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evolution Anarchy Works anarchism to city life. Makhno's first act on entering a large town (after throwing open the prisons) was to dispel any impression that he had come to introduce a new form of political rule. Announcements were posted informing the townspeople that henceforth they were free to organize their lives as they saw fit, that the Insurgent Army would not "dictate to them or order them to do anything:' free speech. press, and assembly were proclaimed, and in Ekaterinoslav half a dozen newspapers, representing a wide range of political opinion. sprang up overnight. While encouraging freedom of expression, however, Makhno would not countenance any political organization which sought to impose their authority on the people. He therefore dissolved the Bolshevik "revolutionary committees" (revkomy) in Ekaterinoslav and Aleksandrovsk, instructing their members to "take up some honest trade:··7 The Makhnovists stuck to defending the region, leaving socioeconomic organization to the individual towns and cities; this hands-off approach to others was matched by an internal emphasis on direct democracy. officers were elected from within every subgroup of fighters, and they could be recalled by that same group; they were not saluted, they did not receive material privileges, and they could not lead from behind to avoid the risks of combat. In contrast, officers in the Red Army were appointed from above and received privileges and higher pay on the scale of the Tsarist Army. In fact the Bolsheviks had essentially taken over the structure and personnel of the Tsarist Army after the October Revolution. They retained most of the officers but reformed it 87 Paul Avrich, The Russian Anarchists, Oakland: AK Press, 2005, p. 218. into a "people's anny" by adding political officers responsible for identifying "counter-revolutionaries" to be purged. They also adopted the imperialist practice of stationing soldiers far across the continent from their homes, in areas where they did not speak the language, so they would be more likely to obey orders to repress locals and less likely to desert. To be sure, the Revolutionary Insurgent Army enforced a strict discipline, shooting suspected spies and those who abused the peasants for personal gain such as embezzlers and rapists. The insurgents must have held many of the same powers over the civilian population as does any anny. Among their many opportunities to abuse that power, some of them probably did. However, their relationship with the peasants was unique among the military powers. The Makhnovists could not survive without popular support, and during their lengthy guerrilla war against the Red Anny many peasants prOVided them with horses, food, lodging, medical help, and intelligence gathering. In fact the peasants themselves provided the majority of the anarchist fighters. It is also debated how democratic the Makhnovist organizations were. Some historians say Makhno exerted substantial control over the "free soviets" -the non-party assemblies where workers and peasants made decisions and organized their affairs. Even sympathetic historians relate anecdotes ofMakhno bullying delegates he saw as counter-revolutionary in meetings. But one must weigh these against the many occasions Makhno refused pOSitions of power, or the fact that he left the Military Revolutionary Soviet, the assembly that decided military policy for the peasant militias, in an attempt to save the movement from the Bolshevik repression.B8 88 Makhno hoped that Lenin and Trotsky were motivated by a personal vendetta against him rather than an absolute desire to crush the free soviets, and would call off the repression if he left. 188 189
evolution Anarchy Works One criticism the Bolsheviks had of the Makhnovists was that their Military Revolutionary Soviet, the closest thing they could have had to a dictatorial organization, wielded no real power-it was really just an advisory group-while individual workers' groups and peasant communities retained their autonomy. More charitable is the description by Soviet historian Kubanin: "the supreme body of the insurgent army was its Military Revolutionary Soviet, elected at a general assembly of all insurgents. Neither the overall command of the army nor Makhno himself truly ran the movement; they merely reflected the aspirations of the mass, acting as its ideolOgical and technical agents:' Another Soviet historian, Yefimov, says "No decision was ever taken by just one individuaL All military matters were debated in common:'·9 Grossly outnumbered and outgunned volunteer anarchist militias successfully defeated the armies of the Germans, the Austrians, the Ukrainian nationalists, and the White Russians. It took a profeSSional army supplied by the world's greatest industrial powers and simultaneous betrayal by their allies to stop them. If they had known then what we know now-that authoritarian revolutionaries can be as tyrannical as capitalist governments-and Russian anarchists in Moscow and St. Petersburg had succeeded in preventing the Bolsheviks from hijacking the Russian Revolution, things might have turned out differently. Even more impressive than the example prOVided by the Makhnovists is the victory won by several indigenous nations in 1868. In a two year war, thousands of warriors from the Lakota and Cheyenne nations defeated the us military and destroyed several army forts during what became known as Red Cloud's War. In 1866, the Lakota met with the US government at Fort Laramie because the latter wanted permission to build a military trail through the 89 Alexandre Skirda, Nestor Makhno, Anarchy s Cossack: The Struggle for Free Soviets in the Ukraine 1917-1921, London: AK Press, 2005, p. 314. Powder River country to facilitate the influx of white settlers who were seeking gold. The US military had already defeated the Arapaho in its attempt to open the area for white settlers, but they had been unable to defeat the Lakota. During the negotiations it became apparent that the US govermnent had already started the process of building military forts along this trail, without even having secured permission for the trail itself. The Oglala Lakota war chief Red Cloud promised to resist any white attempts to occupy the area. Nonetheless in the summer of 1866 the us military began sending more troops to the region and constructing new forts. Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors following the direction of Red Cloud began a campaign of guerrilla resistance, effectively closing down the Bozeman trail and harassing the troops stationed in the forts. The military sent down the order for an aggressive winter campaign, and on December 21, when their wood train was attacked yet again, an army of about one hundred Us soldiers decided to pursue. They met a decoy party including the Oglala warrior Crazy Horse and took the bait. The entire force was defeated and killed by a force of 1,000- 3,000 warriors that waited in ambush. The commanding officer of the white soldiers was knifed to death in hand to hand combat. The Lakota left a young bugle boy who fought with just his bugle covered in a buffalo robe as a sign of honor-with such acts the indigenous warriors demonstrated the possibility of a much more respectful form of warfare, in contrast with the white soldiers and settlers who often cut out fetuses from pregnant women and used the amputated genitals of unarmed victims as tobacco pouches. In the summer of 1867 US troops with new repeating rifles fought the Lakota to a standstill in two battles, but they failed to carry out any successful offensives. In the end, they asked for peace talks, which Red Cloud said he would only grant if the new military forts were abandoned. The US government agreed, and in the peace talks they recognized the rights of the Lakota to the Black Hills and Powder River country, a huge area currently occupied by the states 190 191
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Introduction Anarchy would never wo
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human nature Anarchy Works the rest
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Anarchy Works 2. Decisions Anarchy
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Anarchy Works 3. Economy Anarchism
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Page 142 and 143: Bibliography Emily Achtenberg, "Com
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