Graham R (Ed.) - Anarchism - A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas Volume One - From Anarchy to Anarchism (300 CE to 1939)

The Russian Revolution /303
MAKHNO, whose voice of protest against any kind of coercion of the working people
rang out in all the Ukraine, calling for a battle against all oppressors, pillagers and political
charlatans who betray us; and who is now marching together with us in our
common ranks unwaveringly toward the final goal: liberation of the working people
from any kind of oppression .
... IV. HOW DO THE MAKHNOVISTS UNDERSTAND THE SOVIET SYSTEM The
working people themselves must freely choose their own soviets, which will carry
out the will and desires of the working people themselves, that is to say,
ADMINISTRATIVE, not ruling, soviets.
The land, the factories, the workshops, the mines, the railroads and the other
wealth of the people must belong to the working people themselves, to those who
work in them, that is to say, they must be socialized.
V. WHAT ROAD LEADS TO THE ACHIEVEMENT OF THE MAKHNOVIST GOALS
An implacable revolution and consistent struggle against all lies, arbitrariness and
coercion, wherever they come from, a struggle to the death, a struggle for free
speech, for the righteous cause, a struggle with weapons in hand. Only through the
abolition of all rulers, through the destruction ofthe whole foundation of their lies,
in state affairs as well as in political and economic affairs. And only through the destruction
of the state by means ofa social revolution can the genuine Worker-Peasant
soviet system be realized and can we arrive at SOCIALISM. (April 27, 1920)
Pause! Read! Consider!
Comrade in the Red Army! You were sent by your commissars and commanders to
capture the insurgent Makhnovists. Following orders from your chiefs, you will destroy
peaceful villages, search, arrest and kill people you don't know but whom they
have pointed out to you as enemies of the people. They tell you that the Makhnovists
are bandits and counter-revolutionaries.
They tell you; they order you; they do not ask you; they send you; and, like obedient
slaves of your leaders, you go to capture and kill. Whom For what Why
Think about it, comrade Red Army Man! Think about it you toiling peasant and
worker, taken by force into the cabal of the new masters, who claim the stirring title
of worker-peasant authority.
We, the revolutionary insurgent Makhnovists, are also peasants and workers
like our brothers in the Red Army. We rose against oppression; we are fighting for a
better and brighter life. Our frank ideal is the achievement ofa non-authoritarian labourers'
society without parasites and without commissar-bureaucrats. Our immediate
goal is the establishment of the free soviet order, without the authority of the