add site
services
publishers
database
health videos
toolbar
stats
live show
health store
more stuff
JOIN/LOGIN
| advertise add site services publishers database health videos
| | about toolbar stats live show health store more stuff JOIN/LOGIN |
PASS | 2600 | Australian Capital Territory |... goodgymguide.com.au | Northwest Territories Yoga workshops and yoga events - Northwest... yogadirectorycanada.com |
This article is about the anarchist society in modern Ukraine. For other uses, see Free Territory (disambiguation).
The Free Territory (Ukrainian: Вільна територія, vilna teritoriya), Russian: свободная территория, svobodnaya territoriya; or Makhnowia (Махновщина, Makhnovshchina), or Anarchist Ukraine (January 1919 - 1921) was the territory controlled by the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Nestor Makhno where an attempt was made to form a stateless anarchist[1] society in part of the territory of modern Ukraine during the Ukrainian Revolution.
[edit] History[edit] BackgroundHetman Skoropadsky, head of the Ukrainian State, had difficulty trying to occupy Ukraine as he was confronted by Makhno's Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine. Thus, he was finally called back to Germany after the collapse of the German western front. In March 1918, the RIAU succeeded in defeating the Germans, Austrians, Ukrainian Nationalists, and multiple regiments of the White Army. [edit] EstablishmentAt this point, the military role Makhno had adopted in his early years shifted to an organizing one. The first congress of the Confederation of Anarchists Groups, under the name of Nabat ("The Bell Toll"), issued five main points: suspicion of all political parties, rejection of all dictatorships (mainly those organizing over people), negation of any State concept, rejection of any "transitory period" or "proletarian dictatorship", and advocated the self-management of all workers through free workers councils (soviets). These were in clear contrast to Bolshevik views. The color that this anarchist group used to distinguish itself was black, as that was what its military was considered - as opposed to Tsarist "Whites" and Bolshevik "Reds." [edit] Development and characteristics
From November 1918 to June 1919, the Makhnovists claimed to have established an anarchist society run by the peasants and workers in what they controlled of Ukraine. It was located approximately between Berdyansk, Donetsk, Zaporozhye (then known as Alexandrovsk), and Dnepropetrovsk (formerly Ekaterinoslav). According to Makhno, "The agricultural most part of these villages was composed of peasants, someone understood at the same time peasants and workers. They were founded first of all on equality and solidarity of his members. All, men and women, worked together with a perfect conscience that they should work on fields or that they should be used in housework... Working program was established in meetings where all participated. They knew then exactly what they had to make." (Makhno, Russian Revolution in Ukraine). According to the leaders of the RIAU, society was reorganized according to anarchist values, which lead Makhnovists to formalize the policy of free communities as the highest form of social justice. Education was organised on Francesc Ferrer's principles, and the economy was based on free exchange between rural and urban communities, from crop and cattle to manufactured products, according to the theories of Peter Kropotkin. The Makhnovists said they supported "free worker-peasant soviets"[2] and opposed the central government, which was elected by the soviets. Makhno called the Bolsheviks dictators and opposed the "Cheka [secret police]... and similar compulsory authoritative and disciplinary institutions" and called for "[f]reedom of speech, press, assembly, unions and the like".[2] Political enemies of Makhno stated that the Makhnovist government was similar to a republic over the area they controlled. According to anarchist historian Paul Avrich, the Makhnovists "'voluntary mobilization'... in reality meant outright conscription, as all able-bodied men were required to serve when called up" and summary execution was used in military discipline.[3] A declaration stated that Makhnovist revolutionaries were forbidden to participate in the soviet secret police known as the Cheka, and all formal militias and police forces including Cheka-like secret police organizations were to be outlawed in Makhnovist territory.[4][5] Historian Heather-Noël Schwartz comments that "Makhno would not countenance organizations that sought to impose political authority, and he accordingly dissolved the Bolshevik revolutionary committees".[3][6] However, the Bolsheviks accused him of having two secret police forces operating under him.[7] [edit] DefeatThe Bolshevik government in Petrograd initially allied with Makhno and considered allowing an independent area for Makhno's libertarian experiment.[3] But after Makhno kept switching sides, they viewed the Makhnovists as unreliable allies, increasingly considered the "Free Territory" to be a warlord regime, and eventually broke with it. The Bolshevik press alleged that leaders in the "Free Territory", rather than being elected democratically, were appointed by Makhno's military clique. They claimed that Makhno himself had refused to provide food for Soviet railwaymen and telegraph operators, that the "special section" of the Makhnovist constitution provided for secret executions and torture, that Makhno's forces had raided Red Army convoys for supplies, stolen an armored car from Briansk when asked to repair it, and that the Nabat group was responsible for deadly acts of terrorism in Russian cities.[8] Such allegations were generally unsubstantiated. See the article on Nestor Makhno for more information. [edit] See also[edit] References
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ↑ top of page ↑ | about thumbshots |
.svg){kind=small}
