Makhno Essay

[Dolerite]

I posted a topic a while ago, kind of on the same topic, but this one is more specific. Does anyone know a good essay topic for the Makhnovist Movement? I've done some preliminary reading, but I'm not sure what direction to go in. I was thinking "To what extent did the Makhnovist Movement influence the Bolshevik government", but reading some sources left me feeling like Makhno had very little effect on the outcome of the Civil War. That made me think I could do something more based around ideological differences, or something like that. It has to be an argumentative essay though, so I can't just do a biography of Makhno. Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance.

[Dóchas]

i dont know much about makhno but this might help :)

http://nestormakhno.info/english/index.htm

[x359594]

The Struggle Against the State by Nestor Makhno, A History of the Makhnovist Movement by Peter Arshinov and Anarchy's Cossack by Alexander Skirda are all good sources of information. The collection of Makhno's manifestos and articles has a good contextual afterword by Skirda, who is also Makhno's biographer. The Arshinov book is the one most apposite to your question, "To what extent did the Makhnovist Movement influence the Bolshevik government" if you modify to add "in the Ukraine?'

[Invariance]

Well, Paul Avrich's The Russian Anarchists (http://g.imagehost.org/download/0230/Avrich_The_Russian_Anarchists) might be helpful regarding the political differences. It includes some interesting conversations between Lenin and Makhno and Lenin and Kropotkin (Kropotkin writing in a letter to Lenin: '"Russia has become a Revolutionary Republic only in name, at present it is ruled not by soviets but by party committees.... If the present situation should continue much longer, the very word 'socialism' will tum into a curse, as did the slogan of 'equality' for forty years after the rule of the Jacobins." (1921), as well as political conflicts between Makhno on the one hand and Goldman, Berkman and Malatesta on the other. (Kropotkin's family also rejected Lenin's offer of a state-funeral). Interesting side-note; Avrich found Kropotkin's daughter Alexandra in Upper East Side, Manhattan, New York, and ended up writing Anarchist Voices (http://books.google.com.au/books?id=8z8mdUYp-6gC&dq=Anarchist+Voices&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=10glStGsHMKIkAWqqcjfBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4), a 'collection of interviews with over 180 anarchists over 30 years.' Avrich died only three years ago.

[x359594]

...Paul Avrich's The Russian Anarchists (http://g.imagehost.org/download/0230/Avrich_The_Russian_Anarchists) might be helpful regarding the political differences...Interesting side-note; Avrich found Kropotkin's daughter Alexandra in Upper East Side, Manhattan, New York, and ended up writing Anarchist Voices (http://books.google.com.au/books?id=8z8mdUYp-6gC&dq=Anarchist+Voices&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=10glStGsHMKIkAWqqcjfBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4), a 'collection of interviews with over 180 anarchists over 30 years.' Avrich died only three years ago.

Good call on Avrich's book Vinnie.

Alexandra Kropotkin enjoyed minor success in the US as the author of Russian cookbooks.

[Dolerite]

Cheers, I finished reading the book I had on Makhno and there probably is a case to say that Makhno influenced the revolution. I really wanted to talk about the clash of ideologies though, could I say Makhno posed a threat to create more widespread peasant rebellion? Probably not. How about "the Makhnovist movement threatened the Bolshevik consolidation of power"? I'll go read The Russian Anarchists now, thanks for the link.