A Marxist Historian
16th July 2011, 00:30
The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research (the acronym abbreviates its title in Yiddish) is located at
15 W. 16th St., New York, NY 10011, (212) 246-6080
http://www.yivoinstitute.org/
I have possession of copies of most of the Makhno file from the Tcherikover Archives at YIVO, as well as several letters. What you see below is a twenty-year-old letter to a person interested in Makho and Makhnovism who had copied the YIVO Makhno file on a visit to YIVO, and given a copy to the author of the letter. All contemporary names of persons have been removed from the letter, which consists of translations into English and explanations of the materials in the Makhno file. Initialed interpolations by the author are XX, XXXX is another individual.
The YIVO Makhno file is almost entirely in languages other than English. The only language the recipient of the letter knew was English. The author of the letter knew several of the languages, but not Russian. At some point, when I get around to it, I will review the Russian language material in the file that I possess and do something similar for it.
-M.H.-
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Elias Tcherikower Archives, YIVO, File #29, folios 2623-2681
2627, 2629
In Russian script. Signature is N. Makhno, date 15/26 (1926?). Probably below-mentioned open letter to Jewish community. I would guess 2623 thru 2626, I presume also in Russian, should have an introductory character to the file as a whole.
2628, 2630, 2631, 2632, 2633
This is the item titled 24 Hours With The Makhnovists translated for you by XXXX. A few notes: 1) At the top of the first page are two inscriptions in Russian script. 2) On the second page of the document, re: the Barmahertsige sister, the phrase he renders as was struck translates as was stabbed to death afterwards according to my dictionary. The subsequent parenthetical comment about rape is in the original account, not added by XXXX or the archivist (this seems to be so throughout). 3) Several phrases are underlined in the account, perhaps XXXX did not bother as they were pretty obvious ones, e.g. I saw things like this with my own eyes five or six times. 4) The phrase Free Trade (an accurate translation) is not capitalized in the original. 5) XXXX uses the word gentile to translate the Yiddish word goyim, losing the pejorative connotation of the original. 6) The phrase state business enterprises is actually soviet business enterprises. Also, the Yiddish word ratn which I in this context would translate soviet is actually, like the German word rat, just the equivalent of the English adjective council, and did not bear the weight of 70 years of USSR history at the time of writing. 7) At the end there is a date, 7/(Russian script abbreviation for month I think) 1920.
2634 through 2651, 2661 through 2665
Dont have. I assume this is the bulk of the Russian material you have. This would be good stuff for you to get translated, as by the placement in the folder my guess is that this is factual material, not just polemics. If you could show me the originals I could probably tell you the sources, titles and signatures, although a real translation would be out of my league
2652, 2653, 2654, 2655, 2656, 2657, 2658, 2659
This document is probably the most damning material against Makhno in the entire file. You discounted the above document on the grounds that it lacked enough exact information to be checkable. This document more than makes up for that. The below translation is preliminary and very inadequate. The original copy here is particularly tough to translate without a lot of experience, because Jewish alphabet typewriters, unfortunately, produce many consonants that are only distinguished from each other by little squiggles that almost disappear if the copy is blurry. And also, theres always typos ... actual printed material is much easier (script is definitely beyond my ability). You might want to try to get a better one from XXXX at some point.
The Pogrom Activity of the Makhnovites
/A report pulled together on the basis of documents which (find themselves?) at the disposal of the editorial collective to publish materials about the pogroms in the Ukraine and White Russia./
The objective of this report is to give a specific overview of the pogrom activity of the Makhnovites. Thereby it must already initially be considered that on the basis of the incomplete materials which exist about the question and find themselves at the disposal of the editorial collective, it isnt always possible to be certain if the different bands which in one or another spot committed pogroms against Jews thereby (verb) or by the population become called Makhnovites, really are Makhnovites, are under his oversight or were a (noun) with Makhno. Even less often is it possible to be certain if Makhno himself really was part of these pogrom stories or even took part in the robberies.
According to the chronological dates the documents of the editorial collective paint the following picture of the pogroms of the Makhnovites, committed in the following towns:
Yekaterinoslav
At the end of December and the beginning of January 1919 the insurgent detachments of Makhno fought around and in Yekaterinoslav with the Petliuraites. The fighting in the city itself and the neighboring suburbs went on for seven days. The city was badly shot up by artillery. The Makhnovites looted and burned the Azyorne marketplace. Also the entire commercial region was looted. The result when the battle was ended was that 83 Jewish victims were brought to the cemetery for burial, from which only a lesser number were caused by accidental bullets and shells. The remainder were savagely slain by the Makhnovites. The excesses took a purely anti-Semitic character([1] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=30#_edn1)).
Roseve (Kiev gub.)
(gub. is abbreviation for gubernia i.e. province)
In February 1919 the Petliuraite detachments from Mirgorod were continually plundering and looting Roseve. On February 16, a group of soldiers that called themselves Makhnovites showed up in Roseve, and began dragging bags of sugar, meal and other products from Jewish houses, later also different household goods([2] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=30#_edn2)). During these attacks a Jew, Riabchinsky, was raped and murdered. The soldiers said we have to put fear into Jewish hearts. The victims maintain that the soldiers had (held toasts to? not sure) batko Makhno.
Novo-Poltava colony (Kherson gub.)
In August 1919 a detachment of 30 Makhnovites attacked the colony and began to plunder. The Jewish self-defense, however, drove them out. The second day, a Makhnovite train and two (somethings) went through looting and murdering nonstop. The self-defense was destroyed, the iko farm was ruined. All told, there were 84 murdered Jews. 800 houses were plundered([3] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=30#_edn3)). Other sources mention another number of Jewish murder victims, namely 122([4] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=30#_edn4)). According to the latter information, the pogrom was done by the Makhnovites and (something, something) by the colony.
Novy-Bug. colony/Khers. gub.
At the same time, the Makhnovites made a pogrom in Novy-Bug. There the (plural noun) had a permanent character over the period of two months, there were 22 killed([5] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=30#_edn5)).
Romanovka/Khers.gub.
The Makhnovites showed up at this time in several locations in the Kherson gubernia. A band arrived in Romanovka and demanded of the Jews that they should round up 20,000 rubles in contributions in 20 minutes. All the Jewish women would be taken as guarantees. The contribution is already almost gathered, but seeing that the (illegible) are approaching, the Makhnovites left everything behind and fled([6] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=30#_edn6)).
Bratskeye/Khers. Gub.
At the end of August a band of Makhnovites showed up in Bratskeye, near Elisavetgrad. It was Friday morning. In a period of about 4 hours, all the Jewish families, about 120, were looted out by the band. Also, murdered was a (75-year old man? not sure), a (glazer?), who stood against the cut-throats who wanted to rape his daughter-in-law. (something, something) 3 girls([7] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=30#_edn7)).
Melitopol
The date of the Melitopol pogrom is not established, but it was around about the same time. The (something) information indicates that in the first days that the Makhnovites arrived in the city, they committed a pogrom, and only afterwards, when the Jews had paid them 15 million in contributions, did they stop the pogrom. At the train terminal Jewish victims lay about([8] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=30#_edn8)). The same (illegible) in general another source also([9] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=30#_edn9)).
Chudnov
The Chudnov pogrom (illegible) 1919 by a regular Makhnovite military unit L. In the city a 1,000 men (showed up?) with the slogan beat the Jews, save Russia. They (something) on the Jewish houses and in one night slaughtered all of 22 Jews. The also raped a number of Jewish women and, in addition, looted the entire shtetl ... For 12 days on end Chudnov lay in the hands of the wild band. The Chudnow population did (out of something) survive the horrible affair and put up with the horrible tribute of gold, other products, gold (something) things([10] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=30#_edn10)).
Yekaterinoslav
The Makhnovite pogroms in October 1919 were mostly committed by their military units. Yekaterinoslav was in the month of October (several?) weeks a battleground between the Makhnovites and the Denikinites. Both sides had (illegibile). There wasnt one day when (illegible). All told, there were (during?) this period 180 Jews killed, out of whom 66 were (verb). (From accidental slaughter?) 37 people fell, and the others were murdered by Denikins and Makhnos soldiers([11] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=30#_edn11)). The Makhnovites alone were in Yekaterinoslav from 28 October to 6 November. Officially there was even an order from the revolutionary insurgents committee against looting, for free trade and for (receiving?) ratn-gelt (Soviet money? a revolutionary tax?-not sure). The poor got the ratn-gelt, the Jews unwillingly. The Jewish shops were closed, and (something) the 6th of November they were forced to reopen. The Makhnovites themselves looted very little, but they released the criminals from the jails, who committed assaults, but not specifically against Jews. This is when the organ of the (something) was published, the Nabat. The insurgents issued an order, which came out for organized expropriations, but against looting. This time, Makhno indubitably was present. He led negotiations with the city council and the professional organizations about organizing government, but they fell through([12] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=30#_edn12)). There are also witnesses, who saw Makhno himself in the city, (assisting? standing in the way? not sure) while a (comrade?) from the insurgents looted a Jewish shop([13] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=30#_edn13)).
Kazatin
In October 1919 a Petliuraite unit took Kazatin. A (something) train, which looted and murdered the local Jews. Together with the Petliuaites were added Makhnovites who had arrived from Chudnov, around 300 men. They committed atrocities in Kazatin. They murdered the Jews Kodel and Belilovsky. 40 women were raped. The Makhnovites were there for 12 days. The claims on the Jews reached a level of 5 million rubles. The attacks on non-Jews took an episodic character. The Makhnovites made an accord with the Petliuraites on the issue of struggle against the Denikinites. On their path, the Makhnovites committed pogroms in Chudnov-Wolinski, Wa(??)ovka, Skvire, Ruzshin, Gelopolye and other points. If these were, sincerely, Makhnovites is not known a section from them had certainly belonged to the 4th soviet peoples (something) and the 6th peoples and other bolshevik units. They (something) said that they had split from the bolsheviks and begun an uprising against soviet power under the slogan Down with the Jews and the (Whites?-not sure)([14] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=30#_edn14)).
On (blank) Way
(This long paragraph is a summary of the 24 hours with the Makhnovites document, ending with:) On the same day in Mirgorod (or Myrhorod, a confirming detail, see beginning of 24 hours-XX) the Makhnovites looted the (something) shops([15] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=30#_edn15)).
Who is Makhno?
A polemic developed in the American press in the summer of 1920 on the question of whether Makhno is an ideologically anarchist revolutionary, or a pogromchik. (Im skipping over this, noting only: pro-Makhno, Forward (forverts) #8268 June 7 1920, H. Kien, anti-Makhno Moishe Katz (later a pillar of the CPs Freiheit and later still a well-known Soviet Jewish writer) Forward #8277 June 16, M. Garba pro-Makhno, #8313 July 22([16] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=30#_edn16)).) Unfortunately, the whole polemic mostly covered whether or not Makhno betrayed the Russian revolution, whether he impeded the Bolsheviks, whether he is a true revolutionary. The question of the accusation of Jewish pogroms against Makhno is dealt with in these articles only in passing and not from the factual side.
In the possession of the editorial collective is an official document (here Makhnos May 1919 proclamation against pogroms is summarized).
assembled by I. Klinov
(something in Yiddish script) 1922
2660
There is a date in Yiddish script at the head of this document. It is unfortunate that the newspaper this article was copied out of cannot be determined from the copy, since the author of this article is identical to the previous one. The translation below is hasty, inexact, and probably overly idiomatic, but I think captures the spirit pretty well:
I. Klinov
What would happen, if we had a Jewish trial for Makhno?
Makhno, the well-known hero Makhno, has unconditionally ferglussed (not in my dictionary) himself to argue things out with the Jewish people. Nobody suggested it, nobody demanded it, but in the days of general interest in Schwartzbards fate and the role of the Petliuraites, Makhno has gotten a bit uncomfortable, in that everyones completely forgot about him. And hes sent out an open letter to the press with a special demand to the Jewish people to prove that he was a pogromchik.
I dont know if some sort of institution of ours would have an urge to get mixed up with Makhnos little paper. From the side of Makhno and his comrades this is, in any case, not the first try at rehabilitating him. One should have the apprehension that in different periods and circumstances, Makhnos name has been attached to ideological movements. Not considering that his military units also became reknowned as pogrom-(makers?), over no such pogrom hero has such a sharp (something) been carried out over the columns of the world press about the basic nature of their action, as has been seen over the makhnovshchina. Articles for and against, various testimony, statements of condemnation and hymns of praise have all already been heard numberless times about the rebellious Russian phenomenon who has appeared to struggle against the Hetman and Petliura and Denikin and the Bolsheviks against everything and everyone...
People have already forgot a bit about Makhno, but a couple years back, on the eve of his treason trial in Poland, a world, whose headquarters at that time was in a certain sense Berlin, turned around Makhno, which had begun to lead a counter-attack, a defense struggle for the good name of batko Makhno, before the trial was even begun. And the most remarkable thing in the whole affair was then that Makhnos friends and advocates brought out a few Jews, firstly the famous anarchist intellectual Voline, whose Jewish name is Eichenbaum. What this Eichenbaum and other of his comrades maintained is very interesting. Because, if someone sincerely should be found, who should handle the clarification of Makhnos guilt or innocence. It would be the same charges and the lawyers would surely be the same young Jewish anarchist types ... Voline was the one who was (connected?) with the makhnovschchina during the battles on Russian territory. The attempt to bind up the elemental forces with anarchism was already begun in the year 1918, mainly through a group of returned American anarchists. Cultural work in Makhnos army was carried out at that time by a Jewish-American woman, Yelena Keller, and Jews were sincerely found continually around Makhno.
But who was Makhno himself? In Berlin, in the Russian-language Anarkhistichesky Vyestnik, was printed Makhnos memoirs. And from them, if you accept them as honest, is to be seen that the whole legend that Makhno was a popular educator, is lies; the batko himself maintains everywhere that his lineage is completely kosher, he is a poor mans son, was a shepherd, a worker. From sixteen years old a revolutionary, later condemned to hard labor and first in the year 1918 a mass leader.
Also at that time appeared in Berlin M. Arshinovs book, The History of the `Makhnovshchina. The fellow who wrote this book is a man with a serious past. From time to time, he has committed terrorist deeds, in 1906 blew up a police(station?) in Amid near Yekaterinoslav, was condemned to death, escaped, participated in the makhnovshchina, and if Makhno must resort to depending on means of defense, he will doubtless get assistance from Arshinovs book, whose obvious goal is to immortalize Makhno. If the makhnovshchina did not appear, according to Arshinov, the hetman would be sitting upon the Ukraine to this day and the Dekinites would be (something) and the Bolsheviks wouldnt be able to do anything.
And Arshinov gives much space (from national considerations?) in the makhnovshchina (public school?) to make up a list of Jews, who were vice chairman in Makhnos revolutionary council in Gulyai-Polye, commandants in Makhnos cavalry regiments, leaders of the agitational activity. Then he relates how the Jewish colonies in Mariupol, Meriusker(?) and Aleksandrovsk districts unanimously supported Makhno, additionally participating with all working people in Makhnos conventions, and saw in him their protection against reaction. Arshinov even claims that in February 1919 Makhno allowed the Jewish colonies to organize self-defense and supplied them with weapons. And stories are told about Jewish fighters in the ranks of the Makhnovites. Thus truly heroic feats were performed by a tailor, who commanded an artillery battery. Makhno himself has to thank his very survival to Jews. A resident of Gulyai-Polye, a Jew, rescued him, when he fell in the hands of the Germans in July with a suitcase full of anarchist literature; the Jew bought him free, paid a ransom for him.
Makhnos comrades in Berlin, naturally, understood in their time, that they would hardly succeed with a system of something (in quotes. Hebrew word probably). Claiming vociferously that Makhnos army is innocent in the face of God, has not a drop of Jewish blood on its hands, is laughable, as in the different pogrom archives lie many a record of Makhnos pogroms. What then? The intercessors come forward and mostly condemn in the pogroms the Grigorievites and other accidental bandits, which got into Makhnos military. The headquarters however, the leading power, would have been clean of anti-Semitism.
When Makhno once went through the Verkhny Tokmak train station, he saw a poster with the slogan Kill the Jews, save the revolution, long live Makhno!
He went and sought out which of his men had put up the poster and shot the poor bastard on the spot.
In the Gorkaye shtetl, Aleksandrovsk district, Makhnovites killed 20 Jewish families, and Makhno put 7 guilty soldiers up against the wall.
But the special service of Makhno was that he shot down the butcher Grigoriev with his own hands.
Arshinov describes this in detail. When Grigoriev began his uprising against the Bolsheviks, he sent out his famous Universal, in which it is stated, that with the Ukraines (honest men washed in the blood of the Lamb?) Makhno answered with a call, in which he wrote and warned:
Dont you hear in Grigorievs words a dark call for Jewish pogroms?
And as it happened July 27, 1919, in the village of Sentovo, near Aleksandria, the conference with the participation of both Makhno and Grigoriev, Makhno made Grigoriev pay the price for his Jewish pogrom in Yelisavetgrad and shot him down on the spot, shouting, such unworthy men as Grigoriev are a shame for all (povstantses-Ukrainian word probably)!
What does all this prove? That Makhno is a tsaddik (Hasidic saint), that he is entirely (zchai-Hebrew probably) with respect to the Jews?
Yekaterinoslav Jews are in a position to put against this episode ten times as many episodes, which testify to bloody deeds of Makhno with his bands. The Jewish comrades of the former ataman the ideological anarchists will fashion a legend about the makhnovshchina. In truth, the matter is much simpler. There were many moments in which Makhno, led by a group of intellectuals, also including Jews, behaved decently, and one could even think that Makhno was a protector of the poor Jewish population; these moments do not atone for the excesses that the Jews suffered from the Makhnovites, as from the other bands in the years of affliction.
And I think that just now the Jewish comrades of Makhno, who can raise him so well in the divine reckoning, would have done better to restrain their hero from this tactless publicity stunt, from (stirring up?) and chutzpah-ish reminders of himself, from demanding a tribunal.
French language material
Pages 67-83 and 92-97, 23 total out of 114 pages in file 29, including folios from 2666 through 2673
All this material is taken from French anarchist publications, mostly from the Libertaire
2666
Au secours de Makhno! Save Makhno!
The Russian script at the top seems to indicate a date of September 23, 1923 I think. This article, by Casimir Teslar, is a call for international defense of Makhno during his above-mentioned trial for treason in Poland. The bulk of the article is a fascinating but not too relevant tale of political intrigue in Rumania and Poland. There is one paragraph, however, that has a line drawn next to it, presumably by the archivist:
In Poland, Makhno is surrounded by enemies on all sides, persecuted at the same time by the white guards, by the bolsheviks, by the Jews(underscore by archivist), and by the Polish bourgeoisie.
(unnumbered, continuation of 2666)
These pages, including the titles Propos dun Paria and Plaidoirie de M. de Saint-Auban are obviously also from the Libertaire, but dont seem to have anything to do with Makhno. Theyre probably here by accident. The only possibly relevant thing here is an adjoining part of an article criticizing Leon Daudet, who it seems was at one time an anarchist. Daudet is much more famous as the leader of the French Monarchists, a notorious ultra-reactionary and Jew-hater.
(unnumbered, continuation of 2666)
in Russian script, Libertaire 6-something-22 (1922?). I dont know if you already have a translation of this, but as a defense of Makhno, it is unintentionally self-revealing. The only thing I wish to note is that all of the acts in protection of Jews listed in this article, excepting only the shooting of Grigoriev, come from the period of March through May, 1919, when Makhno held the status of a commander in Trotskys Red Army!
The Makhnovite Movement and Antisemitism
Its completely natural that the makhnovite movement, spontaneous revolutionary movement of the masses, which for some time created the menace of a popular and general revolution, finds no sympathy among the partisans of any of the contemporary political doctrines. Its only a long time afterwards that such movements are sung and poetised, when they disappear in the distance of centuries and do not menace anymore the current state of affairs. When they break out, theyre always greeted by hatred and malediction. All means are good to suppress them. It was thus with the movement of slaves led by Spartacus; the same with the movement of Russian peasants led by Razin and Pugachev, etc. etc... The same thing is repeated today with the Makhnovshchina. If the Mensheviks, the Social-Revolutionaries and the semi-bolshevik anarchists distort it with lies, what can we expect from a government party whose existence was threatened with the danger of death by this movement? Without any doubt and before all lies.
The Makhnovites struggled against the violence of the communist party. They led at the same time a bitter struggle against the reaction of Denikin and Wrangel. The bolsheviks know this very well, which does not keep them from cynically declaring that Makhno had a formal political and military link-up with these generals.
To fight the Makhnovite movement, the communist government adopted itself the means always used with success by all the authorities: anti-semitism. We dont have written documents by the government openly mixing the Makhnovite movement up in anti-semitic acts. But the monstrous legend of anti-semitism in this movement has been passed throughout the world by the communist government for a long time now; its been spread about and maintained by its agents, and is the natural object of general attention, in the first place, by the jewish masses.
Its useless to say that this story is an outrageous lie.
In Russia, and perhaps in the whole world, the army of Makhno is the only one still absolutely foreign to anti-semitic deeds.
You must visualize the makhnovshchina from two different sides: the first, the constantly moving army; the second, the vast peasant masses who stay in one place in their villages, but who are linked to the army as much from the ideological as the organizational point of view. This army as well as the vast masses of peasants which supported it were the best friends of the jewish laboring population. (Here I have to interrupt. Talk about a whitewash! If they want to claim the Makhnovite army didnt commit pogroms, thats arguable. Claiming the vast peasant masses were friends of the Jews come on! XX.) The Israelite workers of Gulyai-Polye, Aleksandrovsk, Berdiomsk, Mariupol and other towns and localities could fully witness that they had consistent revolutionary friends in the makhnovtsy.
Having taken part in the makhnovite movement, we have our hands on all the elements which relate to this question. We cite some of the most characteristic facts.
On May 12, 1919, in the jewish agricultural colony called Gorkaya (Aleksandrovsk district) several jewish families were massacred, in total 20 people. The Makhnovite staff immediately named a commission which established that the assassins were seven peasants from the neighboring village Uspyenovka. Later, it was fully established that the above-cited case like other attempts of the same type were inspired by detachments of the denikinite army which were infiltrating into the region, thus preparing the terrain for the general offensive of Denikins army in the Ukraine.
In May 1919, a terrible jewish pogrom was committed in the village of Yelizavetgrad by the detachments of the reactionary ataman Grigoriev. Around four thousand jews were massacred and almost all the Israelite population of the village was wiped out. Having learned about this deed, Makhno and his companions were desolated. They immediately decided that their first duty was to wipe out Grigoriev.
The task was complicated; Makhno knew how to get it done. At the general congress of the partisans of the Tauride region, Kherson and Yekaterinoslav which took place in July 1919 at Sentovo, Makhno and his friends got Grigoriev to attend, who they accused, among other misdeeds, of the inexpiable crime of the Yelizavetgrad pogrom. They shot him with his staff, under the eyes of the congressmen. The makhnovites took upon themselves the responsability for this act. As for the Congress, it inscribed it in its protocol as being historically necessary for the interest and development of the revolution in the Ukraine.
On May 5, 1919, passing through the Verkhni-Tokmak station, Makhno noticed a poster stuck on the wall carrying this inscription: Death to the Jews, save the revolution, Long Live Makhno! Makhno demanded that the author of this poster be brought to him immediately. A partisan who he knew personally, a participant in the fight against Denikin, not such a bad chap over all, showed up. Makhno killed him on the spot with one revolver shot in the presence of a large crowd.
Good or bad, these facts show one thing: severe repression by the Makhnovtsy of any anti-semitic tendency.
In the great partisan movement of 1918-1919, one can find, its understood, a few isolated penetrations of an anti-semitic spirit. These elements werent the product of the movement, but of the general state of things in Russia; they didnt have any significance in the movement as a whole. As soon as discovered, they were liquidated. (Yeah, sure XX). Moreover, the sporadic outbreaks of anti-semitism which were produced in various locales in the Ukraine didnt have any relationship with the makhnovite movement.
In the makhnovite movement itself, an important role was played by revolutionaries of the jewish race of whom (one line missing here) by the revolution of 1905-07. A good half of the members of the cultural section of the makhnovite army were Israelites. The president of the supreme organ (military revolutionary council of the region) was a jew, the anarchist Kogan, a former worker who had turned to agricultural labor before the revolution for reasons of principle. More than a dozen of the best revolutionaries of the jewish race perished in combat in the ranks of the Makhnovshchina which they considered as the sole truly revolutionary and popular movement.
Anti-semitism exists just as much in Russia as in other countries. (Just a bit of understatement here XX) In Russia and the Ukraine, it wasnt the result of the revolutionary epoch and the partisan movement, but of the heritage of the past. The makhnovites always struggled against it by word and action. During their movement, they issued several tracts, posters, etc. through which they called on the masses to struggle against this evil. You could daringly say that in the domain of the struggle against anti-semitism in the Ukraine and elsewhere, the makhnovtsy accomplished a tremendous task.
Being a revolutionary movement of the masses of the people, the makhnovshchina carried within itself the proper spirit of the brotherhood of the people, a spirit proper only to those who toil and suffer. It is, precisely, one of those movements, rare in contemporary history, wherein ones proper nationality is ignored and where only one thing is important: the labor and liberty of the workers.
For ages, the governments of the different countries have exploited anti-semitism each in its own way, but always with the same end: to reaffirm their authority.
The communist power doesnt scorn this tested method either. Admittedly its method of action isnt the same as that which existed in the epoch of the czar, its a method much more subtle, socialist, but basically nothing has changed. The communist government creates, intentionally and farssement (farcically?) the phantom of a jewish national calamity (it was definitely no phantom XX) and falsifies anti-semitism thus, trying in this fashion to inflame one section of the workers against the other and inspiring hostility among the jewish masses towards the greatest worker and peasant movement which has been seen in Russia. This is what we have the full right to call anti-semitism of a new type.
Let this serve as a lesson to the jewish workers, let them be on their guard.
M-NE.
2667
The Congress of Unions of the Seine Protests Against the Arrest of Shapiro
About a syndicalist arrested in Russia, from the Libertaire. Not relevant to Makhno. Followed by The school of Propaganda, even less relevant.
2668
Nestor Makhno, again 1922 Libertaire, also by M-NE, who is billed as one of our best comrades, the only one of the Russian libertarian intellectuals who knows the Makhno movement in depth and in its entirety. Another biography, nothing new, except that it is stated that the reason given by the Bolsheviks for outlawing Makhno in January 1920 was his refusal to follow an order to move his forces to the Polish front. Given that Petliura had allied with the Poles, and Polish troops, together with Petliura, had already penetrated a considerable distance into the Ukraine, actually retaking Kiev a few months later, I cant help wondering if his refusal to follow this order had something to do with his alleged negotiations or even alliance with the pogromist Petliura, as much as his alleged (and probably not unfounded) fear that if his troops moved out of his home territory the Bolsheviks would be able to put an end to his movement.
(unnumbered continuation)
Pour la liberation de Marty, freedom for Marty, not relevant
2671 through 2673 (2669 is presumably a Russian document, probably a similar article from a Russian anarchist newspaper, for 2670 see below)
This document, titled The truth about the Anarcho-Makhnovist Movement and the revolutionary peasant Nestor Makhno, is from La Revue Anarchiste, or Anarchist Review, again 1922. The author is Casimir Teslar, also the author of #2666. He describes himself as a polish revolutionary-anarchist (who) participate(d) in the anarchist movement in Italy in 1919. He says he went to Russia in 1920 to study the Revolution, and joined the Makhnovites at the beginning of November 1920, during the accord between the Makhnovites and Bolsheviks against Wrangel, which was ended on November 26, after Wrangel was defeated. He was arrested in January 1921 and spent nine months in prison. He claims the prison authorities alternately threatened to shoot him and invited him to join the Cheka. He credits his freedom to the intervention of Italian anarchists. The article is a history of the Makhnovite movement and Makhno himself and a furious defense of Makhno against the Soviet charge that he was a bandit. The Soviet authorities unsuccessfully demanded the extradition of the bandit Makhno from the bourgeois authorities of Rumania and Poland, a demand Teslar waxes highly indignant about. At one point, Teslar states: Thus, the unfortunate peasant became the victim of the criminals, the oligarchs, and the bureaucrats. Those of the criminals who manifested the most ferocity installed themselves on the throne of the Kremlin. Later he talks about the fascism of the communist-authoritarian State with its red assassins and torturers. One doesnt get the impression that Teslar is very fond of communists. Unfortunately, there are no facts about Makhno and his movement in this article not available elsewhere.
2670
About Makhno and the Pogroms
This article is from the Jewish anarchist newspaper in New York, the Fraye Arbayter Shtime. Im not translating it because it basically duplicates other articles in his defense. I didnt notice anything new.
unnumbered item in Yiddish, 2 pages
This seems to have fallen in here by accident. It has nothing to do with Makhno. Maybe its just the following page in the F.A.S. after the above item.
2676
This Yiddish item is mostly illegible, especially the title. I can, however, make out the words Makhno and 1919 several times on the lines that are legible.
no visible number
This is the item by M. Hochem translated from the Montreal Eagle by XXXX under the title Pogromist or Anarchist. A couple of explanatory notes: the socialist Forward took an anti-Zionist position for a long time. This is no doubt why they are referred to as Arabs. Petliura, like the Polish Pilsudski, was indeed at one time a member of the Second International, although certainly the social democrats like Abe Cahans Forward, and even, I think, his Ukrainian one-time comrade Vinnichenko, condemned his anti-semitic atrocities. I wouldnt be surprised if the charge that there were proven pogromists participating in various Second International parties at the time is accurate. Also, Petliura did indeed have a Jewish ministry, the ministers being members of the Ukrainian right-wing bourgeois Zionist party. Serving under Petliura tremendously discredited them at that time in the Jewish community, even in the eyes of conservative anti-socialists like M. Hochem, who was probably a Zionist himself. All considered, this article is quite damning towards Makhno. It frankly does not have the tone of right-wing lies made up by a bitter enemy of anarchism and revolution, although that may perhaps be what our wise man was. And it offers a quite adequate explanation of why the documentation about pogroms by Makhnovites is relatively skimpy.
2670(?), 2679, 3pg.
These two items are in, of all unlikely languages, Hebrew! Reasonably legible-looking Hebrew at that. At the time, only ultra-orthodox Jews and Zionist fanatics bothered to publish newspapers in Hebrew, which outside the future Eretz Israel had a status in the Jewish community not that much better than Latin among Catholics. Now, however, you can probably easily find, if not a translator, at least someone fluent in Hebrew (if worst comes to worst, an Israeli exchange student) who would glance through these items and give you the gist of them, though no doubt youd have to pay someone if you want a complete translation.
2681 (3 pg.)
This is the remaining item translated for you by XXXX. No comments necessary.
The remaining other folios (2674, 75, 77, 78, 79 and 80) I presume are yet more Russian-language polemics. They might be interesting, unless theyre from anarchist sources. All the anarchist material seems curiously identical and fairly uninformative, regardless of what language its in. The best anarchist defense of Makhno on this issue is unquestionably Voline. The material you sent me stands head and shoulders above any of the anarchist material from file #29 that Ive seen so far.
[1]. Materials from `Yekapo, report by M. Aspiz, written 24 August 1922.
[2]. Materials from `Kope report from authorized (word) testimony by Moshe Zarachansky
[3]. Report by D. Traibman, who in the name of the gubaufravak gubernia evacuation administration investigated the Jewish colony of (Kherson-something?).
[4]. Jewish Thought, #19, September 11, 1919, Odessa.
[5]. Report of D. Breitman, see above remarks.
[6]. Jewish Thought #23, 11 October 1919, Odessa.
[7]. Information from Wilf-Aaron Dubkin (I think this is a name), submitted to Odessa Kehilah (Jewish community organization) 9/27/1919.
[8]. Our Word #10, 21 October 1919, Odessa.
[9]. Jewish Thought #29, Odessa.
[10]. Materials from Kope, report by H. Frolkim.
[11]. Materials from Yekapo report by M. Aspiz 8/24 1920.
[12]. Materials from the editorial collective, testimony by student, Yehuda Barishansky.
[13]. Forward (Forverts) #8133, 17 January 1920, New York. Testimony of Frida Greenfeld, written down by H. Nagel. (Note: unlike most of the references here, this is easily checkable. Complete microfilm records of the Forverts are held in many places, among others UCLA and the New York Public Library.)
[14]. Materials from Poale-Zion. Testimony by the secretary of the Kazatin Poale-Zion organization, Goldfein.
[15]. Material from the editorial-collective, testimony from Mordechai (Relaviteh? looks more like Volovich to me), a medical official.
[16]. Unlike the rest of the references, the Forverts is easily obtainable on microfilm from, among other possibilities, the UCLA and New York Public libraries.
15 W. 16th St., New York, NY 10011, (212) 246-6080
http://www.yivoinstitute.org/
I have possession of copies of most of the Makhno file from the Tcherikover Archives at YIVO, as well as several letters. What you see below is a twenty-year-old letter to a person interested in Makho and Makhnovism who had copied the YIVO Makhno file on a visit to YIVO, and given a copy to the author of the letter. All contemporary names of persons have been removed from the letter, which consists of translations into English and explanations of the materials in the Makhno file. Initialed interpolations by the author are XX, XXXX is another individual.
The YIVO Makhno file is almost entirely in languages other than English. The only language the recipient of the letter knew was English. The author of the letter knew several of the languages, but not Russian. At some point, when I get around to it, I will review the Russian language material in the file that I possess and do something similar for it.
-M.H.-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Elias Tcherikower Archives, YIVO, File #29, folios 2623-2681
2627, 2629
In Russian script. Signature is N. Makhno, date 15/26 (1926?). Probably below-mentioned open letter to Jewish community. I would guess 2623 thru 2626, I presume also in Russian, should have an introductory character to the file as a whole.
2628, 2630, 2631, 2632, 2633
This is the item titled 24 Hours With The Makhnovists translated for you by XXXX. A few notes: 1) At the top of the first page are two inscriptions in Russian script. 2) On the second page of the document, re: the Barmahertsige sister, the phrase he renders as was struck translates as was stabbed to death afterwards according to my dictionary. The subsequent parenthetical comment about rape is in the original account, not added by XXXX or the archivist (this seems to be so throughout). 3) Several phrases are underlined in the account, perhaps XXXX did not bother as they were pretty obvious ones, e.g. I saw things like this with my own eyes five or six times. 4) The phrase Free Trade (an accurate translation) is not capitalized in the original. 5) XXXX uses the word gentile to translate the Yiddish word goyim, losing the pejorative connotation of the original. 6) The phrase state business enterprises is actually soviet business enterprises. Also, the Yiddish word ratn which I in this context would translate soviet is actually, like the German word rat, just the equivalent of the English adjective council, and did not bear the weight of 70 years of USSR history at the time of writing. 7) At the end there is a date, 7/(Russian script abbreviation for month I think) 1920.
2634 through 2651, 2661 through 2665
Dont have. I assume this is the bulk of the Russian material you have. This would be good stuff for you to get translated, as by the placement in the folder my guess is that this is factual material, not just polemics. If you could show me the originals I could probably tell you the sources, titles and signatures, although a real translation would be out of my league
2652, 2653, 2654, 2655, 2656, 2657, 2658, 2659
This document is probably the most damning material against Makhno in the entire file. You discounted the above document on the grounds that it lacked enough exact information to be checkable. This document more than makes up for that. The below translation is preliminary and very inadequate. The original copy here is particularly tough to translate without a lot of experience, because Jewish alphabet typewriters, unfortunately, produce many consonants that are only distinguished from each other by little squiggles that almost disappear if the copy is blurry. And also, theres always typos ... actual printed material is much easier (script is definitely beyond my ability). You might want to try to get a better one from XXXX at some point.
The Pogrom Activity of the Makhnovites
/A report pulled together on the basis of documents which (find themselves?) at the disposal of the editorial collective to publish materials about the pogroms in the Ukraine and White Russia./
The objective of this report is to give a specific overview of the pogrom activity of the Makhnovites. Thereby it must already initially be considered that on the basis of the incomplete materials which exist about the question and find themselves at the disposal of the editorial collective, it isnt always possible to be certain if the different bands which in one or another spot committed pogroms against Jews thereby (verb) or by the population become called Makhnovites, really are Makhnovites, are under his oversight or were a (noun) with Makhno. Even less often is it possible to be certain if Makhno himself really was part of these pogrom stories or even took part in the robberies.
According to the chronological dates the documents of the editorial collective paint the following picture of the pogroms of the Makhnovites, committed in the following towns:
Yekaterinoslav
At the end of December and the beginning of January 1919 the insurgent detachments of Makhno fought around and in Yekaterinoslav with the Petliuraites. The fighting in the city itself and the neighboring suburbs went on for seven days. The city was badly shot up by artillery. The Makhnovites looted and burned the Azyorne marketplace. Also the entire commercial region was looted. The result when the battle was ended was that 83 Jewish victims were brought to the cemetery for burial, from which only a lesser number were caused by accidental bullets and shells. The remainder were savagely slain by the Makhnovites. The excesses took a purely anti-Semitic character([1] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=30#_edn1)).
Roseve (Kiev gub.)
(gub. is abbreviation for gubernia i.e. province)
In February 1919 the Petliuraite detachments from Mirgorod were continually plundering and looting Roseve. On February 16, a group of soldiers that called themselves Makhnovites showed up in Roseve, and began dragging bags of sugar, meal and other products from Jewish houses, later also different household goods([2] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=30#_edn2)). During these attacks a Jew, Riabchinsky, was raped and murdered. The soldiers said we have to put fear into Jewish hearts. The victims maintain that the soldiers had (held toasts to? not sure) batko Makhno.
Novo-Poltava colony (Kherson gub.)
In August 1919 a detachment of 30 Makhnovites attacked the colony and began to plunder. The Jewish self-defense, however, drove them out. The second day, a Makhnovite train and two (somethings) went through looting and murdering nonstop. The self-defense was destroyed, the iko farm was ruined. All told, there were 84 murdered Jews. 800 houses were plundered([3] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=30#_edn3)). Other sources mention another number of Jewish murder victims, namely 122([4] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=30#_edn4)). According to the latter information, the pogrom was done by the Makhnovites and (something, something) by the colony.
Novy-Bug. colony/Khers. gub.
At the same time, the Makhnovites made a pogrom in Novy-Bug. There the (plural noun) had a permanent character over the period of two months, there were 22 killed([5] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=30#_edn5)).
Romanovka/Khers.gub.
The Makhnovites showed up at this time in several locations in the Kherson gubernia. A band arrived in Romanovka and demanded of the Jews that they should round up 20,000 rubles in contributions in 20 minutes. All the Jewish women would be taken as guarantees. The contribution is already almost gathered, but seeing that the (illegible) are approaching, the Makhnovites left everything behind and fled([6] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=30#_edn6)).
Bratskeye/Khers. Gub.
At the end of August a band of Makhnovites showed up in Bratskeye, near Elisavetgrad. It was Friday morning. In a period of about 4 hours, all the Jewish families, about 120, were looted out by the band. Also, murdered was a (75-year old man? not sure), a (glazer?), who stood against the cut-throats who wanted to rape his daughter-in-law. (something, something) 3 girls([7] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=30#_edn7)).
Melitopol
The date of the Melitopol pogrom is not established, but it was around about the same time. The (something) information indicates that in the first days that the Makhnovites arrived in the city, they committed a pogrom, and only afterwards, when the Jews had paid them 15 million in contributions, did they stop the pogrom. At the train terminal Jewish victims lay about([8] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=30#_edn8)). The same (illegible) in general another source also([9] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=30#_edn9)).
Chudnov
The Chudnov pogrom (illegible) 1919 by a regular Makhnovite military unit L. In the city a 1,000 men (showed up?) with the slogan beat the Jews, save Russia. They (something) on the Jewish houses and in one night slaughtered all of 22 Jews. The also raped a number of Jewish women and, in addition, looted the entire shtetl ... For 12 days on end Chudnov lay in the hands of the wild band. The Chudnow population did (out of something) survive the horrible affair and put up with the horrible tribute of gold, other products, gold (something) things([10] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=30#_edn10)).
Yekaterinoslav
The Makhnovite pogroms in October 1919 were mostly committed by their military units. Yekaterinoslav was in the month of October (several?) weeks a battleground between the Makhnovites and the Denikinites. Both sides had (illegibile). There wasnt one day when (illegible). All told, there were (during?) this period 180 Jews killed, out of whom 66 were (verb). (From accidental slaughter?) 37 people fell, and the others were murdered by Denikins and Makhnos soldiers([11] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=30#_edn11)). The Makhnovites alone were in Yekaterinoslav from 28 October to 6 November. Officially there was even an order from the revolutionary insurgents committee against looting, for free trade and for (receiving?) ratn-gelt (Soviet money? a revolutionary tax?-not sure). The poor got the ratn-gelt, the Jews unwillingly. The Jewish shops were closed, and (something) the 6th of November they were forced to reopen. The Makhnovites themselves looted very little, but they released the criminals from the jails, who committed assaults, but not specifically against Jews. This is when the organ of the (something) was published, the Nabat. The insurgents issued an order, which came out for organized expropriations, but against looting. This time, Makhno indubitably was present. He led negotiations with the city council and the professional organizations about organizing government, but they fell through([12] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=30#_edn12)). There are also witnesses, who saw Makhno himself in the city, (assisting? standing in the way? not sure) while a (comrade?) from the insurgents looted a Jewish shop([13] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=30#_edn13)).
Kazatin
In October 1919 a Petliuraite unit took Kazatin. A (something) train, which looted and murdered the local Jews. Together with the Petliuaites were added Makhnovites who had arrived from Chudnov, around 300 men. They committed atrocities in Kazatin. They murdered the Jews Kodel and Belilovsky. 40 women were raped. The Makhnovites were there for 12 days. The claims on the Jews reached a level of 5 million rubles. The attacks on non-Jews took an episodic character. The Makhnovites made an accord with the Petliuraites on the issue of struggle against the Denikinites. On their path, the Makhnovites committed pogroms in Chudnov-Wolinski, Wa(??)ovka, Skvire, Ruzshin, Gelopolye and other points. If these were, sincerely, Makhnovites is not known a section from them had certainly belonged to the 4th soviet peoples (something) and the 6th peoples and other bolshevik units. They (something) said that they had split from the bolsheviks and begun an uprising against soviet power under the slogan Down with the Jews and the (Whites?-not sure)([14] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=30#_edn14)).
On (blank) Way
(This long paragraph is a summary of the 24 hours with the Makhnovites document, ending with:) On the same day in Mirgorod (or Myrhorod, a confirming detail, see beginning of 24 hours-XX) the Makhnovites looted the (something) shops([15] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=30#_edn15)).
Who is Makhno?
A polemic developed in the American press in the summer of 1920 on the question of whether Makhno is an ideologically anarchist revolutionary, or a pogromchik. (Im skipping over this, noting only: pro-Makhno, Forward (forverts) #8268 June 7 1920, H. Kien, anti-Makhno Moishe Katz (later a pillar of the CPs Freiheit and later still a well-known Soviet Jewish writer) Forward #8277 June 16, M. Garba pro-Makhno, #8313 July 22([16] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=30#_edn16)).) Unfortunately, the whole polemic mostly covered whether or not Makhno betrayed the Russian revolution, whether he impeded the Bolsheviks, whether he is a true revolutionary. The question of the accusation of Jewish pogroms against Makhno is dealt with in these articles only in passing and not from the factual side.
In the possession of the editorial collective is an official document (here Makhnos May 1919 proclamation against pogroms is summarized).
assembled by I. Klinov
(something in Yiddish script) 1922
2660
There is a date in Yiddish script at the head of this document. It is unfortunate that the newspaper this article was copied out of cannot be determined from the copy, since the author of this article is identical to the previous one. The translation below is hasty, inexact, and probably overly idiomatic, but I think captures the spirit pretty well:
I. Klinov
What would happen, if we had a Jewish trial for Makhno?
Makhno, the well-known hero Makhno, has unconditionally ferglussed (not in my dictionary) himself to argue things out with the Jewish people. Nobody suggested it, nobody demanded it, but in the days of general interest in Schwartzbards fate and the role of the Petliuraites, Makhno has gotten a bit uncomfortable, in that everyones completely forgot about him. And hes sent out an open letter to the press with a special demand to the Jewish people to prove that he was a pogromchik.
I dont know if some sort of institution of ours would have an urge to get mixed up with Makhnos little paper. From the side of Makhno and his comrades this is, in any case, not the first try at rehabilitating him. One should have the apprehension that in different periods and circumstances, Makhnos name has been attached to ideological movements. Not considering that his military units also became reknowned as pogrom-(makers?), over no such pogrom hero has such a sharp (something) been carried out over the columns of the world press about the basic nature of their action, as has been seen over the makhnovshchina. Articles for and against, various testimony, statements of condemnation and hymns of praise have all already been heard numberless times about the rebellious Russian phenomenon who has appeared to struggle against the Hetman and Petliura and Denikin and the Bolsheviks against everything and everyone...
People have already forgot a bit about Makhno, but a couple years back, on the eve of his treason trial in Poland, a world, whose headquarters at that time was in a certain sense Berlin, turned around Makhno, which had begun to lead a counter-attack, a defense struggle for the good name of batko Makhno, before the trial was even begun. And the most remarkable thing in the whole affair was then that Makhnos friends and advocates brought out a few Jews, firstly the famous anarchist intellectual Voline, whose Jewish name is Eichenbaum. What this Eichenbaum and other of his comrades maintained is very interesting. Because, if someone sincerely should be found, who should handle the clarification of Makhnos guilt or innocence. It would be the same charges and the lawyers would surely be the same young Jewish anarchist types ... Voline was the one who was (connected?) with the makhnovschchina during the battles on Russian territory. The attempt to bind up the elemental forces with anarchism was already begun in the year 1918, mainly through a group of returned American anarchists. Cultural work in Makhnos army was carried out at that time by a Jewish-American woman, Yelena Keller, and Jews were sincerely found continually around Makhno.
But who was Makhno himself? In Berlin, in the Russian-language Anarkhistichesky Vyestnik, was printed Makhnos memoirs. And from them, if you accept them as honest, is to be seen that the whole legend that Makhno was a popular educator, is lies; the batko himself maintains everywhere that his lineage is completely kosher, he is a poor mans son, was a shepherd, a worker. From sixteen years old a revolutionary, later condemned to hard labor and first in the year 1918 a mass leader.
Also at that time appeared in Berlin M. Arshinovs book, The History of the `Makhnovshchina. The fellow who wrote this book is a man with a serious past. From time to time, he has committed terrorist deeds, in 1906 blew up a police(station?) in Amid near Yekaterinoslav, was condemned to death, escaped, participated in the makhnovshchina, and if Makhno must resort to depending on means of defense, he will doubtless get assistance from Arshinovs book, whose obvious goal is to immortalize Makhno. If the makhnovshchina did not appear, according to Arshinov, the hetman would be sitting upon the Ukraine to this day and the Dekinites would be (something) and the Bolsheviks wouldnt be able to do anything.
And Arshinov gives much space (from national considerations?) in the makhnovshchina (public school?) to make up a list of Jews, who were vice chairman in Makhnos revolutionary council in Gulyai-Polye, commandants in Makhnos cavalry regiments, leaders of the agitational activity. Then he relates how the Jewish colonies in Mariupol, Meriusker(?) and Aleksandrovsk districts unanimously supported Makhno, additionally participating with all working people in Makhnos conventions, and saw in him their protection against reaction. Arshinov even claims that in February 1919 Makhno allowed the Jewish colonies to organize self-defense and supplied them with weapons. And stories are told about Jewish fighters in the ranks of the Makhnovites. Thus truly heroic feats were performed by a tailor, who commanded an artillery battery. Makhno himself has to thank his very survival to Jews. A resident of Gulyai-Polye, a Jew, rescued him, when he fell in the hands of the Germans in July with a suitcase full of anarchist literature; the Jew bought him free, paid a ransom for him.
Makhnos comrades in Berlin, naturally, understood in their time, that they would hardly succeed with a system of something (in quotes. Hebrew word probably). Claiming vociferously that Makhnos army is innocent in the face of God, has not a drop of Jewish blood on its hands, is laughable, as in the different pogrom archives lie many a record of Makhnos pogroms. What then? The intercessors come forward and mostly condemn in the pogroms the Grigorievites and other accidental bandits, which got into Makhnos military. The headquarters however, the leading power, would have been clean of anti-Semitism.
When Makhno once went through the Verkhny Tokmak train station, he saw a poster with the slogan Kill the Jews, save the revolution, long live Makhno!
He went and sought out which of his men had put up the poster and shot the poor bastard on the spot.
In the Gorkaye shtetl, Aleksandrovsk district, Makhnovites killed 20 Jewish families, and Makhno put 7 guilty soldiers up against the wall.
But the special service of Makhno was that he shot down the butcher Grigoriev with his own hands.
Arshinov describes this in detail. When Grigoriev began his uprising against the Bolsheviks, he sent out his famous Universal, in which it is stated, that with the Ukraines (honest men washed in the blood of the Lamb?) Makhno answered with a call, in which he wrote and warned:
Dont you hear in Grigorievs words a dark call for Jewish pogroms?
And as it happened July 27, 1919, in the village of Sentovo, near Aleksandria, the conference with the participation of both Makhno and Grigoriev, Makhno made Grigoriev pay the price for his Jewish pogrom in Yelisavetgrad and shot him down on the spot, shouting, such unworthy men as Grigoriev are a shame for all (povstantses-Ukrainian word probably)!
What does all this prove? That Makhno is a tsaddik (Hasidic saint), that he is entirely (zchai-Hebrew probably) with respect to the Jews?
Yekaterinoslav Jews are in a position to put against this episode ten times as many episodes, which testify to bloody deeds of Makhno with his bands. The Jewish comrades of the former ataman the ideological anarchists will fashion a legend about the makhnovshchina. In truth, the matter is much simpler. There were many moments in which Makhno, led by a group of intellectuals, also including Jews, behaved decently, and one could even think that Makhno was a protector of the poor Jewish population; these moments do not atone for the excesses that the Jews suffered from the Makhnovites, as from the other bands in the years of affliction.
And I think that just now the Jewish comrades of Makhno, who can raise him so well in the divine reckoning, would have done better to restrain their hero from this tactless publicity stunt, from (stirring up?) and chutzpah-ish reminders of himself, from demanding a tribunal.
French language material
Pages 67-83 and 92-97, 23 total out of 114 pages in file 29, including folios from 2666 through 2673
All this material is taken from French anarchist publications, mostly from the Libertaire
2666
Au secours de Makhno! Save Makhno!
The Russian script at the top seems to indicate a date of September 23, 1923 I think. This article, by Casimir Teslar, is a call for international defense of Makhno during his above-mentioned trial for treason in Poland. The bulk of the article is a fascinating but not too relevant tale of political intrigue in Rumania and Poland. There is one paragraph, however, that has a line drawn next to it, presumably by the archivist:
In Poland, Makhno is surrounded by enemies on all sides, persecuted at the same time by the white guards, by the bolsheviks, by the Jews(underscore by archivist), and by the Polish bourgeoisie.
(unnumbered, continuation of 2666)
These pages, including the titles Propos dun Paria and Plaidoirie de M. de Saint-Auban are obviously also from the Libertaire, but dont seem to have anything to do with Makhno. Theyre probably here by accident. The only possibly relevant thing here is an adjoining part of an article criticizing Leon Daudet, who it seems was at one time an anarchist. Daudet is much more famous as the leader of the French Monarchists, a notorious ultra-reactionary and Jew-hater.
(unnumbered, continuation of 2666)
in Russian script, Libertaire 6-something-22 (1922?). I dont know if you already have a translation of this, but as a defense of Makhno, it is unintentionally self-revealing. The only thing I wish to note is that all of the acts in protection of Jews listed in this article, excepting only the shooting of Grigoriev, come from the period of March through May, 1919, when Makhno held the status of a commander in Trotskys Red Army!
The Makhnovite Movement and Antisemitism
Its completely natural that the makhnovite movement, spontaneous revolutionary movement of the masses, which for some time created the menace of a popular and general revolution, finds no sympathy among the partisans of any of the contemporary political doctrines. Its only a long time afterwards that such movements are sung and poetised, when they disappear in the distance of centuries and do not menace anymore the current state of affairs. When they break out, theyre always greeted by hatred and malediction. All means are good to suppress them. It was thus with the movement of slaves led by Spartacus; the same with the movement of Russian peasants led by Razin and Pugachev, etc. etc... The same thing is repeated today with the Makhnovshchina. If the Mensheviks, the Social-Revolutionaries and the semi-bolshevik anarchists distort it with lies, what can we expect from a government party whose existence was threatened with the danger of death by this movement? Without any doubt and before all lies.
The Makhnovites struggled against the violence of the communist party. They led at the same time a bitter struggle against the reaction of Denikin and Wrangel. The bolsheviks know this very well, which does not keep them from cynically declaring that Makhno had a formal political and military link-up with these generals.
To fight the Makhnovite movement, the communist government adopted itself the means always used with success by all the authorities: anti-semitism. We dont have written documents by the government openly mixing the Makhnovite movement up in anti-semitic acts. But the monstrous legend of anti-semitism in this movement has been passed throughout the world by the communist government for a long time now; its been spread about and maintained by its agents, and is the natural object of general attention, in the first place, by the jewish masses.
Its useless to say that this story is an outrageous lie.
In Russia, and perhaps in the whole world, the army of Makhno is the only one still absolutely foreign to anti-semitic deeds.
You must visualize the makhnovshchina from two different sides: the first, the constantly moving army; the second, the vast peasant masses who stay in one place in their villages, but who are linked to the army as much from the ideological as the organizational point of view. This army as well as the vast masses of peasants which supported it were the best friends of the jewish laboring population. (Here I have to interrupt. Talk about a whitewash! If they want to claim the Makhnovite army didnt commit pogroms, thats arguable. Claiming the vast peasant masses were friends of the Jews come on! XX.) The Israelite workers of Gulyai-Polye, Aleksandrovsk, Berdiomsk, Mariupol and other towns and localities could fully witness that they had consistent revolutionary friends in the makhnovtsy.
Having taken part in the makhnovite movement, we have our hands on all the elements which relate to this question. We cite some of the most characteristic facts.
On May 12, 1919, in the jewish agricultural colony called Gorkaya (Aleksandrovsk district) several jewish families were massacred, in total 20 people. The Makhnovite staff immediately named a commission which established that the assassins were seven peasants from the neighboring village Uspyenovka. Later, it was fully established that the above-cited case like other attempts of the same type were inspired by detachments of the denikinite army which were infiltrating into the region, thus preparing the terrain for the general offensive of Denikins army in the Ukraine.
In May 1919, a terrible jewish pogrom was committed in the village of Yelizavetgrad by the detachments of the reactionary ataman Grigoriev. Around four thousand jews were massacred and almost all the Israelite population of the village was wiped out. Having learned about this deed, Makhno and his companions were desolated. They immediately decided that their first duty was to wipe out Grigoriev.
The task was complicated; Makhno knew how to get it done. At the general congress of the partisans of the Tauride region, Kherson and Yekaterinoslav which took place in July 1919 at Sentovo, Makhno and his friends got Grigoriev to attend, who they accused, among other misdeeds, of the inexpiable crime of the Yelizavetgrad pogrom. They shot him with his staff, under the eyes of the congressmen. The makhnovites took upon themselves the responsability for this act. As for the Congress, it inscribed it in its protocol as being historically necessary for the interest and development of the revolution in the Ukraine.
On May 5, 1919, passing through the Verkhni-Tokmak station, Makhno noticed a poster stuck on the wall carrying this inscription: Death to the Jews, save the revolution, Long Live Makhno! Makhno demanded that the author of this poster be brought to him immediately. A partisan who he knew personally, a participant in the fight against Denikin, not such a bad chap over all, showed up. Makhno killed him on the spot with one revolver shot in the presence of a large crowd.
Good or bad, these facts show one thing: severe repression by the Makhnovtsy of any anti-semitic tendency.
In the great partisan movement of 1918-1919, one can find, its understood, a few isolated penetrations of an anti-semitic spirit. These elements werent the product of the movement, but of the general state of things in Russia; they didnt have any significance in the movement as a whole. As soon as discovered, they were liquidated. (Yeah, sure XX). Moreover, the sporadic outbreaks of anti-semitism which were produced in various locales in the Ukraine didnt have any relationship with the makhnovite movement.
In the makhnovite movement itself, an important role was played by revolutionaries of the jewish race of whom (one line missing here) by the revolution of 1905-07. A good half of the members of the cultural section of the makhnovite army were Israelites. The president of the supreme organ (military revolutionary council of the region) was a jew, the anarchist Kogan, a former worker who had turned to agricultural labor before the revolution for reasons of principle. More than a dozen of the best revolutionaries of the jewish race perished in combat in the ranks of the Makhnovshchina which they considered as the sole truly revolutionary and popular movement.
Anti-semitism exists just as much in Russia as in other countries. (Just a bit of understatement here XX) In Russia and the Ukraine, it wasnt the result of the revolutionary epoch and the partisan movement, but of the heritage of the past. The makhnovites always struggled against it by word and action. During their movement, they issued several tracts, posters, etc. through which they called on the masses to struggle against this evil. You could daringly say that in the domain of the struggle against anti-semitism in the Ukraine and elsewhere, the makhnovtsy accomplished a tremendous task.
Being a revolutionary movement of the masses of the people, the makhnovshchina carried within itself the proper spirit of the brotherhood of the people, a spirit proper only to those who toil and suffer. It is, precisely, one of those movements, rare in contemporary history, wherein ones proper nationality is ignored and where only one thing is important: the labor and liberty of the workers.
For ages, the governments of the different countries have exploited anti-semitism each in its own way, but always with the same end: to reaffirm their authority.
The communist power doesnt scorn this tested method either. Admittedly its method of action isnt the same as that which existed in the epoch of the czar, its a method much more subtle, socialist, but basically nothing has changed. The communist government creates, intentionally and farssement (farcically?) the phantom of a jewish national calamity (it was definitely no phantom XX) and falsifies anti-semitism thus, trying in this fashion to inflame one section of the workers against the other and inspiring hostility among the jewish masses towards the greatest worker and peasant movement which has been seen in Russia. This is what we have the full right to call anti-semitism of a new type.
Let this serve as a lesson to the jewish workers, let them be on their guard.
M-NE.
2667
The Congress of Unions of the Seine Protests Against the Arrest of Shapiro
About a syndicalist arrested in Russia, from the Libertaire. Not relevant to Makhno. Followed by The school of Propaganda, even less relevant.
2668
Nestor Makhno, again 1922 Libertaire, also by M-NE, who is billed as one of our best comrades, the only one of the Russian libertarian intellectuals who knows the Makhno movement in depth and in its entirety. Another biography, nothing new, except that it is stated that the reason given by the Bolsheviks for outlawing Makhno in January 1920 was his refusal to follow an order to move his forces to the Polish front. Given that Petliura had allied with the Poles, and Polish troops, together with Petliura, had already penetrated a considerable distance into the Ukraine, actually retaking Kiev a few months later, I cant help wondering if his refusal to follow this order had something to do with his alleged negotiations or even alliance with the pogromist Petliura, as much as his alleged (and probably not unfounded) fear that if his troops moved out of his home territory the Bolsheviks would be able to put an end to his movement.
(unnumbered continuation)
Pour la liberation de Marty, freedom for Marty, not relevant
2671 through 2673 (2669 is presumably a Russian document, probably a similar article from a Russian anarchist newspaper, for 2670 see below)
This document, titled The truth about the Anarcho-Makhnovist Movement and the revolutionary peasant Nestor Makhno, is from La Revue Anarchiste, or Anarchist Review, again 1922. The author is Casimir Teslar, also the author of #2666. He describes himself as a polish revolutionary-anarchist (who) participate(d) in the anarchist movement in Italy in 1919. He says he went to Russia in 1920 to study the Revolution, and joined the Makhnovites at the beginning of November 1920, during the accord between the Makhnovites and Bolsheviks against Wrangel, which was ended on November 26, after Wrangel was defeated. He was arrested in January 1921 and spent nine months in prison. He claims the prison authorities alternately threatened to shoot him and invited him to join the Cheka. He credits his freedom to the intervention of Italian anarchists. The article is a history of the Makhnovite movement and Makhno himself and a furious defense of Makhno against the Soviet charge that he was a bandit. The Soviet authorities unsuccessfully demanded the extradition of the bandit Makhno from the bourgeois authorities of Rumania and Poland, a demand Teslar waxes highly indignant about. At one point, Teslar states: Thus, the unfortunate peasant became the victim of the criminals, the oligarchs, and the bureaucrats. Those of the criminals who manifested the most ferocity installed themselves on the throne of the Kremlin. Later he talks about the fascism of the communist-authoritarian State with its red assassins and torturers. One doesnt get the impression that Teslar is very fond of communists. Unfortunately, there are no facts about Makhno and his movement in this article not available elsewhere.
2670
About Makhno and the Pogroms
This article is from the Jewish anarchist newspaper in New York, the Fraye Arbayter Shtime. Im not translating it because it basically duplicates other articles in his defense. I didnt notice anything new.
unnumbered item in Yiddish, 2 pages
This seems to have fallen in here by accident. It has nothing to do with Makhno. Maybe its just the following page in the F.A.S. after the above item.
2676
This Yiddish item is mostly illegible, especially the title. I can, however, make out the words Makhno and 1919 several times on the lines that are legible.
no visible number
This is the item by M. Hochem translated from the Montreal Eagle by XXXX under the title Pogromist or Anarchist. A couple of explanatory notes: the socialist Forward took an anti-Zionist position for a long time. This is no doubt why they are referred to as Arabs. Petliura, like the Polish Pilsudski, was indeed at one time a member of the Second International, although certainly the social democrats like Abe Cahans Forward, and even, I think, his Ukrainian one-time comrade Vinnichenko, condemned his anti-semitic atrocities. I wouldnt be surprised if the charge that there were proven pogromists participating in various Second International parties at the time is accurate. Also, Petliura did indeed have a Jewish ministry, the ministers being members of the Ukrainian right-wing bourgeois Zionist party. Serving under Petliura tremendously discredited them at that time in the Jewish community, even in the eyes of conservative anti-socialists like M. Hochem, who was probably a Zionist himself. All considered, this article is quite damning towards Makhno. It frankly does not have the tone of right-wing lies made up by a bitter enemy of anarchism and revolution, although that may perhaps be what our wise man was. And it offers a quite adequate explanation of why the documentation about pogroms by Makhnovites is relatively skimpy.
2670(?), 2679, 3pg.
These two items are in, of all unlikely languages, Hebrew! Reasonably legible-looking Hebrew at that. At the time, only ultra-orthodox Jews and Zionist fanatics bothered to publish newspapers in Hebrew, which outside the future Eretz Israel had a status in the Jewish community not that much better than Latin among Catholics. Now, however, you can probably easily find, if not a translator, at least someone fluent in Hebrew (if worst comes to worst, an Israeli exchange student) who would glance through these items and give you the gist of them, though no doubt youd have to pay someone if you want a complete translation.
2681 (3 pg.)
This is the remaining item translated for you by XXXX. No comments necessary.
The remaining other folios (2674, 75, 77, 78, 79 and 80) I presume are yet more Russian-language polemics. They might be interesting, unless theyre from anarchist sources. All the anarchist material seems curiously identical and fairly uninformative, regardless of what language its in. The best anarchist defense of Makhno on this issue is unquestionably Voline. The material you sent me stands head and shoulders above any of the anarchist material from file #29 that Ive seen so far.
[1]. Materials from `Yekapo, report by M. Aspiz, written 24 August 1922.
[2]. Materials from `Kope report from authorized (word) testimony by Moshe Zarachansky
[3]. Report by D. Traibman, who in the name of the gubaufravak gubernia evacuation administration investigated the Jewish colony of (Kherson-something?).
[4]. Jewish Thought, #19, September 11, 1919, Odessa.
[5]. Report of D. Breitman, see above remarks.
[6]. Jewish Thought #23, 11 October 1919, Odessa.
[7]. Information from Wilf-Aaron Dubkin (I think this is a name), submitted to Odessa Kehilah (Jewish community organization) 9/27/1919.
[8]. Our Word #10, 21 October 1919, Odessa.
[9]. Jewish Thought #29, Odessa.
[10]. Materials from Kope, report by H. Frolkim.
[11]. Materials from Yekapo report by M. Aspiz 8/24 1920.
[12]. Materials from the editorial collective, testimony by student, Yehuda Barishansky.
[13]. Forward (Forverts) #8133, 17 January 1920, New York. Testimony of Frida Greenfeld, written down by H. Nagel. (Note: unlike most of the references here, this is easily checkable. Complete microfilm records of the Forverts are held in many places, among others UCLA and the New York Public Library.)
[14]. Materials from Poale-Zion. Testimony by the secretary of the Kazatin Poale-Zion organization, Goldfein.
[15]. Material from the editorial-collective, testimony from Mordechai (Relaviteh? looks more like Volovich to me), a medical official.
[16]. Unlike the rest of the references, the Forverts is easily obtainable on microfilm from, among other possibilities, the UCLA and New York Public libraries.