of anarchism: in conclusion, according to Makhno, he read "all Russian writers, starting with Sumarokov and ending with Lev Shestov ". On March 2, 1917, Makhno and Arshinov were liberated by the revolution.

Nestor returned home and married a peasant woman, Nastya Vasetskaya, 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 moved into the leadership of Gulyai-Polye.

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 oblo, mischievously ... stozevno" begins - the state? For an answer, Makhno went to the Yekaterinoslav anarchists and immediately realized that he had come to the wrong address. "... I asked myself: why did they take such a luxurious and large building from the bourgeoisie? Why do they need it when here, among this screaming crowd, there is no order even in the shouts with which they resolve critical issues 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 are lying around?

The landlords' lands were confiscated in favor of the "working peasantry". In the vicinity of Gulyai-Pole, communes began to emerge (Makhno himself worked in one of them twice a week), and workers' self-government bodies gained more and more power at the enterprises. In December 1917, Makhno arrived in Yekaterinoslav as a delegate to the provincial congress of Soviets: the people's deputies "spoiled each other and fought among themselves, drawing workers into the fight."

In the meantime, according to the terms of the "obscene" Brest Peace, Ukraine was occupied by German and Austro-Hungarian detachments. On March 1, 1918, they entered Kiev, at the end of April they occupied Gulyaipole. Makhno and several of his anarchist comrades 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 alarmed him. He regarded the dictatorship of the proletariat proclaimed by the Bolsheviks as an attempt to split the working people. Impressions from the "new Moscow" in the summer of 1918 further strengthened him in this thought. Neither a conversation with Sverdlov and Lenin in June 1918 in the Kremlin, nor even a visit to the elderly Prince Peter Kropotkin, helped. "There are no parties," the father lamented three years later, "... but there are handfuls of charlatans who, in the name of personal gain and thrills ... destroy the working people."

According to false documents, Makhno returned to Gulyaipole - to raise an uprising of the working people 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 first battle to the invaders. 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 dressed in a hetman's officer's uniform, he came to the landowner's birthday party and in the midst of the celebration, when the guests were drinking for the capture of the "bandit Makhno", he threw a grenade on the table. The surviving "guests" finished off with bayonets. The estate was burned down.

Shot, hanged, impaled, with severed heads, raped by the thousands lay down in the land of Ukraine. And everyone was guilty of this: the "civilized" Germans, and the "noble" White Guard, and the Reds, and the rebels, of whom there were a great many besides Makhno at that time. Having taken Gulyaipole, the whites raped eight hundred Jews and many of them were killed in the most cruel way - by slitting their stomachs. The Reds shot the monks of the Spaso-Mgarsky Monastery. Everyone ... At the Orekhovo station, Makhno ordered the priest to be burned alive - in a locomotive firebox.

Makhno was not an anti-Semite. An anarchist cannot be an anti-Semite at all, because anarchism is international in nature. Under Makhno, individual rebels smashed the Jews, but mass pogroms - such as under the Whites and Reds - were not known to the lands of Makhnovia. Once, at the Upper Tokmak station, the father saw a poster: "Kill the Jews, save the revolution, long live father Makhno." Makhno ordered the author to be shot.

The anarchists enjoyed popular support, because the Makhnovists, unlike the Whites and the Reds, did not rob local residents (the notion of the Makhnovshchina as rampant uncontrolled banditry is a late ideological cliché). The authority of Makhno was recognized by the chieftains who were operating near Gulyaipole, for the punishers he was elusive. The core of the detachment was a small mobile group, and for major operations, the father called volunteers who willingly went to him. Having done the job, the peasants dispersed to their huts, and Makhno disappeared with two or three dozen fighters - until the next time.

In the autumn of 1918 Skoropadsky's government collapsed. The Hetmanate was replaced by a nationalist Directory headed by Petliura. The troops of the Directory entered Yekaterinoslav and dispersed the local Soviet.

When at the end of December 1918 the rebel detachment of Makhno and the Bolsheviks, who had agreed on an alliance with him, took Yekaterinoslav, the Bolsheviks first of all took up the division of power. The robberies began. “In the name of the partisans of all regiments,” Makhno addressed the inhabitants of the city, “I declare that all robberies, robberies and violence will in no case be allowed at the moment of my responsibility to the revolution and will be nipped in the bud by me.” In emigration, Nestor Ivanovich recalled: “In fact, I shot everyone for robberies, as well as for violence in general. the Bolsheviks themselves arrested and crossed them with Makhnovists.

On the eve of the new year, 1919, the Petliura units defeated the Bolsheviks and captured the city, but they could not occupy the Gulyai-Pole area, where Makhno had retreated. The social structure of Makhnovia was built in strict accordance with the resolution of one of the Makhnovist congresses, which called on "comrades of the peasants and workers" to "build a new free society on the ground without violent decrees and orders, in spite of the oppressors and oppressors of the whole world, without oppressors of the pans, without subordinates slaves, no rich, no poor."

A completely biased witness, the Bolshevik Antonov-Ovseenko, reported "upstairs": "Children's communes, schools are being established, Gulyaipole - one of the most cultural centers of Novorossia - there are three secondary schools, etc. Through the efforts of Makhno, ten hospitals for the wounded were opened, a workshop was organized repairing guns, and locks for guns are being made.

The Makhnovists lived freely. The cultural enlightenment of the rebel army gave performances, grandiose boozes were regularly held with the participation of the father himself.

The Bolsheviks did not like this "enclave of freedom". Reports were sent to the "center": "... that region is a special state within a state. All the forces of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, anarchists, notorious bandits and recidivists have concentrated around this famous headquarters." The Reds wanted to subjugate Makhno's troops and use them in the fight against the Petliurists and the White Guards. Both the Reds and the Makhnovists hoped, on occasion, to destroy each other. The resolution of the Second Congress of the Volunteer Soviets of Gulyai-Polye stated: "Under the slogan of the 'dictatorship of the proletariat', the Bolshevik Communists declared a monopoly on the revolution for their party, considering all dissenters to be counter-revolutionaries."

Nevertheless, the Makhnovists entered the operational subordination 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 them of the most necessary. Moreover, in April, on the initiative of Trotsky, a propaganda campaign began against the Makhnovists.

Having sent an angry telegram to Lenin, Trotsky, Kamenev and Voroshilov, in mid-June, the father disappeared into the Gulyai-Polye forests with a small detachment. The Reds shot 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 Leontievsky Lane (Lenin, who was supposed to go there, miraculously escaped death). A new phase of relations between the father and the Reds began - open hostility.

On August 5, Makhno issued an order: “Every revolutionary insurgent must remember that both his personal and public enemies are persons of the wealthy bourgeois class, regardless of whether they are Russians, Jews, Ukrainians, etc. The enemies of the working people are also those who protect the unjust bourgeois order, i.e., Soviet commissars, members of punitive detachments, emergency commissions, traveling around towns and villages and torturing the working people who do not want to submit to their arbitrary dictatorship. Representatives of such punitive detachments, emergency commissions and other bodies of people's enslavement and oppression, each insurgent is obliged to detain and forward to the headquarters of the army, and in case of resistance - to shoot on the spot.

The troops of the Red Army, sent to catch the father, en masse went over to his side. Having gained strength, Makhno began active hostilities against the Whites and Reds at the same time. He even made an agreement with Petliura, who also fought with the Volunteer Army. The Makhnovists, having penetrated Yekaterinoslav under the guise of merchants, for a whole week (and then again - for a month) captured the city, which, according to eyewitnesses, had a rest from constant fear and ... robberies. The father gained particular popularity among the townspeople when he personally shot several marauders in the bazaar.

Makhno tried to establish a peaceful life. In the liberated territories, communes, trade unions, a system of helping the poor were organized, production and commodity exchange were established. By the way, both before and then, newspapers continued to be published that allowed (it seemed unthinkable) criticism of the Makhnovist government. The 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 very one that became the prototype of Khludov in Bulgakov's "Running"), giving the Reds a life-giving respite. In December 1919, Slashchev managed to drive the Makhnovists out of Yekaterinoslav.

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

The repressions that the advancing units of Wrangel brought down on the inhabitants of the province forced Makhno to first stop the war with the Bolsheviks, 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 control of the Commander-in-Chief of the Southern Front, Timur Frunze.

In Gulyaipole, anarchists again reached out, 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 Whites. In the decisive throw across the Sivash, an important role was played by a detachment of four thousand rebels under the command of the Makhnovist Karetnikov.

On 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 barriers of the Reds and get out of the Crimea. Of the fighters who left for Perekop a month ago, no more than half returned to the father. A fight began not for life, but for death. Units of the Red Army were thrown against the remnants of the father's army. Now it was easier for them: the enemy was left alone, and the preponderance of forces was astronomical.

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

Nestor Ivanovich Makhno spent the rest of his life 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, published several brochures. At the same time, if health allowed, he worked physically - as a worker at a film studio, as a shoemaker.

The body of Nestor Ivanovich was weakened by numerous wounds and chronic, since the royal hard labor, tuberculosis. It was he who brought the father to the grave: Nestor Ivanovich died in a Paris hospital on July 6, 1934. Either an evil genius, or a liberator of the Ukrainian peasantry, a cavalier of the Order of the Red Banner of War, an anarchist old man Makhno rests in the Pere Lachaise cemetery. During World War II, the father's widow and his daughter ended up first in a concentration camp, and then in the cellars of the GPU. After Stalin's death, both of them settled in Dzhambul. Makhno's daughter's colleagues were a little afraid - you never know ...

"Old Man", Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Revolutionary Workers' and Peasants' Army of the Yekaterinoslav region, commander of the Red Army brigade, commander of the 1st insurgent division, commander of the "Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine".

Makhno himself considered himself a military commander, and not the head of the population of the occupied territory.

Nestor Ivanovich Makhno was born on October 26, 1888 in the village of Gulyai-Polye, Yekaterinoslav Province, into 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 captivated the young worker, he joined the Social Democrats, and in 1906 he joined the group of "free grain growers" - communist anarchists, 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 his accomplices, was sentenced to death by a military court. However, many years before that, 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 Butyrki. Here he was engaged in self-education and met Pyotr Arshinov, who was more “savvy” in anarchist teachings, 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 prison doors for Makhno, and in March he returned to Gulyai-Polye. Makhno gained popularity as a fighter against the autocracy and a speaker at public gatherings, was elected to the local government - the Public Committee. He became the leader of the Gulyai-Polye anarcho-communist group, which subjugated the Public Committee and established control over a network of public structures in the area, including the Peasant Union (since August - the 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 beginning of the Kornilov speech, Makhno and his supporters created the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution under the Soviet and confiscated weapons from the landowners, kulaks and German colonists in favor of their detachment. In September, the Volost Congress of Soviets and Peasant Organizations in Gulyai-Polye, convened by the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution, proclaimed the confiscation of landowners' lands, which were transferred to peasant farms and communes. So Makhno was ahead of Lenin in the implementation of the slogan "Land to the peasants!".

On October 4, 1917, Makhno was elected chairman of the board of the trade union of metalworkers, woodworkers and other professions, which united virtually all the workers of Gulyai-Polye and a number of surrounding enterprises (including mills). Makhno, who combined leadership of the trade union with leadership in the largest local armed political group, forced entrepreneurs to comply with the demands of the workers. On October 25, the board of the union decided: "Workers who are not members of the union must be required to immediately enroll in the Union, otherwise they risk losing the support of the Union." A course was taken for the universal introduction of an eight-hour working day. In December 1917, Makhno, busy with other matters, handed over the chairmanship of the trade union to his deputy A. Mishchenko.

Makhno was already faced with new tasks - a struggle for power between supporters and opponents of the Soviets began to boil around. Makhno stood for the power of the Soviets. Together with a detachment of Gulyai Poles, commanded by his brother Savva, Nestor disarmed the Cossacks, then took part in the work of the Alexander Revolutionary Committee, and headed the Revolutionary Committee in Gulyai-Pole. In December, at the initiative of Makhno, the II Congress of Soviets of the Gulyai-Pole District met, which adopted a resolution "Death to the Central Rada." The Makhnovsky district was not going to submit to either the Ukrainian, or the red, or white authorities.

At the end of 1917, Makhno had a daughter from Anna Vasetskaya. Makhno lost contact with this family in the military whirlpool of the spring of 1918. After the conclusion of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918, the advance of German troops into Ukraine began. The inhabitants of Gulyai-Pole formed a "free battalion" of about 200 fighters, 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 was carried out in Gulyai-Polye in favor of Ukrainian nationalists. 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-Polye anarchists in Taganrog, it was decided to return to the region in a few months. In April-June 1918, Makhno traveled around Russia, visiting Rostov-on-Don, Saratov, Tsaritsyn, Astrakhan and Moscow. Revolutionary Russia evokes complex feelings in him. On the one hand, he saw the Bolsheviks as allies in the revolutionary struggle. On the other hand, they were very cruelly crushing the revolution "for themselves", creating a new, already their own power, and not the power of the Soviets.

In June 1918, Makhno met with the 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, on behalf of the peasantry, outlined to him his vision of the principles of Soviet power as self-government, and argued that anarchists in the countryside of Ukraine are more influential than communists. Lenin made a strong impression on Makhno, the Bolsheviks helped the anarchist leader to cross over to the occupied Ukraine.

In July 1918, Makhno returned to the vicinity of Gulyai-Polye, then created a small partisan detachment, which began military operations in September, attacking estates, German colonies, invaders and employees of 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 the honorary nickname "father". In the Dibrivok area, Makhno's detachment united with the detachment of F. Shchus. Then other local detachments began to join Makhno. Successful partisans began to receive the support of the peasants. Makhno emphasized the anti-landowner and anti-kulak character of his actions.

The collapse of the occupation regime after the November Revolution in Germany caused a surge in the insurgency and the collapse of the regime of hetman Skoropadsky. As the Austro-German troops were evacuated, detachments coordinated by Makhno's headquarters began to take control of the territory around Gulyai-Polye. On November 27, 1918, Makhno's forces occupied Gulyai-Polye and never left it. The rebels ousted the occupiers from their area, destroyed the resisting farms and estates, and established ties with local governments. Makhno fought against unauthorized extortions and robberies. Local rebels were subordinate to the main headquarters of the rebel troops "named after Batka Makhno." In the south of the region there were skirmishes with the troops of Ataman Krasnov and the Volunteer Army.

In mid-December, hostilities began between the Makhnovists and supporters of the UNR. Makhno concluded an agreement on joint actions with the Yekaterinoslav Bolsheviks and was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Revolutionary Workers 'and Peasants' Army of the Yekaterinoslav region by the provincial committee. On December 27-31, 1918, Makhno, in alliance with a detachment of Bolsheviks, recaptured Yekaterinoslav from the Petliurists. But the Petliurists launched a counterattack and recaptured the city, Makhno and the communists blamed each other for the defeat. Having lost half of the detachment, Makhno returned to the left bank of the Dnieper.

Makhno considered himself a military commander, and not the head of the population of the occupied territory. The principles of organizing political power were determined by congresses of front-line soldiers and Soviets. The First Congress was held on January 23, 1919 without Makhno's participation and began preparations for a more representative Second Congress.

In January 1919, units of the Volunteer Army launched an offensive on Gulyai-Polye. The Makhnovists suffered from a shortage 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 Zadneprovskaya 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 on the award lists, although this does not mean anything yet).

Having received ammunition from the Reds, on February 4, Makhno went on the offensive and took Bamut, Volnovakha, Berdyansk and Mariupol, defeating the White group. The peasants, submitting to "voluntary mobilization", sent their sons to the Makhnovist regiments. The villages patronized their regiments, the soldiers chose their commanders, the commanders discussed the upcoming operations with the soldiers, each soldier knew his task well. This "military democracy" gave the Makhnovists a unique fighting ability. The growth of Makhno's army was limited only by the ability to arm new recruits. For 15-20 thousand armed fighters, there were over 30 thousand unarmed reserves.

On February 8, 1919, in his appeal, Makhno put forward the following task: "The construction of a true Soviet system, in which the Soviets, elected by the working people, would be the servants of the people, the executors of those laws, those orders that the workers themselves would write at the All-Ukrainian labor congress ...".

“Our working community will have full power in itself and will carry out its will, its economic and other plans and considerations through its bodies, which it itself creates, but which it does not endow with any power, but only with certain instructions,” wrote Makhno and Arshinov in May 1919.

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

Speaking on February 14, 1919 at the II Gulyai-Polye District Congress of Front-line Soldiers, Soviets and Subdivisions, Makhno declared: “I call on you to unite, for unity is the key to the victory of the revolution over those who sought to strangle it. If the Bolshevik comrades are coming from Great Russia to the Ukraine to help us in the hard struggle against the counter-revolution, we must say to them: “Welcome, Dear friends!" But if they come here with the aim of monopolizing Ukraine, we will tell them: “Hands off!” We ourselves know how to raise the emancipation of the working peasantry to a height, we ourselves will be able to arrange a new life for ourselves - where there will be no pans, slaves, oppressors and oppressors.

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

The political body of the movement, the Military Revolutionary Council (VRC), was elected at the congress. The party composition of the VRS was left-socialist - 7 anarchists, 3 left SRs and 2 Bolsheviks and one sympathizer. Makhno was elected an honorary member of the VRS. Thus, an independent system of Soviet power arose on the territory controlled by the Makhnovists, autonomous from the central government of the Ukrainian SSR. This caused mutual distrust between Makhno and the Soviet command.

Makhno invited anarchist brigade to the area of ​​action to promote anarchist views and cultural and educational work. Of the visiting anarchists, the old comrade P.A. had influence on Makhno. Arshinov. In the area of ​​action of the Makhnovists, political freedom existed for the left currents - the Bolsheviks, the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries and the anarchists. Makhno received the Chief of Staff, the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Ya.V. Ozerov and communist commissars. They were engaged in propaganda, but they had no political power.

The commander of the Ukrainian Front, V. Antonov-Ovseenko, who visited the region in May 1919, reported: “Children's communes, schools are being established, - Gulyai-Pole is one of the most cultural centers of Novorossia - there are three secondary educational institutions, etc. Through the efforts of Makhno, ten hospitals for the wounded were opened, a workshop was organized for repairing guns, and locks for guns were being made.

The Communists tolerated the openly anti-Bolshevik character of the Makhnovists' actions as long as the Makhnovists were advancing. But in April the front stabilized, the struggle against Denikin went on with varying success. The Bolsheviks took a course towards the elimination of the special position of the Makhnovo region. Heavy fighting and interruptions in supplies exhausted the Makhnovists more and more.

On April 10, the III District Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents in Gulyai-Polye adopted decisions directed against the military-communist policy of the RCP (b). Chief Division Dybenko replied by telegram: "Any congresses convened on behalf of the military revolutionary headquarters dissolved according to my order are considered clearly counter-revolutionary, and the organizers of such congresses will be subjected to the most repressive measures, up to and including outlawing." The congress responded to the divisional commander with a sharp rebuke, which further discredited Makhno in the eyes of the command.

On April 15, 1919, a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Southern Front G.Ya. Sokolnikov, with the consent of part of the members of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Ukrfront, put L.D. Trotsky the question of removing Makhno from command.

On April 25, the Kharkiv Izvestia published an article “Down with the Makhnovshchina,” which stated: “The insurrectionary movement of the peasantry accidentally fell under the leadership of Makhno and his “Military Revolutionary Headquarters”, in which both recklessly anarchist and White-Left SR, 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 secured by the anarchy of actions ... The outrages that occur in Makhno's "kingdom" must be put to an end. This article outraged Makhno and raised fears that it was a prelude to an attack by the Bolsheviks. On April 29, he ordered to detain some of the commissars, deciding that the Bolsheviks were preparing an attack on the Makhnovists: “Let the Bolsheviks sit with us, as ours sit in the casemates of the Cheka.”

The conflict was resolved during negotiations between Makhno and the commander of the Ukrainian Front, V.A. Antonova-Ovseenko. Makhno even condemned the harshest provisions of the resolutions of the Congress of Soviets of the district, promised to prevent the election of the command staff, which (apparently due to the infectiousness of the example) was so feared in the neighboring parts of the Red Army. Moreover, the commanders had already been chosen, and no one was going to change them at that time.

But, having made some concessions, the father put forward a new, fundamentally important idea that could try on two strategies of the revolution: “Before a decisive victory over the 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 the subordination of the division P.E. Dybenko and 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 the Makhno brigade and several regiments, which were significantly inferior to it in numbers.

A new reason for the growth of mutual distrust was given by Ataman N.A. Grigoriev, who raised a rebellion on the right-bank Ukraine on May 6. On May 12, under the chairmanship of Makhno, a “military congress” convened, that is, a conference of commanding staff, representatives of units and the political leadership of the Makhnovist movement. Makhno and the congress condemned N.A. Grigoriev, but also criticized the Bolsheviks, who provoked the 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 a new aggravation of relations with the communists was the deployment of the 3rd brigade into a division. The paradoxical situation, when the brigade made up the bulk 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 reorganization, and then refused to create a division under the command of an obstinate opposition commander. On May 22, Trotsky, who arrived in Ukraine, called such plans “preparation for a new Grigorievshchina.” On May 25, at a meeting of the Council of Workers' and Peasants' Defense of Ukraine, chaired by H. Rakovsky, the issue of "Makhnovshchina and its liquidation" was discussed. It was decided to "liquidate Makhno" with the forces of the regiment.

Having learned about the intentions of the command, on May 28, 1919, Makhno declared that he was ready to resign, since he “never aspired to high ranks” and “will do more in the future among the lower ranks of the people for the revolution.” But on May 29, 1919, the headquarters of the Makhnovist division decided: “1) strongly suggest Comrade Makhno to remain in his duties and powers, which Comrade Makhno was trying to resign; 2) transform all the forces of the Makhnovists into an independent insurgent army, entrusting the leadership of this army to Comrade Makhno. The army is operationally subordinate to the Southern Front, since the latter's operational orders will proceed from the living needs of the revolutionary front. In response to this step, the Revolutionary Military Council of the Southern Front on May 29, 1919, decided to arrest Makhno and give him to the court of the Revolutionary Tribunal. Makhno did not accept the title of commander and continued to consider himself a 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 solidarity, 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 ... Drop, comrades, all sorts of party differences, they will ruin you.

On May 31, the VRS announced the convening of the IV Congress of the 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 beginning of the liquidation of the "Makhnovshchina" 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 familiarized himself with the case on the spot, 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 lately offensive behavior of the central government towards insurrection, which I have noted, leads with fatal inevitability to the creation of a special internal front, on both sides of which there will be a working mass that believes in revolution. I consider this the greatest, never forgiven crime against the working people and I consider myself obligated to do everything possible to prevent this crime ... I consider my resignation from my post as the surest means of preventing an impending crime from the authorities.

Meanwhile, the Whites invaded the Gulyai-Polye area. For some time, with a small detachment, Makhno still fought side by side with the red units, but on June 15 he 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 Makhnovist headquarters were shot by the decision of the Revolutionary Tribunal of Donbass. Chief of Staff Ozerov continued to fight with the Whites, but on August 2 he was shot by the VUCHK. Makhno issued cash groups of anarchists who traveled to prepare terrorist attacks against the Whites (M.G. Nikiforova and others) and the Bolsheviks (K. Kovalevich and others). On June 21, 1919, Makhno's detachment crossed to the right bank of the Dnieper.

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

Makhno tried to stay away from the front rear, so as not to contribute to the success of the Whites. On July 10, 1919, Makhno's detachment attacked Yelisavetgrad. On July 11, 1919, the Makhnovists united with the detachment of the nationalist ataman N.A. Grigoriev. In accordance with the agreement of the two leaders, Grigoriev was declared commander, and Makhno - chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Insurgent Army. Makhno's brother Grigory became the chief of staff. Differences arose between the Makhnovists and the Grigorievites in connection with the anti-Semitism of N.A. Grigoriev and his unwillingness to fight against the Whites. July 27 N.A. Grigoriev was killed by the Makhnovists. Makhno sent a telegram on the air: “To everyone, to everyone, to everyone. Copy - Moscow, Kremlin. We killed the famous ataman Grigoriev. Signature - Makhno.

Under pressure from Denikin, the Red Army was forced to retreat from Ukraine. The former Makhnovists, who in June found themselves 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 Makhno's side. September 1, 1919 at a meeting of the army command staff in the village. In Dobrovelichkovka, the “Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine (Makhnovists)” was proclaimed, a new Revolutionary Military Council and army headquarters headed by Army Commander Makhno were elected.

The superior forces of the whites pushed the Makhnovists under Uman. Here the Makhnovists entered into an "alliance" with the Petliurists, to whom they handed over their convoy with the wounded.

In July-August 1919, the White Army advanced across Russia and Ukraine towards Moscow and Kiev. The officers peered at the horizon. A few more victorious battles, and Moscow will greet its liberators with a ringing of bells. On the flank of Denikin's campaign against Moscow, it was necessary to solve a "simple" task - to finish off the remnants of the Southern Group of Reds, the Makhno gang and, if possible, the Ukrainian nationalist Petlyura, who was tangled under the feet of Russian statehood. After the Whites drove the Reds out of Ekaterinoslav with a dashing raid and thus overcame the barrier of the Dnieper, the cleansing of Ukraine seemed to be a done deal. But, when in early September the Whites entered the area where Makhno had gathered his forces, difficulties arose. On September 6, the Makhnovists launched a counterattack near Pomoshchnaya. They moved from all sides, and the disorganized crowd turned into a tight formation just before the attack. The Whites fought back, but it turned out that Makhno had bypassed their positions at that time and captured the ammunition convoy. They were what the "father" needed.

On September 22, 1919, General Slashchev gave the order to put an end to Makhno in the Uman region. How much time can you waste on this gang! Of course, the Makhnovists are numerous, but they are rabble, and the disciplined forces of the Volunteer Army are superior to the bandits in their combat capability. After all, they are chasing the Reds! Parts of Slashchev dispersed in different directions to drive the beast. The Simferopol White Regiment occupied Peregonovka. The trap closed. The detachment of General Sklyarov entered Uman and began to wait for the “game” to be driven to him.

"Game" in the meantime, she drove the hunters. On September 26, there was a terrible roar - the Makhnovists blew up their stock of mines, which were still hard to drag with them. It was both a signal and a "psychic attack". The mass of cavalry and infantry rushed at the whites, supported by many machine guns on carts. Denikin's men could not stand it and began to seek salvation on the heights, thus opening the way for the Makhnovists to key crossings and forks in the road. At night, the Makhnovists were already everywhere, the cavalry pursued those retreating and fleeing. On the morning of September 27, the Makhnovist cavalry mass crushed the orders of the Lithuanian battalion and chopped down those who did not have time to scatter. This formidable force moved on, destroying the whites that got in the way. Having rolled up their guns, the Makhnovists began to shoot the battle formations pressed to the river. Their commander, Captain Hattenberger, realizing that defeat was inevitable, shot himself. Having killed the remaining whites, the Makhnovists moved to Uman and drove Sklyarov's forces out of there. Slashchev's regiments were broken in parts, Denikin's front was broken through on the flank.

The Makhnovist army, embarking on carts, moved along the deep rear of Denikin. Looking at this breakthrough, one of the surviving officers sadly said: "At this moment, great Russia lost the war." He was not so far from the truth. Denikin's rear was disorganized, in the center of the white "Dobrovoliya" a hole was formed "Makhnovia". And then the news came - the same force struck a blow at the Bolsheviks almost to the very heart of their regime - on September 25, the Moscow City Committee of the Communist Party flew into the air. The anarchists took revenge on the communists for Makhno's comrades who had been shot by the Revolutionary Tribunal. It was the third force of the Civil War, obeying its own will and its own logic.

Makhno's army broke into operational space behind Denikin's lines. Makhno, commanding the central column of the rebels, occupied Alexandrovsk and Gulyai-Polye in early October. In the area of ​​Gulyai-Pole, Aleksandrovsk and Yekaterinoslav, a vast insurgent zone arose, pulling back part of the White forces during Denikin's offensive against Moscow.

In the Makhnovo region, on October 27-November 2, a congress of peasants, workers and insurgents was held in Aleksandrovsk. In his speech, Makhno stated that “the best volunteer regiments of Gen. Denikin were utterly defeated by the insurgent detachments, ”but also criticized the communists, who “sent punitive detachments to“ suppress the counter-revolution ”and thereby interfered with the free insurrection in the fight against Denikin.” Makhno called for joining the army "to destroy all violent power and counter-revolution." After the speech of the Menshevik worker delegates, Makhno again took the floor, and sharply spoke out against the "underground agitation by the Mensheviks", whom, like the Socialist-Revolutionaries, he called "political charlatans", called for "give no mercy" to them and "drive them out". After that, some of the workers' delegates left the congress. Makhno replied that he did not "stigmatize" all the workers, but only "charlatans". On November 1, he appeared in the newspaper Path to Freedom with the article “It can’t be otherwise”: “Is it permissible that the workers of the city of Aleksandrovsk and its environs, in the person of their delegates - Mensheviks and Right Socialist-Revolutionaries, - on a free business worker-peasant and the insurrectionary congress held the opposition to the Denikin Constituent Assembly?

October 28 - December 19 (with a break for 4 days) the Makhnovists held Big City Ekaterinoslav. Enterprises were handed over to those who work for them. On October 15, 1919, Makhno addressed the railway workers: “In order to restore normal railway traffic in the area we have liberated as soon as possible, and also proceeding from the principle of arranging a free life by the workers and peasant organizations themselves and their associations, I suggest that comrades railway workers and employees vigorously organize and establish by the movement itself, setting as a reward for its work a sufficient payment from passengers and cargo, except for military ones, organizing its cash desk on a comradely and fair basis and entering into the closest relations with workers' organizations, peasant societies and rebel units.

In November 1919, a group of communists led by regimental commander M. Polonsky was arrested by counterintelligence on charges of preparing a conspiracy and poisoning Makhno. On December 2, 1919, the defendants were shot. In December 1919, the Makhnovist army was disorganized by a typhus epidemic, and then Makhno also fell ill.

Retreating from Yekaterinoslav under the onslaught of the Whites, Makhno retreated to Aleksandrovsk with the main forces of the army. On January 5, 1920, units of the 45th division of the Red Army also arrived here. In negotiations with representatives of the red command, Makhno and representatives of his headquarters demanded that they be given a section of the front to fight the whites and that they retain control over their area. Makhno and his staff insisted on a formal agreement with the Soviet leadership. January 6, 1920 Commander 14 I.P. Uborevich ordered Makhno to advance to the Polish front. Without waiting for an answer, on January 9, 1920, the All-Ukrainian Revolutionary Committee outlawed Makhno under the pretext of not fulfilling his order to go to the Polish front. The Reds attacked Makhno's headquarters in Aleksandrovsk, but on January 10, 1920, he managed to escape to Gulyai-Pole.

At a meeting of the commanders in Gulyai-Pole on January 11, 1920, it was decided to give the rebels a month's vacation. Makhno announced his readiness to "go hand in hand" with the Red Army, while maintaining independence. At this time, more than two divisions of the Reds attacked, disarmed and partially shot the Makhnovists, including the sick. Makhno's brother Grigory was captured and shot, and in February another brother Savva, who was engaged in supplies in the Makhnovist army, was captured and shot. Makhno went into hiding for the duration of his illness.

After Makhno's recovery in February 1920, the Makhnovists resumed hostilities against the Reds. In winter and spring, an exhausting partisan war unfolded, the Makhnovists attacked small detachments, workers of the Bolshevik apparatus, warehouses, distributing grain supplies to the peasants. In the area of ​​Makhno's actions, the Bolsheviks were forced to go underground, and openly spoke only when accompanied by large military units. In May 1920, the Council of Revolutionary Insurgents of Ukraine (Makhnovists) was created, headed by Makhno, which included the chief of staff V.F. Belash, commanders Kalashnikov, Kurylenko and Karetnikov. The name of the SRPU emphasized that this was not about the RVS, which was usual for a civil war, but about the “wandering” authority of the Makhnovist Republic.

Wrangel's attempts to establish an alliance with Makhno ended with the execution of the White emissary 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 fighters. On July 11, 1920, Makhno's army launched a raid outside its area, during which it took the cities of Izyum, Zenkov, Mirgorod, Starobelsk, Millerovo. On August 29, 1920, Makhno was seriously wounded in the leg (in total, Makhno had more than 10 wounds).

Under the conditions of the Wrangel offensive, when the Whites occupied Gulyai-Pole, Makhno and his SRPU were not against entering into a new alliance with the Reds if they were ready to recognize the equality of the Makhnovists and 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 address to the rebels operating in Ukraine, urged them to stop hostilities against the Bolsheviks: “Remaining indifferent spectators, the Ukrainian rebels would help the accession in Ukraine either of the historical enemy - the Polish pan, or again imperial power, headed by a 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 were stopped, an amnesty was declared in Ukraine for the anarchists and Makhnovists, they received the right to propagate their ideas without calling for the violent overthrow of the Soviet government, to participate in the soviets and in the elections to the Fifth Congress of Soviets scheduled for December. The parties mutually undertook not to accept deserters. The Makhnovist army passed into operational subordination to the Soviet command on the condition that it "retains within itself the previously established routine."

Acting together with the Red Army, on October 26, 1920, the Makhnovists liberated Gulyai-Pole, where Makhno was stationed, from the Whites. The best forces of the Makhnovists (2400 sabers, 1900 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 the crossing of Sivash.

After the victory over 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 multiple superiority in strength, managed to surround Makhno in Andreevka near the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov, but on December 14-18 Makhno broke into operational space. However, he had to go to 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 through to their native places. March 13, 1921 Makhno was again seriously wounded in the leg.

On May 22, 1921, Makhno set off on a new raid to the north. Despite the fact that the headquarters of the united army was restored, the forces of the Makhnovists were dispersed, Makhno was able to concentrate only 1,300 fighters for operations in the Poltava region. At the end of June - beginning of July, M.V. Frunze inflicted a severe defeat on the Makhnovist strike group in the region of the Sulla and Psel rivers. After the announcement of the NEP, the support of the rebels from the peasants weakened. On July 16, 1921, Makhno, at a meeting in Isaevka near Taganrog, suggested that his army break into Galicia in order to raise an uprising there. But disagreements arose over further actions, and only a minority of fighters followed Makhno.

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

Once in Romania, the Makhnovists were disarmed by the authorities, in 1922 they moved to Poland and were placed in an internment camp. April 12, 1922 VUTsIK announced a political amnesty, which did not apply to 7 "hardened criminals", including Makhno. demanded the extradition of Makhno as a "bandit". In 1923, Makhno, his wife and two associates, were arrested and charged with preparing an uprising in Eastern Galicia. On October 30, 1923, a daughter, Elena, was born to Makhno and Kuzmenko in a Warsaw prison. Makhno and his associates were acquitted by the court. In 1924, Makhno moved to Danzig, where he was again arrested in connection with the murders 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 suburb of Vincennes. Here Makhno worked as a turner, carpenter, painter and shoemaker. Participated in public discussions about the Makhnovist movement and anarchism.

In 1923-1933. Makhno published articles and pamphlets 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 manpower to the enemies of the Revolution made him a helpless organizer.” Therefore, it is necessary to create a "Union of Anarchists, built on the principle of common discipline and common leadership of all anarchist forces."

In June 1926, Arshinov and Makhno put forward the draft "Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists", which proposed to unite the anarchists of the world on the basis of discipline, combining the anarchist principles of self-government with institutions where "leading positions of the economic and social life of the country" are preserved. Supporters of the "Platform" held a conference in March 1927, which began the creation of the International Anarcho-Communist Federation. Makhno entered the secretariat to convene her congress. But soon the leading anarchist theorists criticized the Platform project as too authoritarian, contrary to the principles of the anarchist movement. Desperate to reach an agreement with the anarchists, in 1931 Arshinov switched to Bolshevik positions, and the idea of ​​"platformism" failed. Makhno did not forgive his old comrade for this defection.

Makhno's original political testament was his 1931 letter to the Spanish anarchists J. Carbo and A. Pestanha, in which he warned them against allying with the communists during the revolution that had begun in Spain. Makhno warns the Spanish comrades: "Feeling relative freedom, the anarchists, like the townsfolk, were carried away by free speech."

Since 1929, Makhno's tuberculosis worsened, he less and less took part in social activities, but continued to work on his memoirs. The first volume was published in 1929, the other two - posthumously. There he outlined his views on the future anarchist system in the following way: “I thought of such a system only in the form of a free Soviet system, in which the whole country is covered with local, completely free and independent social and public self-governments of workers.”

At the beginning of 1934, Makhno's tuberculosis became aggravated, and he ended up in the hospital. In July he died.

Makhno's ashes were buried in the Pere Lachaise cemetery next to the graves of the Parisian Communards. Two years after his death, the black banner of anarchy, which fell from Makhno's hands, will again develop alongside 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 struggle against oppression and exploitation.