Makhnovshchina

The Makhnovshchina was an anarchist-led peasant insurgency in Ukraine during the Russian Civil War, associated with Nestor Makhno. Its forces fought several armies while promoting local self-government and land redistribution.

Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine: The mobile guerrilla army associated with Nestor Makhno and the Makhnovshchina. Its units carried the insurgency across southern Ukraine and shifted between alliances and enemies.
Russian Revolution: The political upheavals that ended the Russian Empire and brought Bolshevik power in 1917. Its collapse of imperial authority opened the struggle in which the Makhnovshchina formed.
Volin: The pen name of Vsevolod Eikhenbaum, a Russian anarchist writer and revolutionary active in Ukraine. He helped articulate the movement’s political ideals and later recorded its history.
Red Army: The armed forces of the Soviet government, established during the Russian Civil War. After temporary cooperation, it defeated and dismantled the Makhnovist military organization.
Free Territory: A region in southeastern Ukraine where Makhnovist forces enabled experiments in anarchist self-government. It was the insurgency’s main territorial setting for local councils and communal organization.
Ukrainian War of Independence: The 1917–1921 struggle over Ukraine’s statehood amid revolution, occupation, and civil war. The insurgency developed within the same contested landscape of rival governments and armies.
Peter Arshinov: A Russian anarchist and historian who participated in the Makhnovist movement and wrote its history. His account became a major source for understanding the insurgency from an anarchist perspective.
Kronstadt rebellion: A 1921 uprising by sailors and workers against Bolshevik rule, suppressed by the Red Army. Its suppression echoed the narrowing space for anti-Bolshevik revolutionary movements.
Anarchist communism: A political tradition advocating a stateless society based on common ownership and voluntary association. Makhnovist organizers used its ideals to frame land, labor, and political authority.
Central Powers occupation of Ukraine: The German and Austro-Hungarian occupation of Ukraine in 1918, established under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Occupation and restoration of landlord power helped provoke peasant resistance in Makhno’s home region.

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