The Free Territory (Ukrainian: Вільна
територія vilna terytoriya; Russian:
Вольная территория volnaya
territoriya) or Makhnovia (Махновщина
Makhnovshchyna) resulted from an attempt to
form a stateless anarchist society during
the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917 to 1921.
It existed from 1918 to 1921, during which
time "free soviets" and libertarian communes
operated under the protection of Nestor Makhno's
Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army.
The area had a population of around seven
million.The Territory was established with
the capture of Huliaipole by Makhno's forces
on 27 November 1918.
An Insurrectionary Staff was set up in the
city, becoming the Territory's de facto capital.
Russian forces of the White movement under
Anton Denikin occupied part of the Territory
and formed a temporary government of Southern
Russia in March 1920, resulting in the de
facto capital being momentarily moved to Katerynoslav
(modern-day Dnipro).
In late March 1920 Denikin's forces retreated
from the area, being driven out by the Red
Army in cooperation with Makhno's forces,
whose units conducted guerrilla warfare behind
Denikin's lines.
The Territory was disestablished on 28 August
1921 when a badly-wounded Makhno and 77 of
his men escaped through Romania after several
high-ranking officials were executed by Bolshevik
forces.
Remnants of the Black Army would continue
to fight until late 1922.
As the Free Territory self-organized along
anarchist principles, references to "control"
and "government" are highly contentious.
For example, the Makhnovists, often cited
as a form of government (with Nestor Makhno
as their "leader"), played a purely military
role, with Makhno himself functioning as little
more than a military strategist and advisor.
== History ==
=== Development and characteristics ===
From November 1918 to June 1919, the Revolutionary
Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine attempted
to establish an anarchist society run by peasants
and workers in Ukraine.
The territory under their control stretched
approximately between Berdyansk, Donetsk,
Alexandrovsk (later known as Zaporizhia),
and Yekaterinoslav, (Sicheslav, later Dnipropetrovsk,
now Dnipro).
According to Makhno, "The agricultural majority
of these villages was composed of peasants,
one would understand at the same time both
peasants and workers.
They were founded first of all on equality
and solidarity of its members.
Everyone, men and women, worked together with
a perfect conscience that they should work
on fields or that they should be used in housework...
The work program was established in meetings
in which everyone participated.
Then they knew exactly what they had to do".
(Makhno, Russian Revolution in Ukraine, 1936).
According to the leaders of the Revolutionary
Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine (RIAU), society
was reorganized according to anarchist values,
which lead Makhnovists to formalize the policy
of free communities as the highest form of
social justice.
Education followed the principles of Francesc
Ferrer, and the economy was based on free
exchange between rural and urban communities,
from crops and cattle to manufactured products,
according to the theories of Peter Kropotkin.
The Makhnovists said they supported "free
worker-peasant soviets" and opposed the central
government.
Makhno called the Bolsheviks "dictators" and
opposed the "Cheka (secret police)... and
similar compulsory authoritative and disciplinary
institutions".
He called for "freedom of speech, press, assembly,
unions and the like".
The Makhnovists called various congresses
of soviets, in which all political parties
and groups – including Bolsheviks – were
permitted to participate, to the extent that
members of these parties were elected delegates
from worker, peasant or militia councils.
By contrast, in Bolshevik territory after
June 1918, no non-Bolsheviks were permitted
to participate in any national soviets and
most local ones, the decisions of which were
also all subject to Bolshevik party veto.
A declaration stated that Makhnovist revolutionaries
were forbidden to participate in the Cheka,
and all party-run militias and party police
forces (including Cheka-like secret police
organizations) were to be outlawed in Makhnovist
territory.
Historian Heather-Noël Schwartz comments
that "Makhno would not countenance organizations
that sought to impose political authority,
and he accordingly dissolved the Bolshevik
revolutionary committees".
The Bolsheviks, however, accused him of having
two secret police forces operating under him.The
Bolsheviks began their formal efforts to disempower
Makhno on 4 June 1919 with Trotsky's Order
No. 1824, which forbade electing a congress
and attempted to discredit Makhno by stating:
"The Makhno brigade has constantly retreated
before the White Guards, owing to the incapacity,
criminal tendencies, and the treachery of
its leaders."
=== Defeat ===
The Bolshevik government in Petrograd initially
allied with Makhno and considered allowing
an independent area for Makhno's libertarian
experiment.
But the Bolsheviks increasingly saw the Makhnovists
as a threat to their power, both as an example
and as a site of anarchist influence.
It restarted a propaganda campaign declaring
the Free Territory to be a region of warlords,
and eventually broke with it by launching
surprise attacks on Makhnovist militias despite
the pre-existing alliance between the factions.The
Bolshevik press alleged that leaders in the
Free Territory, rather than being democratically-elected,
were appointed by Makhno's military clique.
They also alleged that Makhno himself had
refused to provide food for Soviet railwaymen
and telegraph operators, that the "special
section" of the Makhnovist constitution provided
for secret executions and torture, that Makhno's
forces had raided Red Army convoys for supplies,
stolen an armored car from Bryansk when asked
to repair it, and that the Nabat group was
responsible for deadly acts of terrorism in
Russian cities.
== Politics ==
The Free Territory was a stateless and egalitarian
society.
Workers and peasants were organised into anarchist
communities governed via a process of participatory
democracy and were linked via an anarchist
federation.
When the Insurrectionary Army liberated a
town from state control, it would post a notice
clarifying they would not impose any authority
on the town:"Workers, your city is for the
present occupied by the Revolutionary Insurrectionary
(Makhnovist) Army.
This army does not serve any political party,
any power, any dictatorship.
On the contrary, it seeks to free the region
of all political power, of all dictatorship.
It strives to protect the freedom of action,
the free life of the workers, against all
exploitation and domination.
The Makhnovist Army does not therefore represent
any authority.
It will not subject anyone to any obligation
whatsoever.
Its role is confined to defending the freedom
of the workers.
The freedom of the peasants and the workers
belongs to themselves, and should not suffer
any restriction."
== Economy ==
The economy of Free Ukraine was a mixture
of anarcho-communism and mutualism, with factories,
farms and railways becoming cooperatives and
several moneyless communities being created.
The majority of territories continued to use
money but planned to become anarcho-communist
territories following the Russian Civil War.
== Education ==
The Free Territory abolished compulsory education
and established several schools and adult
education centres based off democratic education.
== Flags ==
In the Free Territory, multiple variations
of black flags were used by the Revolutionary
Insurrectionary Army and the free soviets,
often with mottos written on them.
Ukrainian anarchist Viktor Belash said in
his memoirs that flags with slogans such as
"Power generates parasites, Long live Anarchy!"
and "All power to the soviets right now!"
were used at the Gulyai-Polye district soviet
and Insurgent Army headquarters.
A photo showing a flag with a death's head
and the motto "Death to all those who stand
in the way of the working people."
is often attributed to Makhnovists, first
in the Soviet Russian book Jewish Pogroms
1917-1921, but this was denied by Nestor Makhno,
who said the photo "does not show Makhnovists
at all.
The backside of this flag has words translating
roughly to "Kish of Dnieper", the name Kish
being used by military units of the Free Cossacks
and the Ukrainian People's Republic.
== Criticism ==
The Free Territory has been criticised for
alleged anti-semitic pogroms, banditry and
sexual abuse of women within the Revolutionary
Insurrectionary Army.
Supporters of the Free Territory argue that
some of these criticisms (such as anti-semitism)
are outright fabrications, or have been significantly
exaggerated by Leninists to discredit anti-authoritarian
forms of socialism.
== See also ==
Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine
Armed Forces of South Russia
== Notes ==
== Bibliography ==
Peter Arshinov, History of the Makhnovist
Movement (1918-1921), 1923.
Alexandre Skirda, Nestor Makhno: Anarchy's
Cossack - The struggle for Free Soviets in
the Ukraine 1917-1921.
AK Press, 2004
