THIS WARTS-AND-ALL BIO OF NESTOR MAKHNO IS FOLKSY AND REFRESHING ~ bob ness ~ I’m an old-fashioned guy, a romantic, even. In my heart of hearts what I really, really want to do is to ride down capitalism with cavalry and lop off its head with our sabres. We tried that already, but it didn’t work. When something doesn’t work, we try something else. We’re still trying. Over the years, there has been a lot of talk among anarchists about why cavalry didn’t work against capitalism. Failure often illuminates more than success. The anarchists’ historic retreat across Ukraine in the summer of 1919 was a thing of grief and glory. Some things that happened there had effects that never went away. Consider tachankas. These highly mobile weapons transformed cavalry warfare. This played a dramatic role in the Russian Civil War. Their evolution forked. One fork evolved into the sound truck, which strikes fear in the hearts of riot cops. The other fork evolved into the technical, a (usually light) pickup truck with a heavy machine gun in the back. They cast Makhno’s shadow far and wide. There’s even a war named after them. They called it the “Toyota War”. Look it up. Many reliable sources trace the invention of this vital piece of improvised military hardware to Makhno himself. This alone is enough to cement his name in the annals of military history. Then there was his renowned tactical prowess. But he was more than an inventor who knew how to fight. What anarchists like best about him were his politics. They are legendary. We all know at least the legend of the Makhnovists. It’s anarchist canon. At least we think know it. Even less do we know what really happened. For decades it was a major effort to find a book about him or even a book he was mentioned in. What could be found ranged from slander to hagiography. What we really need is a warts-and-all bio that includes an account of the people around him. To that end I recommend No Harmless Power. Allison really did his homework. He devotes a long chapter to very brief bios of anarchists that even I had never heard of but who all had Makhno-era links to Ukraine. Some were born in Ukraine and grew into anarchists there. Others came from as far as Japan, like Ōsugi Sakae. There is lots of fascinating trivia in this story. One anarchist cavalry commander had had both feet amputated in WWI. A cavalryman with no feet! Sometimes his battalion dismounted and fought as dragoons. His men wheeled him into battle in a wheelbarrow. That’s a story you don’t hear every day, not in the works of ableist historians anyway. Then there’s the gossip. Makhno really did drink too much sometimes (it’s not what killed him though; that’s a lie). Ida Mett thought his partner Galina was a gold digger… stuff like that. Who slept with who last and who owes who money have plagued our praxis forever. Somehow, we manage to work around it. Allison explains Makhno’s predilection for drag as having grown out of his school drama program. At first glance it does seem out of character. He was a pretty butch guy. Some of his feats smack of classical machismo. But he wasn’t afraid to be thought of as a harmless old woman sitting on a tree stump, munching on sunflower seeds within earshot of some enemy brass who were discussing strategy. To them, (s)he was as invisible as the stump (s)he sat on. That’s how disguises are supposed to work. That’s also how patriarchy works. Patriarchy is a scourge upon humanity, but on occasion it can be turned against its practitioners. Makhno wore other disguises, too. Sometimes he would dress as an enemy soldier of one sort or another. He had many enemies, and they wore different uniforms, which made them easy to deceive. It was in a Cheka uniform that he escaped into exile. This had been the idea of his righthand man, Lev Zinkovsky, the head of the anarchist intelligence service. I would have liked this book more if Allison had devoted more time to this part in the struggle. After all, a war without spies never happens. Anywhere. Ever. Fortunately, we have “Kontrrazvedka: The Story of the Makhnovist Intelligence Service”, by V. Azarov to flesh out this part of our story. There could have been a chapter devoted to another fascinating character, Maria Nikiforova. She played a much bigger role in the story of the Makhnovshchina than Sakae, which is not to denigrate Sakae in any way. Sakae was a shining example of anarchists in action, but he managed to get deported before he could even meet Makhno. Nikiforova, on the other hand, fought in the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine (on horseback with a sabre, and with a squadron of cavalry at her back and under her command). Fortunately, we have “Atamansha: The Story of Maria Nikiforova, the Anarchist Joan of Arc”, by Malcolm Archibald to fill us in. When Allison gets to the Platform, he goes deep into the machinations and personal interactions involved in the debate surrounding this document, but on the Platform itself he’s pretty neutral, at least in print. That’s wrong of him. The Platform was a colossal mistake; its adoption would have been an even bigger one. It needs to be condemned in no uncertain terms, and this needs repeating, even today. Emma Goldman herself spoke out against Platformism. Bolshevism without Bolsheviks?! Preposterous. They’d just become Bolsheviks, and we’d be back to square one. Besides, all states excel at decapitating frontal attacks. Only a decentralised movement is immune. It has no capit to decate. Why give it one? Despite these flaws, No Harmless Power is an excellent book. Its folksy style provides a refreshing counterpoint, for example, to Skirda’s more pedantic “Anarchy’s Cossack”, which is also an excellent book. Allison’s judicious use of snark and vernacular does much to make it accessible to modern sensibilities. It gives us moderns a look inside the anarchist movement as it used to be and to a certain extent still is today. It’s more about the people than it is about the ideology. Anarchism itself should be more about the people than the ideology. All anarchists would do well to read this book. We’d all do well to read all of anarchist history. Without history the wisdom of our ancestors eludes us. So does their folly. We need for that not to happen. So read history. Start today. No Harmless Power: The Life and Times of the Ukrainian Anarchist Nestor Makhno, by Charlie Allison; Illustrated by Kevin Matthews and N.O. Bonzo. PM Press, 2023. 256 pages The post Book review: No Harmless Power appeared first on Freedom News.

SINCE THE RUSSIAN INVASION OF UKRAINE, THE MONUMENT HAS BECOME A SYMBOL OF DEFIANCE, IDENTITY, AND HOPE ~ Sean Patterson ~ The monument to the world-famous anarchist Nestor Makhno in Huliaipole, Ukraine, received a newly restored head for the city’s 239th birthday. Russian shelling had previously severely damaged the monument in May. Makhno’s hometown of Huliaipole is located in southern Ukraine, roughly 100 kilometres east of Zaporizhzhia city, just inside the Ukrainian side of the current war’s frontline. The city’s pre-war population of 13,000 has collapsed to less than 2,000 since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Those remaining face a daily barrage of Russian artillery strikes. The vast majority of Huliaipole has been damaged or destroyed, including several particularly painful losses in recent months. On August 23, the city’s well-known Museum of Local History burned down after a Russian missile strike. Source: Гуляйполе.Info, Oksana Havrylko, 23 May 2024 In this context, Makhno has become a regional and even national symbol of Ukrainian defiance against Russian imperialism. An oft-controversial historical figure, Makhno is known worldwide for leading a successful peasant-anarchist insurgency during the years 1918–1921. The Makhnovist movement battled all belligerent invaders in an ultimately unsuccessful bid to establish an autonomous libertarian territory in southern Ukraine. Given his complex background, Makhno does not easily integrate into grand historical narratives. Soviet historiography vilified Makhno as a cruel and irrational bandit, while many Ukrainians remember Makhno as a representative of Ukrainian independence and their people’s indomitable Cossack spirit. In 2013, Makhno even became the world’s first anarchist to be memorialized with a state-issued coin. Between 2006 and 2009, Makhnofest, a grand artistic and cultural event, was held annually on Independence Day. As its organizers emphasized, “Officials may celebrate in Kyiv, but real Ukrainians come to Huliaipole.” At the festival in 2009, the Makhno monument was unveiled in the city centre. It was created by the well-respected local sculptor Vladlen Dubinin (1931–2023). A prolific artist of Ukrainian and Cossack themes, Dubinin completed the monument in three weeks, working from photos of Makhno. Unveiling of the Makhno monument at Makhnofest, 24 August 2009. Source: Bohdan Klid Accompanying the city centre monument was an identical twin statue installed at the former residence of Makhno’s brother, Karp. Before the war intervened, the property was being transformed into the Nestor Makhno Family Museum. While the property was also damaged in shelling, the twin statue has thus far survived. Source: Bohdan Klid, 24 August 2024 Since 2022, the monument in the city centre has become a symbol of defiance, identity, and hope. Ukrainian soldiers frequently posed with the statue for photographs and adorned him with their flags. Fears of its destruction led locals to sandbag the monument. In May 2023, the monument was fitted with a vyshyvanka (traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirt). Makhno family property, August 2011. Source: Sean Patterson The restored monument was initiated at the request of the local military administration, who recruited the Kyiv-based sculptor Olexander Berezovchuk. Berezovchuk worked on refashioning Makhno’s head for over a month free of charge. The head of the Huliaipole City Military Administration, Serhii Yarmak, wrote in his birthday message to the city, “When our symbol of freedom, the monument to Nestor Makhno, was destroyed during one of the shellings, the people of Huliaipole lost hope … Now our father has been reborn, as our Huliaipole will be reborn!” In addition to the head, Makhno is now permanently clutching the blue-and-yellow national flag. Makhno family property, 2023. Source: Serhij Zvilinski Western anarchists may be confused and even horrified by Makhno’s integration into Ukrainian national themes. Makhno was, in fact, an unrepentant anarchist who rejected state structures and national chauvinism. In his time, he fought against the Bolsheviks and Ukrainian nationalists (although he also made tactical alliances with both at different junctures). Nonetheless, Makhno was profoundly concerned with the free cultural expression and territorial autonomy of Ukrainians throughout his life. His movement was officially called the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine. Of course, elevating Makhno to a hero of the Ukrainian state is anachronistic and runs entirely counter to his anarchism. On the other hand, Makhno is well-suited as a symbol of Ukrainian cultural resistance and anti-imperialism. Head of the Huliaipole City Military Administration, Serhii Yarmak, with the restored Makhno monument, 11 September 2024. Source: Facebook How Ukrainians understand their relationship to Makhno and his ideals is an ongoing process and, for Huliaipolians, deeply personal. Whatever protestations Westerners may shout from abroad, the reality is that Makhno and his statue serve as an enduring figure of Ukrainian defiance, autonomy, and freedom in the face of the Russian invasion. Nestor Makhno (centre), Spring 1919. Source: Wikimedia Commons The post The life, death, and resurrection of the Nestor Makhno monument appeared first on Freedom News.