Makhnovshchina

This article attempts to systematize the knowledge available in historiography on the history of the peasant movement in Ukraine during the Civil War, known as the Makhnovshchina.The emphasis is placed on the most important aspects of the problem, which allow us to better understand the phenomenon of Makhnovshchina in the context of the all-Russian peasant insurgency in the period under review.In particular, the article examines the controversial issue in historiography about the degree of influence of anarchists on the Makhnovshchina.Based on an analysis of numerous and reliable sources, it is concluded that this influence was undoubtedly, first of all, due to the commitment to the ideas of anarchism by Makhno himself and the participation in the Makhnovshchina of a significant number of anarchists.But the movement itself, from the moment of its inception until the very end, remained peasant, arising on its own soil, as a negative reaction of the peasantry to the anti-peasant policy of the Bolsheviks in Ukraine: surplus appropriation, abuse of the Cheka, establishment of state farms, etc. Makhnovshchina was not a counter-revolutionary and "gangster movement", as Bolshevik propaganda claimed.The Makhnovists advocated "free councils", people's self-government, and against the forcible imposition from above in Ukraine of emergency organs of Soviet power: the Cheka, revolutionary committees, etc.The main difference between the Makhnovshchina and other peasant insurgent movements in Russia during the Civil War was the creation of a combat-ready, regular peasant army on wheels (carts).In alliance with the Red Army, she heroically fought against the Whites, as well as the Petliurists.All Bolshevik accusations against Makhno and his units of betrayal and treason are not confirmed by the sources studied by the authors of the article.The conflict between the Makhnovists and the Soviet government was determined by Makhno's reluctance to implement the policy of "war communism" in the territory of Ukraine controlled by his army, as well as to submit to the emergency authorities created there without the participation of the local population.