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Title: A Siberian Makhnovschina? Author: Frank Mintz Date: Summer 2004 Language: en Topics: Siberia, Russian Revolution, history, anarchist history Source: Retrieved on 2020-03-25 from https://libcom.org/history/articles/anarchism-in-siberia-1900-1923 Notes: Adapted by Nick Heath from a review in the French anarchist magazine A Contretemps and edited by libcom
Academics like Paul Avrich, along with militants like Voline, Gorelik
and Archinov, have given us only a sketch of anarchism in Siberia. The
important role of anarchism there has remained obscured.
Now the work of Anatoli Shtirbul has cast a spotlight on this region and
its anarchist history.
His work ‘The anarchist movement in Siberia in the first quarter of the
20^(th) century: Anti-statist revolt and non-statist self-organisation
of the workers‘ has been published by Omsk University in 1996 but as yet
has not appeared in any translations in Western European countries. His
two-volume work contains many documents from the archives of both the
Cheka (the Bolshevik secret police and chief arm of repression) and the
Communist Party, as well as eyewitness accounts from different sources.
Shtirbul is certainly no anarchist, let alone sympathetic towards
anarchism, but he has painstakingly demonstrated its influence on both
revolutionaries and general population of Siberia.
Shtirbul links up the anarchist tradition with the secular traditions in
Siberia. He instances the tendency towards anti-feudal autonomy of the
Cossack groups, the strong links of solidarity between the peasants and
bandit groups, the anti-statism of dissident Russian Orthodox groups and
the influence of Protestantism in the region in the 19^(th) century, and
the existence of cooperative practices among both peasants and workers.
Bakunin has often been ridiculed, including by Marxists, for his support
for bandit groups within the Russian Empire. This work gives some
credence towards his recognition of the social importance of banditism
and its radical possibilities. In fact Shtirbul, basing himself on the
work of Lojdikov, believes that Bakunin deepened his libertarian
convictions whilst exiled in Siberia. This was certainly the case with
Kropotkin, who admitted as such in his memoirs.
The presence of anarchists in the prisons as well as in exile in Siberia
as the result of their activities against the Tsarist regime must count
as one of the foundations of Siberian anarchism.
The first specific anarchist groups appeared in 1902, and their social
appearance date from the first Russian Revolution of 1905–1906. Very
much in a minority, anarchists concentrated on oral or written
propaganda. The failures of the reformist parties and the repression
that followed the revolution, coincided with a worsening economic
situation and fall in the standard of living. This pushed a section of
politically active workers towards anarchist positions. The Tomsk
anarchist group, meeting in 1907, decided to spread propaganda through
spoken and printed word, agitation in the armed forces to prepare an
insurrection, legal activity via cooperatives, unions and solidarity
funds, expropriation of the State banks and private rich individuals,
terrorism against certain individuals. In collaboration with the
Social-Democrats, the Social-Revolutionaries, and non-party
revolutionaries various armed actions took place: an aborted uprising in
1907 at Omsk, and one in 1911 at Tchita, with the desertion of 30% of a
regiment. Acts of expropriation and terrorism were equally numerous.
In 1914 a conference of anarchist communists took place in a village in
Irkutsk province. 30 people participated and established a double line,
anarchist propaganda and terrorism against the representatives of power.
At the same time there developed the splitting of the anarchist movement
into three currents, anarchist communism, anarcho-syndicalism and
anarchist individualism. Shtirbul estimates 100 anarchists compared to
3,000 Social-Democrats and 1,000 Socialist-Revolutionaries for the
period 1906–1907. In 1917 Shtirbul estimates 46 anarchist groups and
clubs with 800 militants.
The Russian Revolution of 1917 turned rapidly in favour of the
Bolsheviks, who quickly got control of all the apparatus of government.
Occupied with resisting the counterrevolution of the Whites, the other
revolutionary groups attempted nevertheless to establish popular bodies
opposed to the Bolsheviks.
During this process, the anarchists split into pro-Soviet and
anti-Soviet tendencies. In Siberia, the anarchists started a
constructive activity, notably organising among the miners of Keremovo.
This was despite internal problems linked to the presence of “criminal
elements” in its ranks.
In September and October, workers seized the factories and workshops.
Shtirbul refers to a “spontaneous anarchism” without apparent link to
the anarchist organisations. This explains Lenin’s anxiety that the
situation was getting out of control of the Bolsheviks. At Irkutsk,
where the reactionary general Kornilov was in control, there was a
failed uprising of the garrison in September 1917, but equally there was
anarchist agitation among the garrisons at Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk,
Tcheremkhovo, Semipalatinsk, Tchita and among the fleet on Lake Baikal.
Whilst the activity of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks
rapidly decreased, that of the Bolsheviks and the anarchists grew. The
anarchists were strongly implanted in the regions of Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk,
Irkutsk and around Lake Baikal. These 4 regions covered nearly three and
a half million square kilometres, 12.7 per cent of Siberia.
Anarchist books — Kropotkin, Reclus, and Malatesta — began to be
published by Novomirski Editions as well as the appearance of newspapers
like Sibirskiy Anarkhist (The Siberian Anarchist) in Krasnoyarsk and
Buntovnik (The Insurgent) in Tomsk. Conlicts began to develop between
anarchists and Bolsheviks.
During the winter of 1917–18 the Krasnoyarsk anarcho-syndicalists
declared themselves opposed to the “the taking of power in the Soviets”
and affirmed that they were prepared to struggle against the parties
that left no place for “proletarian revolutionaries”. In spring 1918,
the Tomsk anarchists defended an organisation of soviets that truly
expressed the interest of the workers. In the course of 1918 there could
be traced an anarchist presence at different congresses of soviets: 7
delegates out of 104 for West Siberia, at Irkutsk in January. Beyond
these figures, certain details indicate an anarchist influence in these
structures. At the all-Siberia congress of soviets, which took place in
February at Irkutsk, there were 8 anarchist delegates out of 202. The
congress elected to its direction 25 Bolsheviks, 11
Socialist-Revolutionaries, 4 Maximalists, 4 anarchists and 2
Internationalist Social-Democrats (just over 45% of the direction were
therefore non-Bolshevik).
Shtirbul recognises the growing influence of the anarchists among
railway workers and peasants, reinforced by the soldiers of anarchist
persuasion sent to Siberia.
Interestingly, he comes to the same conclusions as Makhno and Arshinov —
it was the lack of coordination and an absence of tactical unity that
hindered the development of anarchism comparable to that of the
Bolsheviks on the level of Siberia and Russia.
The Bolsheviks moved against the anarchists in spring 1918, using the
Cheka to attack them and imprison them. But the disarming of anarchist
units in Siberia by the Bolsheviks was hindered by the attack by the
Whites led by Kolchak in March 1918. These units, as well as units
organised by the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, fought too efficiently
for the Bolsheviks to allow themselves to destroy them. They were in the
first rank of the underground resistance when the Whites occupied
Siberia. In autumn 1918 anarchist peasant guerrilla groups appeared in
the regions already mentioned. Novoselov was commander of a group of
tens of combatants singing The March of the Anarchists and flying red
and black flags inscribed with the slogan “Anarchy is the Mother of
Order” (a sentence from Reclus also used on Makhnovist flags). Other
anarchist detachments elected their commanders.
Shtirbul considers that a significant number of the 140,000
revolutionary combatants in Siberia were under anarchist influence. Like
the Makhnovist detachments who contributed in a decisive fashion to the
defeat of the White general Denikin in the Ukraine, the Siberian
anarchist partisans (Novoselov and Rogov) contributed to the pushing
back of Kolchak, From a strictly military point of view, the support of
the anarchists in the struggle against the Whites was indispensable.
This explains why, despite orders from Moscow, there were severe
problems with the crushing of Siberian anarchism, as local Bolsheviks
regarded the anarchists as honest revolutionaries.
The Communist Party had problems in Siberia with the designation by
Moscow of leaders from outside the region and the nomination of
ex-Tsarist officers as Red Army leaders. These circumstances gave
validity to anarchist suspicions about the Bolsheviks and their
proposals that the revolution be controlled by the masses themselves.
Within the Fourth Army of Peasant Partisans led by Marmontov, the
commander M.V. Kozyr proposed that the soviets be organised without the
Bolsheviks. The Communist Party leadership had him removed and had a
Bolshevik put in his place. Immediately a mass assembly of the garrison
voted through the following resolution:” The revolutionary committees of
the military elected by us have no power… no-one can dismiss our
representatives and replace them with people that we do not know…”.
Kozyr himself said that “Let us name the best among us choose those who
merit our confidence and who understand our needs.” A report of January
1920 for the Altai region by the government noted that the peasants had
expected the development of regional control. When this clashed with the
centralizing tendencies of the Bolsheviks, growing antipathy resulted.
Resistance to the incorporation of partisan units was organised around
the units commanded by the anarchists Novoselov, Rogov, Lubkov and
Plotnikov, in the Altai, Tomsk and Semipalatinsk regions. The anarchists
led a campaign for the creation of self-organised peasant collectives
and the freeing of Rogov, which they achieved in April 1920. On 1^(st)
May that year, there was a massive anarchist meeting in the village of
Julanikh, 120 km northeast of Barnoul, where speakers paid their
respects to the victims of White terror. A thousand partisans took part
and several thousand peasants attended, flying red and black flags. Two
days later an insurrection broke out. A thousand people gathered.
Novoselov, who had commanded a unit of one hundred anarchist fighters
which had ranged nearly one thousand kilometres in the Altai and Kuzbas
regions, from December 1918 to December 1919, proposed the creation of
an Anarchist Federation of the Altai (AFA) which was supported by Rogov
and seven other commanders.
The military detachment grew to one thousand and received the support of
thousands of peasants from the Pritchensk region. This insurrection grew
thanks to the activities of the AFA in the Red Army, the militia and the
Cheka (the last extremely significant as it was the armed wing of
repression of the Bolsheviks and indicates the level of disaffection).
Anarchist partisans occupied the northeast region of Barnaul and the
Biiski, Kuznetskov and Novonikolaev regions.
Despite orders from the Moscow centre, the local Bolshevik authorities
held their fire, probably because they feared that disaffection would
spread to other army units. Once the Red Army began to attack, the Rogov
units split into small units which dispersed throughout the taiga.
In June 1920 Rogov was captured and committed suicide (?) Novoselov
continued the struggle up to September 1920, before going into hiding
with his partisans. At the same time Lubkov sparked a new insurrection
in the Tomsk region, grouping 2,500 to 3,000 fighters.
Defeated, Lubkov attempted to negotiate a truce with the Bolsheviks
before vanishing into the taiga with some of his partisans. In January
1921 Novoselov participated in a new insurrection at Julianikh. His
peasant army gathered together 5–10,000 combatants. In an extremely
desperate situation, he attempted to form an alliance with
anti-communist forces, including the Whites. He hoped to turn against
them once victory over the Bolsheviks was gained (the Makhnovists in the
Ukraine refused such an alliance on political principle and actually
went into military alliance with the Reds, though the latter turned on
them). Both the stances of the Novoselov and Makhno movements point to a
lesson of the need for complete autonomy from any anti-anarchist
current). Novoselov was quickly crushed. Shtirbul believes that the
“Siberian Makhnovschina” was a contributory factor in the adoption by
the Bolsheviks of the New Economic Policy (NEP).
The Bolsheviks continued their war against those who had heroically
fought in the underground resistance against Kolchak’s Whites. In 1923,
in another onslaught against revolutionary forces outside the Bolshevik
Party, the staff of the irregular units at Nikolayevsk on the Amur were
shot — these included the Maximalist Nina Lebedieva and the anarchist
Triapitzin (the Maximalists were a split from the Socialist
Revolutionary Party, who came to adopt positions very close to
anarchism). These irregulars had defeated the Japanese invading forces.
Also shot were members of the local soviet, the Communist Party member
Sasov and others who had questioned the setting up of the Far Eastern
Republic as an artificial buffer state by the Bolsheviks. Between
February and April of that year mass arrests of anarchists, Maximalists
and Socialist-Revolutionaries took place. Worst of all were the actions
in Vladivostok on February 26^(th) when members of the underground
workers organisations and of irregular units were rounded up. These
included 8 Maximalists and 4 anarchists including the editor of the
paper Black Flag and the irregular partisans Khanienko and Ustimenko. 38
more, again including Maximalists, Left Socialist-Revolutionaries and
anarchists, were arrested in Blagoviestchensk on April 10^(th). A “White
Guard” plot was fabricated by the Cheka at a trial of those arrested who
were arraigned at Chita. Eight were shot and ten others sentenced to
long prison sentences. As an opponent of the Bolsheviks wrote in a
letter: “ backed up by the Left Socialist-revolutionaries and the
Anarchists, the workers and peasants put up during the elections to the
Soviet their own independent revolutionary but non-partisan ticket and
refused to vote for the Communists”.