On the night of April 12, 1918 the Cheka (Bolshevik secret police) raided 26 anarchist centers in Moscow, including 'House of Anarchy', Anarchist Federation Moscow building groups. The Black Guards offered armed resistance. A fierce battle raged on Malaia Dimitrovka Street. About 40 anarchists were killed or wounded, and about 500 were imprisoned. A dozen agents of the Cheka were also killed in the fighting. Anarchists joined the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries left to boycott the celebrations of May 1, 1918.
The anarchists and the "Third Russian Revolution"
The attempt of the Third Russian Revolution began in July 1918 with the murder of the German ambassador to the Soviet Union to prevent the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. This was immediately followed by an artillery attack the Kremlin and the occupation of the buildings of the Telegraph and Telephone by the Left SR who launched several manifest appealing to the people to rise up against their oppressors and destroy the Bolshevik regime. But while this order was not followed by the people of Moscow, the peasants of southern Russia responded with force to this call to arms. Bands of anarchists and terrorists as Chernoe Znamia Beznachaly emerged quickly and violently as they had done in 1905. Anarchists in Rostov, and Bryansk Ekaterinoslav stormed the prisons to release the prisoners and issued fiery proclamations calling upon the people to revolt against the Bolshevik regime.
Militarized detachments anarchists attacked the White, Red and Germans alike army. Many peasants joined the revolution, attacking enemies with farming tools and sickles. Meanwhile, in Moscow, Kazimir Kovalevich and Piotr Sobalev formed the shock troops of the revolution, infiltrating the Bolshevik ranks and striking at the least expected time. The September 25, 1919, anarchists attacked the Bolsheviks with the heaviest blow of the Revolution. The headquarters of the Communist Party Committee of Moscow was blown up, killing 12 party members and wounding 55, including Nikolai Bukharin and Emilian Iaroslavskii included.
Encouraged by its apparent success, anarchists proclaimed a new "era of dynamite" to finally eliminate capitalism and the State. The Bolsheviks responded by initiating a new wave of mass following the arrests Kovalevich and Sobalev which would be shot immediately. With their dead and much of their organization on the floor leaders, the rest of the anarchists blew themselves up in their last battle against the Cheka. Numerous attacks and killings occurred frequently until the Revolution finally sold out in 1922. Although the Revolution was primarily an initiative of the Left SR were anarchists who had the support of a greater number of the population and those who participated in almost all attacks organized by the Left SR, and many others who were absolutely his own initiative. The most famous figures of the Third Revolution were Lev Chernyi and Fanya Baron, who were both anarchists.
Guerrillas Makhnovists in Ukraine
Anarchism in Ukraine
The triumph of the Russian Revolution in 1917, Ukraine was a very different from the rest of the country other Russian provinces. It was a very rich territory in agricultural resources, and in times of war its borders were the object of desire of foreign powers. But there was a Ukrainian peasant majority used to defend theirself, to be attacked by different armies in short span of time and work with other farmers, to develop small armed groups who specialize in defending the village from intruders. For these farmers the state was an unavoidable instance, periodically appeared in fields as military to keep some of the harvest. This was a constant during Czarist rule, which continued during the Bolshevik regime.
Nationalism was the majority in the north, while in the south an anarchist majority with strong Communist influence (non-Bolshevik) existed. At the end of the First World War, between December 1917 and January 1918, the peasant guerrillas drove the large owners of their areas of influence, dividing and valuing land and industries. But on March 3, 1918, Lenin signed the Treaty of Brest - Litovsk, which allowed the Ukrainian-Austrian axis fill. Land immediately returned to their former owners, whose privileges were strengthened in order to maintain neutrality in the region around the Tsar while preparing.
In addition to the suppression of nationalist Green Army, paid by landlords and service of Kiev, the peasants suffered continuous whipping of German and Austrian troops of occupation. The pressure of these various armies was so stifling about Southern farmers attached to the Revolution, the joint initiative, possibilities of uniting all anarchists arise. During June, July and August 1918, the repression of the Ukrainian RADA was bloody and many anarchists were executed. The need for some unifying against the harsh repression, is what will lead to farmers Gulyai - Pole to organize around a political idea, which is completely disinterested and considered expendable aspects such as social inequality and national prejudices, religious or political.
The intellectual inspiration and supreme leader of the Black Army was Nestor Ivanovich Makhno, who brought together the wishes of farmers, contrary to the proposed restoration by the White Army. It was organized in the summer of 1918 against the positions of the Green Army and the forces of European axis. Composed mainly of peasants, the Black Army had later that year with over 1,500 troops. It is estimated that in 1919 more than 25,000 Ukrainians fought in the Black Army, whose military unit had 48 field guns (mobile), 4 armored trains, 4 armored cars and more than a thousand machine guns.
Many supported warlords Nestor Makhno, of various political ideologies. Majnó tolerate freedom of their peers to ally with or fight the Bolsheviks, but never accept any kind of sympathy for the White Movement. The Bolsheviks then respected the black flag and territory conquered by the Black Army. In return, the Council allowed Insurgentes install a provisional soviet in its territory: The Revolutionary Military Soviet of Workers and Peasants Insurgentes.
What at first was a Soviet enforceability of anarchist-communist character, soon cause conflicts between peasants and workers, as peasants did not recognize any superior to them, except that they would impose authority. On the other hand the Revolutionary Military Soviet of Workers and Peasants Insurgentes was obliged to enforce laws and restrictions of freedom ordered from Moscow.
The Black Army, if not encouraged, at least not prevented the peasant violence on the Communists and their political machines. According to the Makhno Bolsheviks acted with excessive autonomy, was active as soon clashed with political commissars sent by the Red Army from Moscow. The essential point is that Makhno did not order coerce the freedom of action of farmers and came to his defense when they were attacked. That sparked numerous skirmishes between pro-Soviet and anarchists, which implied a political conflict. The political conflict provoked communists, accusing his newspapers Makhno planning an alliance with the White Movement. In any case not a confrontation between the Red and Black armies because the bad relations between anarchists and communists coincided with the great offensive of the White movement in the summer of 1919. In February 1919, the Black Army had conquered a significant part of Ukraine, where he advanced several regiments served Bolsheviks. One of the generals who starred Simon was very important actions Karetnik, born in the same town that Makhno. How inwhichthe the Black Army exercised its sovereignty in Ukraine was met with skepticism from Moscow and disliked the Bolsheviks, whose Cheka lacked appreciation to politicize society. Trotsky first raised the possibility of eliminating the Black Army, formed by anarchists without any willingness to submit to the Leninist project. Clashes between Bolsheviks and anarchists were increasing.
White offensive was resumed in June 1919, led by General Denikin. After a bitter struggle, the Bolsheviks retreated, leaving the cost of the war to Black Army, the white troops were finally defeated. Thereafter the Black Army maintained control of Ukraine for several months, while the Red Army devastated the remnants of the White Army in Russian lands remaining formless supplies. With the Bolsheviks makhnovistas north and south, Denikin retreated to Crimea. At that time the Bolsheviks reentered Ukraine and soon permeated Soviet power throughout society.
The inevitable clash will end in a war between Bolsheviks and anarchists w
ho just ended with a peace treaty in the autumn of 1920, due to the successes of the White counteroffensive, led by Baron Wrangel. Both sides released prisoners. There was talk of granting various departments Ukrainian anarchists, so that they could develop in them their "social studies". Product of the Peace Treaty, the military agreed to act together, postponing the final agreement before the imminence of responding to the attacks of the White Army of Baron Wrangel, who was largely responsible for this armistice.
In mid-October 1920, the Black Army of Makhno fought to control the White Army led by Baron Wrangel, defeating and capturing over 4,000 prisoners. In November Wrangel's army was defeated and took refuge in Crimea. With the open road, the Red Army invades Ukraine with 150,000 troops and imposes a single unilateralemente Staff for both armies, which does not accept the Black Army.
The November 26, 1920 saw the Red Army attack rested all positions Black Army in Crimea. The proportion was 30 per Bolshevik anarchist. Despite the slaughter, Makhno managed to break the siege and flee with Bolshevik part of the cavalry. After a few weeks managed to regroup some troops but their strength was negligible against the mighty blue army. The victory of the Bolsheviks was inevitable. Thereafter the troops guarding Makhno went west. After eight months of guerrilla and continuous persecution in August 1921 reached the Romanian border. Makhno crossed the border with a broken ankle and several bullet wounds, the most important in the neck.
The most effective of the Black Army were sentenced to death or imprisoned by the Bolsheviks. But Marxism guerrilla fighting continued until 1924. Makhno fled to Paris, where he joined the group editor of the newspaper Delo Truda (Workers' Cause), the group of Russian anarchist exiles in France. From there he directed his forces to reorganize the Russian anarchist movement and fight for the freedom of the anarchist prisoners in jails of the regime.
The Kronstadt rebellion
The revolt took place in the first weeks of March 1921 in Kronstadt, a naval fortress on the island Kotlin in the Gulf of Finland. Traditionally, Kronstadt was the base of the Russian Baltic Fleet and as a way to reach 35 mi from Saint Petersburg (then Petrograd, Leningrad and after the fall of the Soviet Union, St. Petersburg again).
Unsustainable economic situation brought about uprisings in the field (such as Tambov Rebellion) as well as strikes and violent pains in the factories. In urban areas, a wave of spontaneous strikes came, and by the end of February Petrograd was on the brink of a general strike. Thus, on February 26 in response to the events in Petrograd, the crew of the ships Petropavlovsk and Sevastopol he held an emergency meeting and agreed to send a delegation to the city to investigate and report on the strike action. Delegate to return two days later, he informed the rest of the crew about strikes, with the full support of marine and government repression directed against the strikers. Those who were present decided to adopt a resolution with 15 demands which were sent to Petrograd.
Among the most important demands placed by the rebels reelection soviet, soviets without Bolsheviks, the right of free speech and the complete freedom of action and trade were. After failing the request of the demands, and the pursuit of equal wages for workers and to roadblocks for the entry of food into the city, the Kronstadt sailors rose in rebellion against the government Bolshevik in March 1921. After forming a revolutionary Commune and implement free soviets, the Bolshevik repression was swift. On March 17, the Bolshevik forces finally entered the city of Kronstadt after having suffered about 10,000 casualties. Although there are no accurate data about rebels killed in action, historians estimate that thousands were executed in the days and many more sent to labor camps in Siberia. Numerous other rebels managed to escape to Finland.
Although the uprising was not the work of anarchists, Bolsheviks and disenchanted but revolutionary socialists, anarchists and content are undeniable influences also involved, as demonstrated by Professor Paul Avrich.Furthermore anarchists Petrograd city that is in front of Kronstadt, supported and claimed the rebel movement.
Anarchism today
Several anarchist federations exist in Russia today. Among the most important is the Konfederatsiya Revolyutsionnikh Anarkho-Sindikalistov (KRAS, Revolutionary Confederation of Anarchist-syndicalist ), Russian section of the AIT was founded in 1995, and advocated anarchist-syndicalism, Avtonomnoe Deystvie (AD, Autonomous Action ), anarchist federation with various trends anarchist-communists, autonomists, trade unionists and platformist founded in 2002, and the Association of Anarchist Movements , which brings together most of the anarchist movements throughout the post-Soviet space.
Bibliography
Avrich, Paul (2006). The Russian Anarchists . Stirling: AK Press. ISBN 1-904859-48-8.
Bakunin, Mikhail (1990). Statism and Anarchy . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-36973-8.
. Berkman, Alexander (2010) The Tragic Procession: Alexander Berkman and Russian Prisoner Aid . Berkeley and London: Kate Sharpley Library and Alexander Berkman Social Club. ISBN 1-873605-90-0.
Dolgoff, Sam (1980). Bakunin on Anarchism . Montréal: Black Rose Books. ISBN 0-919619-06-1.
Theoretically, in the writings and lives of Bakunin, Kropotkin and Tolstoy, Russia contributed probably more than any other country in the development of anarchism as an international movement. However, in Russia itself the anarchist movement soon appeared, and remained in the background against the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks, the Social Democratic Party in the cities, the Social Revolutionary Party in rural areas and Bundism in Poland. Only at the end of his career, during the Russian Civil War that followed the October Revolution, between 1918 and 1921, the Russian anarchism had a brief and sudden glory, when the peasants of Ukraine joined by tens of thousands of flags Black, anarchist guerrilla army led by Nestor Makhno.
Besides the obvious differences in doctrine, Bolsheviks and anarchists were faced for his views on the peasant question. While the Bolsheviks advocated the nationalization, the peasants who supported Majnó wanted both the land and the means of production remain in power; supporters of the Bolsheviks who gave them the land, the Communists were trying to remove them. Makhno's inability to understand the problems of the urban workers and the lack of an organizational structure that would support a state structure were the factors that benefited the authoritarian socialism of the Communists. While the Bolsheviks needed anarchist support for their struggle in the south of the former Russian Empire, cooperating with Makhno, but when the defeat of the White Army was evident, proceeded to the total elimination of majnovism in a bloody cleansing carried out by both Cheka as Lenin's Red Army. However, the libertarian social and economic organization based on autonomous communities, were dominant from the peasantry to the period of Stalinist forced collectivization.
Platformism and synthetism
After the Bolshevik victory in the Russian Civil War, anarchists were either imprisoned underground or joined the victorious. Some figures such as Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman wrote against the growing Bolshevik authoritarianism, seeing as Bakunin's predictions about the consequences of a Marxist government were met. The Bolshevik victory severely damaged anarchist movements internationally, when workers and activists interpreted their success as the example to follow, in France and the United States members of the majority unions (CGT, IWW) left organizations to join the International Communist. In Paris, a group of exiled Russian anarchists, the Delo Truda (Workers Cause), including Makhno was in, they concluded that anarchists needed to develop new forms of organization in response to the Bolshevik structures.
They understood that anarchism was represented by a number of local organizations to advocate contradictory theories and practices, without prospects and continuity in militant work, disappearing without a trace behind, in what they described as "chronic disorganization". In the Organizational Platform manifesto for a General Union of Anarchists, Delo Truda exiles proposed a principled anarchist organization as ideological and tactical unity, collective action, discipline and federalism.Platformism was supported by so
me anarchist-communists, although opposed by many others. The tradition continues today in platformism federations in different countries based on these principles.
The idea of organizing was well received, but generated some criticism by most thinkers and anarchist groups. Errico Malatesta, a supporter of anarchism without adjectives , argued that it was wrong and impracticable desire to unite all anarchists 'active and only revolutionary group' because of the differences between different streams. He noted that such a union would be authoritarian, "a government and a church," and that its educational effects would antianarquistas. For Malatesta, an anarchist organization should be based on full autonomy, independence and responsibility of individuals and the group.The response of Volin and Sebastien Faure was the anarchist synthesis . Suggested the existence of three main branches of anarchism, the communist, the anarchist-syndicalist and individualistic, and saw that the internal conflict between them had led to the weakening of anarchism. In the coexistence line anarchism without adjectives , indicated that the fusion of theoretical and philosophical teachings of the three branches would address the structure and format of an organization to represent the three tendencies.
Other revolutions and anarchists made
In Korea anarchist Anarchist Federation of Korean immigrants in the region of Shinmin (in Manchuria, China) organized the Free Shinmin Province in late 1929. Declared autonomous political and economic, associated in a decentralized federal structure under the administration of the Korean People's Association in Manchuria (APCM), covered a population of about two million people. A popular guerrilla army led by anarchist Jwa-jin Kim, who fought the Japanese occupation forces and the Chinese Stalinists was also organized.
In Italy, the Soviet revolution had a profound impact, especially metallurgical North. In 1919, the Italian Metalworkers Federation (IMF) signed an agreement which provided that companies "internal commissions" elective, later, after a series of strikes that occupied businesses, we attempted to transform nominate tips factory who ran businesses, developing self-management of the same, the common ownership of the means and materials and fair sharing, in what was called the rosso biennio . In this uprising the syndicalist Unione Italiana Sindacale played an important role and organized anarchists in Italian Anarchist Union.
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