The phenomenal life of Ukrainian peasant Nestor Makhno (1888-1934) provides the framework for this breakneck account of the downfall of the tsarist empire and the civil war that convulsed and bloodied Russia between 1917 and 1921. Mahkno and his people were fighting for a society "without masters or slaves, with neither rich nor poor." They acted towards that idea by establishing "free soviets." Unlike the soviets drained of all significance by the dictatorship of a one-party State, the "free soviets" became the grassroots organs of a direct democracy - a living embodiment of the free society - until they were betrayed, and smashed, by the Red Army. Delving into a vast array of documentation to which few other historians have had access, this study illuminates a revolution that started out with the rosiest of prospects but ended up utterly confounded. More than just the incredible exploits of a guerilla revolutionary par excellence, Skirda weaves the tale of a people, and the organizations and practices of anarchism, literally fighting for their lives.

Reveals a little-known history of 1917: the Ukrainian anarch-communist Makhnovists

Nestor Makhno (1888 û 1934) was a peasant anarcho-communist who organized an experiment in anarchist values and practice in southeast Ukraine during the Russian Revolutions of 1917 and the subsequent Civil War (1917-1921). The Ukrainian Revolution describes the guerilla war launched by Makhno and his anarchist companions in 1918 against the brutal German-Austrian occupation forces and their puppet State, the Hetmanate. The Makhnovists started off with no money and no weapons. Six months later they controlled 70 raions (counties) in southeast Ukraine and had put together an army which could engage their powerful enemies in a war of fronts, defending the liberated zone. Makhno vividly describes the birth of this revolutionary army, which aimed not just to overthrow the oppressors but to proceed to the solution of the social question along the lines of anarchist principles. This is the first English edition of the third volume of Makhno's memoirs. Book jacket.

Nestor Makhno (1888a1934) was a peasant anarcho-communist who organized an experiment in anarchist values and practice in southeast Ukraine during the Russian Revolutions of 1917 and the subsequent Civil War (1917a1921). This is the first volume of his memoirs which covers the two Russian revolutions of 1917 and the beginnings of the Civil War from the point of view of a peasant activist in a Ukrainian village. This is the first English translation of this work, originally published in France in 1928a1929."