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

304 / ANARCHISM
Bolsheviks, without pressure from any party whatsoever. For this the government of
the Bolshevik-Communists sends punitive expeditions upon us. They hurry to make
peace with Denikin, with the Polish landlords, and other white guard scum, in order
to crush more easily the popular movement of revolutionary insurgents, who are rising
for the oppressed against the yoke of any authority.
The threats of the white-red high command do not scare us.
WE WILL ANSWER VIOLENCE WITH VIOLENCE.
When necessary, we, a small handful, will put to flight the legions of the bureaucratic
Red Army. For we are freedom-loving revolutionary insurgents and the cause
we defend is a just cause. Comrade! Think about it, who are you with and who are you
against
Don't be a slave-be a man. Uune 1920)
86. Peter Arshinov: The Makhnovshchina and Anarchism (1921)
Peter Arshinov (1887-1937) was a revolutionary socialist and briefly, during the 1905 Russian
Revolution. a member of the Bolshevik Party. In 1906 he became an anarchist. Returning
to his native Ukraine. he was involved in the bombing of a police station and assassinated a
railroad boss responsible fo r the persecution and deaths of many workers. He was imprisoned.
andfacing a death sentence. escaped in 1907. He travelled through Europe fo r a couple
of years. returning to Russia in 1909 to resume his revolutionary activities. In 1910, he was
again arrested and sentenced to twenty years in prison. He was sent to the Butyrki prison in
Moscow. where he met Nestor Makhno, who was serving a life sentence fo r his involvement in
the assassination of a police chief by his local anarchist group. In March 1917, as a result of
tile February Revoiution, both Arshinov and Makhno were freed from prison. Makhno returned
immediately to Ukraine. while Arshinov stayed for a time in Moscow, working with
the Moscow Federation of Anarchist Groups. They met again in Moscow in 1918, but it was
only after Makhno began a mass insurgency in 1919 that Arshinov went back to Ukraine to
join the Makhnovist movement (the Makhnovshchina), where he remained until its defeat in
1921. The fo llowing excerpts are taken from Arshinov's 1923 publication, History of the
Makhnovist Movement (1918-1921), translated by Lorraine and Fredy Perlman.
THE ANARCHIST IDEAL IS LARGE AND RICH in its diversity. Nevertheless, the role of
anarchists in the social struggle of the masses is extremely modest. Their task is to
help the masses take the right road in the struggle and in the construction of the new
society. If the mass movement has not entered the stage of decisive collision, their
duty is to help the masses clarify the significance, the tasks and the goals, of the
struggle ahead; their duty is to help the masses make the necessary military prepara-