Ukraine Was Once Briefly An Anarchist Commune
A classless society surrounded by foes
The tail end of World War I brought absolute chaos to Eastern Europe. Russia had plunged into a bloody civil war beginning in 1917, which dragged numerous portions of the former Russian Empire into the fray. Between 1917 and 1918, roving armies ravaged parts of Ukraine. The Germans, Bolsheviks, Austro-Hungarians, and White Russians marched to and fro across the land, leaving the Ukrainian peasantry to suffer.
Regular people stewed in an ideological mixture of imperialism, communism, anarchism, and Western liberalism. As the land was destroyed and armies rounded up suspected revolutionaries and seditionists, the peasants were driven toward extremism. The people of Southwest Ukraine were torn between the rampaging forces of the Russian Civil War and the shattered remnants of the Central Powers. Some Ukrainians wanted the land to be occupied by the Central Powers; others wanted to return to the bosom of Russia. Others wanted to take the opportunity to seize their independence.
One revolutionary by the name of Nestor Makhno was a peasant who fell into anarchism following the failed revolution of 1905. His anarchist activities landed him in jail for over seven years before being released during the chaos of the 1917 revolution. After being released, Makhno…
