Translation of Old Makhnovist leaflet

[Forward Union]

I thought this was an interesting find. Sure to spark discussion on the period, again. But even for the bolshviks out there, this should be an interesting read no doubt...


---------------------
Stop!
Read!
Reflect!

Red Army comrade!

You have been despatched by your commissar-commanders to fight the Makhnovist insurgents and revolutionaries.

On the order of your commanders you will bring ruin to peaceable areas, you will carry out searches, make arrests and murder folk whom you personally do not know, but who will have been pointed out to you as enemies of the people. You will be told that the makhnovists are bandits or counter-revolutionaries. They will order, not ask, but make you march like a humble slave to your commander. You will arrest and you will kill! Who? Why? On what grounds?

Reflect, Red Army comrade! Reflect, toilers, peasants and workers forcibly subjected to the new masters who go by the ringing title of the "worker-peasant authorities"!

We are the Makhnovist revolutionary insurgents, peasants and workers like you, our Red Army brethren!

We have risen up against oppression and degradation; we fight for a better and more enlightened life. Our ideal is to atain a community of toilers and workers, with no authority, no parasites and no commissars.

The government of the Bolshevik-Communists sends you to mount punitive expeditions. It is a hurry to make peace with Denikin and with the wealthy Poles and other White Army scum, so that it may the more easily harass the popular movement of revolutionary insurgents, of the oppressed risen up against the yoke of authority, all authority.

But the threats from the White and the Red commands do not scare us! We will answer violence with violence!

If need be, we, will rout the divisions of the government's Red Army. Because we are free and enamoured of liberty! We are insurgent revolutionaries, and the cause we champion is a just cause.

Comrade! Reflect upon whose side you are on and against whom you fight. Do not be a slave. Be a man!

-
The Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine. 1920.

[Dros]

Haven't we had enough of the old anarchy vs. Vanguardism argument?

But if I must continue...

This piece is simple propaganda and has no reasoned argument. The Vanguard is necessary to attain the DoP. The DoP is necessary to achieve communism. I'm not going to explain why that's true. I'm sure everybody has already heard the arguments.

[Forward Union]

Originally posted by [email protected] 24, 2007 07:17 pm
Haven't we had enough of the old anarchy vs. Vanguardism argument?

But if I must continue...

This piece is simple propaganda and has no reasoned argument. The Vanguard is necessary to attain the DoP. The DoP is necessary to achieve communism. I'm not going to explain why that's true. I'm sure everybody has already heard the arguments.
Of course. I mean, this leaflet doesn't make any particularly good arguements. It's mostly just rethoric tyring to encourage desertion.

Personally I just found it interesting to read. I'd also be interested in Reading Bolshevik leaflets adressing the Makhnovists, but as I said, such stuff isn't altogether common.

[rouchambeau]

This is a pretty cool find. Are there more like it?

[rebelworker]

When I have more time in the next few days Ill post a copy of a Text written by a Red Army unit that left the Bolskeviks to join the Makhnovists shortly after the above text was written...

[Forward Union]

Here is another...

-----
Summons to the 4th Extraordinary Congress of Peasant, Worker and Partisan Delegates

(Telegram No.416)


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To all district, cantonal, communal and village executive committees in the governments of Ekaterinoslav, Tauride and neighbouring regions;
To all units of the First Insurgent Division of the Ukraine, known as the Father Makhno Division;
To all Red Army troops stationed in the same areas.
To one and all.

At its sitting on May 30, the executive committee of the military revolutionary council, after scrutiny of the impact upon the front of the onslaught of White gangs, and consideration of the overall political and economic situation of soviet power, came to the conclusion that only the working masses themselves, and not individuals or parties, can devise a solution to this. Which is why the executive committee of the Gulyai-Polye regional military revolutionary committee has decided to summon an extra-ordinary congress in Gulyai-Polye on June 15.

Electoral procedure:

The peasants and workers are to choose one delegate per three thousand members of the population.
Insurgents and Red soldiers are to delegate one representative per troop unit (regiment, division, etc.).
Staffs: the staff of the Father Makhno Division will send two delegates: the brigade staffs will send one delegate per rank.
The district executive committees will return one delegate per fraction (party representatives).
District party organizations - the ones acepting the foundations of "soviet" rule - will return one delegate per organization.
Notes:

Elections for workers' and peasants' delegates are to take place at village, cantonal, workshop of factory general assemblies.
On their own, the assemblies of the members of the soviets or committees of these units may not proceed with these elections.
In the event that the military revolutionary council is not sufficiently numerous, delegates will have to be issued with provisions and money on the spot.
Agenda:

Report from the executive committee of the military revolutionary committee and delegates' reports.
News.
The object, role and tasks of the soviet of peasants', workers', partisans' and Red soldiers' delegates of the Gulyai-Polye region.
Reorganization of the region's military revolutionary council.
Military disposition in the region.
Supply issues.
The agrarian question.
Financial business.
Peasant labourers' and workers' unions.
Public security business.
The matter of the administration of justice in the region.
Matters in hand.

Signed: The Executive Committee of the Military Revolutionary Council

Dated: Gulyai-Polye, May 31, 1919.

[Forward Union]

And here is the Manifesto of the Makhnovists....

----

To all of the Ukraine's peasants and workers!
For transmission by telegraph, telephone or courier to all of the Ukraine's villages!
For reading at peasants' meetings, in factories and in forms!

Brother Workers!

The Insurgent Army of the Ukraine has been created to resist the oppression of workers and peasants by the bourgeoisie and by the Bolshevik-Communist dictatorship. It has set itself the task of fighting for the complete liberation of Ukrainian workers from the yoke of any sort of tyranny and for the creation of a genuine socialist constitution of our own. The Insurgent Army of makhnovitsi partisans has fought with gusto on many fronts in order to achieve that goal. It is presently bringing to a successful conclusion the fight against Denikin's army, liberating region after region, wheresoever tyranny and oppression existed.

Many peasant toilers have asked themselves the question: what to do? What can and what ought we to do? How should we conduct ourselves with regard to the laws of the authorities and their organizations?

To which question the Ukrainian Union of Toilers and Peasants will reply anon. Indeed, it must meet very shortly and summon all peasants and workers. Given that the precise date on which that assembly of the peasants and workers will proceed, at which they will have the chance to come together to debate and resolve the most important problems facing our peasants and workers, is not known, the makhnovitsi army deems it useful to publish the following manifesto:

1. All decrees of the White Army are hereby abolished, those decrees of the Communist authorities which conflict with interestes of the peasants and workers are likewise abolished.

2. The land of the gentry, the church and other enemies of the toilers with all its livestock and equipment must be transferred to the peasants, who will live on it only by their own labour. The transfer will take place in an organized manner, according to the decisions of peasant assemblies, which must take into acount not only their own local interests but also the common interests of the whole oppressed labouring peasantry.

3. The factories, workshops, mines and other means of production are to become the possession of the working class as a whole, which through its trade unions will tkae all enterprises in ints own hands, resume production, and strive to link together the industry of the whole country in a single united organization.

4. It is proposed that all organizations of workers and peasants begin to create free workers' and peasants' soviets. These soviets must consist only of toilers engages in some form of labour that is necessary for the national economy. Representatives of political organizations have no place in workers' and peasants' soviets, for their participation will transform the latter into soviets of party deputies, which can only bring about the demise of the soviet order.

5. The existence of Chekas, party committees or similar ocercive, authoritarian and disciplinarian institutions is impermissible among pesants and workers.

6. Freedom of speech, press, assembly, trade unions, and the like is an inalienable right of every worker, and any limitation of this right represents a counter-revolutionary act.

7. State militias, plice and armies are heeby abolished. In their place the people will organize their own self-defence units of the workers and peasants, and the individual peasant and worker must not allow any counter-revolutionary manifestations by the bourgeoisie or military officers. Nor must they allow the emergence of banditry. Anyone convicted of counter-revolutionary acts or of banditry will be shot on the spot.

9. Soviet and ukrainian money must be accepted along with all other kinds of money. Violators of this rule will be subject to revolutionary punishment.

10. The exchange of goods and products, until taken over by workers' and peasants' organizations, will remain free. But at the same time it is proposed that the exchange of products take place for the most part between toilers.

11. All individuals who attempt to hinder the distribution of this declaration will be regarded as counter-revolutionaries.

Signed by the High command staff of the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine

[nom de guerre]

Bolshevik: Wait. You mean, there are workers and peasants are demanding the toiling classes take direct, immediate control of the means of production toward the goal of communism/anarchism now!? Impossible!! Dialectics told me we need a "dictatorship" lead by the "vanguard"! So it must be true!

I think these translations are very interesting in how they demonstrate what the Bolsheviks true intentions were. In facing the Makhnovist uprising, they clearly acted in direct contradiction to their rhetoric of "All Power to the Soviets!" and worker self-organization. In fact, they found the very prospect of "communism" or an anarcho-communist peasant controlled-rebellion disgusting - clearly offensive to their petty-bourgeois intellectual atmosphere of the Party at that time. Now, it's clear that even had the Makhnovists succeeded, due to the feudal conditions of early 20th century Ukraine, any attempt to build communism could not accomplish, say, what we mean today when we use the term; there's no way to tell, however, how far along they would've gotten towards their goal before some sort of barracks communism, in Marx's sense of the term, interrupted them.

But, none the less, it continues to demonstrate the contemporary convergence of Marxist and anarchist theory.

[lombas]

Read Bookchin's Listen, Marxist!.

;)

http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/anarchist_archi...in/listenm.html (http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/anarchist_archives/bookchin/listenm.html)

[Labor Shall Rule]

Listen, Marxist! generalizes the activities of student-based parties during his time as a representation of 'Marxism'. In the contemporary milieu, all parties can not have a mass following unless the material conditions exist to fuel such a situation, it is simply not a valid criticism of Marxist thought. Bookchin does not understand that will live under the context of capitalism, that all social and political relations is rigged in capitalism.

[Marukusu]

Too bad for the Makhnovists that illiteracy was ripe in Russia/the Soviet Union back then. I bet most Red Army conscripts where unable to read that propaganda, so they where probably pretty useless. ;)

[Forward Union]

Originally posted by [email protected] 01, 2007 11:39 pm
Too bad for the Makhnovists that illiteracy was ripe in Russia/the Soviet Union back then. I bet most Red Army conscripts where unable to read that propaganda, so they where probably pretty useless. ;)
Sadly, that is probably true. I would be very intersted in reading the declaration from the red army group which did join the revolution. Hopefulyl rebel worker can post it up soon.

[Red October]

Originally posted by William Everard+December 01, 2007 07:11 pm--> (William Everard @ December 01, 2007 07:11 pm)
[email protected] 01, 2007 11:39 pm
Too bad for the Makhnovists that illiteracy was ripe in Russia/the Soviet Union back then. I bet most Red Army conscripts where unable to read that propaganda, so they where probably pretty useless. ;)
Sadly, that is probably true. I would be very intersted in reading the declaration from the red army group which did join the revolution. Hopefulyl rebel worker can post it up soon. [/b]
So it's not available on the internet? I've been looking for more reading material and primary sources on the revolution in Ukraine.

[PRC-UTE]

Originally posted by William Everard+December 02, 2007 12:11 am--> (William Everard @ December 02, 2007 12:11 am)
[email protected] 01, 2007 11:39 pm
Too bad for the Makhnovists that illiteracy was ripe in Russia/the Soviet Union back then. I bet most Red Army conscripts where unable to read that propaganda, so they where probably pretty useless. ;)
Sadly, that is probably true. I would be very intersted in reading the declaration from the red army group which did join the revolution. Hopefulyl rebel worker can post it up soon. [/b]
You're saying that Makhno gained some influence amongst Red Army units? That seems hard to swallow considering that Makhno's ideas were always pitched towards his peasant base* and were hostile in practice to workers' self-managment.




*that all support from dried up after the NEP

[Forward Union]

Originally posted by PRC-[email protected] 02, 2007 03:25 am
You're saying that Makhno gained some influence amongst Red Army units? That seems hard to swallow considering that Makhno's ideas were always pitched towards his peasant base* and were hostile in practice to workers' self-managment.

The makhnovist project was one of self-liberation not of forced liberation. and yet, at the peak of the revolution he did have the support of many Urban workers, where the bolsheviks did not.

" The Communists appreciated the unique military genius of Makhno, but they also realized the danger to their Party dictatorship from the spread of Anarchist ideas. They sought to exploit his forces in their own interests, while at the same time intent upon destroying the essential quality of the movement. Because of Makhno's remarkable success against the occupation armies and counter-revolutionary generals, the Bolsheviki proposed to him to join the Red Army, preserving for his povstantsi units their autonomy. Makhno consented, and his troops became the Third Brigade of the Red Army, later officially known as the First Revolutionary povstantsi Ukrainian Division. But the hope of the Bolsheviki to absorb the rebel peasants in the Red Army failed. In the Free Urkaine the influence of the Communists remained insignificant, and they found themselves even unable to support their institutions there. Under various pretexts they interdicted the conferences of the povstantsi and outlawed Makhno, hoping thus to alienate the toilers from him. " - Alexander Berkman

Anyway yes, many bolsheviks did join the Makhnovists or were members of both organisations. Bolshevik generals who praised makhno were relieved of their position and replaced with Tzarist generals. And apparently, at one point, an entire red army division deserted and joined the revolution.

[Luís Henrique]

Originally posted by William [email protected] 26, 2007 06:30 pm
To all units of the First Insurgent Division of the Ukraine, known as the Father Makhno Division;
Eh? :o

Luís Henrique

[Forward Union]

Originally posted by Luís Henrique+December 02, 2007 11:55 am--> (Luís Henrique @ December 02, 2007 11:55 am)
William [email protected] 26, 2007 06:30 pm
To all units of the First Insurgent Division of the Ukraine, known as the Father Makhno Division;
Eh? :o

Luís Henrique [/b]
I believe that at that point there was only one division, it was early on, before the formation of the proper Makhnovist army.

[PRC-UTE]

Originally posted by William Everard+December 02, 2007 12:12 pm--> (William Everard @ December 02, 2007 12:12 pm)
Originally posted by Luís [email protected] 02, 2007 11:55 am

William [email protected] 26, 2007 06:30 pm
To all units of the First Insurgent Division of the Ukraine, known as the Father Makhno Division;
Eh? :o

Luís Henrique
I believe that at that point there was only one division, it was early on, before the formation of the proper Makhnovist army. [/b]
Don't you mean the Father Makhno Army?

[Forward Union]

Originally posted by PRC-[email protected]December 02, 2007 09:33 pm
Don't you mean the Father Makhno Army?
Also, I dug up some more sources that counter your earlier bollocks claim.

The Makhnovists occupied several cities throughout the revolution. When possible, they reorganised and reopened factories. This generally worked better when there had already been strong anarcho-syndicalist organisation. For example in Katerinoslav during a seige, when the workers councils set up by the makhnovists managed to organise enough food production to feed the civillians and the soldiers.

There are civillian accounts of the Makhnovist liberations of urban areas. For in 1918 (months after the initial uprising). According to Anarchist-sympathiser and participant, 'Yossif the Emigrant'

"Makhno's custom upon taking a city or town to call the people together and announce to them that henceforth they are free to organise their lives as they think best for themselves. He always proclaims complete freedom of speech and press; he does not fill the prisons or begin executions, as the Communists do."

"it is the expression of the toilers themselves"

According to Peter Ashinov;


"As soon as they entered a city, they declared that they did not represent any kind of authority, that their armed forces obliged no one to any sort of obligation and had no other aim than to protect the freedom of the working people. The freedom of the peasants and the workers, said the Makhnovists, resides in the peasants and workers themselves and may not be restricted. In all fields of their lives it is up to the workers and peasants themselves to construct whatever they consider necessary. As for the Makhnovists -- they can only assist them with advice, by putting at their disposal the intellectual or military forces they need, but under no circumstances can the Makhnovists prescribe for them in any manner"

I'd also point to the fact that the Makhnovists organised enough Industry in Ukraine to arranged direct exchanges of goods between the towns and countries (Between Russia and Urkaine). In early 1918, for example, corn was shipped directly to a Moscow factory in return for textiles (without state interference). In 1919, 1500 tons of grain and coal was sent by train to Petrograd and Moscow where the commander of the train was to exchange it again for textiles. The initiative in both cases came from the Hulyai Pole workers.

And here is a video of the Makhnovist controlled trains.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9dHYCdzTI8&feature=related

[Forward Union]

Originally posted by PRC-[email protected] 02, 2007 09:33 pm
Don't you mean the Father Makhno Army?
And as for that bullshit, it was a fucking nickname. Based on this event;

"It was . . . in September 1918, that Makhno received the nickname Batko -- general leader of the revolutionary insurrection in the Ukraine. This took place in the following circumstances. Local pomeshchiks [landed gentry] in the major centres, the kulaks [rich peasants], and the German authorities [the Ukraine being occupied by them at the time], decided to eliminate Makhno and his detachment [of partisans] at any cost. The pomeshchiks created a special volunteer detachment consisting of their own sons and those of kulaks for the decisive struggle against Makhno. On the 30th of September this detachment, with the help of the Austro-Germans, corned Makhno in the region of Bol'shaya Mihhailovka, setting up strong military posts on all roads. At this time Makhno found himself with only 30 partisans and one machine gun. He was forced to make a fighting retreat, manoeuvring in the midst of numerous enemy forces. Arriving in the forest of Dibrivki, Makhno found himself in an extremely difficult situation. The paths of retreat were occupied by the enemy. It was impossible for the detachment to break through, and escaping individually was beneath their revolutionary dignity. No-one in the detachment would agree to abandon their leader so as to save himself. After some reflection, two days later, Makhno decided to return to the village of Bol'shaya Mikhailovka (Dibrivki). Leaving the forest the partisans met peasants who came to warn them that there were large enemy forces in Dibrivki and that they should make haste to go elsewhere. This information did not stop Makhno and his partisans . . . [and] they set out for Bol'shaya Mikhailovka. They approached the village guardedly. Makhno himself and a few of his comrades went on reconnaissance and saw a large enemy camp on the church square, dozens of machine guns, hundreds of saddle horses, and groups of cavalry. Peasants informed them that a battalion of Austrians and a special pomeshchik detachment were in the village. Retreat was impossible. Then Makhno, with his usual stubbornness and determination, said to his companions: 'Well, my friends! We should all be ready to die on this spot . . .' The movement was ominous, the men were firm and full of enthusiasm. All 30 saw only one path before them -- the path toward the enemy, who had about a thousand well-armed men, and they all realised that this meant certain death for them. All were moved, but none lost courage.
It was at this movement that one of the partisans, Shchus', turned to Makhno and said:

'From now on you will be Batko to all of us, and we vow to die with you in the ranks of the insurgents.'

[PRC-UTE]

The above mythology of Makhno you repeat is difficult to believe as there are so few sources documenting it. The main source that is usually cited is Arshinov, as you have above. Unfortunately he's not too reliable a source:


When writing history, it is critical to get multiple sources for key events. None of the major anarchist works on Makhno do so. Nonetheless, these books are useful because they provide the general sweep of the movement and inadvertently reveal the flaws and contradictions in Makhno’s activity.

The principal texts for the Makhno mythology are, in order of publication, Peter Arshinov, History of the Makhnovist Movement, Voline, The Unknown Revolution, and Alexander Skirda, Nestor Makhno–Anarchy’s Cossack: The Struggle for Free Soviets in the Ukraine 1917–1921.11 These authors rarely offer corroboration for their main arguments, substituting assertions and invective for evidence and reasoning.12

Arshinov first met Makhno in prison and later joined him in the Ukraine. Voline was another Russian anarchist who came to the Ukraine to organize in the area controlled by the Makhnovists. In his doctoral dissertation on the movement, Marxist scholar Colin Darch did an extensive review of the work of Arshinov and Voline and concluded:


The existing texts are unreliable on empirical grounds. The most detailed accounts, those by Makhno’s anarchist comrades, are empirically unreliable in suggestive ways. Events are conflated, chronologies confused, whole periods glossed over, logical jumps made, and excuses offered. Although Arshinov’s and Voline’s texts are fundamental to an understanding of the trajectory of the Makhnovist Movement, every factual assertion, every reference to a date, must be checked against other sources. In addition, Voline’s version relies heavily on Arshinov for the main outline of the story, which he merely embellishes with eyewitness anecdotes from time to time.13

http://www.isreview.org/issues/53/makhno.shtml

[Forward Union]

Originally posted by PRC-[email protected] 02, 2007 10:14 pm
The above mythology of Makhno you repeat is difficult to believe as there are so few sources documenting it. The main source that is usually cited is Arshinov, as you have above. Unfortunately he's not too reliable a source:

So you don't have any counter sources you're just calling a bluff?

I agree that many of the 'sources' on Makhno are anarchist propoganda and should be treated as such. But I have also read the reports from Bolshevik organisers (though it was ages ago) and various contemporary historians who differ with the anarchist historians take on it, including say, Malet or Christopher Reed who wrote several things on Makhno including;

"Makhno's Insurgent Army . . . was the quintessence of a self-administered, people's revolutionary army. It arose from the peasants, it was composed of peasants, it handed power to the peasants. It encouraged the growth of communes, co-operatives and soviets but distrusted all permanent elites attempting to take hold within them. It would be foolish to think that Makhno was supported by every peasant or that he and his followers could not, on occasions, direct their cruelty towards dissidents within their own ranks, but, on the whole, the movement perhaps erred on the side of being too self-effacing, of handing too much authority to the population at key moments."

[PRC-UTE]

Originally posted by William Everard+December 02, 2007 10:25 pm--> (William Everard @ December 02, 2007 10:25 pm)
PRC-[email protected] 02, 2007 10:14 pm
The above mythology of Makhno you repeat is difficult to believe as there are so few sources documenting it. The main source that is usually cited is Arshinov, as you have above. Unfortunately he's not too reliable a source:

So you don't have any counter sources you're just calling a bluff?
[/b]
I am questioning whether there are reliable sources on his activties, yes.

Can you point me in the direction of those Bolshevik sources, comrade?

Thanks and cheerio.

[rebelworker]

Sorry guys...

Ive been very buisy, hope to post that letter soon.

The best sources available right now are found in "Nestor Makhno—Anarchy's Cossack: The Struggle for Free Soviets in the Ukraine 1917–1921" By Skira.

He did alot of new research, including going through recently declasified Soviet archives.

As far as soldiers reading things, as you can sometimes see from pictures of the time. one person who could read would read aloud to whole untis, this was the case for political newspapers, pamphelets ect...